Archive for the ‘Inspirational Teachers’ Category

Teaching is Worth It!

October 5, 2011

People who don’t know me well assume that I fell into teaching because it pays my bills.  They look at a male primary teacher and think that I must have been low on choices to pick a profession that the average man wouldn’t opt for in a million years.

Their impressions are all wrong.  In fact, I did have choices, but all I wanted to do was to teach.  It’s hard to explain to those who associate teaching with low pay, long hours, high stress, immense pressure and classroom management headaches.

I read a brilliant piece by student teacher Stephanie Vincent, entitled ‘Why I Really Shouldn’t Be a Teacher‘. She lists 3 reasons why she shouldn’t go down the path she is going – the workload, lack of recognition and the challenges stemming from difficult parents.

Yet, with all those detracting factors, she is very happy with her choice:

By becoming a teacher I will be lucky enough to spend every day doing something that I’m passionate about. From the first day of my teaching practicum I felt as though I had entered a sacred world, and I can confidently say that I want to spend my future there. Quite simply, I love teaching and children.

Luckily, I don’t seek recognition or a prestigious job. I want a job that excites me. Every day students remind teachers why they teach. This was made clear to me throughout my practicum experience. When I was able to connect with students or when I saw students’ eyes light up when they finally understood a difficult concept, I felt deeply rewarded. Students are why teachers teach.

But what about those difficult parents I mentioned? Although I have not yet had to deal with upset parents, I did deal with an upsetting experience. I worked with one student in particular in a one-on-one setting, and we developed a close bond. During my practicum her entire life was essentially flipped upside down, and she reached out to me. It was devastating to know what she was going through. I was helpless and questioned my ability to deal with it. I discussed my fears with my teaching associate, and as always, she was amazing. She reminded me that, as a teacher, I could help this student. Teachers are in a unique position in that they can provide every child in their class with a positive environment, for at least part of their day, and show them that someone cares.

Suddenly those three reasons I talked about above for not becoming a teacher seem far away. I cannot think of anything that I would rather do. I want to learn how to teach so that I can spend every day with students and so that we can learn from each other. Each and every student brims with energy and unrealized possibility. I want to help them release that energy and realize their potential. In the end, teaching is the most rewarding and enjoyable job anyone can do.

This was just a pleasure to read.  There is so much negativity surrounding this great profession, it is a joy to read from a passionate and driven teacher.  I wish Stephanie all the best during her training and beyond.  She presents as the type of teacher you’d want looking after your child.  She reminds disillusioned teachers that if they don’t feel the same way as she does, they should perhaps consider a change of career.

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Posted in Inspirational Teachers, Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare, Teachers Salary, Teachers Stress | 2 Comments »

Making a Difference

September 6, 2011

I just read a brilliant piece by Charles M. Blow from the New York Times.  Blow was driven to write the article because “he wanted to celebrate a group that is often maligned: teachers.”

What touched me so much about his piece was his account of Mrs. Thomas, a teacher who he described as changing the direction of his life.

The first teacher to clear those hurdles in my life was Mrs. Thomas.

From the first through third grades, I went to school in a neighboring town because it was the school where my mother got her first teaching job. I was not a great student. I was slipping in and out of depression from a tumultuous family life that included the recent divorce of my parents. I began to grow invisible. My teachers didn’t seem to see me nor I them. (To this day, I can’t remember any of their names.)

My work began to suffer so much that I was temporarily placed in the “slow” class. No one even talked to me about it. They just sent a note. I didn’t believe that I was slow, but I began to live down to their expectations.

When I entered the fourth grade, my mother got a teaching job in our hometown and I came back to my hometown school. I was placed in Mrs. Thomas’s class.

There I was, a little nothing of a boy, lost and slumped, flickering in and out of being.

She was a pint-sized firecracker of a woman, with short curly hair, big round glasses set wider than her face, and a thin slit of a mouth that she kept well-lined with red lipstick.

On the first day of class, she gave us a math quiz. Maybe it was the nervousness of being the “new kid,” but I quickly jotted down the answers and turned in the test — first.

“Whoa! That was quick. Blow, we’re going to call you Speedy Gonzales.” She said it with a broad approving smile, and the kind of eyes that warmed you on the inside.

She put her arm around me and pulled me close while she graded my paper with the other hand. I got a couple wrong, but most of them right.

I couldn’t remember a teacher ever smiling with approval, or putting their hand around me, or praising my performance in any way.

It was the first time that I felt a teacher cared about me, saw me or believed in me. It lit a fire in me. I never got a bad grade again. I figured that Mrs. Thomas would always be able to see me if I always shined. I always wanted to make her as proud of me as she seemed to be that day. And, she always was.

In high school, the district sent a man to test our I.Q.’s. Turns out that not only was I not slow, but mine and another boy’s I.Q. were high enough that they created a gifted-and-talented class just for the two of us with our own teacher who came to our school once a week. I went on to graduate as the valedictorian of my class.

And all of that was because of Mrs. Thomas, the firecracker of a teacher who first saw me and smiled with the smile that warmed me on the inside.

So to all of the Mrs. Thomases out there, all the teachers struggling to reach lost children like I was once, I just want to say thank you. You deserve our admiration, not our contempt.

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California Superintendant Declines Salary

August 30, 2011

Fresno School Superintendent Larry Powell is a reminder of what education should be about – selflessness and dedication.

I recall a survey conducted back in the US in 1998/99 that found that teachers spent an average of $448 of their own money on instructional materials and school supplies:

The survey conducted last summer by the National School Supply and Equipment Association — a trade group representing the school supply industry — found that teachers pay for 77 percent of the school supplies needed in their classrooms. The rest comes from the school, parent-teacher groups and other school funds.

Teacher expenditure would be even higher nowadays.  But when it comes to selflessness nothing can top the outstanding act of generosity and conviction by Larry Powell:

Fresno School Superintendent Larry Powell has agreed to give up $800,000 in salary that he would have earned over three years. Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for less than what a starting California teacher earns.

“How much do we need to keep accumulating?” asks Powell, 63. “There’s no reason for me to keep stockpiling money.”

Powell’s generosity is more than just a gesture in a region with some of the nation’s highest rates of unemployment. As he prepares for retirement, he wants to ensure that his pet projects survive California budget cuts. And the man who started his career as a high school civics teacher, who has made anti-bullying his mission, hopes that his act of generosity will help restore faith in the government he once taught students to respect.

“A part of me has chafed at what they did in Bell,” Powell said, recalling the corrupt Southern California city officials who secretly boosted their salaries by hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It’s hard to believe that someone in the public trust would do that to the public. My wife and I asked ourselves, ‘What can we do that might restore confidence in government?’ “

Powell’s answer? Ask his board to allow him to return $288,241 in salary and benefits for the next 3 1/2 years of his term. He technically retired, then agreed to be hired back to work for $31,000 a year — $10,000 less than a first-year teacher — and with no benefits.

The media is riddled with terrible stories of teachers abusing their position and acting without integrity, it is so good to see a more positive story doing the rounds.

Thank you Mr. Powell for putting your convictions before your purse and your students before anything else.

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Kindergarten Teacher Calms Students During Shootout

June 1, 2011

Experienced teachers always say, “expect the unexpected”, but who could ever expect to be teaching while there is a shootout outside the classroom.  Mexican kindergarten teacher Martha Rivera Alanis, shows us what a fabulous teacher can achieve in the worst of circumstances.  As a shootout takes place outside her window she calmly reassures her young students before engaging them in a sing-a-long.

In the video, the frightened but determined voice of a schoolteacher is heard as she attempts to maintain calm among a group of kindergartners lying on the floor before her, asking them to join her in a singalong as gunfire shatters the air outside.

The teacher refers to the children as “my love,” “precious” and “little ones” during the stirring clip filmed last week in the city of Monterrey, in northern Mexico. It’s gone viral, igniting once more a public debate over the government’s campaign against drug gangs and earning accolades for maestra Martha Rivera Alanis, reports the Associated Press.

The Nuevo Leon state government honored Rivera for “outstanding civic courage” in a ceremony today.

The 33-year-old mother of two said she was frightened, but that her “only thought was to take their minds off that noise.” The song she chose during the ordeal is a Spanish-language version of a tune popularized by the children’s TV program “Barney and Friends,” and makes reference to chocolate droplets falling from the sky.

