Welcome back!
Today is the first day of over one hundred eighty days we are going to
spend together. My greatest hope is this
will be a time of great learning and fun together. I recently saw the quote, "I care more
about the people my students become than the scores they get on tests."
The more time I spend teaching, the more this idea seems to hold true for me.
This will be my seventeenth year of teaching. Man, am I
getting old? I think this will be my ninth year at Highview. I never thought I
would stay at one school for this long, but Highview has been such a great
community it is hard to imagine leaving. I am really excited to be teaching
grade 6 again this year. When people have asked me what my favourite grade to teach
would be, I've always said grade 6.
Since I will be learning about you, I thought I would share
a little bit about me. I was born in Sarnia, but my family moved to Toronto
when I was only five. I am the third of four boys (my poor mother). Two
passions ruled my childhood, sports and comics. The year I moved to Toronto was
the first year the Blue Jays existed. I have been a die-hard fan ever since.
I've celebrated the two World Series victories and suffered through some rough
seasons (like this year). I played baseball in high school, even playing with a
couple of eventual major league players. I credit comic books for my reading passion.
I've noticed that the people making superhero movies today, like "X-Men"
and "The Avengers", are my age.
My biggest influence during my teenage years were my
experiences at camp. From working at a summer camp, I discovered I wanted to be
a teacher and I loved spending time in the great outdoors. Eventually, I even
met my wife to be at camp. My wife and I still spend parts of our summer on
canoe trips whenever possible.
This past summer my wife and I took a trip to Algonquin Park. Our dog, Toby, is getting older and we thought we would take him for some canoeing and swimming. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time.
A large part of my leisure time this summer was spent
playing golf. I have only just gotten back into playing golf in the last three
or four years, but I have caught the bug in a big way. No matter how badly I
play, I can't wait to get out again to see if I can get better. It certainly keeps me humble. During the
school year, my sport of choice is volleyball. I play a couple of nights a
week.
My big passion all year long is reading. Mr. Kaufman calls
my book collection a library! Though my library is not growing very fast, because
I'm reading more and more e-books. I read about 20 books this summer, including a number
of books in preparation for teaching grade 6. You will notice I couldn't make up my mind on our first read aloud! I hope we will be able to share many
great books together. What are your favourite books?
I hope over the next days and weeks I will have the
opportunity to get to know all of you better. What is important to you?
It looks like a great year ahead.
Sincerely,
T.
Congram
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