Life is a Story

Professional Day. For some this means a day of no school. For others it means a day of workshops and meetings. Last Friday, the district had its last professional day of the school year. As teachers, we were scheduled to attend a couple of in-school workshops. Often, these Pro-D activities are dreadfully, dreadfully boring – lecture style presentations leave me wondering how I ever made it through university. Other times, however, the presenter of the workshop hits it right and manages to deliver something dynamic and fun. As we entered the class for the first session of the day, “Behaviour Management and Your Classroom”, I began to dread this hour and a half might be of the former kind and before I even reached my seat, my brain started to feel that familiar tingly, anaesthetizing sensation and my vision started to blur– I wasn’t going to make it! Much to my surprise the lecture quickly gave way to a lively story telling event – “Tales from the Crypt of a Nearly Retired Teacher”. This fellow colleague could really yarn! I found myself (and everyone around me) fully engaged and laughing out loud – the presentation was fantastic! 90 minutes passed like it was 10 and I was still feeling that all over glow of a good laugh when I entered the second session. As I nibbled on a complementary rock-hard bagel (meant to entice teachers to the workshop) I realized too late that this session smacked of university lecture. Immediately, I had trouble focussing my thoughts, my body beginning to numb out. I settled into the most comfortable position I could find on the hard plastic chair, and not unlike days past, I let my mental body be carried off on the voice of the lecturer, my physical body only a place holder. After the session was over and I regained my senses (and the sensation in my butt), I was able to reflect: this must be what a boring class is like for our students …. No, this IS what a boring class is like for our students! As teachers, we must strive to engage our students to the maximal degree, we have to liven our lessons and relate our teachings to the lives of those being taught. Life is a story, learning is a story and this is how we come to understand. Through interesting tales, relative anecdotes and the occasional joke we are drawn in and walk, if just for a moment, beside the storyteller. If each lesson were wrapped in a parable, I know many more students would be engaged and more learning would be taking place in our classrooms. Now, if I could only figure out how to enjoy a dried out, hard bagel!