Watch Out For Them Skeeter Bushes Or They'll Git Che

What exactly is a "skeeter bush" anyway? What's more, just how do they get you? These are tricky questions readers can answer by following a venerable teacher through his adventures in classrooms and offices across a long career in public education. This book takes the reader through an odyssey of improbable situations wrapped around humor, keen insight, and poignancy. What awaits is an entertaining journey for educators and members of the real world alike.

Teaching and swimming pools have a lot in common. Sometimes you ease into the cold water and tinkle a toe before getting your head wet. Other times, a burly friend picks you up and hurls you into the deep end to sink or swim. The author of "Watch Out Fer Them Skeeter Bushes Or They Will Git Che" began his teaching career the second way, and takes the reader through an amazing array of adventures in his classrooms and offices. Almost four million minutes of interactions with young people and staff during his long career yields plenty of humorous, poignant, soul-searching, and ridiculous moments. This book is an escapist, entertaining set of stories appealing to both teachers and non-educators. Every recollection is based on a true set of events, as head-scratching as some may appear. What is a skeeter bush anyway? That question is eventually answered, but not until the author completes his journey from flailing in the deep end of public education to safely climbing out of the pool.

Del Hansen is a veteran of public education with thirty-seven years of experience. Along with serving as a teacher association president, he was selected as Teacher of the Year in a district of 24,000 students and first runner-up for New Mexico Teacher of the Year. He also received the State Administrator of the Year award from the New Mexico Music Educators Association. Hansen volunteers as an evaluator for the Golden Apple Foundation helping to select the top teachers in the state and received his own Golden Apple as a member of the Golden Apple Academy. After retirement, he continues to present lectures on classical and popular music to senior citizens in his community. An avid gardener, Del resides in Las Cruces, New Mexico with his wonderful wife, Donna, who was also a teacher and counselor for forty-five years. He is a charter member of the "Grand Old Society Specializing in Pontification" (GOSSIP) achieving the platinum level of "Why Don't You Do Yourself a Favor and Just Shut Up!" To scratch his music itch, he travels to band concerts, marching festivals, and drum corps competitions locally, regionally, and nationally. Finally, with a little luck and a healthy dose of divine intervention, he wonders if he might someday accept the title of "writer." Miracles do happen.