Why Rebekah Adams is a Saint

Today Bek asked me to be her lab tech for a chemistry practical on salts. There were 27 students divided into 9 groups of three. Yesterday Rebekah spent 40 minutes of her class period writing the lab instructions on the board for every student to copy. The lab had 2 parts- one involving fire and one involving water. I promise the lab instructions were very straight forward. We had five salts total, each group had to test only three. Bek took two of the nine groups to her fire station, I had seven to facilitate in the water experiments.

I knew it was going to be a long lab when the first girl asked me where to put the water… in the flask thing she was holding. The remainder of the two hours went something like this:

“Aunt, what do I do?”
Me: Follow the instructions in your book. See, start at “1a”

“Aunt, what next?”
Me: 1b

“Aunt, how much water do I add?”
Me: 50 ml, like it says in your notes
“But madam, how do I know when I have added 50 ml?”

“Aunt, what is my observation?”
Me: Write down what you see happening

“Aunt, what color is this?”
Me: Blue green
“Is that a color?”

“Aunt, what color is this?”
Me: purple
“I think you mean purpleblack”
Me: No, I mean purple, royal purple
Student whispers to group “Black”

“Madam, how do I use this?”
Me: I just showed you, same procedure we just did

“Madam, where do I write the color is clear?”
Me: Observations“I haven’t started that part yet”

No, I am not kidding. It was exasperating. Meanwhile in fire land…. Rebekah had her six students gathered around the paraffin stove. It is called a stove cause the fire is supposed to be in a circle- like a gas stove for even heat distribution. I call it the paraffin flame thrower. One six inch flame juts haphazardly from one side, ready to go whichever direction the wind blows. Makes an exciting experiment all the more exciting as you not only record observations, but also keep one eye on the roving flame. For obvious reasons Rebekah burned the salts and the students observed from a safe distance.

With 15 minutes remaining Rebekah brought the class together, reminded them they were “ok” and briefly recapped the objective. It was humorous to see the difference. Empty hands seated at desks suddenly knew what saturation was, and even understood solubility. As soon as a flask or spatula was in possession, saturation and solubility became foreign terms once again.

Rebekah Adams is a saint because she teaches chemistry in overcrowded classrooms, to large groups of entirely ESL (English as a second language) students, without proper lab equipment, lab supplies, or books. She is not discouraged when kids “don’t get it” but looks for another way to explain and remains positive and kind. Whereas her lab tech (me) thought it was hopeless, she held that the kids were learning how to apply what they had been taught, and were discovering what they don’t know- which is good. KHHS doesn’t deserve her, but the kids are worth it, and they appreciate her.