Begin forwarded message:
From: SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>Subject: ALAN SKEOCH AWARD 2018Date: November 14, 2018 at 6:31:06 PM ESTTo: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>, “Macdonald, Leigh” <lemacdonald@scdsb.on.ca>
LEIGH…SEE MY NOTE THAT FOLLOWS…THIS IS THE SPEECH I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE…MIGHT TAKE EIGHT MINUTES
ALAN
SKEOCH AWARD … TO NATHAN TIDRIDGE
( HAMILTON WENTWORTH DISRICT BOARD OF -EDUCATION)
CRITERIA
1) SENSITIVITY TO STUDENTS AT ALL LEVELS.
2) COLLEGIALITY WITH FELLOW STAFF MEMBERS
3) ORIGINALITY
4) ENTHUSIASM
5) REACH BEYOND THE CLASSROOM INTO BROADER COMMUNITY
ALAN SKEOCH
NOV. 15, 2018
Members of OHASSTA, publishers, student teachers, ladies and gentlemen
I consider it a great honour to have this award given in my name annually to a classroom
teacher whose contribution to education has been remarkable.
What makes a remarkable teacher?
Off the top I would put each of you in that category because you are willing
to reach beyond the classroom to the wider world of education…that’s why
you are here at OHASSTA…you are perpetual learners … improvers…interested
in others ideas…prepared to share your ideas. Remarkable.
Nathan Tidridge, this year 2018 is you…How do I know? Because for
the last half century…48 years I have sat among you…joined your tables…
shared your joys and your failures…noticed things that make you remarkable
-Remarkable teachers are respected…first and foremost…without that respect Remarkability fizzles.
-Remarkable teachers remember names…memorize names of their students from the get go
-Remarkable teachers can control their classrooms…clear objectives
-Remarkable teachers never humiliate their students
-Remarkable teachers have thick skins…not all teaching goes smoothly…sometimes a student might
tell a teacher to Go to Hell…that is a real teaching moment…remarkable teachers know that.
-Remarkable teachers recognize distress in certain students…and provide help…or get help.
-Remarkable teachers laugh a lot…and can laugh at themselves
-Remarkable teachers are positive people;e
-RemarKalbe teachers respect social distance…they are called Sir, Miss, or Mr…not Joe, John or Judy
-Remarkable teachers enjoy rather than fear parents nights
-Remarkable teachers want their students to achieve…to be elevated
-Remarkable teachers know what they are doing…the lessons are going somewhere…coherent
-Remarkable teachers understand the curriculum…even though they might pinch it a bit…or expand it more
-Remarkable teachers are passionate about their subject
-Remarkable teachers are passionate about children…love working with them
-Remarkable teachers are remembered … forever
-Remarkable teachers are cut from various cloths…they are not digital cut outs…they differ…students notice
I had a lot of remarkable teachers
Phyllis Morgan…who loved Latin but also spent much of her life finding places in the work world for her students…and
who recognized distress and took action.
Evan Cruikshank…who admitted there were things he did not know about our world…instilled a desire to work as a team in the classroom
Roberta Charlesworth…who lifted me by my ear and drummed one clear lesson into my teen age brains “I judge people by what they do,
not by what they say.’
Duncan Green…who found a place for everyone in his classes…in his school play…on his track and field team…no one was left out
Fred Burford…who made math seem easy…and who elevated a nondescript bunch of teen age boys into a formidable team of football players…
education requires team work. I got the hop, step and jump…not a stellar role but one I could attempt.
Miss Sharpley, Grade 6, who made every student feel important but who also treated every student the same…
Mr. Herman Couke…who suspended me for 5 days for spotting a football game played by an enemy school…that
was unethical behaviour he explained…I have to suspend you Alan … your first offence…must treat all students the same
or our educational system will collapse into a sea of favouritism.
John Ricker who taught me a wonderful skill…to keep my mouth shut if a lesson takes off…he was prepared to
zip sideways in a lesson…peripheral … and he used silence as a control skill…and he showed deep thinking and power using just as few words as possible.
He knew the power of Silence…slow sipping of his coffee with his eyes ferreting the room…then with one word…the word “Really”
he established that historical causes and effects are never simple…many causes of one big effect…and that effect had consequences
that were varied … not simple. If he were in your class next Monday he might ask”
-Who is Donald Trump?
-Why did so many Americans vote for him?
-Why did the Journalist Woodward title his book on Trump, FEAR?
Or he might just say, “I was thinking the other night about human civilization, what makes us remarkable? Do we have a future?
Alan Skeoch
Nov. 14, 2018
OHASSTA CONFERENCE