On The Edge of Red: How I Achieved a Modicum of Success and Remained Sane in Nearly 40 years of High School Teaching - Softcover

Kromholtz, Kurt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420895060 ISBN 13: 9781420895063

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2005

Synopsis

What 's it really like to be "in the trenches", a real working classroom teacher ? That's what Kurt Kromholtz tries to show as he "spills his guts" in this short, autobiographic portrayal of his struggle to make it as a successful mentor of high school chemistry.in modern times Kurt's eventual satisfaction was not handed to him on a silver platter, but came only after a series of failures and tribulations, each of which taught him a vital lesson in the art of teaching and finally resulted in a number of awards including "Outstanding Secondary Educator of America "( 1975) Teacher of the Year, 1978 ( a school award) and the prestigious" Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Award "(1992 ), the highest recognition conferred by the school, . Kurt overcame some daunting adversities over the course of his career, including a paralyzing stroke in 1995 , all of which he strives to demonstrate, actually served to improve his performance in virtually every aspect of high school teaching. You will relate to this tale if you either are or have been a secondary instructor and if you are now considering a career in this field it could be a vital "how to" handbook for your future success. In addition, many of the roughly three thousand students Kurt taught in his 37 years at this school will likely remember some of the incidents mentioned in this poignant yet humorous story, and might even recognize themselves in the telling. Kurt has always felt that "High School is where it's at....the most exciting place to be on the planet once you figure out how it works!"

About this title

About the Author

On the edge of RedAuthor Biography My name is Kurt L. Kromholtz. I was born ion March 4th 1937 in Libby, Montana to immigrant parents Louis F. Kromholtz and Winifred M, Stevens.We moved to Spokane, Washington in 1940 where I grew up. (Spokane I consider my home town.)I attended St. Aloysius Grade School from 1944 until 1951.I then attended Gonzaga High School, (later called Gonzaga Prep) and graduated in 1955.I enrolled as a chemistry major at Gonzaga University in the fall of 1955 and graduated from that institution with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in the spring of 1959. The title of my undergraduate thesis was "Mathematical Aspects of Solid Rocket Propellant Chemistry".on May 30th of that spring I married my sweetheart, Sharon CrawfordWe drove to California ( this drive originally conceived to be a honeymoon trip as well as getting me to my place of employment)where I took a job as a high temperature chemist with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or LLNL, (then called The University of California Radiation Laboratory).Until the fall of 1961 I worked on the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Pluto (nuclear ramjet) in the area of high temperature materials research.I then took a job with The Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington where I did similar high temperature materials research for NASA's Project Dyna-Soar (the original space shuttle design). When that project was canceled in 1963 due to redundancy I then did cryogenic materials research and development on NASA's Saturn-5 booster program (Apollo Moonshot booster rocket) until I was laid off along with a thousand other "engineers" in 1963.I next decided to enter the field of teaching and spent a year a the University of Washington in Seattle and obtained my certification as a secondary school teacherI then landed a short-term job as mathematics professor at Highline Community College in Burien, Washington,and then, when that job ran out, I did secondary school substitute teaching in many

Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1420895060
• ISBN 13: 9781420895063
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 148