Update on Progress

I’ve been waiting to hear from UoA to see if there was a possibility that I could get into the University in the winter term. That’s not going to happen.

It’s not going to be a quick process

 I’ve been waiting to hear from UoA to see if there was a possibility that I could get into the University in the winter term. That’s not going to happen. I need to hear from Education Alberta and have written documentation of what is required in order for me to get certification. The I would be able to talk with the UoA and find out what my bridging course will entail. I did entertain the idea that perhaps I could just sign up as an open student and then complete some courses I think I need to do. But the fact I can’t complete a teaching practice until the fall makes that a little redundant and i may as well wait until I know for sure what is needed.

Interesting Development

Just before we moved we met with a long time friend of ours Pamela, whose boyfriend has just come back from three years teaching in Norman Wells, Northwestern Territories.   It sounds like a challenging place to teach just in terms of the environment – mid winter sees three hours of daylight and only June to September see temperatures above zero. But Erik loved it and said for the right people it was a special place to live and work.  Apparently after Christmas a lot of people don’t come back which means there are opportunities. So I have sent my resume off with a covering letter and we’ll see what happens. It would seem that this is my best chance of getting back into the classroom in 2014. 

 

Discipline – one of the keys to learning

I came across a great article by Mr Lock today describing the transformation that has been occurring at his school over the last year.(you can read it here) It got me thinking.

I came across a great article by Mr Lock today describing the transformation that has been occurring at his school over the last year.(You can read it here.) It got me thinking.

Discipline in my mind is such a draconian word with negative connotations. Corporal punishment (yep I remember that),  being made to do something you don’t want to. It’s something that happens to you. But self-discipline on the other hand, is central to a fulfilling life. I’m not sure why it took me so long to make this connection but this realization only happened in the last couple of years. When my nephew turned thirteen I wrote him a letter and one of the topics was self discipline. Simply put, “It’s the ability to make yourself do things that need to be done and not be distracted by things you’d rather be doing.”  Of course this is one of my main challenges in life, sometimes called the squirrel syndrome, but now I am aware of my short comings I am working hard at improving it. 

I digress. The piece by Lock is an open an honest critique of how they have turned behaviour around at their school. Some of the comments were pretty accusatory with reference to how the turnaround had been achieved. With specific reference to the exclusion policy and in particular permanent exclusion. But here’s the thing. If there is no discipline in school there will be little effective learning. As educators we are tasked with directing the learning of all our students. I have worked in schools where one or two students have been so disruptive that the classroom stopped being a place of education simply because they were unwilling to participate and would go out of their way to make learning difficult if not impossible for everyone else. Now granted these situations can be turned around and I have been part of that process as well but when all options have been explored and there is no change then permanent exclusion must be an option. As Spock so eloquently put it.

“The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few.”

Everyone deserves the very best education we can deliver but they need to be willing to participate and if they won’t then the ultimate sanction must be available. I’ve seen first hand where it is not and it doesn’t work, not for the students and not for the staff. So bravo Mr Lock, it’s great to hear that there are people out there with convictions that lead to positive change. 

 

So why return to teaching?

Who was it said there is a time and place for everything? I am now not a young man, nor old, I would hope, but somewhere in the middle. I have led a life fully and done a lot of great things, and some not so great, of course. But out of all that living I have come to a point where I am ready to give something back.  

Who was it said there is a time and place for everything? I am now not a young man, nor old, I would hope, but somewhere in the middle. I have led a life fully and done a lot of great things, and some not so great, of course. But out of all that living I have come to a point where I am ready to give something back.  

Isis Photography, which is where we made our living for the last seven years was great but running your own business is a bit of a selfish affair. It’s about making as much money as possible, which in our case turned out to never be quite enough for anything but the basic necessities.  I should point out that was still pretty impressive and while that was fine for my wife and I – we loved being photographers, it isn’t so fine for a little guy who wants swimming lessons, gymnastics and activities beyond TV. 

I also want to be able to spend time with him and doing that as a family wouldn’t be possible as photographers. A wedding and portrait business keeps you busy at weekends and  the during the summer.  My father missed me growing up. He was in the military and away for a large part of my early childhood. I was then away for the rest of it growing up at boarding school. I don’t want to miss my little guy growing up. 

Of course I wouldn’t  be entirely truthful after several years of not knowing where the next pay check was coming from if the idea of a regular wage didn’t appeal. It does, a lot. 

I’m also looking forward to being part of a community again. There’s something about a school and the ebb and flow of a school year, like that of the passing of the seasons, it  feels right.  

Lastly but by no means least there’s the challenge of teaching. I’m going to write more on this soon. But suffice it to say here it’s a unique challenge.  Managing and directing the learning of a classroom of children is as exciting as it is daunting. Not for the faint of heart and not for the uninitiated. (Though that, the uninitiated bit, seems to be a little old fashioned in some circles these days, especially in the UK and their Free schools – but I digress.)  Which is one of the reasons I don’t mind in the least that there will be a teaching practice in my near (hopefully) future. 

 

Why I left teaching

Looking back, as with most things when you look back far enough, you start to second guess yourself. But I remember very clearly the main reason I left teaching and went searching for something different. 

 Looking back, as with most things when you look back far enough, you start to second guess yourself. But I remember very clearly the main reason I left teaching and went searching for something different. 

Shortly after my 26th birthday I woke up one morning and thought I could see my future. At that time, teaching at The British School in Manila, I loved what I was doing. But the thought of doing the same thing for the next 39 years filled me with a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t shake. I wasn’t ready to dedicate my life to anyone thing at 26. A sure sign the 26 year old was going on 16 – but still I  felt the need to do something else for a while. I didn’t want to be one of those teachers for whom retirement can’t come quickly enough. 

