Mr. Boehmler was an absolute legend in my high school. He was in his 60s with a cute old man face and an unrivaled sense of humor. He made my sophomore year in chemistry the absolute most fun science class that I took in high school. Mr. Boehmler would begin every class by taking notice of who was present and how everyone was looking that day (if you were in a sports uniform, he’d ask about the game that afternoon…if you were looking bright and cheery or tired, he’d note it aloud). He would strut between the desks to check our homework and say funny things. In a chipper voice he’d say something like, “It looks like the sweet, amazing, wonderful Karla has done her homework!” and then he’d move along and say in a deep, growly voice, “And it looks like the awful, terrible Coleeemannn has not!”. Now this sounds like it would bum people out or foster negativity, but actually it made everyone smile and giggle and this really set class off on a great note! (I’m friends with ‘Coleman’ to this day and he still says that Mr. Boehmler was his absolute favorite teacher!)
Someone at some point in the history of the high school had affectionately nicknamed Mr. Boehmler’s sayings “Boehmler-isms,” and this nickname stuck for years. When we learned about molar quantities of chemical formulas, he would yell out in a super deep voice: “A NUMBER! A UNIT! A FORRRRMMMMUULAAAAA” (meaning, for example, 3 moles H2O). When we learned about electron configuration (back when this was part of any typical high school chemistry course), he gave us this great analogy for how the electrons would fill each electron shell once before ever pairing up. He called it the “Bus to Camden”. Camden is a city 20 minutes down the road from my town, and at the time it was ranked the #1 most dangerous city in the country. His analogy was that when you get on a bus to Camden, you’d NEVER sit next to someone if there were open seats available! Only once all of the seats are full would people start pairing up…the same behavior of electrons. If you accidentally incorrectly placed any electrons, he’d yell, “They’re on a bus to Camden!!!” I just will never forget this analogy until the day I die.
Mr. Boehmler would do impressive demonstrations and get everyone riled up about chemistry. I remember coming home so excited about the periodic table and talking my dad’s ear off about it! Mr. Boehmler would ask students to come after school to help set up or clean up labs and if he asked you, you felt special. He had perfected the ability to ‘fake snarl’ or yell for the added drama without offending anyone because we all knew that he had a heart of gold. Although I’ll never be able to live up to Mr. Boehmler’s legacy, I do try my best to inject humor and enthusiasm in to boring topics and to make sure that every student knows that I care about them unconditionally.
If you are interested in reading more about teachers who influenced me, check out:
