When a teacher encourages students to pursue their passion, their influence deserves to be recognized and shared. The Our Kids Private School Expo blog hop provides a great opportunity to express why my media studies teacher, Alice Trachimovsky’s classes are among my best high school memories.
Once I saw how Mrs. T handled a group of immature boys while substituting for one of my grade ten classes, I knew she was a woman from whom I wanted to learn. The following year in grade eleven, her exciting creative assignments ranged from a shopping mall analysis to a full-fledged public service announcement campaign, for which I learned how to create a teaser. Leading enjoyable discussions is one of her specialties, especially when it comes to Lady Gaga and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Her observational humour always piqued my friends’ interest in how the media industry operates, making it unsurprising that many of my high school classmates study MIT at Western now.
Smaller classes make it easier to form meaningful bonds that promote keeping in touch post-graduation. Three years later, Mrs. T and I still meet for coffee every summer to catch up (most recently at Aroma).
Mrs. T always supported my ambitions to ensure Hot On The Street lived on after its print editions and I’ll never forget when she challenged us to summarize an article in 140 characters.
A magical formula doesn’t move private school students from school A to first choice university B, and then onto dream job C – teachers play a fundamental role in helping students get there.
