One other experience, in the student teaching at this particular school, had nothing that I can immediately think of to relate it to education, other than noting the oddities of noticing your environment, and being situationally aware.
I have a beard. This is not a fashion statement. I have rather sensitive skin, and shaving, with either a razor or an electric shaver, irritates my skin quite a bit. So I stopped shaving. Having a beard occasionally came in handy, when I was working in work camps, where it was not always possible to depend on the resources for the niceties of personal hygiene. If the other guys had three days growth of beard, they looked scruffy. If I had three days growth of beard, nobody noticed.
I have shaved off my beard from time to time, for various reasons. When I shave, I get two, and only two, reactions. About half of the population doesn't notice that I have shaved, or, indeed, done anything at all with regard to fashion or grooming. The other half of the population doesn't recognize me. There is no middle ground.
Well, since my father had suggested; very, very strongly; that having a beard would be contraindicated for obtaining a job in education, I decided to shave and I shaved on the last day we were going to be at our practicum school. I must admit that I kind of weighted the experiment, by wearing a three-piece suit for the first time in that school.
I really didn't think of it as an experiment or a test. When I got to the school, I had some work for a class that I was going to be teaching, so I was supposed to copying some material in the office. One teacher, in whose class I had taught, came into the office and started doing something else, without speaking to me. I didn't think anything of it: all teachers are busy pretty much all the time, and I just thought that he was too busy for social niceties, in regard to whatever he had to get done before class. Presently another teacher came in, saw me, and called out, "Hi, Rob." The teacher who had come in previously looked at him, questioningly, and said, "Rob's not here." The second teacher, who obviously hadn't noticed that I had changed anything, and the first teacher, who didn't recognize me, started discussing whether or not I was actually in the room. Then the secretary came in, and couldn't figure out why the two of them were discussing whether or not Rob was in the room, when Rob was obviously in the room.
That was, as I say, the last day that we were to be in that particular school. Because the teachers normally have a bit of a send-off for student teachers, and particularly because we had being in that school for more time than is normal for student teachers, the teachers decided that we should have a bit of a send-off at a local pub.
One of the other student teachers and I showed up at the pub fairly early, but at about the same time as one of the teachers. This particular teacher had taken a kind of leadership role in liaising with the student teachers. I had, in fact, become something of the spokesman for the student teachers, myself, and so had had several meetings with her, and others, as well as teaching in her classroom. This teacher started chatting amiably with the other student teacher, and, after about ten minutes, stopped and asked the other student teacher, "Well, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" The tone of her question obviously assumed that I was one of the faculty from UBC who were teaching this particular teacher transfer program. The other student teacher started stammering, "But, you, he, but, ..." unable to get any explanation formulated in his astonishment that the teacher was not able to recognize me. I was no help in explaining things because I was completely convulsed with laughter while noting that the teacher was completely bewildered by our reaction.
(That morning, I had managed to leave the house where I was living, with five other flatmates, without anyone knowing that I had shaved. When I got home, two didn't recognize me, and three didn't notice any change ...)
Previous: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/01/mgg-21-teaching.html
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
Next: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/02/mgg-23-teaching.html
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