Travails of teaching

STAFF WRITER

5:06 PM EST, January 25, 2005

Some call teacher Steve Mindlin the "bag man."

From a hallway closet, he pushed a three-tiered cart with the science tools of his trade in Jamaica's JHS 217. The microscopes bobbed. An onion for an experiment rolled. A plastic bag holding papers swung from one corner. A large box sticking out hit the elevator door.

"Beep-beep!" Mindlin shouted as the trolley bulldozed through throngs of noisy students.

Mindlin is a homeroom-less teacher, squatting in colleagues' unused rooms for a period here, a period there. He's one of the school's 10 or so "floaters," and he hates it, but it's the reality in city schools without enough space.

"It takes away a lot of my style," said the eight-year education veteran, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade earth and physical sciences.

No happy traveler

Being a traveling man has not been freeing.

During prep lessons for state science tests, Mindlin usually loses about 20 out of 90 minutes while students get set up.

In a bumper-car scenario this week, students passed out and put back power cords, microscope slides and other material. Going to his seat, one boy accidentally banged a microscope against a desk.

Then, just as Mindlin began his lesson, four students told him they still needed outlets for their lighted microscopes.

"I think it's kind of sad," said eighth-grader Jason Tom.

It's a far cry from Jason's science class last year in Mindlin's own room, where the equipment was set up beforehand and animals were in cages and tanks.

"We sat down and would just start using the microscope," Jason said. "He used to take out animals ... and explain groups of animals - reptiles, amphibians. It was much more exciting."

Mindlin had put his life into his science room - a cow skull from a friend's farm; geodes and 400 million-year-old trilobite fossils he bought; sharks' teeth found while scuba diving.

His room had dozens of animals, including a python, chinchillas, cockatiels, lizards, tarantula, mice and more. Now, they're in his home's basement.

"My room was, 'How much neat stuff can I put into it to make a kid think?'" Mindlin said. "Without a room, you can give them bits and pieces, but not the whole thing."

Promises made

After an impromptu lesson on insects one day, several boys begged him to bring in a spider. In past years with his own room, Mindlin spun the sudden curiosity by rushing to the tarantula's tank. Now, he can only promise to bring in a live specimen from home.

When the bell rang at the end of class, several children buzzed around him, saying, "Mr. Mindlin, Mr. Mindlin," to see if their paperwork was right and to get scores from last week's tests. But looking pressed, Mindlin promised to help later.

The room's teacher and students were moving in.

There are other problems. Teachers don't want him changing their rooms, so he can't use the blackboard if it's covered in writing. When he forgets something, he usually doesn't go get it, loathe to wear colleagues' patience by having them watch his students. When he doesn't need the cart, he carries his materials in plastic bags.

Bruce Zihal, JHS 217's teachers union representative, said most floaters are science and social studies teachers.

"Over the past several years, the Department of Education has appeared to place focus on literacy and math at the expense of science, social studies, foreign language," Zihal said.

"Science teachers have an especially difficult time traveling because large amounts of equipment and a variety of chemicals are needed to teach the subject properly. It can be dangerous and actually impossible to transport equipment needed for complex activities."

Mindlin was supposed to be in the new science lab this year, but safety problems have kept it closed. Weeks ago, he found a dimly lit closet, begged teachers to get their stuff out and put his own supplies in.

Every day of the week, the floater and his students meet in a different room.

"If I see them in five different rooms in a week, they don't get the same sense of home and belonging," Mindlin said. "When you're in science, you learn by seeing, you learn by hearing. When your room is set up as a science room, they don't know they're learning when they look around the room."

Drive-by teaching

Here's what JHS 217 science teacher Steve Mindlin had on his car one day this week as he traveled between classrooms to prepare students for the hands-on portion of the state science test: 18 microscopes: U.S. Postal Service box containing power cords for microscopes; onion, its skin to be examined under microscope; plastic box of onion membrane slides made students; cardboard box of practice slides with tiny bugs drawn on paper; wood box of slides with animal tissues; slides with measuring grids, food with a large, living millipede; Toys "R" Us plastic bag holding papers for students; resealable baggies filled with small toy animals; box of crayons; plastic basket of rulers, scissors, stains and tweezers; history textbook left behind by a student .