Ricjuane Jenkins

Borrego: First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. 
Jenkins: You're welcome. Wait, should I show the fact that I'm a black superhero? 
Borrego: If you want to.
Jenkins: Okay. If you didn't know, I'm a black superhero.
Borrego: Black Panther?
Jenkins: No, just black superhero. So, I wore this as a Halloween costume. I was a street level black superhero, but I hadn't come up with a name yet. I had just discovered my powers, but I'm street level, so you know, I'm just background superhero. So, I'm just the black one for right now. I'm the black superhero, till I come up with a name. So, I just represent all of them. So, I don't have electrical powers. That's a myth. Not all black superheroes have electrical powers. So, yeah.
Borrego: We love to let a man dream. 
Jenkins: You know, it's nice. Your imagination is a powerful thing. 

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Borrego: So, how did you first get into the area of Audio/Video?
Jenkins: Ooh. Well, okay. So, at the church I grew up in, there was an audio system. And when I was in the youth choir, I would go turn the system on and stuff like that. As I grew the system got older, so it was like oh trying to troubleshoot stuff. I was always playing with my mom's stereo and whatnot. So, that's kind of like how I started tinkering with the audio side. The video side just kind of came naturally with that. The more I did audio, the more I was like, "Oh, there's images.". I was in the theater as well, and that was just a natural progression of where that would lead to. 

 

 

Borrego: Did you do anything else for work before becoming a teacher?
Jenkins: Well, yes, but we.. Okay. I was a prostitute. Nah, I’m just playing. Actually, yeah, cuz being in theater, they tell you you have to prostitute yourself in order to get good jobs. However, being young, you kind of got to do it in order to get a job. So, career-wise, was I doing something before teaching? No, I was doing freelance theater work. Either I was either on stage or behind the stage. It was much easier to find work behind the stage cuz everybody wanted to be on stage, so that's where I was. But I've had like multiple jobs. I've sold shoes, worked in warehouses and stuff like that. Well, actually, the most exciting Non-A/V job that I did was I was a game tester for Activision on the first Spider-Man game, the Toby Magguire series. 
Borrego: Activision?!
Jenkins: Yeah, with Activision. Me and my brother. So, if you go on the first PlayStation, we're on the PlayStation credits and I think we're on the Gamecube. And there's a couple other games that we tested that were on as well in the credits. I just don't remember what they were.
Borrego: I'm going have to keep a mental note of that and scroll into the credits later today. 
Jenkins: Yeah, Look at the Spider-Man One credits, you'll see ‘Ricjuane Jenkins’, ‘Jared Jenkins’.

 

 

Borrego: How did you become a teacher at Blanson?
Jenkins: At Blanson or just period?
Borrego: At Blanson.
Jenkins: Well, I was working at North Shore Ninth Grade Campus. 
Borrego: Oh, dear.
Jenkins: And a friend of mine heard about Blanson. He was…I forgot the department he worked in. It wasn't construction…But whatever department, he got wind of Blanson and he used to work at the school my wife was working at. So, he called her and he was like, "Hey, they're opening up a CTE school. They have an audio video department. Doesn't Ric do audio?" She was like, "Yeah." And he sent her the flyer. She emailed it to me and I had printed it out, and I was looking at it cuz there was a QR code to sign up and stuff like that. So, I applied and here I am. 
Borrego: Yay, thank you, whatever-his-name-was!

