The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Tim Johnston

“Mr. Johnston, your escort is waiting for you at the office,” says the school secretary. I rinse my visitor ’s coffee cup and leave Ben Calf Robe St. Clare School ’s staffroom. And there they are—five of John Groten’s Grade 5 and 6 students, who have been assigned to see me quickly to his classroom.

I’m visiting male elementary teachers in Edmonton and area to gather insights into their professional lives, teaching as they do in schools staffed primarily with female teachers.

John began his elementary teaching career 17 years ago, following a suggestion by his University of Calgary advisor. He thought at the time that he would probably enjoy the interaction with younger children and it’s clear that he does. John feels honoured to have a role in the development years of his students. “These kids are open and respond quickly to new interests and material,” John says. “I find it so fulfilling to be part of their lives.”

On another day, I wait outside Dan Baker ’s classroom in Sherwood Park’s Wes Hosford School. Classes are changing and the hallway is filled with students. A big man, at least 6’ 6” tall, is part of the flow of people coming toward me. Towering over me and every other person in the hallway, he stops to open the door of the classroom and invites me to join his class of Grade 4 students.

Dan came late to teaching, although he comes from a family of teachers. Both his parents taught as does his sister. His grandfather, R. I. Baker, was a pioneer teacher and administrator in southern Alberta. Coaldale’s middle school is named after him. Instead, Dan followed his interest in drama and music and was a professional actor and musician before becoming a teacher. Seven years ago, he decided to attend university to pursue a degree in education. His father, having been an elementary school principal, encouraged Dan to think about elementary teaching, and that’s where Dan has spent his career so far.

The acting experience shows through quite clearly. “Drama time is a lot of fun in here,” Dan says. I share my view that a good teacher is often a good entertainer as well, something I learned long ago in my career as a junior high teacher. He agrees, as do some of the children that have gathered around us during our conversation. Dan and his students are obviously comfortable with each other, and one little boy says, “I was scared of you at first. You ’re so big, but it’s okay now.”

One of only three men in the school, Dan Baker has found the place where he wants to teach. This big man, daily in the midst of little people, has earned the respect and friendship of his students and colleagues. He serves as a role model within his school and for other men who might consider elementary education as a career and a calling.

“Why am I so lucky?” Kel Townend asks his class of children at Edmonton’s Parkdale School. “Because you have us!” they call out, almost in unison. Kel is in his 31st year of teaching and has spent the past 15 years as a member of Parkdale’s elementary staff. He has an interesting and diverse background, having spent a number of years teaching special needs students. Prior to that, he worked in construction. “I was invited to leave university,” Kel says, explaining that his first try at the Big School didn’t capture his full attention, “and I had to find some kind of work.”

Kel teaches a split Grade 1/2 class this year in beautiful old Parkdale School. About one quarter of the class is Aboriginal. Kel follows Aboriginal spirituality in his personal life and signs of this are evident within his comfortable and welcoming classroom. He has been given the Cree name of Koona Oho, or Snowy Owl, and wears a tattoo of an owl on his right arm. His other arm bears a tattoo of a Haida sun mask, to honour the culture of his wife. As Kel works with the children, I am aware of the strong bonds between teacher and students, and it occurs to me how lucky these children are to have this man as their first teacher.

Louis Laventure is showing a small beaker filled with murky fluids to his Grade 5 students at Prince Charles School when I enter his classroom in one of the portables behind the main building. The children are keenly watching the way different parts of this science shooter are settling out and they volunteer their observations about the specific gravity of the fluids Louis has combined.

Prince Charles is Edmonton Public’s primary First Nations, Inuit and Métis elementary school. As Louis and I visit during the inclass recess (it was -28C that afternoon), he tells me that he is Métis, something he discovered only a few years ago. “What a gift that must have been to learn,” I say. Louis consciously integrates his personal history with what he teaches.

During his university practicum, Louis liked spending time with elementary students and especially enjoyed the opportunities for sports and music at this level. He finds elementary teaching to be holistic—teaching the child, not so much the subject—and recognizes the importance of a male role model in the lives of many of his students. Louis is at home with his students, their interesting science experiments and everything else that happens in the little world inside this portable classroom.

The students in Bill Korec’s Grade 6 classroom in Lamont Elementary School are working on what I think are posters of target circles when I arrive. “Curling houses, actually,” Bill says. A unit on curling is under way, prompted by an invitation to this school for some of its students to attend the Canadian Curling Championship at the Brier in Edmonton. It doesn’t hurt to have curling Olympic gold medalist Atina Ford-Johnston on staff to pique interest in this popular Canadian winter sport.

Bill was born and raised in Toronto but came west to earn an education degree at the University of Alberta. He specialized in secondary education but found there were no jobs available at that level at the time. His first teaching assignment was at Lamont Elementary School, followed by a few years in Vegreville and then back to Lamont. One of only two men on staff, Bill is now in his 11th year as an elementary teacher.

The topic changes from curling to math, and Bill dons the microphone headset for the classroom speakers, which allows him to demonstrate at the whiteboard while explaining about the concepts involved in percentages. I enjoy listening to his delivery of the math lesson, the subject I most feared when I was a student. He slips in little zingers to see if the kids are paying attention—“The school principal is figuring out the school budget. If she spends 10 per cent on books, 18 per cent on sports and 30 per cent on a hot tub for the staff . . . .” But the kids catch him, he can’t slip anything past them.

“I get a lot out of teaching at this level,” Bill say. As well as his teaching assignments, Bill is the school’s technology leader and is involved in the AISI and the district literacy programs. He is also working toward a master’s in education.

Most children in elementary school probably have only one teacher for each grade. Students in the split Grade 5/6 class at Parkland Village School, north of Spruce Grove, share three teachers—and they are all men. Glen Thiel is the school principal and one of the teachers. Glen has considerable experience in the profession, having spent 17 years teaching junior high in Edson. He moved to Spruce Grove’s Broxton Park School, where he got his first taste of elementary teaching and found that he enjoyed the early years of schooling. Parkland Village School has been his responsibility since early 1998.

Glen took me to visit the junior kindergarten room where Jay Morrison was working. It was close to the end of the day for these children and Jay had gathered them on the rug for a guitar-accompanied sing-along. I sat cross-legged with the children and listened to the fun they were having. When song time ended, the class started putting away crayons, school shoes and books. One little boy insisted that the principal help him with his task, and Glen gladly complied. Jay teaches this class in the afternoon, spending some of the mornings working with the Grade 5/6 class.

We had just a few minutes to catch Dipendra Kotak wrapping up the day with the school’s senior class. That’s when I photographed the three teachers surrounded by their shared responsibilities. Afterward, we talked about why they enjoy teaching at the elementary level. Jay came to teaching after completing study as an engineering technologist. Dipendra spent 10 years working for Safeway but wanted a career that was more personally fulfilling. “There’s a belief that men are not as nurturing as women can be to students of this age,” Dipendra says. “But I think we are. Kids often accidentally call me Dad. Heck, I’ve even been called Mom on occasion.” Jay says he likes his time with the junior kindergarten children. “There is so much growth and learning visible each day.” Jay recently became a father to a baby daughter, and I have no doubt that this has influenced his thinking.

The advice of the men I visited concerning what path to follow is simple. Give elementary education a good hard look. These eight teachers told me that elementary school is where they want to be. From what I observed, that’s the way their students would have it as well.