The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • SALK Day 6 – The Ruth-Mr.D Story – Part 4

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    Ruth Carter

    St. Vincent High School has a maximum capacity of about 400 students.  It was common for people to end up in the same classes together.  I took study hall every year except for my freshman year, and I needed it.  I had gymnastics practice every day after school for three hours, and so my study hall gave me a chance to crank through some homework during the day.

    On my first day of senior year, I walked into my study hall and saw that the class was bigger than my previous study halls and it was full of the closest thing St. Vincent had to dumb jocks and obnoxious cheerleaders.  I thought, “Oh no, this is not going to work.”  While I sat through class, I recalled that Mr. DeShazer had a teacher’s assistant when I was in sophomore biology.  At the end of class, I made a beeline to his classroom and said, “Please tell me you need a TA for seventh period.”  I was so grateful when he said, “Yes.”

    So instead of spending my senior year study hall fuming in a loud library, I had the quiet science lab to myself.  I graded Mr. D.’s sophomore biology tests and their labs, I got my homework done, and I took advantage of having huge white boards to work on.  As a bonus, I got quality time with Mr. D.  I don’t remember much about what we talked about, but I remember he was a sounding board for whatever was on my mind.

    Mr. D. struggled with his sophomores while I was his TA.  Many of them did not seem to care enough to study, and thus, they had very low test scores.  I began to understand Mr. D.’s passion for teaching and his frustration when his usual tactics did not work.  Biology was a challenging class, but he made it as entertaining and accessible as possible.  He even put his old tests on the bulletin board outside his room so students could see what they had to learn.  Even when Mr. D. gave his students the easiest versions of the tests he had (i.e., all multiple choice or matching questions), some of them still struggled and were at risk of not passing the course.  I watched him in anguish, trying to think of what more he could do to help these students learn biology.  I remember that I didn’t care what students got on their tests; it was just my job to grade them.  But Mr. D. cared deeply that his students did well, not because it was a reflection on him, but because it was important to him that they learned about things that actually would be useful to know later on in life.

    At the end of my senior year, I was very touched by a gift Mr. D. gave me as a thank you for being his diligent TA for the year – a Cross pen that he engraved himself.  I remember my jaw dropped when I saw how much time he had to have taken to carefully carve the letters into the pen.  I still have it and use it when I have something important to sign.

    Click here for Part 5 of the Ruth-Mr. D Story, the last blog dedicated to the Ruth-Mr. D story.

    Sponsor A Law Kid is my endeavor to pay for my last semester of law school. Today’s sponsors are Darvin and Jane DeShazer. For more information about Sponsor A Law Kid or to see what days are still available for sponsorship, visit my Sponsor A Law Kid page.

  • SALK Day 5 – The Ruth-Mr. D Story – Part 3

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    Ruth Carter

    My classmates and I who took all the advanced science classes at St. Vincent High School had Mr. DeShazer twice a day during our junior year for Advanced Placement Biology and Honors Chemistry.  They were some of my hardest classes but also my most enjoyable classes.  My classmates and I have been reminiscing about high school memories the last few days…

    Chemicals in flasks (including Ammonium hydrox...
    Image via Wikipedia

    The ceiling of Mr. DeShazer’s classroom had what appeared to be circular burn marks on it.  As sophomores we had no idea why they were there.  As honors chemistry students, we learned that they were created by bubbles that we ignited.  Neat Stuff!!

    Before every chemistry lab, we had to write out the procedure, including a section about safety precautions.  Since this was a high school lab, this usually meant “Wear your goggles” and “Be careful when working with acid.”  Somehow we got into the habit of adding safety reminders like “Don’t chew glass.”  Mr. D. went along with it as long as we had the real information in there too.  I think he was entertained by us and joined in our lightheartedness as long as we were serious about the science.

    The school created a more restrictive dress code while we were students.  Our rebellious response was to follow the dress code but to wear the most outrageous things we could.  One day my friend BJ walked into class wearing a neon orange reflective safety vest over his shirt.  Without skipping a beat, Mr. D. said, “I see BJ was out directing traffic this morning,” and went on with the class.  It was hilarious because he understood what we were doing.

