One morning during my first year as a teacher I was sitting at my desk frantically trying to bring my “day-book” up to speed.  I didn’t want to be reprimanded (or whatever happened?) for not being prepared to teach the 25 or so kids in my Grade 5/6 class. (The truth is that I should have done the planning the day before, and even more truth is that my principal, who was also in his first year, would have been too busy to worry about it anyway.)

It was about 8:30 am and a group of kids were standing around my desk chatting. I looked up and noticed a little Grade 5 boy patiently waiting for me to acknowledge him. He had curly black hair and a face full of freckles. His elbows were on the desk and his chin was resting his hands. His name was Lance. When he caught my eye, he smiled widely and stood up straight. “Mr. Espe”, he said. “I had this dream last night. You and I were dirt biking and taking jumps and…” He went on and on about the adventure he and I had had while he was sleeping.

I was a 23-year-old rookie who was literally flying by the seat of my pants every day. My priority was to teach (“cover”) all of the prescribed curriculum so that my students would be ready for their next grade. I guess I wanted the kids to like me, but developing relationships wasn’t at the top of my list. Lance’s dream made me re-think that.

I realized that if I was spending enough time with my students each day to become a character in their dreams,  I wanted to ensure that I appeared as a positive character… the way I had in Lance’s story. In other words, I didn’t want to appear in their nightmares! It made me realize that when you choose to work with kids you’ve chosen to be “on stage” every day.

I had the chance to re-tell this story just the other day to two special visitors who happened to have been Lance’s classmates.

The visitors, Martine and Traci, were on the island taking part in a 5km run and stopped by on their way to the airport. I hadn’t seen either of them for more than thirty years, so it was a special visit to be sure! (Both “girls”, who had been in Grade 6 when I taught them, now have adult children!)

The visit brought up so many memories. Memories of how little I knew when I started and how much that group of kids actually taught me. Thankfully the memories they shared were positive ones.

They brought me a “Best Teacher in the World Mug”… the first one I’ve received in a long while! They also brought me a book of Nordic Myths. The inside joke is that pretty much all of the Socials Studies projects I planned that year centered around Norway (I admitted to them that I was just too lazy to change my bulletin board!  Check out the picture below…)

After the ladies left, I remembered a blog entry I had written in 2010 while superintendent in School District #60. It was about my first year of teaching…

Leadership.prn.bc.ca, Sept. 6, 2010:    “Twenty-nine years ago, I was contemplating my first day as a teacher with my very own classroom.  The classroom was an old portable at Robert Ogilvie Elementary and I had a Grade 5/6 class (if my math is correct most of the Grade 6 students turned 40 this year!)

I remember working really hard, and (thankfully) I remember doing some good things for the kids.  I also remember doing some things wrong too.  The one that really makes me shake my head is the “Race to the Moon” wall display I created to measure student ‘success’ on their weekly spelling tests.  I had the students each make a paper rocket with their name on it.  The rockets were then lined up along the bottom of the display.  Every time a student scored a perfect 10-out-of-10 on a spelling test they got to move their rocket one step closer to the great moon that I’d made out of yellow construction paper.  By the end of October several kids were well on their way.  Sadly… several others had yet to lift-off at all.  I can’t remember exactly how I explained it to the high achievers, but one night the moon and all of the rockets came down (and probably went into the garbage because we didn’t do much recycling then).

I fondly remember the tenth of May that year and I think it is very special that so many of the students in the class do too.  My first child was born on Sunday, May 9^th that year.  On Monday morning when we did our weekly handwriting practice I had the students write my son’s name and birth date several times each… 

It was a great year but I’d like to have known then what I/we know now about learning.  I wish I had spent more time talking with colleagues about what was working and what might work.  I wish I’d had Twitter to communicate with teachers around the world about exciting things to try.

I wish I could have had the kids write their own blogs instead of making rockets with their names on them.”  (For the link to the original blog click here.)

Martine, Traci and I reminisced about some of the stories above, but both girls said that one of their fondest memories was the orienteering field trip to Montney that I had planned as a year-end activity. I’d made orienteering maps of the creek bank just west of the Montney ball diamonds. I sent the kids, in groups of 3 or 4, to find their way to the final destination where the wiener roast and home-made ice cream would be waiting. I think I had done a pretty good job of teaching the kids some basic compass and orienteering skills but thinking back I can’t believe I sent them into the bush hoping they’d all come back! I’m so glad the girls remember the day fondly, but I don’t think the superintendent (whoever it was?) would have been too pleased! In hind sight, I’m pretty sure that I brought all of the kids back??

After all these years, it is nice to know that a visit to Montney was a highlight for my first batch of students, and that taking the time to create experiences outside of the formal curriculum helped to engage kids as well as establish relationships.

Here’s hoping that I don’t appear in too many nightmares!