Being a teacher is a great challenge

Undoubtedly just being a teacher is already a great challenge. But being an English teacher is twice a challenge. It means keeping an extra way of life, parallel to the life-schedule of our colleagues, bearing the “same brains’ but thinking and speaking two absolutely different languages.

I can’t imagine my daily routine without reading at least 10 pages in English before going to bed (just imagine Physics or Math teacher falling asleep with his textbook or so), advertising fiction books I have read and exchanging them among my students, encouraging them to write something to our school “Meganews” newspaper.

After coming back from the USA (2 really unforgettable fantastic months as a TEA Alumni!), I became an alive witness and a presents of American culture answering a bunch of really puzzling and unexpected questions concerning all aspects of life there. Not a single day has passed without breaking sometimes funny or even stupid stereotypes.

Being an English teacher also means conducting lessons outdoors, in the sidewalks by our school, dramatising street dialogues and shocking the passers-by with sounds of foreign speech in the streets of our tiny peaceful Carpathian town.

Concerning evaluation moments, unlike our colleagues for whom looking for mistakes is an inseparable process, I usually focus mainly on the positive aspects, supporting all the students’ efforts and trying to create a warm atmosphere in the classroom. I strongly object correcting every mistake in their speech, I want my students to feel free to make mistakes in order to learn and improve their fluency. When I see a passive and shy student keeping up the conversation, I am very satisfied, because it’s his or her tiny result, but my huge success!!! Let their life put them marks!

Being an English teacher means persistently take part in different contests and programmes. In fact, my seldom but joyful winnings in some of them persuade my students to follow me, to believe that they also have a lot of chances to get success. TEA, PIE, FLEX … all this stuff is one of the highways leading to a new life full of new perspectives and opportunities. Parents of one of my former pupils still can’t believe that their daughter is studying at an American school without a kopek of bride as it is used to being here in Ukraine. It is true that God helps those who try to do it themselves!

Nowadays people’s minds, beliefs and lifestyles differ everywhere and teenagers are often so sharp and extreme in their judgments. Sometimes their words are followed by more serious and risky actions. I teach my pupils how to accept others and their opinions. I persuade them not to make negative comments about others’ ethnic background, religious trend etc. and to be tolerant to them. It is often said that prejudice and discrimination are born of ignorance. I always encourage my students to learn more, to appreciate and even enjoy the company of people who are different from them, to look for the commons but not differences. They have to learn to understand an unusual point of view and respect it anyway.

I offer my pupils to discuss or sometimes to write essays about the experience when they were treated differently. How did it make them feel? Have they ever treated anyone else the same way? Sometimes I ask them to find a newspaper or magazine article about tolerance or lack of it.

In the lesson I use to pair them up with someone in the classroom whom they don’t know very well, for example, with newcomers, and identify three things that they have in common, and three differences, but only interesting or funny. These activities help them to develop self-consciousness and patience.

Learning a foreign language needs more pupils’ and teachers’ efforts comparing with any other school subject as actually it combines at least two or even more subjects together. Therefore we, teachers, should have (and I believe that we have) something extra than our colleagues living in two parallel cultures.

I am convinced that learning English plays a significant role in the development of cross-cultural understanding. Getting to know another group of people through the study of their language and culture is a good way to help them to understand and accept differences which exist in our beautiful but pretty anxious world.

No doubt, I do like being a teacher of English!

TEACHING HELPS TO DEVELOP …

Galileo said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” I think language is the most powerful tool we have for reaching out to others. We can use it to express our feelings, spread our ideas and even to establish peace.

My dream is to make teaching the source of enjoyment and pleasure for my pupils, their parents and the teachers I work with. I’m sure English must be taught with pleasure, because it opens the door into another world: the one of travelling, learning and working. It makes our life less difficult in any country. It’s easier to listen to songs, watch films or surf the Net. English can help us everywhere. Pupils shouldn’t treat English as a foreign language. It’s an international language, so it can be ours as well.

