Breanne Oakie - Teacher at Wolf Creek Public Schools

<p>Breanne teaches grade 7/8 in a smaller town in Alberta.  Instead of giving you a formal bio here, take a moment to read the below email highlighting the story she shared with me over email...<br /> <br /> <em>"Sam,</em></p> <div> </div> <div><em>Thank you for an amazing session today.  It was emotional and I loved how you had us all involved.  The way you presented made it feel like we were actually together, which I think many of us needed to feel.  I'm sure you are going to get bombarded with emails today but I wanted to tell you a short story that touches on what you said about our worth.</em></div> <div> </div> <div><em>I teach grade 7 and 8 in a smaller town. One year, my supervision schedule had me as the detention room supervisor.  This seemed very weird to me as I am not known to be a hard disciplinarian and I'm a bit of a talker and it's not supposed to be a social time in the DT room.  On the lunch hours I supervised, I saw the same kids over and over, many from the year before who were in my grade 7 class so naturally I wanted to catch up with them, find out why they were there, what they needed help with etc.  Over time, they just seemed to present this sadness.  I decided to email them telling them that I hoped they didn't judge their self worth by the time they spent in the detention room, with the conflicts they had with their teachers, that were worth so much more and in time they would recognize it.  They never responded to me but they were in grade 8 so emotionally, they aren't always up to discuss their feelings.</em></div> <div> </div> <div><em>A year later, I ran into one of the boys who was in high school now.  He said he thought I would be happy to hear that he had figured some things out and was doing really well at school and was feeling successful.  He said he hadn't realized his role in his own learning - that he was responsible for attending class and actively listening to the lessons, for participating in discussion, for reviewing his notes, for being prepared.  He is graduating th