Mentor

43. A great Mentor or Teacher

I instantly knew who I was going to write about when I saw this one.

If you read my “Share Your World” post this week, you probably noticed that I wrote about my difficulties in High School and how it was difficult for me as I had learning difficulties i.e. Dyslexia, but none of the teachers recognised this…Except for one.

My Classical Studies teachers noticed that I had really good ideas, but it was my sentence and grammar structure that just seemed a little off to him. So instead of just ignoring that what we did was every time I had a huge project or written assessment come up. He would take the time to sit down with me for about an hour. We would go through what I had written so far and he would help me to correct any mistakes I made. It was the only class where I ended up with B’s AND A’s and no C’s.

Since he helped me I have had this love for anything ancient, so Ancient Rome, Egypt, Greek etc. I think he has a lot to do with that. It made me feel smart and made me feel like I wanted to be there and learn even more.

Advertisement

A good Education

25. Education 

I do feel very fortunate that I was able to get a good education through the Public School system. I was very lucky with one teacher in particular, VERY lucky. If it hadn’t have been for him I would have never have realised that I suffered from Dyslexia.

I should start from the beginning…

Although I was lucky with the schools that I got into, the teachers weren’t exactly the best kind. They had their favourite smart students and pretty much the rest of us, were sort of ignored. I would get the same remarks over and over and over again, great ideas, your sentence structure is all mixed, even my English teacher made these remarks and she still did nothing. Why worry, when you’ve got the first group of really smart students in the same group. These students were the first group of “special students” who were ‘smarter than your average bear’.

It was SUCH a frustrating experience, I’d have the exact same ideas as my A+ friends, but something was always wrong with my “sentence structure”. My teachers just had their favourites, even my Drama teacher. He said for the big play he was going to let us audition and get in a real life experience. Then when we came back from holidays, he just gave the parts out…To the people we all know he was going too, and I got a walk on part.

Who knows…Maybe if I had an actual positive experience, where I would have gone? Even know I still think…Maybe I should do something…

UNTIL!

I started studying Classical Studies (Ancient Histories) and I was getting the same comments. However, my teacher actually pulled me aside and said that every major project he wanted to see me one-on-one. I had great ideas, but my sentence structure was all wrong. So I started to see him one-on-one before handing in my projects…Guess What…I got all A’s and B’s for that class…Amazing! It made me love Ancient History, it made me love learning and I felt less stupid…Which was probably the most rewarding things of the whole experience.

 

First Day of School!

So today would have been the first week of a new school/TAFE year for me, but for the whole month of February I am working full-time, so I can’t join my class mates right now.

I LOVE to study, I think even if I was to work all the time, there would still be something that I would want to learn about. I sometimes wonder if that’s part of the reason I like being a Librarian because Libraries have so many different items, book – fiction and non-fiction, audio books…Every-time I go into my volunteer work there is always a new author or topic I learn about.

Those who are heading back to school this week, I wish you a year of learning, studying and having your mind grow and expand.

 

Wild Earth Safari

Since the beginning of October I have been watching a web cab feed called “Wild Earth Safari” and in Australia they run from 2:30pm-5:30pm and 12:30am to 3:30am. The web cam feed runs until January the 31st (although I, and many others, have asked, if there is any possibility of them running longer than that).

These feeds are taken from the game reserves of Djuma Game Reserve and Arathusa Safari Lodge in the Sabi Sand Wildtuin. You can all sorts of animal Lions, Leopards, Hippos, Ellies and Impala…Oh My!

They have experienced rangers and guides that drive around and along the way for the couple of hours they are with you. They will inform, and educate on a wide range of the flora and fauna of the animals and plants within their game reserves. They are incredibly good teachers and even when you see the true side of nature and the wild. They remind of you of “This is nature”.

I suggest you go and have a look at Wild Earth Safari and I’ll see you on the drive!