Toronto Star, thestar.com
June 25, 2010
By Tai Notar
I’m like most grade nines — almost through my first year of high school, have had about forty teachers — and I’m beginning to understand how great teachers make a difference. I’ve been lucky; most of them have been great, with a few exceptions here and there.
I was a 9-year-old in Madame Brigitte’s third grade class — the first teacher I can remember who made a noticeable difference in my life. Was it the lesson of kindness when she made a fresh pot of tea for a classmate to soothe his throat? Was it the way she used her own personal mini-zoo to teach us respect, reward us for good work, and responsibility? (I’m still wondering what lesson I should have learned from Grenadine the Guinea pig who used my desk as a toilet, other than the need to clean up after others, not just myself). Overall, Madame Brigitte gave me an early understanding of the power of a positive and supportive teacher.
My seventh grade teacher taught me not to always trust first impressions. Mr. Ambrosio scared me half to death with his serious listing of the rules that first day of homeroom. Turned out he was a funny, friendly, caring and passionate guy who couldn’t do enough to help me. Seemed he thought his job was to help every student he came in contact with succeed. He came in early for one-on-ones to help kids like me overcome my struggles with math even though he wasn’t even my math teacher. His after school soccer coaching was another chance for him to help kids learn. He made us laugh with real life stories and jokes from his experience that still send me into a fit of laughter. His classroom was a place full of joy, a really fun place to learn.
I’ll never forget Ms. Miller, my eighth grade homeroom teacher, who clearly hasn’t stopped learning herself; always experimenting, always reading new things to try out, like how we can learn about our preferred learning styles. Turns out I am a kinaesthetic, logical, musical learner, which isn’t what it seems — I don’t run around painting songs on the walls of the school. But I have learned that I like doing off the wall things, connecting old things in new ways.
