March 27 2025

re: Be good, Be well, Be Gone

A recent chat about high school and my teachers has got me reminiscing about one of my favorite teachers; Mr. Mishrikey. Mr. Mishrikey was my freshman history teacher, and then again my junior year history teacher. In both classes he love love loved to use the socratic seminar method where we would just talk to each other. Now I'm not very good at contributing opinions in a structured manner; the moment I need to read off a script or premeditate a single portion of what I'm going to say I start stumbling on my words like a buffoon. And I never did the readings (oops!). So his class itself was quite stressful to me. So I started questioning why did I like this guy so much?

Mr. Mishrikey left his mark not in his pedagogy or insights, but rather in his demeanor and how he treated those he taught. Timid as I was, I would watch other students come to class and just chop it up with him, hell even past students would drop in to say hi! I think I really admired that he created an environment where kids were able to break the hierarchical student-teacher dynamic and instead freely come and go to talk to him after class had long ended. I believe in that way I gleaned something that I wanted to become. I wanted to be affable and friendly and welcoming like that. I can only hope I am now :). I don't know hwere to go now. This reminds me that it really is all about the intangibles. The dreaded 'v' word strikes back in a huge way. If someone can conjure up the right vibe, then they contribute far more to my impression than any deep insight or observation. Wait there's more! Mr. Mish created aura! I remember in junior and senior year, when I was being taught by Mr. Noeth (he still wishes me a happy birthday on my facebook), Mr. Mish would just pop in some times and riff off of Mr. Noeth. I could write a whoooole thing about Mr. Noeth too and my summer class, precalc, calc with hinm. But that's for another day. Anyways,it was always so relaxing to watch them quip about, and I remain fascinated how someone can just barge into someone else's time and have some fun for a sec. What a beautiful thing, interrupting someone to have fun! After I graduated, Mr. Mishrikey went to get his graudates degree at Columbia. All this reminiscing made me think of what he was up to these days, and a quick search of his name brought up sooooo many memories. Like his "green marks", which were the most insane nit picks at your paper and you were required to respond to every single one of them. Or the way he would leave one seat empty during his socratic seminars so people in the outer ring could jump in. It also brought to see his new endeavors, and it looks like he's creating some kind of pedagogy app with AI (gasp!) to help teachers. So if you wanna learn about Dialogic (tm), go give our boy Joshua Mishrikey a quick google search. I really enjoyed thinking about Mr. Mishrikey again, reminding me of how he impacted me lets me take a step back and realize that I too can positively impact people. And that's something I really want to do! So whoever is reading this, I hope I have encouraged you, in whatever fashion may be. -Nick Previous Home Next