Meet Mr. Bokelman, one of our beloved AP U.S History teachers here at Lakeside. His full name is Robert James Bokelman Jr, and he has been working here for 16 years.
Mr. Bokelman spent 8 years in the Marines before becoming a teacher. He was a in logistics administration and was stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA and Albany, GA. He described this job as being like a normal job, with the hours being from 7:30am to 4:30pm. He said “ we’d do physical training 3 days a week which would include running, calisthenics, or sometimes organized sports like football or basketball.”
After 8 years in the Marines, he left and wanted to become a teacher. Him wanting to become a teacher didn’t just come from nowhere. When asked he said “ I had two teachers who really had a big, positive impact on me; Mr. Schulteis (6th grade) and Frau Blaha (9-12th grade German). Both of them really made learning fun for me and it was in high school when I started thinking about becoming a teacher”.
To become a teacher he had to get a Master of Arts for Teachers (Secondary Social Studies Education) from Georgia State, his Bachelor’s of Arts in History (major) and Political Science (minor) – Georgia State, and Associates of Arts in History – Darton College (not around anymore, now connected to Albany State).
When asked to describe what a typical day would look like for him, he described that he tries to get to school around 7:00am and starts to plan for the day like making copies and looking over notes for the day. He prepares himself to “be on stage” all day to educate. He explained that he has planning 2nd and 7th and how he feels it breaks up the day evenly for resting and just being in the zone to think and rest. He also sponsors HoPe club, that he stays for, but otherwise tries to go home before 4.
When asked how long he has been sponsoring HoPe for, he responded “About 10 years now”. When asked what he loves about sponsoring a club he went into depth about how he knows that the organizations at the school have done a lot in the and he is pound to lead one of them.
When asked about what his favorite school snack would be he said “I don’t do many sweets, but I love to eat like a kid. If I need something sweet I’m going with fruit snacks. Otherwise I love pretzels and Queso Ruffles. So unhealthy I know, but I’ve always been a chip fan”. He also described his favorite music are Green Day and 2pac.
When Mr. Bokleman was asked what his favorite part of working with students is he responded “‘I love seeing that “lightbulb moment” when a student finally understands something or realizes something they weren’t aware of ”. He expressed how its always so rewarding. He also said that he loves to see when kid’s excitement when they’ve done well on the AP test or feel like they’ve accomplish something amazing. He talked about how it always brightens his day.
The favorite part of his job is teaching history to young people. He feels like so much has been lost in terms of desire to want to research history, but to get to see students when they learn about something new in about history or get interested in something history related is such a exiting moment for him. He said that he always tries to get more students interested in history each year which is one of his goals for the year along with teaching all the content.
On the other hand, the most challenging part of his job is keeping things interesting in the classroom. “Some parts of history are not the most exciting to many people, so I try to find a way to make it fun or exciting most of the time.” He communicated how he hates it when he thinks he has a good lesson planned and then kids seem bored or uninterested, and how it bothers him and makes him want to improve his lesson. “ Luckily over the past 16 years I’ve been able to see what lessons work and doesn’t work so I stress about it less now than I used to when I was first starting, but every year is different”
Mr. Bokelman is a kind, patient, and efficient teacher, and works hard to set his students up for success.
As a final statement from Mr. Bokelmen, and asked what advice he would give to his students he said:
“I have a few words of advice..First, I would say to always try your best at everything in life, no matter what it is.
“Know that your actions do not just affect yourself. More often than not we do something that affects others, even when we don’t realize it.”
“I also live by the idea that you never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression, so be kind and respectful to everyone especially in your initial encounter with them. This may or may not have impacted me getting hired here.”
