Welcome Back

Welcome back!

Today is the first day of over one hundred eighty days we are going to spend together.  My greatest hope is this will be a time of great learning and fun together. I recently saw the quote, "I care more about the people my students become than the scores they get on tests." The more time I spend teaching, the more this holds true for me.

This will be my twenty-seventh year of teaching. Man, am I getting old? I first taught at Aurora Heights 20 years ago. I am super excited to be returning to teach at Aurora Heights again. I am really excited to be teaching grade 4 this year. I have heard great things about the students in the junior division.  

Since I will be learning about you, I thought I would share a little bit about me. I was born in Sarnia, but my family moved to Toronto when I was only five. I am the third of four boys (my poor mother). Two passions ruled my childhood, sports and comics. The year I moved to Toronto was the first year the Blue Jays existed. I have been a die-hard fan ever since. I've celebrated the two World Series victories and suffered through some rough seasons. I played baseball in high school, even playing with a couple of eventual major league players. I credit comic books for my reading passion. 

My biggest influence during my teenage years were my experiences at camp. By working at a summer camp, I discovered I wanted to be a teacher and I loved spending time in the great outdoors. Eventually, I even met my wife at camp. My wife and I still spend parts of our summer on canoe trips whenever possible.

This past summer was a busy one for me. My wife and I took a trip to the Baltic Sea, where we visited countries like Sweden, Estonia and Poland.  

A large part of my leisure time is spent playing sports. I play golf during the summer and volleyball during the school year. Coincidentally, I play at Aurora Heights in the evenings.

My big passion all year long is reading. Mr. Kaufman (another new teacher at the Heights) calls my book collection a library! I read about 30 books this summer, including a number of books in preparation for teaching. I hope we will be able to share many great books together. What are your favourite books?

I hope over the next days and weeks I will have the opportunity to get to know all of you better. What is important to you? It looks like a great year ahead.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                T. Congram