classroom notes #20: growing as a teacher

"You are a good student."

Recently I said this to a P.2 student who I kept behind during recess because he had been acting up in my class. I sat down as I talked to him so I could look into his eyes as I told him his worth.

"I KNOW you are very clever and smart. I KNOW you are good."

I said it emphatically because I know my student and I know his potential.

What I didn't know was the effect that this simple praise would have on him. His eyes started to well up and he smiled shyly as he used his sleeves to wipe away his tears, all the while standing tall. You read about touching teaching moments in books like Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul or something, but as a teacher, lecturing day in and day out, repeating instructions for the infinite time, one tends to forget the power of words.

When I was in primary school, the district tried to implement a new programme to raise students' self-esteem and build up self-worth. Every morning we were suppose to look into the mirror and tell ourselves out loud, "You are good, you are great and everyday we try our best." But as children on the cusp of the teenage years, we mocked it as childish and in our pretend-adult kind of way, couldn't comprehend how these words could have an affect on us at all.

But what if there are children out there who have never had anyone tell them that they are good, they have worth, they are loved and that there is someone who believes in them?

When learning to be teachers, we are taught about positive reinforcement, how to give praise, how to reward good work, but perhaps we also need to be taught as teachers, to see in students (even the 'naughty' ones) that they are good.

classroom notes #19: me, a teacher?

Some days when I stand in front of my students doing my song and dance, there's a moment of detachment as if I'm watching myself from afar and a voice echoes incredulously in my head, "What? I'm a teacher?" I wait thinking this is all a daydream and I'm still back in my desk in a concrete school room listening to the teacher drone on and on about university and career choices. Maybe one day I'll wake up and find that I'm really an astronaut.

classroom notes #18: back to school

The day students dread but teachers dread more. One week down and so many more to go.

classroom notes #17: a note to my sixth-grade self

Dear sixth-grade self,

You know that boy you like, the one who lives down the street and who you played footsies with at school during reading lessons? Forget about him! Boys who look cute and know it are usually bad news. You may think you’re the biggest geek right now, with thick glasses, braces, bowl-cut hair and mismatched clothes, and your nose buried in books, but geek girls are awesome and it takes boys about 20 more years to discover that fact.

Don’t let the “cool” girls get you down just because you don’t have Guess jeans or Club Monaco tees. Trust me. Saturday morning cartoons are way cooler than 90210 or New Kids on the Block. Don’t get pushed on the playground. When your best friend ditches you for the new girl, hold your head up high, flip back your awesome bowl-cut hair, and talk to that other geek girl in the corner of the lunchroom.

In high school, peer pressure can be overwhelming. So what if you’re hanging out with the uncoolest kids in the school. They’re the fascinating ones, the ones with the most character, the ones who are not afraid to forge their own destinies with the brilliance of a million candles, unlike their 2-dimensional counterparts. Talking about Star Trek, Camus, and your rock collection; joining the physics club; writing an epic round-robin novel; going to lectures at UBC where you'll feel out of your element among the physics majors and their mumble jumbles of the tau particle, and where you'll meet Carol Shields; and attending all the Beckett plays in town will be infinitely more interesting than hanging out at the mall. Besides, you don't look good in mini skirts and baby tees.

When you turn 16, you’ll fall in love with a boy and you will be the one to break up with him even though you still love him. It won’t be happily ever after and you’ll have to learn how to let go, but please, please, please, don’t become one of those girls who cling like saran wrap. In fact, you should break-up with him sooner. There’s so much more to life than boys. Oh, and also stay away from boys who smoke since both the smokers you will date will turn out to be bad decisions (a lesson you will really learn the second time around). Go, explore, and fly for the distant horizon.

Walk your own path. Everyone may be going to uni, making grand career plans, and living the grown-up facade but enjoy this period of self-discovery rather than get hung up on everyone else’s lives. Live your own life even if it means graduating years behind all your peers. Go on those trips to Belize, Mongolia, and Kilimanjaro; go off the beaten path and discover the “invincible summer” within yourself. And remember,

Alcohol does not equal fun.
Saying ‘no’ doesn’t mean you’re a prude.
You will always be a geek so embrace it.
There is a hidden beauty in the early morn. Wake up for it.
There are many hidden corners in the world, go discover!
Dogs are really a girl’s best friend.
A woman’s intuition is always spot on.
Take your nose out of your book once in a while.
Take a chance and tell that tall golden boy you love him.
Take the road less traveled.

Until then, enjoy the long summer days because the next 20 years will go to plaid.

Love,
Your older, but not wiser self.

P.S. Don't panic. And remember to pack your towel.

classroom notes #16: reading as a hobby

There is nothing more gratifying as a teacher than to have a student beg for more books to read. More, more, more!

Unless the book the student wants most is still in hardcover.

But there is nothing I love more than a student who loves to read.

So I buckled and doled out the money for the hardcover.

And now we are arguing who gets to read it first, the student or the teacher.

classroom notes #15: living in another world

When I was in grade school, I was that girl in the corner of the library, classroom, or playground with her nose in a book. A total nerd. You know, the one with braces, thick glasses, mismatched clothes, and bowl-cut hairstyle complete with bangs that were too short. That was me. I was a book nerd... and proud of it. I preferred my books to real people. In books I could be carried away to fantastical places and kids' books really have some of the most imaginative, most magical places, and as well as the most I-would-give-anything-to-be-that-character feeling.

Places where children never have to grow up and fairies existed; where one can tesseract into Utopian planets and fly in the mists on strange mythical beings; where little people 'borrow' from big people, living in a miniature world; where a cupboard transforms your toys into living creatures; where hobbits, dwarves, elves, and my favourite Ents live; where imagination creates a kingdom in the woods; where you can have a tea parties and wonder about the raven; where animals talk; where everything is a dazzling emerald behind green spectacles; where an ordinary lake is seen as Lake of Shining Waters; where dinosaurs and people live together; where people have animal daemons; and so many more!* Not to mention all the mythical places such as Atlantis, Mount Olympus, Camelot, Avalon, Shangri-La, or even the Fortress of Solitude.

If I could choose one character to be, I would want to be Anne Shirley... or Nancy Drew but it's so difficult to choose just one book-world. I've always loved the universe Douglas Adams created with planets like Ursa Minor Beta, Magrathea, and Milliways. Although I think the unpredictable chaos would probably be too much in the long run. But the one place that I always wished existed whenever I read the books is the Forgotten Realms (think D&D, or Middle Earth for gaming geeks). The role-playing aspect has inspired some of the most entertaining novels from authors like R.A. Salvatore and Elaine Cunningham, and continues to be an imaginative haven for geeks everywhere.

Literacy is paramount in education. Experts recommend that 40% of the curriculum should be devoted to reading and teaching reading strategies. We have to teach our students to love reading, to see books as an escape from reality where anything is possible.

*List of the books/book places referred to: Neverland; A Wrinkle in Time; The Borrowers; The Indian in the Cupboard; Middle Earth; Bridge to Teribithia; Wonderland; Chronicles of Narnia (or Charlotte's Web); Wizard of Oz; Anne of Green Gables; Dinotopia; The Golden Compass.

classroom notes #14: life is a winding path

Taking the road less traveled, living life off the beaten path, taking risks and seizing the day!

Why don't schools teach students that making choices outside of the perceived societal norm is still normal? Maybe then we wouldn't have so many confused young adults who wake up in their mid-20s going through a mid-life crises.