- At age 75 I have much time and a lifetime of experiences to reflect upon. I have done many posts that are reflections. Many posts are a reflection on my teaching career. However, there are many other aspects of my life that I reflect upon. Try childhood, education, mistakes, youth, friends, colleagues, family. All of this is about the life I've lived.
In my last post I referred to my Arctic experience. It's an experience that changed my life forever and I'm happy for that.
So I was out for a walk yesterday afternoon with a few other birders and found some unexpected photo opportunities...reflections.
I originally posted this piece in 2009. I'll use the usual excuse when I repost something. "Nobody was reading me in 2009."
I was a teacher for 37 years from 1958 to 1997. I taught in three provinces and one territory. I look back on my time with the feeling that I would do it all over again, but change some things which experience drilled into me.
Now for starters, I have to be careful what I say because one of my previous administrators reads this blog. He's a wonderful human being but can be a bit critical at times. I might have to defend myself strenuously if I go too far out in left field.
I took the compulsory administration's class in education. It was a survey course and explained and justified why the system was organized the way it was. The grade system was dealt with thoroughly.
Looking back, some students jumped through the hoops (grades) willingly and paid their debt to society and got an education. However, not all students learned at the same rate or had the same learning style. So some kids had difficulties as they were not prepared or ready to learn the concepts being presented at a certain grade level. Some of these kids went on and never did pick up the concept and as a result were challenged later or met with failure. A simple example would be some student who did not learn to read in the primary grades. Some of the obvious behavior problems were a result of students not being ready for a concept and acting up because of the difficulties experienced.
Now I'm not the only one to make these observations. Various attempts have been made to accommodate the variation in student readiness. "Continuous progress" - remember that one? Open classroom concept? Portfolios? These were attempts to solve the problem of different learning stages of the student population. They were good ideas and would have worked, but they didn't. A teacher was left with the same number of students and found the strategy too challenging so gradually backed into what they were doing previously .
My favorite teaching assignment was to be given 12 to 15 students who were labeled as having problems. I was able to go away with these students and modify a program to where they were able to succeed. At the end of the year I would come back with my charges. Would they have achieved grade level? No! But they would have met with some success and avoided the hassles they would have met in the regular program.
So it bugs me to some extent that I saw students experience problems because of a system which was set up to accommodate administration rather than a system set up to meet the needs of the individual student .
Colleagues were extremely valuable to me throughout my career. Colleagues are able to influence you in many different ways on a daily basis. Fortunately most influence is positive,but there was the odd negative result.
Teachers gain so much from each other by cooperating. They have so much to learn from each other and the students are the ones who benefit. I enjoyed working with people to put together units or to outline a full year program. In that way we did not have to reinvent the wheel. One wheel could be built with many more parts to make it a better wheel. It would take much time for one to create a unit, but together complete units of work could be put together with much more detail.
Early in my career I was fortunate enough to work in a team teacher situation teaching science. When you team teach it is important that all details be planned so that all material is covered in a similar manner. Evaluation was also prepared so we really had to cooperate.
I also was able to learn many skills by watching my colleagues. Sometimes we organized formal lesson observations, but may times this learning was incidental when you would walk through a classroom or by listening to someone explain a procedure they used and you could take it and adapt it to your own situation. Many small tricks of the trade were shared. Many times I needed some moral support and it would come from fellow teachers . I guess many times people could tell if you were down or struggling with something and needed a little moral support.
I also enjoyed having student teachers. I usually felt I had something to gain from them as they were coming out with some of the latest methods. They needed a chance to put some of their ideas to practice. They also had to watch me and again saw some of the old tricks.
I have been retired for twelve years and meet former colleagues regularly. These are good times that we enjoy.
In a previous piece I told you that my career spanned from 1958 to 1997. That length of time alone calls for Professional development activity (P.D. activity.) However, I took a one year teacher training course at Saskatchewan Teachers' College in Saskatoon in 1957-58. This program was designed to prepare people to take over a classroom and be independent. At that time most of the graduates would be teaching in a one room rural school so they had no supervision and no one to ask for advice. The program was excellent in practical terms but was out of date and obsolete as many of the one room schools were closing due to low enrolments.
I taught in a one room school for my first year and the course served me well. I was very fortunate to teach in a district where the community gave me tremendous support. I then decided to attend university for one year as I had decided to stay with teaching.
As time went on things had to change and I had to add to my skills. Here's where professional development came in. Professional development improved and many valuable sessions were available. Teachers' conventions and workshops were available. You could always pick something up to apply in your classroom. I needed something to keep me motivated and possibly make things more interesting for students.
