<-- Back to Good Stuff from TCEA 2003
2-6-2003
Guy Doud Keynote
6 Feb 2003
"
I am a feeler"
had a great Shakespeare teacher in High School
Life is a comedy for thinkers, it is a tragedy for feelers
- you are a little more one than the other
- this was a quote from someone critiquing Shakespeare
You can have the best anticipatory set in the world and some kids just won't
care about split infinitives
When we get in touch with our student's lives and are sensitive to them, we
can change
There are things even more basic than reading, writing, and arithmetic, and
computer literacy
he believes in the hidden curriculum
answers these questions?
1- who am I?
2- what difference does that make?
How we answer those questions determines what dreams we dream
In school you start quickly learning about where you fit in
- being told you are fat, are not good enough, etc
The light starts to go out in a lot of kids' eyes
In 6th grade something phenomenal happened to Guy
- he had a male 6th grade teacher
- he didn't have a male figure in his life that was special besides his grandfather
- His teacher shook his hand and introduced himself as Norm Card
Told a lot about his family, his parent's alcholism, his sister's suicide attempt,
hospitalization, struggles with math and academics
At recess his teacher picked the teams, except he was always the quarterback
- I didn't want to leave 6th grade, I liked Mr Card
- I didn't want to go to 7th grade, I had heard about that
Today undressing in PE is optional, but then it was not
He was sick after PE and missed 2 weeks of school, by then he was failing all
his classes
- he was thinking then if he could just finish the 8th grade, then he could
quit
80% of the kids in Darian Georgia don't finish high school
- 4 generations of welfare families, neglect breeds neglect, poverty breeds
poverty, etc.
About 10% of the students in Minnesota don't graduate
- 1 of guy's sons just barely graduated last year
- his other son did not graduate last year
- both his sons have learning disabilities
Where does technology fit into all of this?
- his son who did
1085 guy became teacher of the year for Minnesota
- at that time, Apple computer gave him an Apple II
- he was thinking about computers: "this too shall pass"
- there are still people who think that
Now Guy is the greatest believer that technology is one of the greatest gifts
we've been given to help us teach
There are so many students who can be "reached" to develop higher
level thinking skills, analysis and synthesis, the application skills of learning
- he watched his son who had struggled with ADHD and Turets (cures for one
made the other worse)
-- almost impossible for him to set in a classroom without disturbing someone
else
-- working in an alternative school, on his own with a teacher and on a computer,
he got excited about learning and learning more!
He wrote:
1- the goal of any good teacher should be to make themselves unnecessary
-- we should so impart in our students this desire to learn
-- have you seen October Sky?
--- 3 things you could do: get a football scholarship to go onto college, or
go on right after high school to work in the mine
--- Homer's dad was the foreman of the mine, and Homer didn't like football
His teacher gave him the tools
- but he far surpassed what she could do
Technology is that tool that students can use, it is friendly to them
I loved kids
- I am not ashamed to tell teachers: if you don't like kids, if you don't love
kids, then you don't belong in the teaching profession!
- Guy retired a year and a half ago
Guy Doud called the audience 'Dear Ones'
when all is said and done: it is our job to teach
- and to use all the tools at our disposal
It is obvious to me that many of my children's teachers have not begun to tap
the technology which is available to him
- they have not even begun to scratch the surface of what is available to them,
resources to help students learn
Came back to the story of 7th grade
- came into his English teacher's class
- she complimented his reading, asked what he liked to read, found out it was
baseball, had him read a baseball poem
- she got him on the school speech team
- went all the way to the state tournament, went further than anyone else had
ever gone before
- so then he got plugged in to spring speech, and his English teacher got him
plugged into choir, and helping with library, helping manage the junior high
football team, lettered in all 3 sports as a manager, grades went from bottom
to top, had lead roles in all plays, got to be editor of newspaper and yearbook,
Boys State, ran for student council every year (never won) but was appointed "member
at large" by principal, as a Senior he was elected president of the future
teachers of America!
he remembers thinking if he could be a teacher someday like Mr Card, Mrs Morrie,
etc,
On April 14, 1986 had the unbelievable honor to be invited into the Oval Office
to meet President Ronald Reagan, on behalf of all of America's teachers
- kept him waiting an hour and a half because the Libyan bombing happened that
day
Ronald Reagan held out his hand to Guy just like Mr Card had
- he said he had seen him on Good Morning America
- when you said you don't teach English or literature, you teach kids, "that
reminds me of teachers I used to have"
Got out a letterhead note, and read a poem
- Clark Mollenhof, jounalist for the Des Moines register, as a tribute to his
mother who retired after 41 years as a teacher in a one room schoolhouse in
Iowa
Teachers: You are the moulders of their dreams
the Gods who build or crush their young beleives of rights or wrong
....
or lights the flame of some great song..
you are the god of the young, the very young
the guardian of a million dreams
your every smile or frown can heal or pierce a heart
yours are a hundred lives, a thousand lives
yours the pride of loving them
and the sorrow too
your patient work, your touch, make you the gods of hope who fill their souls
with dreams to make those dreams come true.
President Reagan saw that Guy was moved, he said I wrote this out in a hurry,
but if you don't mind my chicken scratch, you can have this
Last story: one Christmas eve watching the fire, feeling blessed watching his
son
- got called by a student from his first year as a teacher, who was in prison,
who had called to wish him a Merry Christmas
- I remember why I went into teaching, and I trust you do too
If you were in my class, I would tell my students that I love them
- I tell them I can tell you that because I know you want to be loved
- I am going to go out of that door, and maybe never see some of you again,
but we will be different because we've had this time together
So I am going to share my wish for your life, song was written by Bob Dylan
for his son Jacob when he wsas 4 years old
Before we say goodbye, lyrics to the song "Forever Young" by Bob
Dylan
Page last updated: Friday, December 6, 2002 1:25 PM