Happy World Teachers’ Day

Today marks World Teachers’ Day, an international event recognized in over 100 countries around the world. This year’s slogan is “Teaching in freedom, empowering teachers.” UNESCO notes that it is recognized that teachers are not only a means to implementing education goals: they are key to sustainability and national capacity in achieving learning and creating societies based on knowledge, values, and ethics.

I’m very proud to be a teacher and still very much enjoy being in the classroom and working with students. The moments I have working with students are moments I value most. We are so very fortunate at Hollyburn to have a passionate, dedicated, highly professional team of teachers educating our students.

In the past two weeks as I have walked through the hallways and classrooms, there have been a few special moments that have caught my attention. These moments are just a few examples of what happens everyday at Hollyburn. I’d like to share my observations:

During the second week of school I found one of our teachers eating lunch out in the garden with a few students. The girls were not members of her class, but rather students from her previous class. The girls were just settling into their new classrooms and the teacher sensed a little bit of nervousness amongst some of them about the year ahead. To ease those nerves, she organized a luncheon to connect and set a positive tone for the upcoming year.

Last week outside of my office window I caught a glimpse of a teacher throwing a football with a student. During his prep time, the teacher arranged to meet the student and hang out. They decided to toss the football around. The point was to build upon the student-teacher relationship without the pressure of schoolwork getting in the way. Academic work is challenging for this student and the teacher wanted to have a positive experience in order to develop trust. The idea being that first the relationship develops and trust is built. Hopefully the student becomes willing to take risks and trust the teacher to help him academically.

Yesterday as I walked past the music room, I found the music teacher hosting the intermediate band students. They were all sitting on the floor in a circle drinking hot chocolate and chatting. When I stopped in to ask what the occasion was, I was quickly informed that there was no occasion, they simply wanted to get together and chat over hot chocolate! Later that day when I passed by at lunchtime, there again was our music teacher, this time with two students, teaching them a few chords on the guitar so that they could accompany the school choir.

Each and everyday our teachers go above and beyond to meet the needs of our students. Often times those little moments go unnoticed. Today I hope you take the time to notice some of those little moments. Happy World Teachers’ Day!