FALL COLORS

       There have been a number of excellent photos on leaves recently. It's very appropriate because of the fall season.

        These photos reminded me of some school activities about 75 years ago.

        I had an excellent teacher for grades 3,4 and 5. She was far ahead of her time when it came to excellent learning projects. One of them was on leaves. 

       The whole class of 17 from gr one to nine would spend an hour or two wondering around off the schoolyard collecting leaves for a project. So in this little field trip we observed many different plants. She didn't know the names but we observed plants. 

      I think my technique for this has weakened but I hope you can see the outline of a leaf. 

      When we got back to the classroom we chose leaves to make a tracing with our pencils. Of course, we had to arrange the leaves in an interesting manner. Then she displayed our works. We did not have a bulletin board and I don't think scotch tape had been invented yet. Thumb tacks were used to attach our work to the wall. 

      So my teacher evaluation hat says that she could teach many things with just one item. Every moment to her was a teachable moment. 

ONE PART OF DAD

       My daughter and I sometimes talk about family and what  happened when she was growing up. She likes the thought that she was a free range kid. 

       These discussions got me thinking about what kind of Dad I was. 

       I was a teacher. I was surprised that I was away from home so much. 

      I was involved with the teacher's association at the local , district and provincial level . Of course, these were not all at the same time. They all involved meetings...many meetings. The district and provincial activities involved travel. I found this activity interesting and rewarding. 

    I was a member of a professional group and also on the executive for a few years. Again , lots of travel...Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Edmonton. 

    I attended the Annual Teachers Representative Assembly (ARTA) for many years. This allowed me to take my family with me until they reached the teenage years when they didn't want to go. This was a five day event. 

   Regular teaching duties took many evenings. Parent teacher interviews took a long time . I also worked a few bingos for the school and supervised dances. I liked supervising dances as the kids had a lot of fun. . 

   I didn't realize I did so many field trips. I taught some outdoor ed. so the kids were taken on field trips for hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and winter camping. We usually went to the national parks like Banff or Jasper and stayed in hostels. These were at least over night .

   I also took kids on a day trip to the Calgary Herald to see how a newspaper was put together. This went along with my news paper unit. We also wanted kids to see professional theatre so each year we took the gr eights to Edmonton or Calgary to see a play.

    

                                  Did I also tell you that I was a department head?

    Then there were always those interesting workshops that just happened to be out of town. There were speakers you just had to hear. There was money to send me to these activities. More than usual as some teachers didn't bother going to professional development activities. 

    All these activities were time consuming and stressful. I didn't realize I spent so much time away from home participating in educational activities. I enjoyed it and sometimes think I was away form home too much. 

A LITTLE CONFESSION

      I have been writing about some of the adventuresome things I've done in my life. I've had comments like "You lived and interesting life." In my last post I'm crawling, walking up Windy Point Ridge . At least that's what we called it.

     Young men usually have a short period in their life when they think they are invincible and do some crazy things. I had that invincible period in my life but it lasted longer than most.  Once I passed through the invincible stage of my life I still had some fun like backpacking and crawling around the Rocky Mountains. 

    However, I was involved in may other activities even though they were much calmer. 

   I was very active in many aspects of teaching. I went to every professional development activity I could. So I attended many conferences and  workshops. I was also on the executive of the English Language Arts conference. This meant some travelling during the year. I was involved with Alberta Teachers Association. 

    Now all these activities may have been very interesting to me but I can't make interesting blog posts from them. 

   In my 40's life could have been become much more adventurous as one on the ATA presidents did not like flying into the north. I was asked to consider taking her place for the northern activities she would be involved in. I turned it down. It meant being away from home and an extra workload preparing for substitute teachers. I've often regretted not taking that position.

    So as hard as I may try, I don't think I could make a conference interesting. 

   The biggest conference I attended was the  conference in Washington D.C. in 1992. It was in the hotel where Reagan was shot. The venue was huge so this little prairie boy's eyes were wide open. I was also given a couple of extra days to be a tourist. When I got home I had to give a report to all my  colleagues and share all the goodies I had picked up.

