What I'm going to say Slide 1 - Hello everyone, today I am going to be talking about my grandparents, Karen and Roger Martin, who are actually both teachers. I actually decided that I would like to go into teaching after hearing them telling stories.
Slide 2 - So, some background on Roger because totally my fault I didn't check that the recording was working before I started and didn't listen to it until I got home and it only picked two words of what my grandma said in her bio. So, anyway, Roger began teaching in Australia in 1963 and worked for a year in a all boys Technical school for grades 7 to 11 in suburban Melbourne (Watsonia). The school was mostly full of special needs and other children with behavioral problems. And since this was 1963ish children still received the strap when they disobeyed. Roger hated the environment of corpral punishment and within a few years moved to a different high school called Norlane about 45 miles from Melbourne. He came to Canada in 1967 and quickly got a part time job in North York at Sir Sandford Fleming S.S and within a few months became a full time job. This is actually the school where my grandparents met and by 1969 they were married! In the meantime my grandpa was going to school at the Uni of Toronto for a Master of Arts. That same year my grandpa took a promotion to the Peel Board of Education where he worked for three years as the Assistant head of English. After moving to brampton a few years later he had been appointed to the head of the English department at Central peel S. S. After 6 years he was promoted to the Vice principal's position at chinguacousy S.S. Afer several years as an acting vice principal he was promoted to principal of another school called Glenforest S.S for 8 years, than switched to principal at Erindale S.S. for 5 years before finally retiring in 2000.
Slide 3 - Now for the questions! So, why did you decide to go into teaching? Karen - “My mother made the decision. I was a legal secretary for Imperial Oil Limited in Calgary and did not get home very often. My mother saw an ad for Crestwood Secondary School in Peterborough and thought I should apply. In my absence, she went to the “interview” with my grad portrait and degree and Principal Watt hired me in absentia!!!”
This is so crazy to me because I cannot imagine this working now and it just shows how different everything is now!
Roger - Teaching was considered very highly in our family, I had an Uncle who was Principal of a one-roomed school. My Mother (who died when I was 4) was a Kindergarten specialist and my older sister followed her footsteps. Ironically it was my Dad who encouraged me to stay in school. He had had to leave school after Grade 8 because his parents couldn't afford to send him to the nearest high school 35 miles away. By contrast, when I graduated high school it was possible for me to get a bursary covering tuition and board on condition that I teach for 3 years in the State of Victoria.. This was a period in history when there was a huge shortage of teachers (the Baby Boom had arrived) . . Slide 4 - What level did you teach? Karen - High school for 6 years, followed by a 2-year maternity leave following birth of Greg (thats my dad) then Started part-time at Sheridan College, Faculty of Business which led to full-time teaching at Sheridan. I was Chair of the Office Administration Department, Faculty of Business. I then (after 20 years at Sheridan) went back to high school teaching for 5 years. Roger - Apart from my one year of integration as Vice Principal I n K-5 school all of my experience was in High Schools.
A short answer because of the super long bio he gave me!
Slide 5 Karen - Business education subjects mostly with a stint teaching Grade 10 English. Favourite Business subjects included Interpersonal Communication, business writing, accounting. I actually enjoyed all subjects including computer programming at the Grade 10 level!
Which is funny because I was actually supposed to major in computer programming but took a victory lap last year and because of it ended up doing music instead.
Roger - I taught English, Drama, Creative Writing, Geography, Social Studies and History. English and Geography were my favourites.
Slide 6 Karen - Two most difficult situations included dealing with a layoff situation at Sheridan because I had the least seniority in my department (I was Chair at the time but had worked 10 years as a Contract professor – not full time. This period was followed by 10 years full-time). I started one of my later high school positions in October when teachers were working “to rule.” All subjects were new to me; we were required to teach 4 different subjects (no spares) and couldn’t get into school any earlier than 15 minutes to the bell and had to leave 15 minutes after last class.
Which is crazy! I can't imagine them asking teachers to be no earlier than 15 mins and no later than 15 mins but also be fully prepared to teach 4 different subjects that they may know nothing about!
Roger - One of the most challenging things was to teach a brand new program e.g. Drama without a lot of experience or knowledge.. My first year experience was pretty gruelling –I lacked knowledge and experience for getting the most out of students with learning disabilities.
Also very strange that the board did things like this. Etc etc
Slide 7 Karen - “Do what I can to get each student to understand topic and to succeed.” Roger - My philosophy of teaching is to create environments in which students are given problems to solve, and are required to design questions that will get them to a solution. Active learning as opposed to passive learning, engages students in valuable exploratory talk to identify a problem by defining and questioning it.
Which are, in my opinion, very good philosophies.
