Tell us a bit about your background:
My name is Lorraine Burton. I'm a 20 year teaching veteran... a former 1st grade teacher here at BBS, turned Instructional Coach. I’m from Scotland in the UK, where I studied. I’ve taught students from Kindergarten to Grade 11 in various countries including the UK, Kenya and Kuwait. I have learned so much every year and continue to grow as an educator with each new experience.
I’m passionate about education, children’s literature, family, and deadlines. Over the years, I hope that I’ve inspired my students to always write from their hearts, treasure a good book, and become leaders both inside and outside of the classroom.
Tell us one moment from your teaching experience that was particularly powerful, interesting, or funny:
I could write about many powerful experiences I’ve had as a teacher. However, I’m going to tell you about a particularly funny incident.
It was the first day of school for my KG2 students. I had given each student a nametag because I always try my best to learn the students names by the end of the first day.
As all the students entered the room, a little girl came up to me, holding her nametag. “I don’t need it,” she said. “I know my name!”
Watching this scenario carefully, a little boy grabbed his nametag and marched up to me. “Take!” he said with authority. “Coz I no read!”
The little girl peered over at his nametag, screwing up her eyes, “It say A-A-A-A-Ali, Ali, like my Baba!” (The boy’s name was actually, Ahmed)
Ahmed looked at the girl and me with a look of jubilation as he proudly announced, “I no read, she no read, I Ahmed, no Ali! ” He skipped back to his seat, the rest of the students dissolved into fits of forced laughter and the little girl burst into tears. The honeymoon period was over and it was only the first day!
To this day, I giggle when I remember this incident. I was a relatively new teacher and at the time, I thought that I’d never make it through the year if I’d already lost ‘control’ of my KG2 class on the very first day.
Do you have any inspirational words that you’d like to share with other teachers?
“Children don’t care what you know, until they know that you care” – Theodore Roosevelt
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