    So that's all you're going to get on my professional development activities. 

AN EPIPHANY

     I was a t...Yes you know this familiar start to  post of mine.

      I took a one year teacher training program in 1957-58. The training was very basic. There was also a six week practicum in the program. We took many courses but they were brief. Everybody got the same course: primary methods, reading, art, music, phys.ed. administration, classroom organization... Discipline was emphasized. Did I say discipline was emphasized? Yes , I did. 

      These were the days when discipline was strict. Classroom control was everything. Anything fast and dirty was used to get these goals. School trustees were only concerned about discipline...good behavior. They didn't seem to get learning strategies and achievement. Terrible things were d

one: strap, cane, shaking, shoving, slapping, pulling hair...awful things.

     Since I got half my education in the 40's, I was exposed to the discipline regime.

     I got the strap  but I well remember one and why I got it. This is the classroom and the teacher. when I look back at things this lady was an excellent teacher. I'm the innocent little fellow in the middle line from the teacher.

     In the one room schools the teacher went to his/her house to eat lunch and the students ate their lunch in the classroom without supervision. This worked fine 99.9% of the time. Somehow or other WWWX broke out one noon hour. For some reason or other we started throwing chalk brushes. The fight became intense and was it ever fun until the teacher walked in. Some of us were so intent in the activity that we didn't see the teacher. I was one of them.

     The teacher was very angry and we were sent to the cloakroom and soon she came in with the strap and we caught it. I was angry. We were having fun. Most of all , some of the people who were quick enough to see the teacher didn't get strapped. Did I stop doing stupid things? Well no. I still haven't stopped doing dumb things. 

    So I started my teaching career and the first part of it I emphasized good behavior. Many rants and raves occurred. One student even got the strap.

    Over the years and about mid career I gradually changed. I could see that ranting and raving sometimes caused more harm than good and in most cases didn't help the situation.

     I deliberately went low key. The adrenaline level was lowered. Problems that could have happened sometimes didn't happen. I rarely yelled. If I did yell, I sometimes heard, "He never yells.We better be good!" I used eye contact, hand motions ...low key stuff. Sometimes sterner methods were necessary. 

    So about mid career, I had learned some different strategies and how to apply them. We were given many professional in services. These strategies lowered stress and I went home at the end of the day in a much better mood.

    So I guess you could say that I had a gradual epiphany.

The Ride Began In 1958

     I finished high school in June of 1957. Now I know many of you weren't born then but I'll tell my story anyway.

     I enrolled in a one year teacher training program right after high school. In June of 1958 at the age of 18 I had a teacher certificate which of course, allowed me to teach and get paid $2400 per year.

    Well, in no time I had a teaching position. There was a great shortage of teachers so jobs were a dime a dozen. I was hired to teach in  one room country school with and enrolment of ten students. There I was at 18 years old where I was the teacher and completely independent. I turned 19 in October. Now think about it . I was a teenager not unlike any other teenager. But I was a teacher responsible for ten students and the school itself. I had 3 grade ones, 2 grade twos, a grade three, a grade four, a grade five, a grade seven and a grade nine.

     Well, I went to work with great energy as I was going to teach those kids for all I was worth.  These kids  previously had a series of very ineffective teachers. Their background was a little weak but they worked hard. I really enjoyed teaching the grade ones. You could see how much they progressed in one year.

     The year ended quickly. I wanted to find out if I would like teaching. I found out what I wanted to know. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and decided to enter a Bachelor of Education program. the district wanted me to stay another year. The community was very supportive and really encouraged a very insecure 19 year old. The whole community supported me. I had never experienced this before but I recognized what they thought of me.

    Now when I was doing pictures this winter. I found photos of my students from Louisville school. I hadn't looked at them for years. I can hardly believe that the grade ones are turning 65 this year!

     The ride finished in 1997 when I retired. From 1958 to 1997 I managed to teach for 37.1119 years. I was very fortunate to be involved in a very rewarding occupation.

