Bernard Walter

Tag: Teaching Stories

  • June 26, 2024

    After today, I could leave tomorrow. I packed up my office and filled the car today, readying myself for the move to a new school. When I had my first classroom, I brought some of my old computers in for the students to use. That didn’t really happen, and I’ve been holding onto them since.…

  • June 24, 2024

    I went to the grade eight students’ graduation today. It was nice to see them walk across the stage, but something felt different about this one, it didn’t have the same gravitas that the ceremony has had in the past. I’ve been working with the same group for three years so it felt right to…

  • June 18, 2024

    I gave my grade eight class some pencil boxes today. I often feel like giving gifts to my students at the end of the year, so I do. It was amazing to watch them try to put them together. For the most part, they struggled, providing every reason for more STEAM programming. I was shocked…

  • March 21, 2024

    Today is Navroz, the new year, timed to fall on, or right next to, the spring equinox. To celebrate, the world has given us negative double-digit weather and grey, moody skies. Our winter was mild. Spring has yet to be sprung.

  • February 23, 2024

    “Look, he’s even smiling,” said one of my students today after I had told the whole class how well they have been doing, how they’ve really turned things around since the beginning of the school year. This is the third year that I’ve worked with most of these students, so we have some familiarity with…

  • September 22, 2023

    One of my students asked me how I’m doing this afternoon. I told him, and the rest of the class, that I’ve been in a terrible mood for the last couple of weeks and can’t figure out why. We joked about how it was probably because of school and them, the class. Truthfully, I don’t…

  • June 22, 2023

    June 22, 2023

    There are six school days left. This time of year is always tough because of the end of the school year. This year feels worse, though. I don’t know that I’ve ever been as ready for the summer. Everything feels so much harder than it is and doing anything more seems like an impossibility. I…

  • May 31, 2023

    May 31, 2023

    Something I find incredibly frustrating about teaching is how the values and ethics that I try my best to instill in the children I teach seem to disappear just outside the school’s walls. You needn’t always go even that far before you find that what I’m trying to impart as good ethics is undone. It…

  • April 25, 2023

    April 25, 2023

    I had a booth at a marketplace today. It was a work thing. As part of the conference, there was a “marketplace” where we presented on how we use technology in our classrooms.