Walking through the halls of Arrowhead’s south campus freshman year, I couldn’t help but notice an imposing figure with a large snake coiling around his arm. He would later and only shortly be known as Mr. Bisbee, the dreaded Mr. Bisbee. Everyone at south campus knew that name and everyone knew what he taught; Biology. Mr. Bisbee was fully aware of the talk; he relished in his infamy. I remember specifically, looking at my sophomore year schedule and cringing in fear as the name Bisbee appeared as my teacher for Biology. I was not looking forward to taking Biology to begin with, but now with Bisbee behind the reigns, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride.
Walking into Biology class, I was instantly greeted by Mr. Bisbee and his signature nod, this is how Mr. Bisbee greets people, its how he starts every one of his classes. Reassuring, yet stern, like a firm handshake. Speaks with confidence, he always contemplates and ponders his students questions, until he’s sure of the correct answer.
I learned a lot about Mr. Bisbee within the first day of him teaching us, and the most obvious one to me was that he loves his job. He is a science geek at heart and he loves to show off his knowledge to his students.
But something that separates Bisbee from other teachers is that he wants his students to learn, he tries hard to capture his students attention and he can make something seemingly uninteresting come to life. He provides emphasis when he speaks and describes his material in a way that makes it seem fascinating. For instance, on a lesson about Bacteria, he told us that there are far more different bacterial species than there are people on the planet. He went on to explain how just in your own backyard, you can find thousands of different, undiscovered, completely unique bacterial species.
Bisbee also does live up to his name of having a more difficult biology class than the rest of the teachers, he is strict with his grading and has little tolerance for any late work. I’m no star student by any means, I rarely hand in homework, or study. Yet I actually respect his policies, it shows that he cares about the material he’s grading and it helps to put pressure on loafing students like me to study harder and work harder in class.
Mr. Bisbee may seem like a heartless overseer to some people, but once you get to know him, you realize that he cares about his students and he wants you to do your best. He is one of the few teachers that teaches so that his students can learn. I’m sure that if you where to peer under his serious demeanor, you would find the passion and dedication that he has to his students and his job.