Reflections

1.      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.

The Rookie

      I've been including odd photos at the end of my posts or else blogger sees fit to pick photos and I don't want them. So if I put my own photos in and blogger leaves me alone.

     Okay, the last photo happened to be me in my first year of teaching. You see it's the only school photo I have that's scanned! Because of comments on the last post, a post topic came into my head. The photo was a very poor scan of a picture.
  

     So I was reminded of my start in teaching. It was as many of the things that happen to me. I bumbled into teaching without any clear goals.

     I surprised myself by finishing high school in 1957. I never had a goal of finishing high school. I bumbled along from year to year and finally it was over. Many boys at that time dropped out of school in gr. 8 and stayed on the farm.

     When high school was done I had to think fast. I really didn't want to stay on the farm with my Dad. What could I do after high school. I decided to try teaching and if I liked it, that was it. If I didn't like teaching, I hadn't lost much.

     At that time you could take a one year program and then teach. I entered the program at age 17. The year was fun and very different for me. My high school class had eight students. There were 400 students at Teachers' College. The program included some basic methods classes. We had a very good class on teaching primary reading. There were some academic classes and a few fine arts classes. At  the end of the year we were given an interim standard teaching certificate. We could teach for three years and then we had to take more classes. 

     I found myself finished Teachers' college and looking for a job. As I'd gone to a one room country school this is a job I applied for. At 18 I was a teacher in a  one room country school house . Pretty scary! EH?Most country schools were being closed at that time.The school I taught at was on its way out. As some of you  noticed there were only 10 students. A school with just ten students was not economical to keep open. There were 3 grade ones, 2 grade two's and one each in grades three, four, five, seven and nine. I really liked teaching the grade ones.

     I had a very enjoyable year so much so that I decided right then that I would stay in teaching. The Superintendent was most supportive. Harry would quietly show up and stand in the doorway until I saw him. He'd give me the nod and I would go out on the steps and talk to him. He was checking that I was not having problems and give me a few pointers and a pat on the back. Sometimes he'd come and dismiss the kids for an hour and talk to me.

   My first year teaching is one that stands out over all the others. I often wonder how an 18 year old was able to give instructions for a year. The community were most supportive and good to me. They wanted me to stay another year but I had decided to enter university.

     Nine years earlier when I was in grade three in a country School. That country school just happened to be named Hiawatha!

Pleasure in Internet Search

      In 1957-58 I took a one year teacher training course. There were 400 in the class and the course was intense as we were expected to take over a class room and teach at the end of the year. So 400 young people met, worked and played for a year. Many good friends and acquaintances were made.

     I came from a small one teacher high school. For me to be thrown in with 400 other people was terrifying. My home village only had 235 people!  I survived and probably learned a thing or two. I got a job and could sort of teach. I was eighteen years old and if you think about an eighteen year old they are great but not very ready to teach.

    I left the teachers' college and began a career. I saw about six of my former classmates since that time. I left the area and at times lived far away So recently I became curious as to what happened to some of these people. Fifty five years have gone by. I wonder what has happened. 

    So off to the Internet to have a little look. One of the first names I Googled I found the person had died. I thought a bit and said well , since most of us are up in our seventies it might not be a bad idea to search obituaries. Fortunately, I found only one more obituary.

    I did find some interesting results. One guy became a school superintendent. Another a Lutheran minister. Another went back to the farm and farmed with his family. Another went back to his home town taught, farmed and wrote. He wrote columns for the CBC. He then put his columns in two books. So the results so far have been interesting and surprising.

     One challenge is that most of the women married so I don't have a name for them. The class was 75 % women. 

    So since I am curious and have some time I practise ( Bugs me that spell check doesn't know the difference between practice and practise) my Internet search skills.

Reflections on my Career

   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 .

The Boy Who Carried His Own Arm.