Much attention is paid to relationship between the teacher and pupils. Relaxed atmosphere of co-operation, understanding and respect is very important in making pupils interested in learning the language. The teacher has to create all necessary conditions for learning and keep pupils motivated all the time. We have to pay more attention to learning which is based on situations or problems concerning pupils’ lives, values and interests. School parties devoted to national holidays of English – speaking countries, dramatisation of extracts from well-known books, writing poems in English help to arouse pupils’ motivation, too. Pupils should be encouraged to work together, be responsible for their studying.

Our pupils shouldn’t treat English as a boring duty. I believe they are greatly interested in learning a foreign language, but as soon as some of them face difficulties and fail to catch up with the rest of the class, they gradually lose their interest in the subject. To prevent demotivation, everything should be effectively and sufficiently practised through different activities. A great variety of interesting activities in each lesson prevents boredom and arouses pupils’ intentions and desires to master the target language. One of the roles of the teacher is to organise a classroom in such a way that s/he could achieve better results in language teaching. Learning English is like learning to swim or learning to play ball. We learn to swim by swimming, to play ball by playing ball, and to speak English by speaking English. Pupils must understand that as nobody can learn to swim for them the same about English: nobody can learn English for them. They have to learn for themselves, and they will learn if they really want to and are willing to practise. Aristotle believed that “the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”. As for me, the first task of a modern teacher is to work out and use new effective methods which will help him/her to achieve good results.

From my point of view, a real teacher is a teacher who can become a member of any society. I think teaching and learning any language help to develop ourselves. Our world needs teachers who are ready to introduce new ideas. Teachers like all learners need opportunities and time to exchange and reflect on their experience. One of the aims of the teacher is their professional development and change. It’s impossible to teach the same way they have done it before. One of the biggest achievements of modern school is that teachers have a right to choose means of teaching. Some years ago teachers couldn’t even dream about it. We work in the branch where we have a possibility to explore, to create some new modern ideas and not to be old-fashioned.

I think that the teacher who brings happiness and knowledge is worth being respected.

A TEACHER IS A CO – WORKER OF GOD

There is a good proverb: “Like teacher, like pupil”. When I was a girl of 14, I had already decided to become a teacher of English like my favourite teacher, Liudmyla Mykolayivna Cherepanova.

She was very good teacher. I saw how much attention she paid to each student in the class, how upset she was if one of us did not understand anything and could not answer well. I always wanted to belike Liudmyla Mykolayivna, and now that I am older, I think that the great love she had for her student, for all of us, was really beautiful and noble. That is why I finished school and graduated from the Language Faculty of Dnipropetrovs’k State University.

My first lesson was in 1991 in school # 22 specialising in foreign languages. When I entered the classroom and saw people of about my age, I nearly fainted: I did not have the slightest advantage over the students in anything except for my knowledge of English. I started my lesson with a well-known English song, “Yesterday”.

Nowadays, to create a good atmosphere in class I prefer to start my lessons with songs. Usually they are grammar songs.

I think that every teacher is a unique person and it is not necessary to follow well-known procedures when a teacher is not sure that it is useful to the student. And I dare to be different. Very often I need to be “an artist” and to be very lively in the way I demonstrate the language, so my students can work out the meanings and usage of new words themselves. And I can say that my students are actively involved in meeting cognitive challenges, they are lively and interested, participating in activities which focus on situations relevant to their own lives.

I am aware of different motives for learning language, learning styles of my students, their expectations, sources of language exposure they may experience outside the classroom. I try to organise my lessons so that my student speak almost all the time. I am sure that the more students speak in the lesson, the better the lesson is organised. I have a resource box where all students can contribute not only old toys, but also their own ideas, stories, poems etc.

I do not forget to encourage my students. Encouraged by their success, they will try again and gain more practice.

I think that Goethe was right when he said, “A teacher who can arouse a feeling for a single good action, for one single poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows of natural objects, classified with name and form”. I first went to school at the age of seven and still have not left it. I love school. I think that school is my life. I always remember Joseph Joubert’s words “To teach is to learn twice”.

I love children and I think it is so good to help them to learn what they did not know before. And besides, bringing up good children is a very important task. Galileo once said, “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself”.

