Well-told stories entertain, teach, nourish the soul, and take us on great adventures. To know a good story is to have a treasure no one can take away. Telling the right story at the right moment is the work of the storyteller.

Diane Wolkstein

The Cracked Pot

Retold by Mary Dessein
a Tale from India

A water-bearer carries two large pots on a yoke across his shoulders up the hill from the river to his master’s house each day. One has a crack and leaks half its water out each day before arriving at the house. The other pot is perfect and always delivered a full portion of water after the long walk from the river.

Finally, after years of arriving half-empty and feeling guilty, the cracked pot apologized to the water-bearer. It was miserable. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t accomplish what the perfect pot did.”

The water-bearer says, “What do you have to apologize for?”

“After all this time, I still only deliver half my load of water. I make more work for you because of my flaw.”

The man smiled and told the pot. “Take note of all the lovely flowers growing on the side of the path where I carried you. The flowers grew so lovely because of the water you leaked. There are no flowers on the perfect pot’s side.”

Dear “Every- Teacher”

Just a little something to cheer you on your first day

You’re probably wondering whether you’ve made the right decision, Teaching, as a career that is.

The little surfer in the dome is to remind you of my favourite quote and is something you need to remember everyday when you’re working with a variety of students

“You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust the sails.”

Everyday student will need to be treated differently, you may need to change tack for every student, everyday. It is a given, so be prepared for change.

In your first week

1. the most important thing is to get to know each student individually. Knowing their background, the lives they come from, may help you to deal with their individual problems. You need to earn their respect and build positive relationships with all your students. Show them that you care.

2. Start slowly, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You’re training readers, writers and listeners for life. Be patient and kindly firm

3. Remember it’s your job to motivate and engage. You have to try and stay upbeat most of the time and don’t give up on any of your students

I’ve included a list of traits necessary for a successful business, my father passed it on to me in the early days of my teaching, after he had attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting where the guest was a motivational speaker from America. (*) My mother added the notes.

Relationships are key. Customers don’t buy products from people they don’t like. A condescending capitalist will struggle to turn a profit.

A teacher who expects respect from his students — or parents or colleagues — without giving any in return is bound to fail.

Business marketing must excite the customers; they are your bottom line. Successful businesses effectively market their products or services by linking them to positive feelings. Slogans, jingles, attractive models, and celebrities are tools of the trade for accomplishing that goal.

Being able to motivate and engage learners is of paramount importance for any teacher. Our paying customers — parents and other taxpayers — really do take note when their children come home from school engaged and excited.

Being able to deal with change with a positive attitude is a key to success. What ever became of the tech exec who proclaimed in 1979 that home computers would never be practical?

While many teachers might not be endeared by “No Child Left Behind,” most of us are able to strain its vital message: the status quo isn’t good enough. Thinking outside the box to reach under-performing students is a cause whose time has come.

MORE IN COMMON THAN YOU THINK

Experimentation — and, yes, failure — is a part of every business; it is at the root of almost every success. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” A certain level of that adventurous spirit is required to succeed at developing new products and services to woo customers.

Teachers must honor the best of education’s established practices, but they can’t shy away from investigating new methods to reach students. Instructional methodology must be perpetually evaluated and improved upon — or tossed aside as ineffective.

Sweat the details, and go the extra mile. Our speaker regaled his audience on how movie actor Jim Carrey goes to great lengths to choreograph his antics in each scene of a movie. Similarly, he said, business people must anticipate and have a plan for meeting their clients’ needs; they must always be willing to go the extra mile to accomplish that.

The most successful teachers take time to write students congratulatory notes, dissect the pace of each day’s lesson, and give concerned parents timely updates. And they use their summers to develop new skills. Successful teaching, like a successful business (or successful acting), is not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants operation.

Lead your people; don’t push them. The speaker’s most animated comments were reserved for the relationship between a boss and the worker bees. A business manager who can appreciate and capitalize on the strengths of each employee is one who can develop a well-rounded team and a business that will thrive.

One of a teacher’s primary objectives is to recognize and build upon each student’s strengths. Often a student’s strengths can be used to improve skills that might not be so strong. Our aim is to engage all students — one student at a time — in achieving our learning goals.

WITH ONE BIG DIFFERENCE…

While I was one of just a handful of non-business leaders in the audience, I found little in our speaker’s remarks to which I could not relate. I found myself nodding in total agreement until he made one last comment. “I’ve never gotten angry with my personnel,” he said. “I’ve only gotten angry with the suppliers of inferior material. I really let those suppliers have it for jeopardizing my business!”

And therein lies the difference between teaching and business: Teachers may rage internally at the dysfunctions of families and society that our students endure. We cannot, however, unleash our anger at the materials we are expected to transform. Businesses can reject inferior material; we embrace our “materials” and nurture them.

I left the awards ceremony wondering how many of the movers and shakers of local business in that audience really understood how closely their best practices relate to those of teachers. With such significant common ground, I have to wonder how much more could be accomplished for students if members of both professions worked together more closely. If business leaders connected with schools in their communities they would quickly learn what you and I know: Those who can, do… teach!

The thoughts on the similarities between business and education were outlined by Max W Fischer

in an article written by Brenda Dyck; Education World® Copyright © 2005 Education World

It is posted at the following web address

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/voice/voice141.shtml

Remember teaching is very labor intensive: It’s practicum and practice. Like sports players, teachers need to practice on the “court” in order to learn the skills.

