Lowell Tuckerman: From the press box to the classroom
Larry Wong
Teacher Lowell Tuckerman working at KTRB 860 AM, the flagship radio station of the Oakland Athletics.
English teacher Lowell Tuckerman sits at his desk as his students work on their respective assignments. With his microphone by his side, Tuckerman watches his class, occasionally reminding them to remain on task.
It’s apparent that Tuckerman is an unorthodox teacher. At the beginning of the year, he assigned typing lessons to improve his students’ digital literacy. He uses a microphone to make announcements to the class from his desk and gives out ‘employability’ points.
While he’s already had a discernible impact on his students, he’s also impressed some of his fellow teachers.
“I like that he is personable and that he genuinely wants to be here; he wants to learn from other people. He doesn’t come in here thinking he knows everything.” fellow English teacher Mr. Michael Morelli said. “He’s been teaching for longer than I have, so the fact that he really wants to learn from me and other teachers says a lot about him. I love that he’s open to new ideas.”
When the final bell rings, his sophomore English class files out and starts to head home, go to club meetings or rush to the bathroom. Tuckerman, however, makes his way to the Oakland Coliseum during baseball season to perform his duties for the A’s flagship radio station KTRB 860 AM.
“I was a big A’s fan growing up and now I get to work for the A’s flagship radio station, which is just awesome. If you were to tell me that I would be doing this three years ago, that I’d be working for 860 AM — the flagship station for the A’s — hosting a show on Sunday nights during the football season and getting to go to every A’s game and interviewing the manager and the players after games, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy. That’s not going to happen,’ but it did,” Tuckerman shared. “I’ve been extremely fortunate; I have one of the best part-time jobs any teacher could have.”
Before sports broadcasting, Tuckerman played on the baseball team at Dublin High School.
“I enjoyed sports so much, which is why I wanted to major in sports broadcasting in college and pursue that. So baseball has been my biggest passion and the sport that kind of kick-started my interest [in broadcasting],” Tuckerman explained.
He initially worked as a board operator at his radio station before asking to audition for some on-air work. He then reported on traffic updates before moving onto sports updates and eventually his own Sunday night sports talk show.
Tuckerman hopes to share his knowledge in sports broadcasting by pitching a new class for it at Dougherty. He plans for this class to cover all aspects of sports broadcasting, including announcing, interviewing, play-by-play and producing.
“I think it would generate some interest and more than anything else, I just want to see, ‘Is there anything I can do to enrich Dougherty Valley?’ ‘Can I bring something to this school that they don’t have, and something that the students, faculty, and the community would appreciate?’” Tuckerman said. “So I’m going to be pitching a sports broadcasting class to give students a chance to see what that industry is like, and who knows? Maybe some of them will discover a passion in that industry.”
Before teaching at Dougherty, Tuckerman spent four years teaching for Stockton Unified, where his students also gave him his street name — Jefe, which means “boss” in Spanish.
“My teaching in the inner city made me grateful to be in a location where I have both parent and student support, and I don’t have to worry about being the kid’s big brother or the kid’s dad — I can just be a teacher [at Dougherty]. And that’s what I really appreciate,” Tuckerman reflected. “I had students who, when I would come into school in the morning, were sleeping on the bench outside of my classroom. Or they’re curled up in a ball in a sleeping bag outside of the school gates waiting to come in. Perspective is everything. I have perspective.”
In addition to fulfilling his role as a teacher for the students there, he acted as a “therapist,” offering emotional support to his students.
“Many of the students here, they look back five to 10 years from now, [and] they’ll vaguely remember their teachers, let’s be honest,” Tuckerman said. “But for someone to remember me for helping them out in a tough time and giving them a lot of emotional support, that means a lot to me.”
While a mutual respect exists between Tuckerman and his Stockton students, Tuckerman is also held in high regard by students and staff at Dougherty Valley. Morelli, a fellow A’s fan, complimented Tuckerman’s wit and funny personality and recounted a time when Tuckerman gave him “cool little goodie things” from the radio station.
“I feel like I’ve been teaching with him for years already … I think that’s pretty cool,” Morelli concluded.
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anonymous7 • Feb 3, 2021 at 4:19 pm
Tuckerman was one of the worst teachers I ever had, he was mean, rude, borderline racist, condescending, and just terrible. He was creepy towards the girls, invading their personal space and prying into their lives. At the end of every quarter, he took pictures of who he deemed were his “best students” to post on his wall. He was an awful teacher, teaching nothing while at the same time being one of the hardest graders I have ever met. He was incredibly rude in class, and he constantly harped on kids for no reason. He even admitted that when everyone walked in on the first day of school, he “knew” who would be the troublemakers in class, and even though the majority of the time he was wrong, he kept harassing those kids, grading them differently, and even refusing to say one of their names correctly. He was a truly terrible teacher, I am so glad that he got sacked after one year.
PTownNinja04 • May 31, 2020 at 3:29 pm
I was wondering what happened to mr. tuckerman…he had to miss last 3 weeks at Amador cuz a death in his family. lots of students were mad cuz they thought it would hurt their grade. does he still show south park clips about social issues? fun times in his class! his new students should ask about the video when he had a gopro on his head driving around concord giving gatorades to homeless people lol.
209Juan$$ • May 27, 2020 at 12:23 pm
Hahaha all the pendejos he flunked throwing shade…real talk Mr T was the coolest teacher I ever had. he always give me food when I didn’t have no money to eat and he taught me cool words I never new existed. fr I missed him when he left Stockton…
an amador student • May 24, 2020 at 9:22 pm
Mr. Tuckerman is one of the worst people I have ever met. Not only had he made racist and sexist comments in class on multiple occasions, he was low-key invasive towards students, including myself. He would often ask them personal questions and try to invade their personal lives. It is disgusting and I cannot believe that he had gotten away with it so many times. He would often mention his past students in Stockton, saying bad things about them and implying that we were superior than them.
unanamus • Feb 27, 2020 at 10:13 am
Lowell Tuckerman was by far one of my worst English teachers. He did not teach anything but MLA format, which he just punished us if it was not perfect. He would also target specific people calling them out in the middle of class for no reason. He often sought out personal information about his students through journal prompts and outside of class “therapy sessions”. Tuckerman would also solo his students out asking them personal questions in front of the whole class, and patronizing them if they refused to respond. Students were forced to do busy work instead of actually learning. They only wrote three essays which took him two months each to grade. Essays were graded overly harsh and only on grammar, ignoring content. Students did not find out their grade until three months after they submitted it. For the final essay, every student was given the same grade of a 75%, even though some students never even turned in their essay.
aha anonymous but stew iykyk • Feb 21, 2020 at 3:02 pm
ah lemme tell you the story of me tuckerman. the worst english teacher i have ever had. from the numerous times of making fun of students to the pointless assignments that he made us do. not to mention missing the last 3 weeks of school including finals. there’s much to say about this man but i’ll stop here champ.
anonymousguy32 • Jan 23, 2020 at 7:31 pm
not sure about “great teacher”, as a student in amador he barely taught at all. He often would just give us random assignments that we could have easily faked and he wasnt even here for 3 weeks including the Final. and btw the final was literally just the same assignment that he has given us except longer ..