Orv

I was very fortunate as a young teacher.  Whether it was at Whitney Young or North Side, there was always an experienced teacher whom I could watch and from whom I could emulate if at all possible. There was the calm, patient nature of Juanita Ellis; the passion for her profession of Jan Little; and the love of children that I saw in Joanne Montgomery, Margaret Mitchell, Sue Longsworth, Jean Dunlap, Susie Brown, Susan Brace. and so many others at Whitney Young.  But when it came to really learning to teach, that came from the first day I started at North Side.  That started when I met Orv Schlatter.

What I remember in those first days of teaching with Orv was that I immediately was jealous of him.  In our block the time was evenly split between the three teachers.  It didn't matter whether it was the first or last class, they didn't want to be with me.  They wanted to be with Orv.  That really infuriated me for a while.  After all, I was the younger teacher, closer in age to our students.  They should recognize that I understand where they are coming from.

So, when we gathered them all together for a full group session at the end of the first week, I was looking forward to observing what Orv did that caused these students to be enamored by him.  Now, keep in mind that the classroom area where we taught was separated by fold down walls.  That allowed us to have all 90 students in one area whenever we wanted to.  Also, remember that these students were chosen to be in our block because the school had tried everything else to get them engaged in their education with little success.  As much as I wanted to see what Orv had to offer, I couldn't help but have some trepidation at having all the "criminals" in one place.

Once Mark Tipple, the other teacher in the block, and I had everyone in the room, Orv started.  It was instantaneous.  To a person, every student got quiet, and they were mesmerized by every word that came out of his mouth.  I had been at the ready to pull out students who would act up.  That didn't happen.  What did happen was dialogue.  As Orv talked about the United States government, his comments spurred questions, which spurred comments, which spurred more questions, and so on.  There were no books.  No one was taking notes, at least not on paper.  But as I surveyed the room, they were totally engaged.  They wanted to know what he was talking about.  They wanted to be a part of the process.  The closest experience that I can compare to this is a concert where everyone in attendance wants to participate, knowing every word of every song.

By the end of that lesson, I wanted to do what he did.  I wasn't jealous anymore!  I wanted to do that!  I immediately went to Orv and ask how was able to get students to be so involved in their learning.  His response was priceless.  "I don't know.  I just teach.  I don't really think about it that much."  That was of no use to me whatsoever.  As frustrated as I was then, I was determined to find out the magic that he had and try to emulate it.  By the end of that first year, I came to a few conclusions.

My first conclusion was that Orv truly had no idea how he was doing it.  Every week we would meet as a team to plan for the upcoming week.  Mark and I would talk about curriculum ideas that we needed to cover.  Invariably, Orv would either say that he would come up with something or that he could work around anything that we planned.  And, unless I missed it along the way, he winged it every single time.  I never saw him crack a book.  Seldom did he ever write a note.  It was all in his head.  I was screwed.  I didn't have the life experiences that he had.

I also concluded after watching him around the students in class and outside of class, Orv built strong relationships with each and every student.  He genuinely cared about all of them.  His technique was simple: they knew all about him.  His life was fascinating because he had been all around the world.  He grew up in India after all!  As he told his story, the students shared theirs.  By the end of the first week, he knew them, and they knew him.  When one of them had a game, he was there cheering them on.  If a student had a family problem, they would come to him.  When one of them needed a job, he helped them to find the right clothes for an interview.  This element of his character encouraged me, because relationship building I could do.

Finally, it became clear that one of Orv's biggest strengths as a teacher was that he was a storyteller.  Saying that, I want to make sure that you know that there are two types of storytellers in my opinion.  There is the storyteller who wants everyone to be impressed with the life that they have led and the experiences that they have had.  This storyteller doesn't want to hear your story; in fact, most of the time this person will interrupt you to tell another story.  That wasn't Orv.  He was a gracious storyteller and listener.  We all loved to hear of his escapades in Africa, South America, or anywhere in Europe.  We also loved when those stories caused discussion and related stories from the class.  In this area, I knew that I just needed life experience.

A couple of years into our teaming, we changed to our ECCP block with Merle Rice taking Mark's place.  Merle, Orv, and I had our roles in this group.  Merle was our idea guy, and he was very good at that.  Orv was our presenter.  When we needed to make sure that the students knew what to do, he was on stage.  I was the utility guy.  Whatever the other two wanted me to do; I did it.  In retrospect, it was good for me.  I learned how to plan and come up with ideas from Merle, and I learned execution of those ideas from Orv.

Then Orv dropped a bombshell on us.  He was going to take a couple of years and go to Sierra Leone to teach in an American school there.  First, there was talk of just dumping the block.  Orv said that it could go on if I took on his role.  So that is what we did.  In the next three years we replaced Orv with two different teachers.  I took on his role, but found myself having to do my old role as well.  The result was that when Orv came back, the block was gone.

I truly lament that we had to give up on the block.  We did make a difference in their lives.  Yet, when Orv returned he was able to teach to his true strength -  Geography.  From that point until he retired, his experiences became the stories that thousands of students have carried out into their own lives.  More importantly, his influence made an inexperienced novice teacher into a teacher who made a difference in his career in his English and Humanities classes.  For that I want to thank Orv Schlatter.