Please welcome Ms. Tori Portman - another fantastic new teacher joining Via Vita this fall! We are eager to get the year started with this enthusiastic, kind, and talented team player. Enjoy getting to know Tori with her recent blog post as she prepares for her first year, of many, with us at VVA! Hi everyone! My name is Tori Portman, and I’m one of the new teachers joining the Via Vita Academy family! In my many years of adulting, and trying to stay a life long learner, it has come to my attention to pass on my recently acquired knowledge:
We are all continuous works in progress. Isn’t that amazing? How has it taken me so long to realize this and yet we teach our students constantly to persevere, and know that another day, another year, or another change is right around the corner? So I think if there is any advice I could not only pass on to my fellow students or staff, but to myself, it is that we all deserve a chance to take a breath when it comes to growth. I have always struggled with not being “immediately” perfect at a skill, or lesson, which has run over into my teaching ability as well. Why didn’t that lesson go perfectly? Is it obviously my fault? Why couldn’t I get it on the first try? Realistically, when do we ever get something the first try? Those odd opportunities when we have already mastered a skill, or find out we’ve been lucky to figure it out right away, but these are unrealistic expectations to meet on a daily basis. So for this year, I have reminded myself to breathe, reflect, and realizing I am still building up the teacher I hope to be one day. And that’s ok! Really! I tell my students constantly that one day does not define their abilities. So why should we put the pressure on ourselves as adults, as educators, as parents to think the same rule does not apply? We are constantly rearranging the building blocks of our life and I hope take time for myself to do the same this year. This school seems to provide it’s staff and students exactly that space. Lesson didn’t go well? Try again tomorrow! Try it differently! Have someone there to tell you it’ll be ok and provide you with whatever support you need in that instance. What more could you look for when trying to find your “forever home” as an educator. Already from my few weeks of working at Via Vita, I can see the relationships and constant building up that staff and students focus on rather than breaking people down and reminding them of the faults they are usually self-aware of from the start. I can not contain my excitement at the success not only my students find, but that I hope to find within myself. Self-positivity is something I constantly preach in my teaching values, but not always something I practice actively. If I had primary goal for this year, it would be that. Someone remind me I said such coherent ideas when it’s December and I’m looking for somewhere to hibernate and de-frazzle my brain. As a teacher I am ready to promote this theory. As a fellow learner with my students I am looking forward to practice building myself up every day. Look out 2018-2019 school year, Tori Portman is coming atcha! *insert power pose with ultimately clumsy results here* Sincerely, A Work in Progress
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Each of our teachers are truly unique and special. It is such a joy to know when we've found someone new to add even more awesomeness to the team. Mr. Ryan Cox is just that. He joined us for the summer to help run Camp Via Vita and will be joining our teachers this fall for Via Vita Academy's Year 2. He is talented, enthusiastic and passionate. What more could we ask for? Please give Mr. Ryan a warm welcome and enjoy his first, of many, posts to our blog. I’ll often find myself at parties, self- stationed near the snack table, meeting new faces for fun, and inevitably talking about teaching. Recently, though, my side of such talks on teaching has enjoyed a new and exciting, long-awaited opening line.
Let me explain how the convo used to go, first. “So Ryan, what do you do?” For me, the seemingly straightforward answer has long been, “I’m a teacher.” However, it’s that classic follow-up question that so often intrigues me: “What do you teach ?” Well, the go-to, safety-first response has always been simple enough: “English, Social Studies, and Music,” and yes, it’s kind of a kickstarter for further conversation, but if I’m being honest, this answer sounds like Water Soup must taste: flavourless and predictable. (Spoiler Alert: the following is the opening line that’s since been refined.) For the longest time, if the person I was meeting seemed genuinely curious, I would answer them with something a little less obvious... “I teach the truth, as often as I can afford to.” Sounds cool, right? This answer would almost always raise eyebrows, and I would always get a kick out of my own cleverness. Still, sometimes I would be asked to explain what I meant. On those occasions The conversation would start sounding a lot clunkier, more serious, and far less cool and clever. Here’s an example: New Face raises an eyebrow in curiosity. “Do tell!” “Well, what I mean is that the subjects I teach are traditionally flexible...for me. As an English teacher, the typical direction I’m given is: Short Stories > Novels > Essay > Poetry > Play > Projects in between. So basically I’m given carte-blanche. Same goes for Social Studies; the materials are more concrete to be sure, but really, past Latitude, Longitude, the Compass Rose and Western Europe on a map, the cornucopia of human endeavour is mine through which to pick. And Music? After “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” the rest of the sky’s the limit! So really, with loose guidelines like those, how could