Above all trust in yourself and realise that teaching is one of the most important professions around.

Anne E Stewart July 2008

Teaching: The Early Days

When I think back to my first day as a teacher I often wonder that I went on to have such a long career and that teaching actually became my great passion

I remember the first day I was so organised, prepared and pumped.

Noble quotes about teaching covered my workbook. I imagined I was following a great tradition in a long line of teachers, from Socrates, and Aristotle through to my own grade six teacher who had inspired me.

But the thing I hadn’t banked on in those early days was the students. Nothing I had studied prepared me for the diversity, the complicated lives, and the difficulty in managing a large group of independent minds.

For my first day I had prepared a whole series of lessons around the study of Rosie’s Walk.

Not only would I be able to assess each student’s capabilities I would move on from introducing them to reading and visual literacy, through to numeracy and science. I had it all worksheets, activities, baby chicks hatching in the class, honeycombs dripping with honey. I was ready

The Sunday night before I started I was so excited, I had gone over and over in my head how it was going to work.

All these beaming faces would look up from their desks in admiration at their teacher as they started on their school journey.

I had borrowed a “big book” of Rosie’s walk, along with smaller copies for students to work with indivdually. As Time magazine had said itself, “A single excursion through Rosie’s Walk could make a reader for life.

The first few sessions were occupied with ‘housekeeping’, my class rules, where they would sit, when lunchtime was, the toilets, all those thing they needed to know to fit in to the school environment

Then I started

“Today we are going to read this story, “Rosie’s Walk”

A little voice piped in from the back of the group. “Miss, my baby sister’s called Rosie and I’m allowed to hold her on the couch when mum’s getting tea ready”

“Thank you Frances but you shouldn’t interrupt when we’re reading a story”.

Now, here is the Title of the book “Rosie’s Walk” and it is written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins.

I turned the page

“Rose the hen went for walk” I read.

The moment I read, it was like a cue for young Dom to stand up and walk across to the school bags to get his play lunch.

No Dom, not now, we have to wait for the bell. Sorry Miss but Mum said if I felt tired I should eat something for my sugar levels

“What, sugar levels?” Nobody had told me this boy was diabetic

Oh! I suppose I would have to let him.

Back to the book

‘Can you see who’s following him”

“The fox, Miss” answered Anna

Good, yes it’s the fox

Next page

“Across the yard”

Little Patrick had been sitting wriggling the whole time I had been reading

“Miss, I have to go to the toilet”.

Oh No, “Well Patrick you will just have to wait till we finish the story.”

Bad mistake, instead of asking again he sat there quietly and wet his pants and the carpet, which I didn’t discovered until I sent them all back to their tables.

I struggled on, reading the text, asking questions about the illustrations, slowly, laboriously until finally I had finished.

“Okay, back to your tables!”

“Hang on a minute, Jessica had fallen asleep and the kids were walking around her.

“Jessica, wake up”

I didn’t realise, I hadn’t known. Not every child gets a good night sleep.

I made Patrick change his pants, I had wondered why the teacher before me had a cupboard full of spare clothes and quickly mopped up his mess

All ready now on your desk is a worksheet

Does anyone know what it says?

“Rosie the hen went for a walk”

I’d already pegged Cass as a helper. “Okay everyone take one of the pages and you can do your own drawing. Cass will you give everyone a box of crayons?”

They set to it; a quiet hum filled the room for a fraction of a second.

“Give me the yellow” screamed Paul

“No, I want it” Jane retaliated

‘Here have this one’,

I said to Paul grabbing another one from a spare box.

I wanted to work individually with each student to check their ability and knowledge of books and reading

Patrick was up and wandering around the room, he couldn’t seem to sit still

“Sit down” ‘ I urged a little louder than I needed to.

“I’m finished my drawing miss” said Esther

I looked at her drawing, ‘Why don’t you add some more things you’d find in the farmyard”

“I don’t want to miss”

“Alright, here’s an extra piece of paper. You may draw whatever you like I said in desperation as I threw the sheet at her.

As the morning progressed, I had the overwhelming feeling that I was sinking. I knew I’d really lost it, when close to tears I screamed at Patrick that if he moved one more time I would tie him to his chair.

The louder I got the more the children played up.

My carefully laid plans had not figured on, or taken into account the children I was working with.

I hadn’t know Patrick lived on a diet of sugary junk food that made him hyperactive, or that Jess’s mum had a new boyfriend and let her children watch television late into the night. I didn’t realise that not every child had a parent that read to them or that some parents didn’t think education was important for their child. I didn’t know that I would sometimes get a class who spoke very little English.

I just didn’t know all these things on my first day

By the end of that first day I was exhausted, overwhelmed and wondering if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.

I dragged myself to the supermarket, I need chocolate and comfort food.

I saw one on my students with her mother, I could barely look at her I felt so useless.

“Miss,” she said.

I turned on a fake smile

“Yes Jane, I said as sweetly as I could muster

“I really liked that story today miss and my mum put my picture on the fridge and said it was excellent work.” “Thanks Miss”

I could have almost swept her up in my arms and lavished her with kisses.

Maybe I would go back the next day.

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