Events

Book Sale, Reading, & Signing May 24th, 7-8 PM CSUB Campus Multipurpose Room, Student Union Russo's will be on-hand to sell Mr. Adams' book starting at 6:30pm. CSUB Alum and Teacher of the Year to give talk and book signing on May 24 May 14, 2012 — On the heels of being named Kern County Teacher of the Year earlier this month, California State University, Bakersfield adjunct lecturer and alumnus Jeremy Adams will give a talk and book signing featuring his new memoir at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24 at CSUB. Adams’ book, “Full Classrooms, Empty Selves,” is about his experiences teaching government and macroeconomics at Bakersfield High School over the past 14 years. During that time, he went from optimistic to realistic, as it became apparent he was not going to be “that one teacher that made a difference” for every student, he said. “I had to get over myself and realize that sometimes the magic isn’t going to happen for every student,” Adams said. “Now I have much more patience with my students and more faith in my fellow teachers to be the one teacher I wanted to be.” Adams graduated from BHS in 1994 and obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington and Lee University in Virginia in 1998. After returning to Bakersfield, he began teaching at BHS and earned his social science teaching credential in 1999 and Master’s in Education in Curriculum and Instruction in 2000 from CSUB. He also teaches political science courses as an adjunct professor at CSUB. One of his well-known accomplishments at BHS is founding the Earl Warren Cup in 2006. The annual competition quizzes students on government and civics trivia. Some of the questions are recorded by national figures such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and television news anchor Diane Sawyer. As Kern County Teacher of the Year, Adams will represent Kern County in the California Teachers of the Year competition this year. He also is a recipient of the Jim Burke Rising Star Teaching Award and the Kern Reading Association Outstanding Student Teacher Award. Through all of these accomplishments, Adams said he has experienced many frustrations, hopes and anxieties that he wants to share with other educators and teachers-in-training through his book. “In this brilliant mid-career exposé, Jeremy Adams takes a brutally honest look at himself and the teaching profession as he guides his readers to a profound understanding of their place in the world of learning,” writes Kim Flachmann, an English professor at CSUB, in a review of the book. “The author fills our hearts with both hope and despair as he examines the future of education in this inspiring ‘teaching memoir.’” The CSUB School of Social Sciences and Education and Department of Political Science present a reading, book signing, and dessert hour with author Jeremy Adams from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 24, in the CSUB Student Union Multipurpose Room. Books go on sale at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Parking is free in Lots K and L. For more information, go to www.authorjeremyadams.com.