Liudmyla Mykolayivna helped me to choose my profession, and now I am sure my decision was correct. When I come into the classroom and see my students’ eyes, I realise that I am a part of a creative event. I forget all the problems of everyday life and try to teach them effectively. My task is to create in pupils a motivation to study, to orient them to world educational standards. As you know, a teacher is an investor in the future development and prosperity of you country. And I think it is interesting to be a participant in the process of forming pupils’ personalities, in widening their outlook and in helping them to find their own way in this multicoloured life.

My priority is to develop my unique potential as a teacher, to keep alive a sense of challenge and satisfaction in my job. A good teacher is the one who is constantly working at their self-education. Knowledge is like money: the more one gets, the more one craves. This is my approach to teaching. If you once think, “I am very experienced, I can stop now” – you will degrade. I have a constant desire to learn, to improve my methods of teaching and to use new ones. With passing years, I realise that what I most enjoy in my life is learning. That is why I like to travel, to learn more about countries and peoples, to discover something new in myself. Education takes you to great places. Education is travelling and travelling is education. In 2003, I became a National winner of “The United States – Eurasia Awards of Excellence in Teaching” programme. I travelled to the United States for a seven-week professional development seminar and participated in the cross-cultural symposium “Celebrating Teaching Excellence Across Cultures”. Every year I encourage my students to participate in the “Freedom Support Act” programme. I felt proud when my student Vlad Burhay won this contest in 2004 and had a great opportunity to study in the USA for a year. President Kennedy once said: ”Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education”. Realising it I try to have my students to achieve success in studying English.

“I TOUCH THE FUTURE. I TEACH.”

“Come to the edge.”

“We can’t. We are afraid.”

“Come to the edge.”

“We can’t. We will fall.”

“Come to the edge.”

And they came.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

G. Appolinaire

My teaching career defines me – it is who I am. You see, teaching is what I was born to do. When I come to work each day, I honestly feel as though every one of my talents and brain cells is being challenged in a way I can’t imagine to happen in any other job. I know, from deep inside, that what I do is important and valuable, even life changing. My own life and the lives of the children I teach develop every day in new and often surprising ways. Twenty-fife years has passed since I gave my first lesson – and I’m still a teacher and still in love with my profession.

When I entered the profession, I was only 23 and I was ready to face any challenge in the world. I loved my future students and was eager to share my knowledge with them. A three-storey newly built village school warmly welcomed a young red diploma specialist. However, from the first lessons I was confronted with a kind of apathy from the most part of my students. Yes, hey could read and translate those texts about boring to death Lena Stogova who has got four members in her family, lived in Moscow, got up at seven o’clock and every summer went to the camp and then to her granny’s. But when it came to disputing, they could successfully do with a single sentence in response or with immortal “Yes, I do”, “No, I don’t”. So, my first task was to help them enjoy communication. Looking back to those far-away 80s, I have never ceased wondering how I managed to do it practically without any authentic materials we have nowadays – videos, cassettes, colourful coursebooks of British publishing houses, without the Internet. But I have always been persistent in reaching my aims, and I genuinely wanted to transmit my love for English to my students. Once and again I looked through methodological books and magazines trying to find that “wand” that could charm them by the wonderful world of English. I tried different techniques – with varying success, until I found out that role-playing enjoyed the greatest popularity among my students. When I was an elementary student, I used to dream of being an actress. I even attended a drama club, and my teacher told my mum that I was a promising student. It appeared to be that nothing was gone with a wind, and I’m still happily combining teaching and acting. It’s such a fun for kids to communicate in English not only with each other or their teacher, but with Fortune-teller, Main Witch or even with the State of Liberty. I can become and old lady who is afraid of big cities and can’t find her way, or an impetuous tourist who’d like to spend her vacation on a desert island… my students eventually got used to role-playing and invented their own images for conveying their thoughts. As Gail Godwin said: “Good teaching is one-fourth of preparation and three-fourths of theatre”.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. I changed schools, became a national winner of TEA programme and spent two months studying in Montana State University in the USA. I am a teacher-methodologist now and I have some publications in professional editions, but I still enjoy interactions with students and get thrilled helping them experience an “a-ha!” moment. Being a young teacher I envied my experienced colleagues: I thought they had already known everything about teaching English and didn’t spend much time preparing for their lessons. For present day, I spend long evening hours and half the night thinking over every minute of my next-day lessons to involve my students into learning English, to arise steady interest to my favourite subject, because to my emphatic opinion, teachers who cannot keep students involved and excited in the classroom should not be there!

