Math teacher Rebecca Akers was interviewed for the teacher profile, and has some funny stories to share

Zoey Lieberman | Staff Reporter
Alex Edidin | Staff Reporter
Photo courtesy Rebecca Akers

CoA: What was your worst subject in school?
Dr. Akers: Math. Absolutely, I had an Algebra One teacher and it was his first year of teaching and I just had no idea what he was teaching, so I never learned Algebra One. It was just a disaster after that. The only way I could do math was go back, start from the beginning and teach myself.

CoA: What was your first job?
Dr. Akers: I babysat in high school, I was a lifeguard.

CoA: Any least favorite teacher stories?
Dr. Akers: Well I have lots of favorite teachers.
CoA: That will work
Dr. Akers: Well it is sort of a crazy teacher story. I had a Modern World History teacher that was very crazy and he would ask us questions in class and if we didn’t know the answer he would do things to do help us remember. Here is an example: [he asked a question] and none of us knew the answer, so he made us all stand on our desk and yell [the answer to the question] ten times. He did all kinds of random things that broke us out of our routine.

CoA: What is your guilty pleasure
Dr. Akers: It has changed over time. My most common guilty pleasure is drinking diet cokes for sure, and in terms of TV shows I watch “Chicago Fire.” I watch it religiously every week. It used to be “Scandal” but it just got more and more over the top, when they had the president of the United States killing the supreme court justice…
CoA: Any pet peeves
Dr. Akers: Blunt pencil points, people who say “I don’t get it,” any sports team from Los Angeles.

CoA: What is your most embarrassing moment?
Dr. Akers: When you’re as old as I am, you’ve had a lot of them, so it’s hard to remember which ones were the best. In fourth grade, I was sitting at the back of the classroom, and for some reason there was a coat closet. Throughout the class, I just kept thinking, I’m really bored, this is really boring. So I just stood up in the middle of class, opened the coat closet door and went inside because I decided I was going to take a nap. I settled down in the back, and then the door flies open, and my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Harris with a red face saw me and screamed, What are you doing?! I got caught right away. I didn’t even have a chance at making it without Mrs. Harris finding me.

CoA: What is the funniest moment in class of your teaching career?
Dr. Akers: That’s a hard one. I think it’s been a random combination of funny things when you’re working a problem. I like to use my students’ names in problems, so sometimes that gets funny. I also like to show funny videos in class, so that can also trigger some entertaining moments. Oh, and last year, I had my students bring me pictures of themselves when they were younger and I made them my screensaver.

CoA: Finally, any awkward first date stories?
Dr. Akers: Ohhh hmm. I had a lot of them when I was in college because I was in the first class of women at Yale. There were like 4,000 men and 500 women total, so we were a scarce commodity. There were just a lot of awkward, “Hi! I see you’re from California-I’m from California too!”