Maggie Shaw – Favourite Teaching Moment

Do you have a favourite teaching memory?

I have so many incredible teaching memories. These kids are an absolute hoot. How much they enrich my life, and the things that they create, the things that they say. Coming in and telling me about what they did on the weekend and that they’re so proud of, etc. But one of the ones that really sticks out for me was quite an emotional one.

I was on my maternity leave after giving birth to my daughter who was born critically ill, she didn’t have an immune system, and it turned out she was a very rare case in the sense that she was the first from Ontario, and the 92nd in the entire world, to go to Duke which was the only spot doing the transplants – Duke University Hospital in the States – to have a thymus tissue transplant. And while we were down there, the community members here in Orillia, more specifically here at Twin Lakes, decided to get together and do a fundraiser for us, so the staff and students.

And a student of mine had emailed my work email to tell me how much they enjoyed participating in the fundraiser, and doing something to give back that was helping my daughter. He felt that he wanted to do so because I’d helped him so much during his time at Twin Lakes and he went on to explain that because of the extra time I’d always take to talk to him, and to help him with things, and to make sure that he was okay, that I actually changed his mind on committing suicide. He was planning to take his own take his own life and he said he didn’t view me as a teacher, he viewed me as a mentor, and someone that he looked up to.

And you as a teacher, you don’t realize the impact you have on some of these students because they won’t always tell you. The fact that he was brave enough to reach out and explain that to me, really meant a lot and I’ve kept that email, I’ve got it in a safe spot.