Teaching is the acquisition, assimilation, and articulation of knowledge. Just as the mother bird hunts for food, shews it up, then spit it into the mouths of the young, we, teachers, search for knowledge, synthesise it, then present it to students in a more palatable form. Besides, we should constantly look for new ways to present old material. Personally I think that one of the most damaging phrases in teaching is “It’s always been done that way”, and I consider the idea of continuous learning to be of great importance. That’s why I take part in numerous professional development seminars and I am always open to everything new.

If you throw a stone in a pond, the ripples go on and on until they reach the shore. You can’t have ripples without a “stone”. Good teachers throw stones that make a positive difference, and that’s what I strive to do. I make lots of eye contact. I smile a lot. I exude enormous levels of energy. I jump and move and use my hands and slide and point and encourage participation. I play the guitar and sing songs. I have fun. I teach the students, not the material. In my case, teaching is more than an occupation. It’s my way of life.

So why do teachers do it? Why do they devote long and often unpaid hours to class planning, paper correcting, and impromptu students counselling? Cynics have said that there are only three good reasons to be a teacher: June, July and August. But the vast majority of teachers barely notice their summer vacation. They’re too busy preparing to do an even better job the next school year. The truth is, great teachers have a beautiful and mysterious calling. They undertake the job of inspiring children and providing the tools they need to master our complex world. Why? Because they believe that education liberates the individual. It explains the society we live in and helps create a better one. It is the foundation of freedom and the portal to a life full of challenge, community spirit, and, most important of all, meaning. And I fully agree with the American teacher Christa McAuliffe who said, “I touch the future. I teach”.

TEACHER IS SOMEONE WHO …

There is always enough light for those who want to see,

and enough darkness for those who don’t want to see.

G. Paskal

I’ve been a teacher for twenty years, and I still feel grateful for this challenging and rewarding profession. Yes, there are many demands on my time… Yes, there is always something new to learn… Yes, many days I come home feeling worried about a troubled child … And yes, every so often I come home “burnt out”. Teaching is not easy…

But I still continue to teach … For me teaching is the art, the art of teaching is all about the beauty of the risk of forming significant relationships. Teaching may be about giving, but it is also so much about receiving. Teaching is a privilege because it is all about touching the lives of children and allowing them to touch mine. Teaching is about caring and wanting and expecting the very best from every child in my class. Teaching is about joy and laughter and singing and playing. Teaching is about growing. Teaching is also about saying goodbye and letting go and saying hello. Teaching is about love…

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher; it has been my cherished dream since childhood. I can’t tell that it happened because of the person who encouraged me to become a teacher. It didn’t happen exactly this way but I can admit that I met a lot of real, talented, creative teachers on my way. I met the teachers who educated, inspired, taught… I think all of us can recall certain teachers – very special, who inspired us to learn. I met such teachers at school, university, at different courses or training courses. My heartfelt thanks go to them and to my mother, father, grandfather (who have never been teachers) as they always remind me of the value of the learning. I’d like to quote the English novelist William Arthur Ward, who mentioned: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires”.

Teaching students gives me great hope for the future, touches my heart, inspires me and gives me their love which I feel with all my heart. I try to teach them to be part of the big family of the world, not to fight but to heal the world. I want to touch their human feelings, open the real world to them, show the real meaning of the world “life” and teach the values of life. I am sure that there still are teachers who care about their students, who are willing to take time out of their busy schedules to help another person, there are teachers who haven’t forgotten what teaching and love are about.

