BCTELA

Braden McDonell

Braden McDonell holds an MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance Literature from the University of Glasgow and currently teaches English at Collingwood School.

"Good morning class, my name is Odysseus and I am your student teacher.”

For six long years I fought in a metaphorical battle of Troy. I became known for my prowess as a writer and researcher and was highly praised for the work I produced. I waged battle on essays, writer’s block, textbooks by the dozens, horrifying lecturers and dreaded all-nighters and, once I had completed my thesis on the Trojan horse, I was showered with accolades and, with a handshake from Agamemnon, sent on my way.

I knew not where I was going and the winds blew me off-track to the island of Circe where I got a job and began life anew. However, it was not long before I desired more, until I felt a desire to return home to the academic world, to my true calling of education. I made the decision, from there, to become a student teacher – beginning a journey of self-exploration fraught with hardships, mythical beasts, sweet sirens and benevolent gods.

Upon the island’s rocky shore Athena came to me in the guise of my two sponsor teachers (and a faculty advisor) to help me along my journey. They helped me to lay out a plan that I could follow in terms of course load, number of preps and my own comfort level. Further, they warned me of the obstacles I would need to overcome, of the dreaded Cyclopes and of the much feared Scylla and Charybdis that threaten all new/beginning teachers. My sponsors prompted me to begin my journey and furnished me with the tools (and the classroom) with which I would begin. They would remain with me for the length of my journey, always vigilant, but never interfering or judging (only constructively criticizing) and they worked with me to help organize a clear plan (in my case, unit and lesson plans) that would effectively plot my course through the practicum and allow me to maximize my time and learning potential and look after my crew (students) who sailed valiantly with me.

I was not long upon my journey before I came upon Scylla and Charybdis, or, in educational terms, behaviour management – and let me point out right now that, in many ways, the behaviour insome classes is not any less frightening than the mythical monsters I am comparing it to. My sponsors, recognizing the dangerous waters in which I would soon find myself adrift, stepped in and gave me some hints that, based on their own experiences, helped them to negotiate the tricky passage that is classroom management. Never once did they tell me the route I hadto take or even furnish me with an exact roadmap, but they did provide me, like Athena to Odysseus, the information I needed to negotiate the behaviour inside my classroom. With their help I was able to create an approach that worked for me, to plot a course which, in very short order, got me confidently past the monsters and into calmer waters where I could truly begin my personal odyssey.

The next obstacle on my journey, the Cyclopes, presented an even more formidable foe than did Scylla and Charybdis. The Cyclopes, in my case, was a group of students and parents who challenged every decision that I made in my English class. Hours and hours spent labouring over stacks of grade ten papers on To Kill a Mockingbird, assigning grades, writing comments and agonizing over every single one led directly to the inevitable parent-teacher and teacher-student conferences, another crucial step in the development of any student teacher. My sponsors came, once again, to my assistance, helping me to streamline my marking process and to gather documents for meetings with parents and students. They allowed me to face parents and students, trusting in my individual strength to hold true to my own beliefs and standing behind me, supporting my observations and decisions. Cyclopes wandering the hallways were directed to me, my decisions held firm and directly supported. In this way, my journey differed slightly from that of Odysseus; he stood up to the Cyclopes and declared, “my name is no-man”, hiding his identity. For my own part, I stood up and declared, “I am the student teacher more commonly known as Mr. O’Donnell. Welcome to my world Mr. and Mrs. Cyclopes!”

Finished with the Cyclopes and once again cast into the wine-dark seain search of Ithaca, my sponsor teachers, like the guiding whispers of Athena, assisted me in my quest to analyze the grades of my students and the information gathered from the parents. I was then able to use that information to re-evaluate my formative and summative assessment techniques. They helped me to adjust and fine-tune my assignments, occasionally offering suggestions for improving the specificity of my grading rubrics and assignment outlines, allowing me to, in the future, provide more explicit instructions to students and justify my grading decisions with greater confidence. In short, they worked with me to create the life preservers I clung to in turbulent waters.

Finally, like Odysseus, I was cast upon the Phaecian shore having negotiated the development of unit plans, frightening monsters of classroom management and questioning students and parents. Upon this shore, I would have wandered lonely, naked and anonymous through the course of my practicum if it had not been for the support and familial atmosphere of the English department itself. Like Nausicaa and her family, they brought me into their world, allowed me to tell my own story and provided me with the forum to showcase my own skills and abilities. I was included in feasts and celebrations and encouraged to participate and, in this way, I really felt like I was a part of something. They pro- vided me with the tools, confidence and support I needed for my journey.

Now that I have arrived on Ithaca, or at least within view of its shores, I look back fondly on the trials, tribulations and experiences I have been through over the course of my journey. I note that, as close as I am to my current goal, the journey is not over – rather, it is just beginning. “Class dismissed.”