One of the more influential speakers was a Madeleine Hunter who had many practical strategies in lesson planning. Our district hired her several times and implemented her program. In this way the district was able to set up an excellent teacher evaluation system. Madeleine's program structured the lessons in several parts. As teachers, we were required to follow the plan. It really worked!
Our district set up a professional development fund where teachers could access funds to attend a workshop of some kind every second year. Now some teachers did not like P.D. and did not access the funds. This is where I came in and helped everybody out . I applied every year and as a result got to attend sessions every year.
One time my Dept. Head came to me and asked if I would like to attend a week long session. He pleaded being busy that week. Gullible me said ,"Sure! I'd like to go." It was the Quest program sponsored by the Lions Club and was designed to train teachers to teach the new health program that was about to be implemented. So I accidentally got myself assigned to teaching the new health program. The Quest program however could be adapted to any subject area . So I received a benefit all around.
I found that P.D. kept me motivated and as a result I was able to be much happier and satisfied as I went about my teacher assignments.
Number one in my reflections of teaching has got to be the students. Some of the adjectives which come to mind are energetic, exciting, genuine, creative and unpretentious to name a few. With qualities like this it was always stimulating for me to be in a classroom. You never knew what was coming next and you had to be ready for it.
Variety of students alone would have made the whole experience challenging and interesting. First the range in abilities in most classes was extremely wide. You had the little guys who were only managing to keep their head above water. Then there were extremely brilliant people. With the brilliant people teaching skills, appreciation,facts or understanding all material was like dropping a pebble down a deep well and hearing it bounce off the sides of the pipe all the way down. They took everything in and related it to the bank of knowledge they already had . Many times these were indicated by idiosyncratic behaviours. One boy had a noticeable little giggle after processing everything. Others you could sort of watch their eyes and "see the wheels turning" so to speak. The poor little guy who was just getting the basics gave the smile as he understood the concept.
Style of learning was always interesting to notice. I'm afraid that I could not always accommodate this one in my bag of tricks. One girl in particular repeated everything aloud to herself. It sometimes drove me batty as well as the kids sitting beside her . But this is the way she learned best. I'm sure many other students had the same style of learning and that for some along the way they had been discouraged from this habit as it was considered to be distracting for other students.
For me each student had a unique personality and this was interesting to get to know. It made it easier for me to consider individual differences. Since I still live in the area where I taught I meet former parents. First, they are amazed that I remember their child after such a long time . Second , they are amazed that I remember something about the child. I tell them that they gave me their child for a year so the least I could do is get to know them. Then it's automatic to remember them.
Now it wasn't always sweetness. There were some bad apples. Bad apples had to be dealt with in their own individual ways. There was always tremendous support from administrators and guidance personnel. Many times these were learning situations as how to or how not to handle a situation. A very high percentage of the bad apples grew into good apples . I taught in one district for 28 years so many former students sent their children to me. These people had turned out to be honorable citizens and good, supportive parents.
So I have many positive memories when it comes to students. Students made the career really tick!
I was a teacher for 37 years from 1958 to 1997. I taught in three provinces and one territory. I look back on my time with the feeling that I would do it all over again, but change some things which experience drilled into me.
Now for starters, I have to be careful what I say because one of my previous administrators reads this blog. He's a wonderful human being but can be a bit critical at times. I might have to defend myself strenuously if I go too far out in left field.
I took the compulsory administrations class in education. It was a survey course and explained and justified why the system was organized the way it is. The grade system was dealt with thoroughly.
Looking back, some students jumped through the hoops (grades) willingly and paid their debt to society and got an education. However, not all students learned at the same rate or had the same learning style. So some kids had difficulties as they were not prepared or ready to learn the concepts being presented at a certain grade level. Some of these kids went on and never did pick up the concept and as a result were challenged later or met with failure. A simple example would be some student who did not learn to read in the primary grades. Some of the obvious behavior problems were a result of students not being ready for a concept and acting up because of the difficulties experienced.
Now I'm not the only one to make these observations. Various attempts have been made to accommodate the variation in student readiness. "Continuous progress" - remember that one? Open classroom concept? Portfolios? These were attempts to solve the problem of different learning stages of the student population. They were good ideas and would have worked, but they didn't. A teacher was left with the same number of students and found the strategy too challenging so gradually backed into what they were doing previously .
My favorite teaching assignment was to be given 12 to 15 students who were labeled as having problems. I was able to go away with these students and modify a program to where they were able to succeed. At the end of the year I would come back with my charges. Would they have achieved grade level? No! But they would have met with some success and avoided the hassles they would have met in the regular program.
So it bugs me to some extent that I saw students experience problems because of a system which was set up to accommodate administration rather than a system set up to meet the needs of the individual student .
