Mr. Jim Miller

I grew up in a pretty small town in South Western Ontario. There were a lot of benefits and a lot of challenges associated with growing up in that town but there were some things that I wouldn't change for the world. One of the things that was perfect was the small school of population less than 200: Ruthven Public School.

This school was recently shut down for budgeting and funding purposes and my thoughts have been on that school a lot of late. It was a K-8 school, and we were an incredibly tight knit community. We were quite competitive in sports, had great teachers, and our parent community was really supportive.

Of all the things I enjoyed the most, my favourite part about my entire 9 years at this school was my grade 5 and grade 7 teacher. Mr. Jim Miller was an amazing teacher. To be honest with you, I don't really remember that much about his lessons. I remember him telling me amazing stories and I remember he loved to laugh and have fun. I also remember on one math test (that I performed poorly on) he got mad at me because he knew I could do better. Mr. Miller was also my basketball coach from grades 5-8 and he was one of those guys who would constantly tell you how great you were. I remember him saying that I could do anything and that I was a great talent. Looking back, I'm not sure if he was not privy to witnessing very great athletic talent and as a result his lens of what was 'great' was a pretty 'low bar' or if he was just a believer in making people believe in themselves and in making them feel great about themselves. Either way, I've concluded that Mr. Miller made me feel capable of doing great things. I remember that when I went on to High School that he attended almost all of my games. He would visit with me before and after games and I just felt like the man really cared. He is one of the few epitome's in my whole life of: "I don't remember what they said, but I remember how they made me feel."

Mr. Miller died suddenly of cancer during my Gr. 12 year. I was broken about it! To be honest, it still hurts.

As I've reflected about Mr. Miller, I've re-commited to the fact that I want to be a great teacher, but more importantly, that I want to really help my students know how much potential they have. I hope that all those that enter into my classroom enjoy their time there, but more than that, that they know that they've always got someone in their corner.

I love my job! I hope I can be more like Mr. Miller!

Mr. H.