 

 

Borrego: Are there any significant differences between being a CTE teacher and being a regular teacher?
Jenkins: Yes and no. At the base level we're all the same, right? When you start getting into details and specifics, that's when it starts branching out. Like, for core teachers, their major concern is making sure STAAR testing and stuff like that and you know, the end of course test, those are done. With CTE teachers it's a lot different actually, because while a lot of our focus goes on certifications, we have to make sure, not that you're certified, that you actually are able to apply the skills learned. So, we're much more liable to make sure we're doing things and projects to make sure that those skills that you're learning in your certification, like you just didn't get a certification, you actually know what you're doing. That effort is different than a regular teacher and stuff like that because like say, with English or something like that it's like, “Oh you know we need to write an essay and stuff like that.”. Then, as an English teacher I need to go back and grammatically correct and all that other kind of stuff, which is a daunting task within itself. But, for our program and stuff like that, since I had to build the program from the ground up based on the Texas TEKS, there were things that I had to make sure I was still first in in the industry. Like, I still have to check in with the industry like if not every six months, at least every other year to make sure things are not updated so drastically that we're not doing the same. So, the rules of engagement are different. Like, it's for us, it's not that we're more hands on, but we have to go way more in depth to what it is. Like, we have to think about everything. Like, hey, when you guys get out of here, what is the base knowledge that you need to know in order to get a job? You know, versus like English and stuff like that. You moving on to the next step is college. You need to know how to write a paper. You know what I'm saying? So the rules of engagement are different.

 

 

Borrego: Does your job affect your life outside of Blanson?
Jenkins: Yes. Yes, it does. Teachers work way more than you think they do. When I was in school, teachers used to be like, "Oh my god, I have so many papers to grade and stuff like that." And I'm thinking, "Why would you want to do that?". Well, that's because we need feedback and stuff like that. Once I became a teacher, I knew, but I had no idea how much outside work and development that one has to do in order to stay on top. You don't have to do that as a teacher, but if you want to be an effective teacher, you need to constantly be learning, and not just about my craft, right? Because of what we do. Like I need to, I need to know a lot about a little bit, you know? So, I'm constantly learning about myself. You know, there's so many rabbit holes I'll go down with Google like, "Oh, that's interesting.". But yes, you constantly have to be learning and thinking. Every year I have to re-evaluate projects and make sure one– they're relevant. Two– that it gets you guys excited about doing some stuff. And three– that it's not so technical that you give up if it gets hard. I have friends look at it like, "Hey, look at this. Explain to me what it is." I told my daughter, "Hey, look at this. Does this make sense?" You know, and she's younger than y'all, so if it makes sense to her, it's probably going to make sense to you. So I've always believed that this is a learning relationship. While I am the expert, yes, I'm teaching masters. I'm not teaching people just to go out and just you know what I'm saying? Like we're teaching mastery over this— actual skills. I want to be able to say that I've trained many masters of whatever this subject is, not as many learners because the more masters you teach, the more learners you actually come in contact with.
Borrego: Someone quote that. 
Jenkins: Actually, that is a quote. Who said that? I want to say it's Neil Donald Walsh.
Borrego: Never heard of him. 
Jenkins: Yeah. He's wrote… it's not some self-help books, but some of the books he's written is very interesting. I think that's where that quote comes from. But I mean, that's true. That's really true. Like as a teacher, I'd rather say there are more masters or more teachers that I've taught than just people that have just sat and learned. 

 

 

Borrego: Do you see yourself continuing to teach at Blanson for the foreseeable future?
Jenkins: Yes. I'm here till there's either a better opportunity or a better offer.  I think schools like this are very important. We shouldn't be one of a few. I think we should be one of many, but I don't think it should stop with CTE. I think the specialty schools in the long run end up helping you guys out. Because one thing I remember in high school was sitting there and like, “I don't even know what this has to do with what I want to do.”. And at least at a CTE school or a choice school, you're actually working in a field that you're interested in. Whether or not you go into the field when you graduate or anything like that, at least you learned it, right? So you have that in your wheelhouse versus going to a regular high school where you have your general education classes, and then if you ask your average high school student, “Hey, what do you want to do?”, they don't know cuz it's just been general ed and nothing specific. At least here, you can say, “I'm in the HVAC program.”, “What do you want to do?”, “Well, actually being in the HVAC program helped me focus. I want to actually go do this, that, and the other.”. That has nothing to do with HVAC, but the skills you learn there, you take elsewhere. So, yeah.