I try to help my students differ right from wrong, become leaders, not followers, give the pride and self-confidence, make understand what life is about and how important it is to plan your life, believe in yourself. I tell them that they can be anything they want to be if they just put their mind to it. I try to lead them in the right direction. I don’t only teach what they need to know about English but about life. I never forget to take time to talk to my students. And it hurts me when I see that more and more money is put in anything but not schools and education. Once I was given a bookmark. I didn’t pay attention what was there on it. Only after some time I read the poem written there and still now I keep it to remember the beautiful words, written by Jill Wolf.

FROM THE ESSAYS

MY DREAM

My dream is to bring up myself as a worthy person, wife, mother. Perhaps, it’s a little bit selfish I want my children to remember me for a long time, let it be my own children or my schoolchildren. I think that it should be a good beginning for a purposeful life.

I clearly understand that I have a lot to do: to improve my thoughts, English, methods of teaching, and it’s not the end of the list. But I believe I’ll have some wisdom to make a point, and that day I’ll be the happiest person in the world, because if you know what to do you are on half a way to solve it. I’ll do my best to achieve this him.

A LITTLE PROGRESS EVERY DAY ADDS UP TO BIG RESULTS

Being a teacher for me means to be a very noble, clever, good-natured and good-hearted teacher. At the same time the teacher must be strict and exacting like “Terrible” Miss Dove after F.G.Patton.

… In the silence little Randy kissed “the terrible Miss Dove”. On girl said, “It’s like a medal. It’s just a medal he has given to Miss Dove”.

I teach my students:

- to be faithful to God and Ukrainian heritage;

- to be always honest;

- to be always optimistic and happy;

- to be always clean and tidy;

- to know how to cope in life;

- not to be afraid of life obstacles;

- to be an example for others.

I am sure that a little progress every day adds up to big results. To sum it up, I want to wish all teachers to be loved and respected by all the pupils and their parents.

CHILDREN ARE GIFT FROM GOD

Some three thousand years ago the Bible declared: “Children are gift from God. They are a real blessing”. Children are our future. Every child is talented and teachers can help nurture their talents. The more often a child is encouraged and showed that s/he does something useful and good, the more successful he will be in an adult life. So, in such a way teachers touch the future and bring up mature personalities.

While working with young generation I try to teach everyone individually taking into consideration psychological peculiarities of pupils, pay much attention to the development of their inclinations and abilities, mould pupils’ literacy and motivate them to learn English. So, the most important aspect here is to find the proper key to each child’s heart.

That’s why I often tell my pupils, “I know you can do it. Please try”. I persuade my learners that every English lesson is a step to mastering the language that they acquire step by step.

“The best way to educate pupils is to make them happy.” This quotation is used as a motto in my English lessons.

MY EARLY TEACHING JOB

One of my early teaching jobs involved teaching at an alternative school. This school had “the worst of the worst,” the students that even public alternative schools had expelled. The students who straggled in the door every day were living lives of quiet desperation, labeled as failures and never expected to amount to anything. Our school had an on-premise day care, so we had a lot of teen mothers who were trying to break free of their cycle of poverty. Every student who came to us realised we were the last chance they had to make something of their lives.

As a fairly new teacher, I was terrified of them. They were mostly African-Americans from the inner-city, and I was a white teacher who grew up in the affluent suburbs. I had visions of what they were like gleaned from countless hours of television and movies. I was sure these kids were violent, amoral people, and somehow I envisioned myself as their saviour, the person who would turn their lives from violence and poverty to peace and prosperity. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My first day there, the students knew they had me in a corner and took advantage of every misstep I made. The first scene in Dangerous Minds could have been my classroom, and I had no ex-Marine moves to get their attention. I was scared and nervous, and I wondered why I ever thought I could teach these incorrigibles. As I was about to leave, certain that I would turn in my resignation that afternoon, one of my students came over and said, “Oh, you’ll be okay. They’s just testing’ you”. With a smile, he sauntered out.

I have never been a person to turn down a challenge, so I came back the next day and the next and the day after that. After a while, the challenges came less often, and I knew I had “made it” when I heard one of our students tell another, “You got Miz Nelson? Yeah, she cool”.

