Help: Stories about desperate situations
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2018
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we’re presenting stories about times when we’re overwhelmed and feeling alone. Sometimes, in science, we need help. Sometimes that help is hard to find. And sometimes it comes from an unexpected place.
Part 1: As a first-year teacher, Matt Baker feels overwhelmed -- especially when his principal is less than supportive.
Matt Baker is a high school math teacher at The Brooklyn Latin School in Brooklyn, NY. After getting his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Bucknell University, he taught English in Japan for two years and then pretended to use his degree in the private sector for several more. Finally he figured out he should be back in the classroom, so he applied for and received a Math for America fellowship, moved to New York City, and got his Masters of Secondary Math Education. He is currently an MƒA Master Teacher and a Desmos Teaching Fellow, and is very active in the math teacher Twitter community with the handle @stoodle.
Part 2: A graduate student is sexually assaulted by a labmate.
Please note: This story contains description of sexual assault that may be disturbing to some listeners.
This story is appearing anonymously on our podcast. For more on why we made this decision, see our blog post here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.8 | Is NYU a scientist? |
| 0:06.5 | I felt. |
| 0:07.6 | And I just thought, well, it was that golden moment. |
| 0:12.8 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:28.4 | Hey, everybody. Welcome to Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science. |
| 0:35.2 | I'm your host, Aaron Barker, and this week we're presenting stories about times more overwhelmed and feeling alone. |
| 0:38.3 | Sometimes in science we need help. Sometimes that help is hard to find. |
| 0:41.3 | And then sometimes it comes from an unexpected place, |
| 0:44.3 | or at a time when we least expect it. |
| 0:47.3 | Our first story today is from Math for America Master Teacher Matt Baker. |
| 0:52.3 | It was recorded in April 2018 at Caviott in New York City as part of a show we produced in |
| 0:57.7 | partnership with Math for America. |
| 1:06.0 | We were relegated to the top floor of a building in East Harlan with no windows. Apparently because |
| 1:11.6 | the designers in 1970s thought that East Harlem was too depressing for children to look at. |
| 1:17.2 | We googled it. Our first freshman class was, they were good kids. They were a little rough |
| 1:24.5 | around the edges, but I met some of them at Open House the year before, and they were just really excited to be part of our school, and it was really exciting to help them. |
| 1:34.7 | Unfortunately, through some quirk of scheduling, we were 30% special ed, and we had one solitary special ed coordinator. |
| 1:42.9 | Aside from compliance issues, I never taught such a high |
| 1:47.0 | needs group before, but I had the Math for American Network and the optimism and energy of a |
| 1:52.8 | first year teacher, so I wasn't that worried at the time. Things got a little tricky early on |
| 2:00.0 | because my principal's philosophy for discipline was build relationships. |
... |
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