    Sesame Street is doing something right by connecting learning to music.  Mr. D. is doing the same thing.  When we were learning about the ideal gas law, he played a song for us about it: “talkin’ heavy duty chemistry…we’re talkin’ PV=nRT!”  My classmates and I have not heard this song for 16 years, but we still remember it.

    I have never met the great Mrs. D.  She must be a wonderful woman because she puts up with the great Mr. D. and she made us mini muffins on the day of the national A.P. Biology test – a four-hour exam that determined whether we got college credit for taking the class.  She knew it was a big deal and did what she could to help us.

    Mr. D. had a strict rule about no food in the lab, except for one day a year.  At the end of junior year, after the A.P. Biology test, Mr. D. chili cheese omelets with wild cantrell mushrooms and bagels with truffle butter for his A.P. Bio students.  A.P. Biology was one of the most work-intensive classes I took in high school.  We had a test about every three days, and he pushed us hard to prepare for that test.  I think the end of the year breakfast was a congratulations/thank you celebration.

    If any other St. Vincent graduates want to share their DeShazer experiences, please let them as comments.

    Click here for Part 4 of the Ruth-Mr. D Story.

    Sponsor A Law Kid is my endeavor to pay for my last semester of law school. Today’s sponsors are Darvin and Jane DeShazer. For more information about Sponsor A Law Kid or to see what days are still available for sponsorship, visit my Sponsor A Law Kid page.

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  • SALK Day 4 – The Ruth-Mr. D Story – Part 2

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    Ruth Carter

    Every student at St. Vincent High School gets to have The Mr. D. Experience in sophomore biology.  One thing that I have come to appreciate about Mr. D. is his enthusiasm.  He will do whatever it takes to help a student love science, or at least learn it.  Mr. D. wore these ugly red-brown shoes just so he could be on his feet, jumping around, all day without being in pain.  He said the wackiest things in class.  One year, students kept track of these DeShazerisms for two weeks and published them in the school newspaper.  I wish I had kept that issue.  I don’t remember what was on the list, but I remember laughing very hard.

    MAGIA EN HYDRODICTYON
    Image by PROYECTO AGUA** /** WATER PROJECT via Flickr

    One thing every student gets out of his class is a strong feeling about the Latin language – either an appreciation for it or complete disdain.  I remember when we were learning about the different types of algae.  He would put a species name on the overhead and cold call on people to try to translate it out of the Latin.  Every time he did this, I would cringe and pray that he wouldn’t call on me, kind of like the way I cringed and cowered in Professor Clinton’s Constitutional Law class my 1L year.  I now realize that he didn’t expect us to know the answer, but he wanted us to try.  As the year progressed, we learned a handful of Latin word roots: hydro = water, philic = loves, phobic = fears, chloro = green, rhodo = red, etc.  They were useful to know while I was studying vocabulary for the GRE and still come in handy with random legal terms.

    I remember one day he put up a species name and said, “Ruuuuth, would you like to translate out of the Latin?” I honestly answered, “No.”  I think he was surprised by my response but realized that he asked a question instead of give a direction.  He turned to my friend sitting next to me and said, “BJ, you’re her lab partner.  You translate it out of the Latin.”  I never tortured my lab partner like that again.

    Looking back on my biology class, I remember doing a lot of labs.  It wasn’t enough for us to talk about science; Mr. D. wanted us to do science.  Given that he had four full classes of sophomores every day, and only 45 minutes per class, that was quite an undertaking.  I’m sure he went home exhausted those days.  We did a lot of work with the microscopes – creating and looking at slides.  We dissected worms, grasshoppers, and frogs.  I remember when we were studying bacteria, each student was given the task of growing bacteria from a different source.  I grew the bacteria that was on the top of my shoe and my lab partner BJ grew the bacteria from the bottom of his shoe.  Neat Stuff!!

    Click here for Part 3 of the Ruth-Mr. D Story.

    Sponsor A Law Kid is my endeavor to pay for my last semester of law school. Today’s sponsors are Darvin and Jane DeShazer. For more information about Sponsor A Law Kid or to see what days are still available for sponsorship, visit my Sponsor A Law Kid page.

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