Grade One Teacher – Virtual North
What do you love about your job?
No matter how much I may be dreading my day – from staying up late the night before prepping and feeling inadequate as a teacher – the minute I see those smiling faces on the screen excited to see me and telling me that they would rather be at school with me than on winter break or the weekend, totally lifts my spirits!
What has been a challenge?
Having to assess my students according to the standards of the current curriculum expectations when our teaching models have had to undergo so much tremendous change with fewer resources available to us for enriching and engaging learning.
What is a tiny victory you’ve had?
Most of my students can now navigate from the Google Meet to their online activities with independence or much less guidance than they needed at the beginning of the year. They are becoming more proficient with the online learning tools that we use in class. Oh! I also helped my daughter’s teacher who just started virtual last month with presenting online readers to the students because she was having trouble showing it on the screen. I actually knew some of the jargon to use to explain it to her instead of saying, “click on the thingy on the bottom and then the thing that says Pearson Readers….”. She managed to successfully read with my daughter on the screen and thanked me for my help.
Words of encouragement for the other Humans in HDSB?
It’s a lot but the small victories can be the fuel to get you through each day if you focus on getting through one small step at a time. My father-in-law always says to my kids, “How do you eat an elephant? Bite by bite.”
It may seem like there is no end in sight and you want to give up. I think about it everyday. Keep focusing on those little steps then suddenly when you look back you see that you’ve made it to the end of January already. March is just around the corner. You’ve got this and I am here cheering you on the whole way through.
If you could hire someone to do one job for you for the rest of your life, what job would it be?
I would want a personal trainer because I want to get in the habit of having a healthier lifestyle, and I feel like I’m utterly failing when I do it on my own. I do a lot better when someone is motivating me to push myself.
Have you ever had a secret admirer? Would you want one?
I can’t recall ever having a secret admirer. No, I wouldn’t want one because I don’t like the idea of someone putting me on a pedestal. I don’t like to be the centre of attention at the best of times, and the thought of someone admiring me creeps me out.