Rivera filmed the video during a gunfight Friday in which five people were killed at a taxi stand in La Estanzuela, a district in south Monterrey. According to a local news site, Regioblogs, the teacher posted the video to her Facebook account and then was asked permission to have it reproduced on YouTube and linked to the site. So far the original clip has garnered more than 714,000 views.

“We do drills constantly, because the area where we are is a high-risk zone,” Rivera said, according to reports. The children, she added, “behaved in the way we had practiced.”

I hope to never be in the situation Martha Rivera Alanis was in, but should I ever find myself in a delicate or dangerous predicament I can now draw on the example of this fine, selfless, courageous and dedicated teacher.  What a wonderful role we can play in our students’ lives.  What a positive and calming influence we can have on them.

Thank you Martha Rivera Alanis for showing us how it’s done!

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Brilliant Clip of a Head Teacher Dancing

May 13, 2011

One of the great education clips of the year!  It showcases the best in what this wonderful profession can offer:

Teachers at Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Scotland shocked pupils by breaking into an impromptu dance routine in the school canteen.

Led by the rector Phil Black, the event was watched by 600 people.

Senior pupils were about to go on exam leave and the teaching staff wanted to give them something to smile about before the hard work began.“They asked if the grumpy old head teacher would lead the way so I was delighted,” Black said.

The routine, which featured The Village People’s YMCA and Michael Jackson’s Thriller had to be rehearsed in secret but according to organiser and student Chloe Simpson, it was time well spent.

“It was crazy,” Simpson said. “The whole school knew something was going to happen but didn’t know what.

“When Mr Black just started dancing, it was amazing … just absolutely incredible.”

Other students said they never expected it get such a reaction overseas – thousands around the world have watched it via the internet – and the BBC coming to the school to interview them.

If only the staff in my school could have done something like that when I was a student.  It certainly beats detention!

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In Honour of Teacher Appreciation Week

May 6, 2011

To commemorate Teacher Appreciation Week, Tamara Duncan and the editors of Patch wrote a wonderful piece about the “teachers whose influence left an indelible mark on our lives.”

Stern voice, a warm heart

“One very influential teacher in my life was one of my high school and junior high English teachers. Gerri Clifton. She is now an instructional coach at Hazelwood West High School. She was a teacher when I attended the school. Being a person of color, at that time it was her and one other teacher of color at the school and she really bonded with all of her students.

“Mrs. Clifton was like a second mom at school. She made sure you were on your schoolwork. If there were a scholarship or some type of program she felt would benefit you, she would stay on you to apply. She also sponsored an after-school club, Cultural Awareness. It’s always important to have a person you feel can mentor you and in high school, Mrs. Clifton was that person for me. I see her now and she talks to me like I’m that same 15-year-old in class. Believe me, she wasn’t afraid to tell you to sit your behind down, pay attention and do your work!” Candace Jarrett, editor, Hazelwood Patch 

Empowerment through music

“Mr. Doug Carmichael introduced me and dozens of other students to the magnificence, versatility and depth of jazz. He did so by example. Mr. Carmichael made the music cool. He played a killer saxophone. He played along with the ensembles at Niwot High School in Colorado, demonstrating techniques and showing us how to pull off a solo. He pushed us to be our best, and he made us laugh. 

“Outside of the classroom, Mr. Carmichael took time out of his schedule to help students such as myself get better at our craft. He played alongside us, walked us through musical exercises and reviewed hapless efforts to transcribe music onto paper after hearing it performed on CD by the likes of Dexter Gordon. He invited us to jam with him and his trio at local cafes and restaurants. Some might say the birth of the cool happened decades ago. For myself and many other students, it happened when Mr. Carmichael empowered us to become performers in our own right.” -Nate Birt, editor, Clayton-Richmond Heights Patch

Lost in a sea of English

Ms. Pena, my first grade teacher in Houston, Texas, was a phenomenal person. I had recently moved to the states from South America and knew only three English words: watermelon, napkin and handkerchief. At that time there were no special classes for Spanish speakers and I was lost in a sea of English. Ms Pena was a ray of light in a confusing world. She made me feel welcomed, accepted and bright. She worked with me to learn English and clearly all her hard work paid off since years later, I’m a journalist.

