Jumping into Teaching – Mentoring the Next Generation of Science Teachers
Recent Belleville High School graduate Emily Swanson prepares to “jump”. Photo courtesy of Marie Perry
Deciding to be a high school science teacher is not as common as it used to be in a day and age when we are seeing more educators taking early retirement or opting to make a career change after living through the COVID years. So hearing a student say that she wanted to become a high school biology teacher after college was simply music to Mr. Bussey’s ears. Over the years, Travor Bussey has inspired many of his 9th-12th grade students to continue to study science as part of their college and career plans, but to learn you have inspired one of your students to want to do what you do, well that was a first!
Knowing that graduating senior Emily Swanson planned to take up the reins from her Belleville High School science teacher and continue to inspire the next generation of students was the perfect gift to Mr. Bussey could hope for, and as Emily’s graduation grew closer, he began to reflect on what it truly meant to be a science teacher. Knowing that he had inspired a young woman to want to choose his profession as a teacher was so special, he in turn wanted to give her something that would encourage her to enter the field of teaching and be ready for all the bumps and unknowns one can encounter along the way.
Shortly thereafter, Bussey came upon a little treasure while thrifting – it was a small bronze statue of a paratrooper. Inspirational words came to mind – “When it feels scary to jump, that’s exactly when you jump. Otherwise you end up staying in the same place your whole life.”
In that moment, jumping became a clear metaphor for teaching because on each and every day almost anything can happen in the classroom and as a teacher, you have to be ready. Bussey decided he wanted his young student to experience what teaching is and so he put together a beautiful themed gift – some words of wisdom with the little statue of the paratrooper. He also got Emily a gift certificate to the Wisconsin Skydiving Center. She jumped on June 2nd with her own high school graduation just days away. Mr. Bussey included a letter to help Emily understand what teaching means to him…
“You’ll discover that teaching is like skydiving into an incredible spiritual journey transcending the classroom walls. I jumped into my teaching career in the fall of 1993 as a brave, romantic army medic paratrooper ready to change the world. I learned that to change the world, you must start by changing one student at a time and not the whole class simultaneously. A slight nudge by a domino can be as powerful as a tsunami. Thank you for realizing that teaching is about more than just the subject content. It’s about helping students take their parachute jumps and land safely to make sense of life’s daily struggles,” reflected Bussey.
For Emily, she was surprised by her biology teacher’s gift and words of wisdom, but she knew it symbolized her taking a leap into a new chapter of her life. Skydiving was something she herself had never envisioned doing. On June 2nd, Emily, as usual, was a quick study. She showed up at the Skydiving Center, watched a tutorial video on how to jump and worked through the practice stations to help teach newbies how to skydive. She was nervous right up until it was her turn to exit the plane.
As for her reaction to jumping, Swanson says, “It was peaceful in a scary way. It felt really intense until the tandem flier I had with me pulled the shoot cord. Then it was calm and cool to look out over all of the farms.”
It was also a quick experience for Swanson – from exiting the plane to the time she put boots back on the ground took only 5 minutes.
It is 5 minutes that will cement Mr. Bussey’s metaphor in Swanson’s head as she pursues a teaching degree at UW-Whitewater this coming fall. As a teacher, Bussey believes you have to be ready for anything – you have to be ready to jump in life. To be an excellent teacher, one needs to put fear aside and step out of your comfort zone on a daily basis. Bussey knows this from experience and in his excitement to see one of his own students take up his passion for teaching, he hopes his gift will serve to remind her no matter what comes in life or in the classroom, she just needs to be prepared to jump!
