Secondary Educator – Craig Kielburger Secondary School
What do you love about your job?
I love the constant learning that comes with this job. I walk into a classroom with a heavy amount of humility, wanting to share what I can and am actively looking to receive new perspectives, new connections to culture. I love hearing from students “Mr Corbin, have you seen this, read this, heard this?”
I want an environment where people can share … “You speak, we learn” I’m personally enriched and I set the tone to be listeners, to be attuned to each other and to learn from each other. I model it, I’m so blessed looking to learn from my students and I hope that my students learn from each other as well.
In this challenging year, what have you tried that is working?
This year has been a massive change, even in the setup of the year. Last year I was a SERT at Gary Allan and prior to that I was teaching at the Secondary Teen Education Program (S.T.E.P.) which were smaller groups, and more flexible education models. This year marked my first return in a while to mainstream school in the virtual secondary school. So in so many ways, the job was new to me and that change has forced me to learn and grow. I hope it has taught me a bit about grace. When you see your limitations, hopefully you learn that over time, some days are better than others in terms of giving myself grace. The return to the day to day instruction of a large group of people was a big shift. What is cool about teaching at VSS is being able to build student relationships. I am much more attuned to mental health this year, both of mine and my students. We try to live and breathe that priority in our class. I’m working on integrating mental health into our days. We are being honest about our own journeys. We start every day with a fun and silly check in, then on Wednesday, we start with “What’s Good Wednesday” where we intentionally share our gratitudes for what is in our lives and what our strengths are. Fostering that positive dialogue really lifts the community and is important to keep centred in our minds and hearts.
What is a challenge and isn’t working…yet?
This is one question that is so difficult to answer. There have been so many monumental challenges this year, it makes my head spin: cramming 5 months into 10 weeks. The deluge of marking. However, what is more important, I see room for growth in self compassion. Remembering, we are doing the best we can. It starts with self-acceptance and self-compassion. I’m constantly learning about taking care of myself. There are many days of missteps, and I’m still learning to be easy on myself for that.
What is one tiny victory you have had?
I take the victory that the students I teach acknowledge the classroom space as fun, engaging, and interesting. Getting feedback this year that class has been sparking joy and sparking thought – in this season, that is enough for me.
Words of Encouragement and Love for staff
I have learned from my mistakes: lesson #1 – don’t sacrifice sleep. Actively look for fun and for something to look forward to. One way that has filled my cup is being intentionally generous. It is much more fulfilling than sitting on the couch and gives me energy to keep going. We started a tradition in our family called “Corbinfest”, where we planned our perfect day of activities and food as a family in the morning then in the afternoon, we bought $150 dollars worth of donuts from Donut Monster in Hamilton and went around distributing them and spreading love. That day will keep me going for a long time and I think it is a new tradition that has to stay.
Have you ever had a nickname? What was it?
When I worked at day camps as a counsellor, my nickname was “Doc”. It was an homage to the great Dr. J with his afro. That was a season of my life of being carefree and I modelled that for the kids at the camp: freedom to be silly and to play.