I not afford to be truthful in my teaching ?” New Face nods, grabs a piece of celery from the vegetable tray, douses it in ranch dressing, and chomps on it contemplatively while I get farther and farther from my once-cool line. .. “I mean sure, I like getting to teach interesting things, but then I look around the classroom and see twenty to forty different learners. That’s when I shrug and just explore materials that excite me , in the hope that my excitement proves contagious to all of them. And yeah, it sometimes does. But what if the student enjoyed something similar to those carte-blanche guidelines so typically given to me ? That way students might feel like they have some genuine control over their own learning, and get to explore materials more likely to excite them. Doesn’t that sound like something much closer to the true nature of education?” New Face smiles and says “Of course it does!” Then, having finished their celery stick, they move on to the plate of dessert squares, find a nanaimo bar, and (while I delve into act three of my monologue) begin nibbling away... “I mean, we’ve both gone through school, so we know that a school where students are given a lot of control over what they learn is pretty much fantasy; in most schools, everyone--the students, the teachers, and the parents--still expect that the student be evaluated objectively, and mostly through the materials that the teacher tells them to explore. As a result, I still end up functioning in the classroom as that stereotypical sage on the stage--standing tallest, oldest, and so presumably wisest at the front of the class, wielding the whiteboard marker like a wand and sharing tidbits of my ‘invaluable’ knowledge through methods of my choosing. And while I may well convince them tha--” New Face interjects with a question meant to help me get to my point. “Sorry, but what is the truth that you wish you could afford to teach more often ?!” “Oh! That there is no singular path in education, for either the student or the teacher. That both deserve a lot of freedom to learn effectively; students deserve the freedom to explore more material that engages them personally, and teachers deserve the freedom to instruct more around those materials. Alas, with class sizes and curricula the way they’re currently set, I feel like I can only afford for my classroom to work like this a couple of weeks of the year.” In solidarity, New Face shakes my hand and says,“May you find a place where you can teach like that all the time!” Then I straighten my back a bit, and have a go at that dessert plate. So recently, I found a new school that teaches this way all the time, which is how I came up with my new opening line. Last night, at a party, near the snack table, I once again met a new face, who soon asked what it is that I do. After I told them that I’m a teacher, they asked what it is that I teach. This time I had a new answer: “I teach at Via Vita, which means ’Way of Life.’ That’s what we teach--how for every learner, education is exactly that: A Way of Life.” Then, beaming with confidence over New Face’s curiosity, I grabbed a celery stick off the snack table and started talking. Please welcome our guest blogger, Ms. Kaylea. She joined us for a day last week to observe our teachers, gather ideas, and learn what we do! As a teacher in a small school as well, Ms. Kaylea was hoping to gain insight into how she might be able to apply some of our philosophies to benefit her students. We were overjoyed to offer Ms. Kaylea some professional development that she could immediately apply to her own teaching. After her visit, she wrote us this little note to post on our blog. that we were eager to share with you! Enjoy the read! Hi! My name is Kaylea and I am a classroom teacher at a small school in rural Nova Scotia. I am currently teaching a class of students from grade primary to grade three. I contacted Adele for the opportunity to visit Via Vita Academy to learn how they run their multiage classrooms.
When I walked into the school I was greeted by the warm, smiling faces of the staff members. I could tell right away that they were oozing with passion as they engaged with students and parents. We started the day with a morning meeting. All teachers should run their mornings this way! There is a bullet point agenda written by the students on the front board. What makes it unique is that every person has an opportunity to add their thoughts, ideas and concerns to the agenda. I noticed immediately that teachers didn't have to waste time ordering students to pay attention and listen to one another. I couldn't help but smile while I watched all of the students sitting around comfortably. After we sang Oh Canada every student dispersed and knew exactly where to go and what to do. While I floated around for the day, I was able to see students bake, do yoga, read, write, complete individualized math activities and work on their term projects. I had the pleasure of watching a presentation from a student in grade 8, a theatre class, chore time AND I enjoyed delicious cupcakes to celebrate the April birthdays! I was amazed by the teachers’ abilities to question. They let their students draw their own conclusions and only ask more questions to allow them to dive deeper into their thinking. It made me realize how much more questioning I could be doing in my own classroom! As a public school teacher visiting Via Vita Academy, I left the school feeling jealous but also inspired. They're on to some big things and will be graduating students who will be ready for life beyond school. I can't thank the staff and students of this wonderful school enough for the inspirational experience! |
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