I also tip my hat to Ms. Lewis, who taught history/social studies at Miami Palmetto High School. She made history fun and accessible and she was a wonderful, caring human being. She also registered me to vote and instilled a lifelong curiosity about politics. Oh, and can’t forget my son’s teachers at University City Children’s Center who help me co-parent him everyday, and are so very patient with him. Thank you teachers. You are heroes! 
-Myra Lopez, editor, University City Patch

Sharing her time, her home, her dog

I had an art teacher who lived next door to me in North St. Louis as a child. I felt lucky because she had time to spend with me when her second husband died and she had no children. But she did have a sweet little dachshund dog who I adopted as my own, since my mom wouldn’t let us have a dog. Mrs. Harnett didn’t teach in my school district or school—Twillman Elementary, so she wasn’t grading me, and that was even better. I was pretty shy.

We did all kinds of art on her patio under an oldstyle metal awning, sitting on a glider, with her little dog at our feet. It was hot Missouri summers, but cool under that awning. We drank ice water all summer while we did art. There were all kinds of art supplies in her kitchen, not much food. She also taught me to knit and crochet on rainy days, for some reason. I was game for all of it.

I drew a picture of her dachshund with passion, and later won a prize.

I grew up and moved away, but returned once to show her my design portfolio after college. She was very elderly then, and perhaps didn’t quite see how she had changed my life as she looked at my ‘snazzy’ magazine design and posters for off-off (OFF) Broadway plays. I won’t forget how she leaned over my right shoulder, showing me how to use that trove of art supplies, and waking up the right side of my brain.
-Jean Whitney, editor, Sunset Hills-Crestwood Patch

A pat on the back and a solid foundation

Without Roger Carlson, my late college journalism professor, I wouldn’t be where I am today. His experience and enthusiasm about the field is what sparked my interest in journalism, and he helped me build a solid foundation and a skill set that I still use today.

Coming from the “old school” days of journalism, he was never afraid to “tell you like it was,” but at the same time, was always quick with a pat on the back for a job well done. He shared in our triumphs and tribulations and his door was always open, even after we graduated.

He also served as advisor on the student newspaper and with his guidance, we were able to take The Forum to one of the top student newspapers in the state. Plus, he made learning fun by taking us to student newspaper conventions in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., not to mention the numerous parties he hosted for The Forum.

He created a real “team” environment, from which many friendships were born and memories made. Many of us still keep in touch today – 20 years later – and still reminisce about our time together. That just underscores the fact that while he may be gone, he lives on in each and every one of us, and I know he’s looking down from heaven and smiling on us. 
- Sheri Gassaway, associate editor, St. Louis Patch

Challenged and busy

I was lucky, even in the very rural area of Illinois where I grew up, to have some truly remarkable teachers. There were no enrichment classes in my school, but my teachers kept me challenged and busy. Mrs. Clay let my best friend and I perform puppet plays for the class; Mrs. Allen encouraged me to create a fifth grade newspaper; Mrs. Green asked for my latest comic strip creations; Mrs. Farney entered my writing in a contest; in high school, Mr. Allen introduced me to the wonders of Shakespeare and then convinced me that majoring in drama might not be the best strategic career move (he was right!). They created an environment where I always wanted to give 100 percent—and love every minute of it.
-Tamara Duncan, editor, Lake Saint Louis Patch.

Who was your favourite teacher and why?

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Inspiring Words For All Teachers

April 24, 2011

I came across this brilliant article by Priscilla Wilson, a retired school teacher and educator.  In her wonderful piece, she calls on new teachers to put children first, and to look past bureaucratic stumbling blocks and instead, fight for the child.  It is so refreshing to come across a teacher that puts this critical message in such eloquent terms.

Teachers from all around the globe would be well advised to read this:

This week is somewhat of a milestone for me.

Forty years ago this week I started my first teaching job. In reflecting on what a great time that was for me, I am saddened as to how much things have changed. It was an exciting time when people who felt that they wanted to teach could easily do so.

It was actually a very care-free and nurturing time which I must say we simply took for granted. It only made sense that if you had studied to be a teacher, you would have the opportunity to do so. The big discussion was not if you could get a job but simply where you thought you wanted to live and work! People were excited to do both and there was a great buzz about the profession and about getting to it!

