An anonymous throwback from a member of our community: In junior high I played the clarinet, not very well, but the music teacher, Mr. Jeffrey, was very passionate about music. He encouraged my friends and I to participate in festivals every year and continually helped us with practices. He taught us no matter the outcome, sometimes, there was always a lesson to be learned along the way, and to keep on pushing and trying.
A school support staff community member reminisces:
During summer holidays I was at the local optometrists waiting to get fitted for glasses when in walked one of our grade seven boys with his parents. They told them to have a seat and wait to be called and as he was going with them to sit down he spotted me. He came rushing over and introduced me to his parents then sat with me and proceeded to tell me all about his summer so far. He kept talking all while I was getting my glasses fitted and was done but he wasn't done speaking so I stayed until they called him in for his appointment. It made his day and mine :)
Corina Idzan from Ashmont School has a heartfelt throwback: One of my most memorable moments in my career is teaching a student who was really struggling in his personal life. This often spilled into his school life making his days quite difficult. He had a tough year and struggled to make positive choices. One day he received a small piece of wood from a fence board that another teacher was giving away. He proceeded to “etch” a picture into the wood using a pen. He then gifted it to me, and told me that the picture he created was of him and me together as this was one of his favourite things about his year. This touched my heart as he was such a sweet boy and had overcome so many hardships at such a young age. I still keep the gift in my office to remind me that a child whose behaviour pushes you away is a child who needs connection before anything else.
A Local teachers throwback is from our crazy covid year: This year my grade 8 class hatched chicken eggs. All my students got to choose an egg that they wanted to incubate from a variety of colours (blue, brown, and white). We patiently were waiting their arrival when the students had to quarantine for covid. To include the students in the excitement of the eggs hatching I set up a live stream so that they could tune in and watch. This ended but being great for my class but also the rest of the school. When my students can back to school they were excited to meet the chicks. A student even brought in mini cowboy hats for the chicks!