MY FIRST TEACHING POSITION

I had graduated with a teaching certificate from the U. of L.  I sent out five resumes in May. I was out working road construction for Coho Paving out of Pincher Creek in June when I received a call from Sig Jabs the principal of Hanna Senior High asking if I would be available for a Job interview. Sig was going to be in Lethbridge on a Saturday and I agreed to meet him for coffee at a northside coffee shop and I would drive in from Pincher Creek.  I really cannot remember what I said at the interview which was quite informal but at the end of the 20 minute interview Sig offered me a job and I accepted and he told me to show up in September when the school year started.  We shook hands and I went back to working road construction.  I quit the road construction job the last week in August and drove up to Hanna via Lethbridge, Taber, Highway 36,  Brooks and kept going north until hitting highway #9 and turned right for 20 miles and there was Hanna, a small town of 4000 in the middle of nowhere.  I drove to the superintendants office and asked the head secretary to phone the principal. Sig appeared shortly and I asked him if he could help me find a place to stay.  In retrospect, what a stupid thing to expect to automatically find a place to stay in one day.  To make a long story short, Sig found me a place to stay in Albert Fanos basement for 50 dollars a month.  The place was a literally a real hole in the ground.  Because my place was just a place to sleep, I stayed many hours at the school working after hours because there was nothing else to do and volunteered every Wednesday to run a drama club .  My first year was spent making detailed lesson plans because I was responsible for teaching all three levels of English for grade 10, 11, and 12 as well as economics. I was a Chinese teacher teaching all white kids so I was kind of a novelty.  Of course the grade 12 students tried to test my authority but being a veteran at working road construction where you work with real men who can instill the fear of God  I adopted the blue collar bullying persona with the trouble making students.  All you have to do is single out the ring leader and scare the hell out of them with implied physical threats in private one on one conversations and when you see the fear in their eyes you know the problem is solved . In maintaining discipline in a class you just have to establish who is the Alpha Male and that is me and everyone falls into place. I spent five years teaching in Hanna and they were some of the most rewarding times in my teaching career. The students were appreciative and would often be invited by their parents to come to dinner.  I was teacher, a coach , field trip supervisor.  The second year in Hanna I was asked to be the graduation supervisor which is the ultimate honor because the graduation ceremony and reception was the social event of the year for the town and surrounding area.  I taught five years in Hanna and the rewarding part was teaching the same student for three years and new the strengths and weaknesses of each individual student in their ability to read , write and communicate in English and was able to have them prepped properly for the English Departmental exams. 

Retirement

June 30, 2013 was my last day as a teacher after 36 years of teaching. I began my teaching career at Hanna High School now renamed the John C. Charyk High School in Hanna, Alberta in 1976. My first paycheck for the first month of teaching was $1,500 which I thought was a princely sum. I lived in a one bedroom room in the cellar of a house owned by a railroad conductor named Albert Fano. The rent was $50 a month.  Albert would occassionally at least once a month get loaded to the gills in the evening and bark like a dog. I never knew that Albert never had a dog and never knew why the dog would start barking in the night. I guess Albert was a bit of an alcoholic and when he came back from a long trip on the train, he would sit on his couch and unwind with a couple of drinks and when he got loaded he would bark his head off like a dog. Whenever, I went to pay Albert the rent at the end of the month, I was always expecting to see the dog. A  few months later I inadvertently surprised Albert sitting on his living room couch with a drink in hand barking like a dog. I had knocked on his open back kitchen door to pay the rent and all I could hear was a dog barking every time I knocked. I proceeded cautiously through the kitchen and into the living room and there I found Albert barking.  Albert stated, " I guess you now have discovered the secret about my dog"?  I replied, " Well , Albert you certainly had me fooled because I thought there was a real dog in the house." " Here is the rent for the month Albert."  I stayed in that basement room for my first year and found a new place to live a block from the school. Before leaving, I gave Albert a twenty six of crown royal whiskey with my last rent check as a token of my appreciation for renting me his basement.  Albert was quite touched with the gift and said he would put it to good use.  I am quite sure it contained many dark barks once consumed. Since I have retired from teaching , I will have some time to reflect upon my teaching experiences . Hopefully, this will be one of many posts about my life as a teacher.   My next installment will relate how I just about blew up the school with hydrogen gas fire balloons during the Christmas concert.

Mr. Lee's Teaching Memoires

Mission statement:

To record for posterity the Life and Times of Mr. Lee

* Earliest Memories
* Growing up in Lethbridge
* Chinese heritage
* The University years
* Rangeland School Division :The first years as a teacher
* Rocky view school division
* Private tutoring
* Calgary Board of Education
* Educational study tours
* 2005 World Debate Convener
* Speech and Debate
* Traveling abroad: U.K., Western Europe, Greece, Africa, South America, China, U.S.A.
* Domestic travel
* Teachable moments
* Volunteering