April may seem like a strange time to begin teaching but I simply finished my university year one week and went to work the following week. I was in Fredericton and there was a separate Special Education school. I had the pleasure of volunteering there during my time at Teachers College and St. Thomas University and knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do. Following this opportunity, I was fortunate to be able to work in a segregated Special Education school for 10 years prior to Integration in the early 1980s. It was indeed an exceptional time that was especially meaningful, productive and memorable, a time of my life filled with fond memories that I will have forever.

With the introduction of Integration, many of us who had taught in the separate Special Education system became resource teachers. In addition to working as a resource teacher I was fortunate to teach most grades from 1 to 9.

I know now that I was always drawn to the child who was struggling, for whatever reason. I was very drawn to this particular student and was always intrigued as to what I could do that would be different; teach it again or another way. What was it going to take in order for the student/students to be successful?

I consider myself so fortunate because teaching has been such a positive career choice for me. What about those who are ready now to dedicate their time and energies to teaching? Why does employment have to be such a struggle for them? Why, too, are so many who are teaching so dissatisfied with their career? What changes could be made to the system to make things better for everyone?

What is more important than our young people; both our students and our young teachers? At a time when so many so-called topics of importance are being discussed, why aren’t we hearing more about the importance of an education? Why aren’t we talking more about how to make it better?

Many children are unhappy with their school experience which is extremely sad and quite unbelievable! Parents are dissatisfied and teachers can only dream of better teaching experiences, and thousands of enthusiastic young teachers feel they may never teach. How can things be so desperate in what should be such a progressive time?

In addition, the needs of so many children are not being met because the system is not set up to handle them. Amazing young people are losing out every day and we get to help them and, in fact, turn their lives around because at Wilson Reading Centre we’ve created a learning environment that is working for them.

Getting back to my 40-year anniversary, I think that it’s interesting that I have the energy and stamina that I’ve always have. Well, it seems that way to me. No doubt, I have slowed down somewhat but I’m having too much fun to notice. There’s nothing extra special about me, except that I truly love what I am doing. That in itself is a gift and one that I wish for the many young people trying to fulfill their dream of being a teacher. Just think of what they could accomplish!

I feel strongly that as a society we should be fighting back. Our students need so much more and our young people need work.

I personally know very capable young people who have left the area in order to teach. Can you imagine the time, effort and expenses that they have endured in order to achieve the necessary qualifications, only to be unemployed? If this isn’t enough, they are then forced to move away in order to find work.

I know that this isn’t just happening within education but my soap-box is education. A good education can have the most meaningful effect on the lives of our young people and we are letting them down.

We always say how important our children are to us as parents and as a society. Parents do their best to provide for their children but they aren’t the ones assigned the task of teaching their children to read.

Being a successful reader carries over into every aspect of life. Without it, the child feels helpless, defenceless, frustrated, discouraged but most importantly defeated and unsuccessful.

So my challenge to the education system is to look at each individual and ask what we as a society could be doing differently.

Perhaps the key to my happiness as a teacher was the fact that I was drawn to the child who was struggling and set about to make a difference. It seems like a reasonable solution to a successful career because it would mean the difference between doing the best job possible and one that produced mediocrity.

Teachers feel overwhelmed because too many children are coming to them with too many struggles. One solution would be to address some of these struggles before they become insurmountable.

I am not talking about a hypothetical situation. I am, in fact, talking about one that I decided to tackle as an individual. I did so by creating a learn-to-read program that I felt would make a difference. Then I set about to prove that it would work.

Having accomplished this has allowed me the opportunity to prove my philosophy on many levels. One is that by simply taking a different approach to learning to read, people who have struggled, sometimes for years, can be successful. Another is the proof of the overwhelming power that learning to read plays in each individual’s life.

Finally, the clincher, which I think is the fact that being able to give back is the key to a successful career whatever you do. So, as this week represents forty years of tons of fun and loads of opportunities to give back, my plea is that we try harder as a society and look for ways to help more children be more successful, for certain more successful and more confident as readers and therefore, as individuals!