I came to the school determined to teach the students how to read. Instead, the students taught me how to live. I learned what it is like to be truly poor, to be told that you are nothing and to have suspicion and fear follow you every day of your life. I learned about the joy you can find in the little things in life and why teenagers want to have babies. I learned what makes a young man join a gang and even take a life. When the student who had reassured me that first day was cut down in a drive-by shooting, I learned a lot about grief. I learned even more about the human spirit and how truly resilient it could be.

My homeroom students were the most special to me. I saw them every morning when we prepared for the rest of their day. We talked about what was going on at home, at school, and everything and anything they wanted or needed to discuss. In the afternoon, before they left, we had study hall and again talked about what was going on in their lives.

Each homeroom teacher was responsible for his or her homeroom kids. We were their advocates, their friends and, for some, very much their “parents” since many of these kids didn’t have an available parent figure. If they didn’t come to school, we found out why. We visited their homes to meet their families, and we were available at every turn at school to give whatever assistance was needed.

Then, midway through the year the announcement came. The organisation that had sponsored us had sold the land, and at the end of the year, our school would be closed.

We teachers were devastated. We loved our kids like our own, and we hated to let them go. The students were even more destroyed. This school was their last chance. Many of them literally had nowhere to go. The public schools had expelled them, and no one else would take them either. Once again, they would fail.

The students responded to the news with one of two attitudes. Many just dropped out, feeling rejected again. Those who stayed decided to work until their last breath and get as much as they could from school. When protest after protest failed, they finally resigned themselves to the fact that they would be moving on. They chose new schools or stepped up their work so they could graduate with the final class.

As the school year came to a close, I wondered what I could give to these kids who had given me so much, who had taught me about myself, and about my prejudices, and about what is really important in life. I didn’t have much money, and I knew that material gifts wouldn’t impress many of them anyway. So I wrote each student a letter telling them about the wonderful qualities I saw in them, my hopes and dreams for their futures, and the ways they had changed my life. I told each of them that I loved them.

The day before the last day, I handed out the letters and waited calmly, expecting these “tough” kids to reject my words and toss them into the trash. Instead, I was met with absolute silence.

“Do you really mean this?” one asked.

“Of course. Every word.”

“Wow”.

One big hulking boy, who had never succeeded in school until the came to us, sat silently in a corner of the room. I thought he was just waiting for the moment I wasn’t looking so he could throw my letter out. Instead, he came over, hugged me and sobbed. I heard him say, “No one ever told me that I was this good before”.

My heart broke. Imagine living your life for eighteen years and never having anyone tell you how valuable and special you are. I couldn’t fathom the despair with which this child had lived his life.

That day, I determined that my role as a reading teacher was not merely to teach students to read, but much more importantly, to teach them of their value in life. To this day, every holiday, I write every one of my students a letter telling them about the gift they are to me and their class-mates. In never fails that a few kids cry, and most of them are amazed that someone cared enough to tell them they are valuable people. The letters are tucked quietly into notebooks and some even stapled into binders, lest the letter be lost and the reminder of their value be gone forever.

I often think of those kids and wonder if they know how many lives they have truly touched by having first touched mine.

THE BIG KID

I was only twenty and weighed about 102 pounds when I started teaching. One of the students in my first speech class was tweny-one years old and weighed about 290 pounds. The principal brought him to my class, told him to take a seat and said: ”We have to get rid of this kid, this year … so pass him no matter what!”

This was my first experience as a high school teacher. It was my first day in the job. Because “pass this kid, no matter what” was against my principles, I said to the principal, “No, I will pass him because he deserves to pass. He will pass, I guarantee it.”

This “kid” was the youngest of seven brothers. They were all as big as he was, and they would not let him quit school until he graduated. He had taken every class in the school and was teetering on a D average.

After everyone settled in their seats, I introduced myself, set my standards and assigned them to share something good they had done for someone else.

The Big Kid, as he was not so affectionately called, didn’t start to work when I said, “You can start preparing what you want to say”. He just sat there.

