December 14, 2021
By Bella Gamboa
When asked why he became a teacher, Christopher Hawker describes it as similar to a burst of lightning. He never thought of it until after 20 years of working in the advertising industry. Mr. Hawker was shooting print ads and directing television commercials for big companies when he decided he wanted to be a science teacher. The thought came to him quickly, he had always been interested in science and nature, and when he told his wife she was supportive of the idea. Accordingly, that is what he did. He went back to school and got his degree in biology and chemistry, his masters in education and taught at a public school for 16 years.
“I know some people have all these thoughts, like from early in their life they wanted to be a teacher, I never thought about it… I spent over 20 years doing business in advertising, shooting print ads, directing television commercials for big companies… and I thought, what else could I do? I’ll become a science teacher. It was kinda like that. It was almost like a burst of lighting.”
However, there was something missing at this public school. As a student, Mr. Hawker went to an all boys school, St. Ignatius, where the community was strong. In the interview, he talks about how he missed this type of community. He desired a community with different priorities. A community that valued more than championships, a community that connects its members like a thread. Mr. Hawker is very happy here at RES because he feels he can make a difference.
“I also have an opportunity to guide and shape many things here at RES because it is a smaller community. I am able to make a bigger impact. I have the opportunity to influence, guide, direct students... and shape instruction and curriculum... that stood out to me. I also heard a lot of good things about Resurrection, I was sold on the environment.”
This interview was one of the most interesting interviews I have ever had, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Q: What is your teaching philosophy? What is the purpose of teaching for you? What do you want to accomplish through teaching?
A: “I’ve got three kids of my own, three in college… so my overall approach, I always think, ‘What I would want my own children’s classroom to be like?’ Also, one of the things that I learned in grad school that stuck with me ever since was what one of my professors said to me… ‘Before students care anything about what you know, they want to know what you are like as a person.’ So, I try to approach everyday in the classroom from the standpoint of it's not me and them. It's us together. We are in this together...We have some goals to accomplish and together we are going to work to achieve those goals. And from an academic standpoint I want to challenge students to think and apply their reasoning and be able to draw conclusions from evidence and data. It is not so much about being right; it is about can you justify your claims? Can you justify what you are thinking with evidence? It is not so much about putting information in their head, it's more like being a coach. Playing the sport I can't take the shot for you, I can help you figure out how to take the shot but you have to do it yourself. I look at my job as a teacher as being a coach.”
Q: How do you connect your lessons to real life?
A: “Oh that's easy, science is the best subject because everything we do connects to the real world! All we have to do is look out the window. We can talk about, for example, how there can be such tremendous diversity here on this planet. We can approach that from the standpoint of genetics and natural selection and look out the window and see what you see. We can relate to the pandemic and talk about how it has affected our population as humans. We can always take real world problems like the pandemic, like climate change, like our use of fossil fuels. The concept of race and look at it from a really deep and clear scientific perspective. Whether it’s climate change, or biological diversity, or a pandemic it can all come back to science. We can find out what produces these things and I think that leads to a deeper understanding and a commitment to understanding the world around us.”
Q: How do you connect and engage with your students?
A: “I think it goes back to what I said earlier about ‘before they care about what you know, they want to know about what you're like as a person.’ I share things about myself, my wife, my life, who I am as a person. I try to share my life experiences to build a deeper connection with them. That's more than I am the teacher, you are the student... and by sharing those aspects of my own life I show them that what they are learning now has meaning down the road, in real life. I want things to move fast for my students, I want them to develop and learn quickly, but I take a step back and always check to see how they are doing in their life in their day in the world. I adjust what we do in class and adjust my instruction to take that into account and understand that if I have a class of 20 different women, there are 20 different ways of learning in that class, every student is an individual, every student has their own story, their own life history. I try to learn as much about them as people because that helps me be a better teacher.”
Q: What is your favorite part about teaching YOUR subject?
A: “To me...ultimately... We are all here going through our world, our life, our time on this planet and we are trying to make sense of things. We are trying to understand what's around us and in science, the whole purpose of science, whether it's biology (which is my area of expertise) or chemistry or physics, whatever. The whole purpose of science is it's a logical process of humans trying to make sense of the universe and that's why I love it. It's a continual process of questioning, considering, moving forward from those questions and considerations for the whole purpose of trying to make sense of what is around us. It is about understanding our world and there's nothing more important to me than that.”
Q: What is something you want to say to the students?
A: “Trust in yourself as much as I trust in you... believe in yourself as much as I believe in you... and never say ‘I can’t do it’... There’s no problem in saying, ‘I can’t understand it’, but there should never be a time in which you say, ‘I can’t do it.’”
Good responses, right?
Mr. Hawker can be reached at chawker@reshs.org