Slide 8 Karen - “Grade 10 math student could not/would not do assigned homework supplied by teacher who was absent . I was “on call” for this class, which was noisy and disinterested in math assignment. I requested students who did understand assignment to see me and asked them to help small groups understand. They agreed. I sat with each of the groups (now quiet) and asked each student to explain it to me (I knew nothing of this). They worked to the end of the class. When they left, they thanked me and that particular Grade 10 student told me he learned more math that day than in the whole semester! He did do his homework.”
Roger - I was teaching The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. One of my students began to question the symbolism of the marble angel and eventually connected it to Hagar and her rigidity of opinion. She engaged the rest of the class to find instances of the connection and to demonstrate what “Stone” and “Angel” could mean – separate and together. It was a great “Ah Hah” moment - and extended everyone’s understanding .
Slide 10 - Conclusion & Reflection Both of my grandparents had extremely interesting and lengthy teaching careers. By doing this interview I was not only able to learn more about my grandparents than ever before, but I also was given a new outlook on teaching. After hearing about everything that they have both seen and done throughout their careers is an extremely interesting way to prepare me in a way for what I might be able to expect if I am able to become a teacher. I didn't include every question that I asked otherwise this would be a very long presentation but one thing that my grandpa said has really stuck with me. He said, “A lesson which engages students by motivating them to learn and to demonstrate what they have learned instead of focusing so hard on their grade is the best kind of lesson a teacher can provide”. And i totally agree with this, i noticed more than ever that a high mark means more to some teachers than the student actually learning anything does. I'm not talking about any teachers here at western obviously. Hearing this statement really opened my mind to how flawed some of the teaching method have become. Since when was it better to cheat on a test and get 100 than to study and try to learn things but only get a 80 and learn from your mistakes? So in conclusion I believe that the education system has become flawed in a way that is so incredibly harmful to students. by convincing them that all they need to do is do well on the exam and not actually know the material and everything will be alright they are not being prepared for the future because in real life, there is more after the exam and if you don't know your stuff you're going to be left behind, regardless of how well you do on the “exam”
Hi my name is Ryan and I am Reeces brother. I currently attend Saunders S.S. and plan on becoming an architect in the future. 1) What grade are you in?
Grade 12
2) What are your favorite classes
Currently i am most interested in courses that I will need to become an architect, so physics, calculus, etc.
3) Do you think that some departments receive less funding than others?
Yes i've noticed that anything that isn't one of the major subjects such as gym or science receive next to nothing in regards to funding because there are not the same amount of students involved.
4) Why do you think some departments receive so much less funding?
I think it's because the school board only sees what students are most involved with and think that just because less students enroll in it, it is not important.
5) Do you think that music is important to education?
I'm not very good at it but ya i think it's a good thing to do. I know that since i've started it i've become better at listening to my teachers and things like that
6) what is the most challenging part of being a student?
Dealing with other people because it's so good to make connections
7) What's the best part about being a student?
I think that the best part about being a student is that there are so many things to chose from and being able to decide how i want my future is pretty cool i guess
Reflection After interviewing both a teacher and a student i have come to the conclusion that the way the education system affects different people is very interesting. I've found that teachers often really do care about the students and what they are learning, instead of just running the same old curriculum into the ground. Teachers really want students to succeed and do well in their classes and will do everything they can to help them pass their classes. I also found that students and teachers have different views on what is difficult and what isn't, I also found that students and teachers have different ideas on what defines success. My teachers thought that as soon as a student does well on an assignment they have succeeded, but my student, thought that although yes, doing well on an assignment is nice, success really depends on what you are aiming on completely. For example, my student thinks that as long as he gets into the university of choice he has achieved success, not just doing well on one assignment. I also found it interesting that my teachers have such interesting stories of their careers, they both provide different and “cool” things that probably would not work today. For example, my grandma got hired on just her diploma and picture brought in by her mother. This never would have worked today, given how strict the teaching field has gotten, they would have needed a police check and several separate interviews, which brings in the interesting conversation on how much things have changed in the last 40ish years. Just thinking about how slack the rules and regulations used to be is extremely difficult to think about, today it is extremely unlikely that any parent would allow their child to receive the strap by any teacher, especially a teacher who hadn't even had a proper interview. Today i've noticed how strict schools are. When we went to the public school the front doors were locked and to get in we had to talk to the intercom to be let in, this is something that I could never see happening at any school during the time in which my grandparents were teaching, in fact, any one could come and go as they please. I believe that things becoming more strict are both a good and bad thing. Good because students are now able to feel completely safe at school and never have to worry about someone bad entering the school and causing issues, bad because that means things have reached such a level that things like locked doors and such are needed for students to feel safe in their schools. So in conclusion, the things I have both learned about and been encouraged to think about are so interesting I cannot begin to explain. Thinking about how much things have changed in the past couple decades has given me a new outlook on both teaching and being taught, I now have a need respect for teachers and a new view on my fellow students and how much change they have both faced.