As I approached him, one the students stopped me and said, “He never does anything. Don’t bother him”.

I thanked the student for his advice but ignored his well-meaning words and sat down beside the Big Kid. I looked at him as if I were definitely his size and said, “Let’s begin”.

“I am not going” to give no speech, “ he said with a grin to let me know that this was a very firm and absolute final resolution.

“There is no way out,” I responded as I looked at him with the same resolve, as if I were bigger, taller and stronger than he was. I also smiled, paused and then continued as if the agreed with me that he was indeed going to give that speech. (To me this was not a power of will, but a power of right.) “Let me see, something good that you have done for someone…” We started talking and soon he told me about making a tree house for his nephew. His brothers were all carpenters and made everything around the house that anyone wanted except tree house for their nephew. So he decided one day to do it on his own. The way he told the story was beautiful, filled with love and goodness for his nephew and with a rare insight into the needs of another. He described his nephew in every detail, and added with a smile that broke across his entire face, “That little kid would smile inside out when I’d lift him into his tree house. He’d look down at me as if I had made him King of the Mountain”. The Big Kid added shaking his head in disbelief, “You know, everyone thought I was crazy making that tree house for him on account of because he was so crippled”.

Our eyes met. Mine were filled with tears. I thanked him for sharing his beautiful story with me and said, “I have a reward for you: you get to be… first!” Before he could say a word, I stopped the class and announced, “We have our first speech ready”. He looked terror-struck, as if he was facing the biggest hurdle of his life. I quickly ushered the Big Kid to the front of the room. “Tell it exactly the way you told me,” I whispered to him. “Have the courage to be ‘King of the Mountain’ like your little nephew has taught you.” Encouragingly, I added, “I believe you can do this!”

After some delay, he opened his mouth to speak. His hands were on top of his head, his old torn, shabby T-shirt revealed a bulging fat stomach hanging over his pants. He twisted and turned; he was definitely uncomfortable and struggling.

I nodded my head. “Begin,” I mouthed. “No way out.” Only a way into the hearts of everyone in that class.

When he finished his speech, there was not a dry eye in the class of those sophisticated seniors and their teacher – me. There was silence. He just stood there with a helpless or hopeless expression on his face, then the class exploded in applause as they jumped to their feet with a standing ovation. He savoured, or I should say we all savoured, the moment.

I gave him an A. Then he cried, “Nobody aren’t never gave me no a before”.

“You gave us the gift of telling us your story,” I sniffed. “You earned the A”. I have never seen anyone improve so much in my life. The students became his friends, and he became theirs. They still called him the Big Kid, but the meaning had a big heart in it, now. There was such unity and support in that class that everyone was eager to speak.

But that’s not all…

The next semester, there he was in my journalism class, front and centre. We were to produce the school newspaper. Help! I had never had a journalism class in my life. I had never put together a newspaper and never worked on a yearbook, even when I was in high school. The students who were in second-year journalism asked me where the dummy sheets were. I said, “Show them to me when you find them”. I didn’t have the faintest idea where a dummy sheet was. I studied the book and learned a lot.

But I didn’t learn half as much as the Big Kid did. It was in this class that I discovered he couldn’t read or write. I was horrified by the “pass-‘em-out-of-here-and-forget’em” policy in place in our schools at that time.

How could he do his assignments without being able to read or write?

No way out.

Okay! I accepted the challenge. To fulfil his assignment the Big Kid collected his stories by interviewing the students. We confided in one of the second-year journalism students that he could not write, and that person wrote his story each week from his dictation. Soon other students found out about his inability to read and write, and they eagerly offered to help him, as well.

At that time, there were no teachers assigned to teach reading or writing to nonreaders in high school, so the students helped him learn to read and write.

By the end of the year he could read and write. He wrote:

“Something Good You Have Done for Me

Thank you. The good you have done for me, I hope I can repay to others.

The Big Kid has learned to read and to write and gets to graduate!”

He received an A and the Most Improved Student Award.

LEARN TO BE CREATIVE