    The other day I took my wife to an orthotic and prosthesis place to get her insoles adjusted. We had to wait quite awhile for the the glue to dry. There were all kinds of devices  in the shop. There were many leg and knee braces. There was the odd leg or foot that was used as a template to make various devices. While I was looking at these devices I thought of a student that I had.

    I was working after class with a few kids. All of a sudden somebody said, "Mr. Kline, there's and arm on the floor." Sure enough an arm was under one of the desks. We all went down to the desk to inspect the arm. I thought it was likely something from the drama dept. We picked up the arm to examine it. At that time Daryl came in the room with a sheepish grin on his face and said, "I forgot that." while pointing to the arm. Daryl left right away. I had a feeling as if I had been someplace I wasn't supposed to be for looking at a kid's arm. 


     This happened about the third week in Sept. I had not noticed that a student was missing an arm or using a prosthesis. So much for my keen observations.


     For the next three years you would see Daryl coming down the hallway with his binder and his arm. sometimes Daryl left his arm in the locker. Most of the time he just carried it. I could understand why Daryl carried his arm. It was extremely heavy. For an 11 or 12 year old it was just too uncomfortable. Daryl was born missing the part if his right arm below the elbow. There was a 3 or 4 inch stub past the elbow. The stub would move on the elbow like a regular lower arm. Daryl did not show any discomfort with his missing arm. In fact, he was a very pleasant student and was well liked by his classmates. 


    After middle school I did not see Daryl again. I did meet some of his distant relatives and they told me that Daryl was married and had two children. It was nice to hear that Daryl had for all intents and purposes lived a normal life.


     I wish that digital cameras were around in those days as I would have had more pictures from my school days. I probably would have had a picture of Daryl.

Where Are They Now?

      I retired from teaching in 1997. I taught at the same school from 1969-1997. I didn't plan to stay in the same school that long. As it turned out it was an excellent school and the community was very supportive.


     Over that time I had about 4000 students. About 20% of them stayed in the same district and sent their kids to me. It was a treat to teach children of your former students. So I always wonder where my former students have gone and what has happened to them. I certainly wouldn't recognize very many of them on the street and the same would be true for them in recognizing me.


     In this morning's paper I happened to see an advertising feature for a business called Classic Dream Machines. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a familiar name so I looked and found another. So there were Alden and Anders working in this specialized auto shop. This shop would do as little as paint a stripe on your car or completely redo your car to make it some far out set of wheels. 


     Now I had Alden and Anders in Middle School and I didn't each them very much. I had them for language arts and they let me know very definitely that they had very little time for literature,grammar, spelling or writing. They did as little as they possibly could and still get by. Every day Alden would whine, "Why do we have to do this stuff?" They were both smart enough that they could get by with little effort.


     What these two boys spent all their time on was drawing cars. They could both produce beautiful complicated drawings of specially designed cars as far as painting and shape was concerned. They also had a decent understanding of the power train of the cars in their imagination. They were always drawing cars and sharing with each other. They talked to me about the cars all the time. So there were times that I maybe didn't appreciate their cars as much as they thought I should. If I'd been smart enough to find material on cars they would have read and written all kinds of things about cars. Sadly by the time I figured that out I was retired.


     So this morning when I saw the ad I thought how awesome that these two guys are able to make a living from their dreams as kids. They are both able to pursue their passion for cars to make a living. It doesn't get any better than that!

Sometimes You Learn an Awful Lot in one Afternoon

      I have to write this post right away while the sting of reality is still fresh on my mind.

       I have written about having a couple of  super teenagers for neighbors and how they are so adept at technology. I have worked hard to learn some things but I always knew that if I was really stuck I could get bailed out by either one of them.

       So I was a little surprised a few days ago when I was asked if I could help Courtney set up a blog. I somehow or other didn't think this fit. However, I did arrange a time to work on the blog. Courtney is going to the Mayo clinic for some testing so she wanted to set up a blog to keep friends and relatives informed. When I got to her computer the blog was there so I did a double take. I wasn't surprised to see the blog with a post but I had been lead to think the blog wasn't set up. My mouth was too far open to say, "Nice blog, Courtney!" My mouth kept going and I tried to tell how a blog worked when reality set in and ,I said,"Well, what is it you need help in setting up?" The first two questions that were asked I didn't have a clue. I was able to assist with some simple things that Courtney hadn't had time to discover on her own so I saved her some time in searching.

