How to be a teacher

Teachers are well into their first month of the new year and classrooms should be falling into a routine. How times have changed.  Here are two sets of ideas on how to be a teacher, one from 1872 and one from 2019

How to be a teacher in 1872

·       Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.

·       Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.

·       Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.

·       Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church on a regular basis.

·       After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

·       'Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly contact will be dismissed.

·       Each teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

·       Any teacher who smokes uses liquor in any form frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

·       The teacher who performs his labour faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

·       You may ride in a buggy with a man if the man is your brother or your father.

How to a Teacher in 2019

·       Make sure the academic. emotional. social. psychological. mental. physical. and nutritional needs of every single student you come into contact with is met...daily.

·       Form deep, personal, caring. loving. but irreproachably professional relationships with each of those students.

·       Do not be their friend.

·       Make sure they know they can come to you at any time for any reason.

·       Hold them to the highest standards of excellence but do not put any undue pressure or expectations on them that might damage their self-esteem or world view.

·       Always give them a pencil, even ii’ you've given them one every day for three marking periods.

·       Put aside standards and tests when national or world issues of importance arise in order to facilitate meaningful conversations that will help strengthen their social-emotional learning and empathy.

·       Never talk to them about politics or controversial issues because that could be viewed as trying to force your views on them.

·       Maintain a classroom that is engaging. fun. comfortable. and visually appealing because students won't learn in an environment that they do not enjoy.

·       Do not crowd your room with too many overstimulating, colourful. interesting items that distract students from the learning process.

·       Instill a sense of growing independence and self-responsibility in every student while communicating about everything they do in school to their parents daily via email, text. phone calls. newsletters. and blog posts.

·       Focus on real-life learning that people really use like bill paying. financial investment. conflict mediation. small appliance repair. etc.

·       Make sure all students are proficient on state assessment tests that cover those issues.

·       Be prepared at all times to tackle an intruder with a gun or step into the path of a bullet for every student in your building.

·       Be aware that your job is easy because you get summers off, however, make sure you come into your classroom several times over the summer to prepare, make copies. and get things ready for next year.

·       Be a superhero. But don't be too braggy about it.

Talking to a dying person

I have talked about this before, the five regrets of the dying but I thought I would talk about it again. My favourite cousin had a brain aneurysm and she is not as fortunate as my wife, who fully recovered. My cousin is not recovering. Her daughter told me that the family and my cousin had made the decision to pull her off life support within the next two days. 

We talked about how hard a decision that was for the family, and I said: "I thought they had made the correct decision, as I knew my cousin and how she would not want to be a burden on others or lose her freedom". We talked some more about her condition and how hard it was on her family to see her in steep decline.

Her daughter told me that my cousin had perked up when she had heard I had called so she asked me if I would speak to my cousin before they pulled her off life support.  I will do that in the next day or so.

I love my cousin and I will be sad to lose her but knowing that she wants it this way, makes it easier. However, a loss is never easy and her loss will have a profound effect on her husband, her daughter, her sons, her grandchildren, her cousins, and her aunt and me.

I was thinking about what to say to my cousin and I remembered the article about the top five regrets of the dying which are:

• I wish I had  the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
• I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
• I wish I had the courage to express my feelings
• I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
• I wish I had let myself be happier

My cousin at this point does not recall her children's names and so she will be, I think, unaware that we had a conversation once I hang up. I remember when my wife was recovering from her aneurysm she lived in the moment, and it was, for my wife important that she be connected with people. 

I suspect that my cousin will be the same, and when we talk it will be important to her and so I will be upbeat and positive. But when I hang up the memory of the conversation will be lost to my cousin, but will stay with me. My problem is that I really don't know what to say to a person who has made the decision to let life go, it will be a hard conversation for me but hopefully not for her.

Idle thoughts on a Sunday in Sept

My friend asked do you still write your blog?

I  asked him do you still travel?

We talked of family friends and activities as we sat in the sun.

At my time of life, I am lucky I am surrounded by friends. laughter, health, abundance, peace and harmony so I am at peace, and I hope you are as well. 

However trite this may now sound, each of us is a miracle, unique to this world. The earth, sun, moon, and stars are wonders for us to behold, they provide us with mind-boggling and profound mysteries to ponder and to try to solve. They provide us with only a hint of the power of the universe. 

Yet, for the most part, we are concerned with the ordinary, not the mind-boggling,  a blog, travel, family, friends, our conversation continues and we are at peace. 

Dreams

Are you a dreamer, or a daydreamer? I am and have always been a dreamer,  and I have realized over time that:

Big dreams come true, as easily as little ones. 

Rich dreams come true as easily as poor ones. 

Friendly dreams come true as easily as lonely ones. 

Dreams come true, that's what they do. 

The only variable is when.

For the slow approach: Resist. Attach. Insist. Deny. Stop. Second guess. Whine. Argue. Defend. Protest. Cry. Struggle. And ask others, when you know the answer yourself. 

For the quick approach: Visualize. Pretend. Prepare. Dodge. Roll. Serpentine. Do not waver over intentions, but over methods. Show up, even when nothing happens. And give thanks in advance. 


You know that, So, what dreams should you dream and how should you approach your dreams to make them come true, slow or fast?