Vice Principal – Craig Kielburger Secondary School
What do you love most about your job?
My job is different every single day.
I can plan for what I think is going to happen, but the only days that are wholly predictable, are the days when I have a meeting, and I’m not at the school.
I never know what’s going to come to my door – what challenges will be brought my way, what kind of exciting thing is going to happen.
So, for someone with ADHD (which I have), it’s actually a gift, because I can multi-task, and I can change on the fly – and I didn’t know how much of a gift that was, until I got into this job.
What is a challenge you face?
I wish I had more time in the day because I like to be fulsome about my approach and get things finished up.
One of the things about ADHD is that I struggle with things that take a long time to get through, and typically bigger things that require a lot of followup happen at the end of the day, so getting home in a reasonable timeframe is not always possible.
Then, carving out time for personal things (like working out, or time with family) can be challenging.
I like to do things well & thoroughly, and ensure I honour everybody’s needs. So, having things that take longer and that absolutely need to be wrapped up before I leave means there’s not a predictable time when I get home, so that can be challenging.
What is a recent tiny victory you would like to celebrate?
In my role as a Vice Principal, I am sometimes put in the position where I have to meter out consequences for activities & behaviour.
Recently, we had 2 students who recently were suspended for different reasons. One of them, upon return from suspension, thanked me for the way I handled it. This was not a student I knew before the suspension, but he came back and said “Thank you for the way that you handled it.”
I appreciated that so much because if someone does something, there’s going to be a consequence for it, but the way I choose to handle it can make a difference. So, that was huge.
And the other student, when they left for the suspension, was quite angry. But, when they came back, we had a really good conversation about their response, why the consequence was necessary, but that every day is a fresh start, and I will not judge or hold a grudge.
I believe that if someone is behaving in a certain way, they are trying to tell me something. And when it’s a student I don’t know well, I can’t assume it’s defiance, or frustration, or anger, or not being a nice person. I will assume this is a challenging situation for them for some reason, and assume good intentions, centre them in their feelings, and try to move forward from there. Now that student acknowledges them in the hallway, we’ve sat together in the cafeteria and chatted about their March break, and their post-secondary plans… so those are definitely small wins for me.
What words of love & encouragement do you have for your fellow Humans of HDSB?
One of my favouriet quotes is something that PInk said: “When I enter a room, I enter it heart first.”
When you walk, talk, and function with your heart first, kids see that.
So then, when the other things come, they’ll be ok with how you navigate those conversations, even if they’re hard, beecause they know that you are still a human being, and you have feelings.
I think it’s important for kids to realize that. We’re not just a role, we’re not just a title, we are humans.
What is something others may not know about you?
One of the things I’m most proud of is that I’m an auxiliary officer with Halton Regional Police Service. I’m an Auxiliary Sargeant in Burlington. So, I have this other activity that was initially about giving back to my community.
I’m hitting a 10 year milestone this May, which I’m very very proud of. It’s a full circle thing for me, because it was a former student who encouraged me to do it in the first place.
It’s something I maybe would have gone into if I hadn’t gone into teaching, but at the time I graduated high school, there was a height requirement (that no longer exists) that I did not meet at the time.
I love policing because it’s so similar to teaching – being able to assess a situation and see what the needs are, communicating, problem-solving, and investing time to determine an appropriate response – that’s what teachers do. The fun part is when I run into someone who knows me as an educator, and doesn’t know that I do this. It surprises them, and I do look very different in uniform.
