There seems to be a misconception held among a majority of students that the best teachers are the ones who permit excess slack. Without expectations and true academic quality, it is less likely students will have their educational needs fulfilled by these more easy-going teachers. The need for quality instructors, especially in advanced classes, might appear to be more present than ever.
Enter Dual Credit English III teacher Kimberli Bishop. She teaches a vast array of students, and makes known to each of them her class motto.
“Diction, details, and deadlines,” Bishop said. “If you learn, having mastered the three of those, then you will be successful in your life.”
Bishop holds those three keys to success firmly in her educational approach. They sit wisely on her desk, printed on three wooden bars, reminding students of her expectations. One might wonder how this simple yet sage philosophy arrived in Bishop’s classroom. Diamonds, of course, are only formed by pressure. Bishop is the outcome of her experiences; raised by a collegiate football coach for a father and a professor of English for a mother, one may assume she followed one of these two footpaths. This, however, was not the case.
“I spent fifteen years working in college sports at a handful of universities and then for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, head office in Indianapolis,” Bishop said. “I loved being in the realm of education very, very much, and I also taught periodically as well.”
In order to fulfill both her parents’ and her own career aspirations, Bishop has lived in eleven states. Eventually, though, she found herself at Klein Collins.
“I did some business consulting things for a while, but I missed working with students very much, so I went back to teaching English at Lone Star College since I’ve been in Houston,” Bishop said. “And then the chair of the English department at Lone Star reached out and said, ‘I think this would be a great role for you.’”
This was the role of teaching Dual Credit English, and a great role for her it was. Bishop’s personal education and time as a college professor laid the foundation to introduce specific and advanced ideals to her high school students.
“I was always in very structured classrooms and with instructors that I knew cared about me, there were no errors,” Bishop said. “I have learned over the years that people need to be cared about, even when the discipline is there. I have learned that when I get too kind or easy, work starts to slouch for a number of students.”
Bishop’s time in the high school classroom has not, one might understand, been the result of a simple, straight path. Separately from the journey, though, the destination has provided her lessons beyond diction, details, and deadlines.
“There’s always a different wisdom that comes from the life experiences of every single person,” Bishop said. “And I think for me, there’s a joy in that because I also get to see the changes in students from the beginning of the year to the end.”
Such a career menagerie might lead to feelings of regret or melancholy over the illusion of lost time for many such collectors. For Bishop, though, gratitude (and repartee) are her métier.
“I’ve had five careers and all of them were the right career at that time,” Bishop said. “I would not trade any of them. Not a single one. I will finish my career as an instructor because I really love it that much. And I think when you get to go to work every day, loving what you do, they say you never work a day in your life. I love what I do, but I’m working a lot when I’m grading 167 papers. So that part becomes work, but the rest of it, it’s good.”
