The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) was my employer for my 29 year teaching career. In 1990 I started my career at MacGregor Senior Public, then spent 4 years at Silverheights PS. After that it was 12 years at Clemens Mill PS, one year at St. Andrew’s Senior PS and I finished my career at Jean Steckle PS. I was really lucky to teach my favourite grades – Grades 7 & 8 – as a Music & Art Specialist along with all the other subjects that needed to be taught. My teacher name “Ms. J.” was so well known, parent notes were often written to “Ms. Jay.”
Education workers, I know that a lot of beautiful, brilliant advocacy happens in your classrooms every day. You stay up late worrying about the needs of your students who are learning disabled, struggling with anxieties, being targeted by bullies and all the many other stresses of life.
Thing is, you rarely talk about all the wonderful work you do on social media. Out of professional respect for our students, you often keep your creative and inventive lessons, strategies and victories out of the public eye.
Even though I ran in the provincial election, a lot of people in the region still don’t know me. They don’t know how many years I taught the most awesome Black History music classes and how I was sharing Indigenous music and history – with very few resources – back in the ’90s. Fortunately, meeting Buffy Ste. Marie a few years ago helped me get better music and materials.
When very few others were talking about 2SLGBTQIA+ I was making sure we talked about creating accepting spaces so people could come out of the safety of the closet. I thoroughly enjoyed the uniquely wired and creative minds that came through my classrooms. Music classrooms are natural spaces for just that. And I have the warmest memories of the challenging students who defied the odds, even when they exhausted me. Also, I tried each year to find the right moment to be vulnerable and tell my students about how I was sexually molested multiple times in my youth. I wanted students experiencing abuse to know they were not alone. We not only survive, we thrive. And we thrive with fire in our souls.
Admittedly I didn’t always handle everything perfectly, but I know my heart was in the right place.
Also, I realized that I have very few photos of me in the classroom. I retired in June 2019 and the photo above was one of the last selfies I took in my classroom on Sept 30th, 2016. It was Orange Shirt Day and I was prepping to share Phyllis Webstad’s story.
Educator friends, I celebrate you and all the beautiful, genius things you do everyday. And please remember to get good pics of you teaching, even if you keep them to yourself.
This fall I am running for Trustee because my passion for education and the needs of our students still runs deep in my soul. The WRDSB has not had a Trustee with teaching experience since 2018, so it is time.
On Oct 24th, please vote. The candidates are NOT the same. Elect Trustees who will protect each and every one of our students.
