History teachers Mr. Brian Adam, Mr. Keith Herberger and Mr. Tom Sellers have worked together for years, creating an interesting relationship and providing opportunities for shenanigans.
Q: How long have you worked together?
Herberger: I was the last to join the crew about 11 years ago.
Adam: Actually, we met at the circus when we were all 17.
Sellers: Yeah, that was after Juvie, though.
H: So 11 years, but Sellers, you just moved over here.
S: I moved over to the good hallway about three years ago.
H: He upgraded his dwelling about three years ago.
S: This is my 17th year though.
H: We took plenty of applications for compatriots, so that’s when the madness started.
A: That’s when the duo became a trio. My wolf pack had grown by one.
Q: Do you see each other outside of school?
A: We see each other outside of school as minimally as possible.
H: We all live in different directions, so not very much.
S: If we can avoid it. We tell the family “Quick, quick, act like you don’t know that guy.” Well, we’d go to Herberger’s house, but he hasn’t invited us.
A: We’re pretty much classless individuals. No, we visit each other’s classes whenever we want to get away from the classes we’re supposed to be in.
H: We like to collaborate.
Q: How do you prank each other?
H: We have not had any formal pranks, actually.
A: Occasionally one of us will say something or do something but it doesn’t last that long. It’s not that it’s off limits; it’s just we have fun in other ways.
S: Some people seem to think it’s OK to put their mail in my mailbox though.
H: That is kind of a prank.
A: That is an ongoing, yearlong thing.
H: I noticed last Friday when I was gone, your mail migrated to my mailbox. I came in on Monday and I’m like “Man, I got a lot of mail,” but they’re all like “Sellers,” “Sellers,” “Adam.”
A: So, we don’t actually look forward to getting mail because a lot of advertisements come to teachers.
H: We just want to make sure that our coworkers receive ample opportunity for enrichment.
S: You heard of stuffing ballots? We’re stuffing mailboxes.
Q: Tell us about your seating arrangements at lunch?
A: There’s no seating chart as long as you don’t sit in my seat.
S: There’s no formal seating chart, but just make sure you sit in the right spot. There’s some untouchable seats.
H: Goldie has a certain spot; it’s always offered when there’s a sub.
A: We do go out of our way to make sure that subs who don’t know about it sit in the wrong spot.
H: We’ll be like, “There are spots, there are spots available for you,” and then watch people come in and be like “Why are you in my seat?”
A: The student teacher tried to sit in my seat a few times – that didn’t fly.
H: All the guys are at one end and all the ladies at the other. There’s kind of a couple “tweeners.” Can I say “tweeners?”
A: There are “questionables.” Questionable individuals.
H: And there’s people in the middle.
Q: How do you collaborate on lesson plans and classwork?
H: We do help each other professionally.
A: “Here’s what I want done, what ideas do you have to make it happen?”
H: But it’s about 97 percent fun and games.
A: I’ll be like, “I have this idea. Is it stupid?”
H: Any technology questions, I go to Adam.
S: Yeah, Adam is the technology wizard.
H: I think it’s fair to say that all three of us feel like making the educational experience enjoyable is priority. Would you say that’s fair?
A: Lovely answer. I hope to think that students in our classes feel that they can look forward to coming to class and if they have a question about the material, they can ask and get an answer. It may not be a good answer or informative. And the other thought is that if they’re busy laughing at us, they’re not coming up with ways to distract or annoy us. As long as we’re picking on each other – I don’t go for kids picking on each other in my class.
H: We tease each other so we don’t have to tease anyone else.
A: We’re adults; we know when to stop. So let’s just cut out the shenanigans on their part before they get started.
Q: What else would you like us to know?
S: I get all my style questions from BA.
A: The lessons haven’t been going so well recently.
S: I didn’t say I take his advice.
A: Duly noted, click order, go.
S: He says, “I would never wear blue plaid pants,” so I do.
A: I do say, “Don’t wear yellow shirts and red pants, Mr. ketchup and mustard.” I think that lesson might be received.
H: Like that time I wore the lumberjack shirt and you were like, “You look like a lumberjack,” so I put that one in the back of the closet.
By Kelsey Larimore and Emily Schenberg