     I went home with some homework. The rest of the afternoon was fun as we emailed back and forth on what we discovered.

     For me the afternoon was stimulating as I got to work with a young person. I am always amazed at how rapidly young people catch on to new things. I thought back to how lucky I was to be a teacher for thirty seven years and work with young people.


     So it's quite a jolt to go back to learning so much in a short time. Courtney learned a few things about her blog but she taught me a whole lot more .

The Pleasure of Meeting Dr. Barry

         The other day I had occasion to visit the emergency department at our local hospital. There are about twenty doctors who staff the department twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.

         So it was a real treat to have Dr. Barry drop in to see me. Why Dr. Barry a special treat? Well Barry was a former student of mine in junior high school.

         Now whenever I meet a former student I truly enjoy the contact. I knew that Barry was an emergency physician and that he worked in the local hospital. However, I had never bumped into him. I hadn't seen him since he left the junior highschool. Barry is now 40 so it's been awhile since I've seen him. I had kept bumping into his parents so I kept up with Barry's whereabouts.

         I remember Barry as a quiet, bright and  pleasant person. I had Barry for language arts which probably wasn't his favorite subject since if he was moving toward medicine I would think he would like science. I remember him being an extremely keen student. In those days we still taught spelling. I didn't mind using a few gimmicks. If you got 105%  five times in a row you could miss the next spelling assignment. Barry liked this idea and I think he got 100% all year. I would also bonus assignments that were done above and beyond what was called for at that level. So I didn't have any problem giving kids 11 out of 10 or even 12 out of 10. Barry could think ahead so he asked me if his average was over 100% would it show on his report card? So you see that he was not just bright but keen.

      So we had a little visit the other day which I enjoyed. I was also looked after very competently...probably 110%!

      Now you can see what happened to me. There was spontaneous bleeding in my eye. I had the same thing about 10 years ago and I thought that's what I had now but I didn't want to self diagnose so that's the reason for my emergency department visit. It's not a serious condition and the blood will absorb in ten days. There is no risk to my eyesight. It's a little hard to look at.

Student Success Brings Pride

        I have written four previous posts reflecting on my teaching career. One of the posts was reflecting on all the types of students one would encounter in a teaching career. I think I admitted that my favorite assignment would be to take about a dozen students who were not having success in a regular class and teach a modified program where they could meet with success. Usually these students had some behaviour difficulties resulting from their lack of success. It was usually at the gr. 9 level as they could continue in highschool with a similar program.

       I found one of my former students on face book the other day. H6WGQ5V65CYG I knew that he had become successful,but I didn't realize how successful. When I had him for gr.9 math he did not know up to the 5 times table and had difficulty dividing with just one place divisors. I had some success in these areas but not a lot. He was very interested in algebra but had not too much hope for success because of his arithmetic limitations. Factoring polynomials takes some basic arithmetic skills.He was pleasant, cooperative and willing to work. He wanted to learn. He was always thinking about some various type of device that would be really cool to do something with and it was always  remotely controlled. He was a little rough around the edges socially. He was a little guy but had a record of being able to pound kids twice his size if he was pushed into it by their teasing.

     I knew that he had some very successful inventions. He had designed remote sensing controls for gas wells in isolated areas. He was discussing a plan to set these devices up for gas companies and then monitor the fuctioning of their wells for them. Smart plan! He was going to borrow $1.7 million dollars . He was a cautious kid and he was hesitant about borrowing this much money? After that I lost contact with him.

     Yesterday I find out that he owns a multi-million dollar oil well servicing company! Was I proud of him! It made my day.

   

Reflections...Valuable Colleagues

      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.