By Monique Larkin

ONE OF THEIR OWN

By Monique Larkin

A student who walks into Chad Bemis’ office might guess that the math instructor himself is quite the Sacramento Kings fan.

A collection of banners, an autographed picture of Bobbi Jackson, his Kings watch, and a Kings calendar hang on his office walls.

“I want to be different; I guess you could say that I’m from a different mold,” Bemis said.

The math instructor who owns two poodles and who lives in the “wood streets” of downtown Riverside said that his students enjoy taking his classes because he takes the time to respect them.

Brandon de la Cruz, who took a math class last summer with Bemis, said that he really enjoyed taking his class because Bemis made the class fun.

“He was a really good teacher,” De la Cruz said. “I got to see him play in his band. He is just real down to earth; he puts himself at the student’s level. He is my favorite teacher.”

“I try to use the example of a professor that I once had,” Bemis said. “I use his example because he treated his students like adults and did not snub his nose at them.”

As the drummer of the classic rock band “Deep Haze,” Bemis says that he helps his students get over their math anxiety by using humor while he explains the math that he teaches.

“I like to be weird; I use humor to keep the mood light and keep my students interested,” Bemis said. “I think that that by using humor it keeps the students awake and wanting to learn. I want them to get (math) and I try my best to help them.”

Bemis attended American River Community College in Sacramento before he finished his bachelors and masters degrees at California State Sacramento.

“I was a tutor at the junior college that I attended, and I used to tutor my sister with her algebra,” Bemis said. “( My sister) used to say that I explained things really well and that planted the idea in my head to be a math teacher, other than that I really enjoy math.”

For the last three years that Bemis has been teaching at RCC, he has cared deeply for all of the students who take his classes and wants them all to be motivated in studying math.