I used to know a lot.
Actually, there was a time when I knew everything. I had graduated from high school. I knew that I was going to get a university education, a great job, a husband, a family and a home within 5 years. I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and that I would be working with Grade 7 and 8 kids who would be hanging on my every word and developing a love for language and math because of my inherited teaching skills (my mom was a great teacher!).
Fast forward 4 years and I had graduated from university. I didn't think it possible but I may have known more than I did when I had started. I had a degree in history, after all. Actually, I had 2 degrees. I spent a year at Teacher's College and had acquired everything I would need to know about kids and teaching. I was ready to take on the world of education.
Amazingly enough, I landed a job a month after I graduated .....Grade 7 and 8 students, no less. I was ready to dazzle them with my enthusiasm and polished and flawless lesson plans. Although I was only going to teach this class for three months, I knew that they would all display amazing skill and intelligence directly as a result of my teaching skills.
I'll never forget that first day. I was greeted by 36 intermediate students in a small portable classroom. After the bell rang, 2 of them climbed out the window. No one would stop talking long enough to listen to me. There wasn't a pen or a pencil in sight. These are the highlights. It got much worse before it got even a little bit better.
Those were the longest three months of my career, but probably the time when I learned the most. Can you believe that not all kids learn at the same speed? Did you know that just because a child is in Grade 7 doesn't mean that she is working at a Grade 7 level? Imagine that not every kid loves to read. I didn't know. What was I going to do? This was not in the plan.
The first few years in teaching usually mean bouncing around to different schools and teaching assignments. I met a lot of kids, parents and other teachers. It was not any different at any other school. There were kids in classrooms that struggled. They had excellent teachers who were well educated and well prepared. Still, the kids did not all succeed at the same speed.
When I came to Iroquois, I was an experienced teacher ( I had been teaching for 2 years!). I was assigned a Grade 2 class. I spent all summer getting ready. I planned a beautiful unit about apples. I photocopied, coloured and laminated through the month of August. I was going to lay everything before them in the first week (I would probably take the first day to get to know them). I would take the one or two who struggled aside and get them started on the right path.
Disaster struck again. Nowhere in the curriculum did it say that I would have to teach kids in Grade 2 HOW to read. I did not have a clue how to do this! I didn't even know where to start. Remember I'm older than the Internet, so I couldn't even "google it". There was no course in Teacher's College. I did the only thing I could. I went to the principal. He sent me to the Grade 1 teacher. She had been teaching grade 1 for almost 30 years. She smiled when I told her my dilemma. Actually, I'm sure, she laughed out loud when she was alone.
I really did think that I was prepared for teaching with a university degree. Many people make this mistake. I had no sense of the value of experience. Thanks to Mrs. Burrell, I learned how to teach kids how to read. She helped me learn that not all kids have the same skills and that they would not all learn at the same speed. She showed me how to assess kids on a daily basis to learn what they know and what they need to know next. She made me appreciate that learning to read is a complicated skill but the most important thing that a child can learn. She taught me to persevere with every child until they find a way to read. She encouraged me to find a way to take courses and attend conferences so that I could always be up to date on the current research. She stuck by me that year and she offered her expertise every time I asked.
The most important thing she taught me was that I had a lot to learn.
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