Celebrating Substitute Teachers in Prairie Rose
Connie Volk and her husband chose to retire to Medicine Hat because their daughter and son-in-law live here along with two grandchildren. Volk enjoys being actively involved in the lives of her grandchildren and participating in school activities. “I get to do these things now that I’m here and I love it. It’s fun to go on field trips when you aren’t in charge,” she said.
In 2017, Volk retired from 30 years of teaching and has subbed since then. She enjoys being in different classrooms and meeting kids of all ages. Having taught primarily in rural schools, Volk is used to multi-grade classrooms and says it’s a treat to be with a single grade. Eagle Butte holds a particular fondness for Volk as it is the first school she subbed at in the Medicine Hat region. “I enjoy all the schools and all the kids, it’s what I like most about subbing. I love being around kids,” stated Volk. “When you are around kids, your whole focus is on them. They don’t give you time to drift off and think of anything else. They are all so unique.”
Even when not with the same students each day, Volk still gets to experience those moments when one understands a concept they’ve been struggling with. “It’s hard for teachers when they have lots of students in their class, they can’t get around to help everyone,” said Volk. “I love being at Margaret Wooding, because sometimes they have me go to different classrooms and I get to experience the entire school.”
Daniel Tieman received his education degree later in life. His first love is music and upon graduating from high school he attended post-secondary to pursue a music degree. Several years later, he returned to post-secondary to become a teacher. After working in schools around Alberta and spending a year in Prince Edward Island, Tieman chose to become a full-time substitute teacher in the Medicine Hat region. He has subbed in many Prairie Rose Public Schools over the years and now has the luxury of choosing when to sub.
“At this point in my career and life, I do some consulting, some writing, along with music, working with bands, choirs and orchestras. I’m still composing, although haven’t published anything. I also do some instrument repair,” stated Tieman. “I’m not called for many music classes, which is unfortunate because I love that. One day I can get called for ECS and the next I can get called for Grade 12 physics, which is crazy because I was not a math guy going through school but once I got out and into the classroom, it suddenly clicked.”
Tieman appreciates the different strategies available for approaching different learning concepts. Additionally, there are many online resources to support a teacher in the classroom. “As an educator myself, I don’t worry so much about the answer at the end. What I want to look at is how they got there, their thought process. Once we look at the thought process, this is how they are thinking, let's work through that and find the answer.”
He's learnt through his career as a musician that making mistakes sometimes brings the brightest learning opportunities. From his own experiences as a student, he excelled under those teachers, instructors and coaches who were willing to experiment, to take his mistakes and work with them.
“It’s absolutely freeing. I’m not so tense or frozen. Many times, I wanted to quit because of being too anxious or afraid to go to the lessons. I’d rather be excited to show my instructor what I’ve worked on this week. This is what I’m doing, this is where I’m going. It allows for more expressive creativity and enjoyment of learning. Learning more from having the freedom to make an error and to be able to show it then go back and look at different outputs and avenues.”
By Samantha Johnson, Prairie Rose Public Schools Content Writer