If you read my bio you would quickly understand I was one of those young adults who had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives. If you read my P.E. thesis you would also see that I wasn’t what you would call studious, thoughtful or particularly eloquent. But I have always been brave, I think, or foolish depending on your point of view. And occasionally I’ve also had moments of clarity (not often granted) and  knowing I was not equipped for the next 39 years in a classroom I left. 

What I did for the next 15 years or so isn’t important (photography) but the result of that time away from the classroom gave me insights in to who I am and what I want from life. It is odd to think I am now more thoughtful, studious and ahem, eloquent than I ever was. And it is also more than a little odd that given all this introspection over the last few years the conclusion I have come to is I want to be a teacher once again. 

My history teacher, a marvellous man called Warwick Brookes, once told us that history was like a wheel. It would seem he was, as with so many things, right again as I find myself returning towards a life as an educator.  

 

 

Waiting

I have never been very good at waiting. This trait, made worse by the instant gratification we are becoming used to in modern society has made the last four and half months seem endless. On the surface nothing has changed – I still am waiting for official notification of how I can take my quest forward. Of course on reflection, that’s not true. When I think on it a great deal has been achieved.

  

I have never been very good at waiting. This trait, made worse by the instant gratification we are becoming used to in modern society has made the last four and half months seem endless. On the surface nothing has changed – I still am waiting for official notification of how I can take my quest forward. Of course on reflection, that’s not true. When I think on it a great deal has been achieved. In the four months since communications were opened with the good people at the Professional Standards I have seen my transcripts for the first time – and had them delivered to Alberta along with course syllabuses, Statement of Professional Standing  and various other documents  as required. I am guessing that not very long ago this that took four months would have taken a year. So really I should be happy and I am but… 

Several phone call conversations with very patient people at the professional standards department means that I know, I think, what will be required. There will be some course work as well as a teaching practice in my future, which I am hoping will be done with the aid of The University of Alberta’s Education Department. Now being the proactive soul I am, I have been in touch with The UoA and know that I will need to enroll as a special student.  What I also know is that they don’t usually take on special students, unless they studied at UoA before, halfway though the year. Of course, I did not. So I was hoping at this point to be able to say to the University here’s what’s needed, can you tell me how I will be able to do it?  But they can’t until I have an official letter from the Professional Standards laying out what exactly is needed. It looks also like it won’t be here until the beginning of December which makes the likely hood of me getting up and running by January doubtful. 

So here I am trying to manage my expectations so that if it doesn’t happen the way I was hoping I am not too disappointed. The lady I was emailing with at the UoA said they would do everything possible to help me and that does make me feel better but time is my enemy here.  Fingers crossed then, that this next step doesn’t take more than the sixty business days they said it would take as a minimum. If it does then a September start is likely and that complicates things. A lot. 

 

A New Beginning

New beginnings are wonderful things. Though to be honest this is only partly a new beginning for me as teaching was a passion when I first graduated in 1991. But the location will be a new beginning for sure. Out of Ontario and into Alberta. So quite a move. 

New beginnings are wonderful things. Though to be honest this is only partly a new beginning for me as teaching was a passion when I first graduated in 1991. But the location will be a new beginning for sure. Out of Ontario and into Alberta. So quite a move.  My amazing wife is writing a blog about our move North. Whether that turns out to be quite as North as we think remains to be seen but still we’re moving, first West and then quite probably North.  You can read her blog here.  I wanted to write a blog about my personal journey back into education and the classroom. Sharing what I find along the way with educators and parents.

When I think back to my teaching days there is no doubt that I fell into teaching. Through some remarkable twist of fate I ended up in the fall of 1987 at St Katherine’s College then part of the Liverpool Institute of Higher education. Now it’s all grown up and is a fully fledged University in it’s own right (Hope University) but even then it was one of the top teacher training colleges in the country.   How I ended up in the B.Ed program remains a bit of a mystery to me when I think back now. But my tutor that first year, a lady called Sue who must have been a little older than I am now was a revelation.  Her enthusiasm for education was contagious and so by the end of my first year I was hooked. It was a shame that you didn’t keep the same tutor for the whole four years but then I suppose they had to share the bad tutors around.  Still at the end of it I somehow passed, with honours, just, and got my B.Ed.  Having to get certified in Alberta has meant diving into all my qualifications, transcripts and looking at the student I was 22 years ago. If only I could travel back in time and give that guy a shake… quite something to look back and discover you were a bone idle lay about who was more interested in extra curricular activities that studying. I was so busy producing / acting / directing musicals, playing field hockey, working at the college bar, taking part in the OTC (Officer Training Corps), discovering my public school education hadn’t really equipped me for the real world, socializing, playing dungeons and dragons that it’s amazing I managed to fit in any studying at all. When I came across my final year P.E. Dissertation it really was no wonder that reading it I felt more than a little embarrassed that this was the culmination of  four years of studying. 

Now it looks like I will be headed back to University for a little while anyway. Having talked with various people at The Albertan Professional Standards department I will in all probability have to complete some course work as well as a teaching practice. To be honest I welcome it. The idea of walking into a classroom unprepared isn’t something that I ever did in the past and not something I wish to embrace in the future. So ten weeks or so of supervised teaching will be time well spent getting back up to speed with both children and curriculum.      

Thinking back to when I was first in college we were always making fun, in a nice way I hope, of the mature students.  They were always so keen! It is ironic that I will now be one of them.  How they must have laughed at us, the kids just out of school running around like headless chickens. As it turns out maturity does have it’s benefits and I will be making full use of them this time around.