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Inspiring Teacher Who Taught Herself To Read

April 3, 2011

Below is an excerpt of an article about the inspiring teacher, Patty Gillespie, who was given passage through school without ever knowing how to read or write.  The article chronicles her struggle from an illiterate youth to her prominence as a brilliant teacher and devotee of helping instill a love of reading in kids:

Teaching comes naturally to Gillespie, a small woman who wears dresses to school, smiles a lot and waves her hands when she talks.

So does giving. Gillespie, whose favorite book is Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” gives away hundreds of donated books at school each year.

Being a student wasn’t as easy.

Gillespie, who grew up in Massachusetts, loved to play “school” before she was old enough to go. By first grade, she couldn’t keep up with her classmates in reading lessons. It would be years before learning disabilities were diagnosed.

“You could show me pictures of apples and say the short ‘a,’ and I heard ‘uh,’ ” she said. “To just hear the isolated sounds didn’t work.”

Help was hard to come by in an era when special education was for severely disabled children. Private tutors used the same phonics lessons that teachers did, so they read Gillespie’s schoolbooks to her instead.

Gillespie, a popular student, carefully hid her problems from classmates. She raised her hand to answer questions only when everybody else did; when she was called on, she told teachers she’d forgotten what to say.

By high school, her English teachers asked the same question each year: How did you get here without knowing how to read or write?

“It may have been wrong, but I think teachers continued to pass me because I tried so hard,” she said.

Gillespie also made it into Westfield State College in 1971, despite low scores on the SAT college entrance exam.

Gillespie’s parents knew she struggled. Still, for her they wanted the education they’d never had.

Her father, an insurance salesman, had turned down a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania so he could support his family. “I just said, ‘Hey, without the degree you won’t get very far in life,’ ” said Gillespie’s father, Bob Watson, 89.

Gillespie lived at home and drove to campus for classes. She was just as lost there as she had been in high school. This time, she found little sympathy from teachers.

The closer Gillespie got to academic probation – she says she was two-tenths of a point away her first semester – the more she wanted to walk away from her college education.

She changed her mind after a stern warning from her father: If that’s what you want to do, then quit. But remember you’ll always be a quitter.

“That really changed my life,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let him down.”

Gillespie started with vowels, using the pronunciation key of a dictionary and pictures instead of sounds.

For short “a,” she envisioned a black cat; an ape for long “a.”

She studied in her bedroom, between classes, up to eight hours a day for a year. In the beginning, it took two hours to get through three paragraphs of a textbook. Gillespie wouldn’t let herself turn the page until she understood what she’d read.

Not once did she want to quit.

“I knew I could do it,” she said. “That was the first time in my life.”

The full article is slightly longer.  I strongly recommend you read the full piece.  What a teacher!  What a story!

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The Heroic Life of a Selfless Teacher

March 4, 2011

If there is something one can get out of the absolutely tragic story of a teacher who drowns in trying to rescue his students, it is the selflessness of teachers, heroically displayed by maths and science teacher Paul Simpson.

A schoolteacher has drowned in an apparent attempt to save his students from a rip at the notorious Bells Beach.

The man, believed to be aged in his 30s, died yesterday while supervising a group of Year 11 and 12 students from Shelford Girls Grammar, in Melbourne’s east.

The girls, aged about 15 years, had been snorkelling at 4.30pm when wild surf and a rip tide turned conditions dangerous.

The group of 19 students and three adults had been walking in knee- to waist-deep water on a reef when a wave knocked them off their feet and into deeper water, Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said.

Police said it was believed the teacher had been trying to rescue the girls before he drowned.

Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him on the shore of the surf beach near Torquay, 105km southeast of Melbourne.

Several teenagers had to be rescued from the water. One received treatment for an asthma attack. Others had minor injuries.

The distressed students, who were in shock, had to be helped to make their way back up the beach to a car park to be taken back to their camp at Torquay.

The teacher is question works at a school within walking distance of my home.  His bravery and unflinching desperation to rescue his students shows us what sacrifices a brilliant teacher can make for the safety and security of his students.  I extend my condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and students.  May his brief but meaningful life inspire others to strive to make selfless decisions whilst looking out for others.

If you have some time I encourage you to read tributes written by his former students on a special Facebook page dedicated to the memory of this incredible person.

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