London Normal School - Spectrum Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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What Progressive Education Means It means that in your teaching you: Guide pupils to learn by doing worth-while things. Help pupils to grow towards physical, emotional and social maturity. fhallenge pupils to think constructively by well selected problems. projects or enterprises which they do under your guidance. Avoid too much lecturing and telling, but rather stimulate pupils to think things through for themselves. Begin with their experience and ueconstruct and enrich it by co-operative developmental methods. Manage the class as a co-operative group that each may contribute towards enriching the knowledge, the attitudes, the skills and the appreciation of all. Conduct discussions by clear-cut questioning which requires pupils to think clearly. Remember that pupils' answers are for the benefit of the whole class. Praise keen observation. clear thinking and neat work. Avoid dictating notes to be learned. Permanent records in pupils' notebooks are to be the findings of the whole group working in co-operation with the teacher. Make blackboard summaries brief, systematic and meaningful from the contributions of the pupils. Use the inductive procedure wherever possible and guide the class to reach and express generallzationsfthe Search-Discovery method. Make use of panel discussions especially for reviewing science, agricultural and social topics. In this, require correlation with composition, spelling, enunciation and pronuncia- tion. Encourage creative endeavours by sympathetic co-operation through suggestive remarks and illustrations or demonstrations. Make the school room and the out-of-doors largely workshops where pupils are stimulated to End out truth and acquire abilities and skills which are useful in their subsequent thinking. Recognize four stages in the' creative process namely preparation or gathering materials, incubation or unconsciously elaborating what has been gathered, inspiration or becoming somewhat aware of the solution of the problem, and verification or subjecting the new idea to systematic reasoning. Realize that any topic or problem which requires the learner to organize his thinking develops creative ability. Maintain a keen interest in the activities of the work-a-day world outside of the school and correlate these with activities of school life. Listening to radio broadcasts for schools and visiting local industries should be helpful. Supplant the old idea of making the recitation period a procedure of questioning to repeat the words of the textbook with the new idea of proposing, planning, evaluating and dis- cussmg. Drill on fundamental facts, rules and principles after they have been motivated or made purposeful by clear-cut teaching. Effective drill establishes the habit of accuracy and skill. GEO. XY. HOFFERD. Page Ninelecn

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Girls' Athletics Come on Red, Come on Gold, Come on Normal, Knock 'em cold. It was amid great jubilation that the Normal School Girls' Basketball team of '45 did knock 'em cold, winning four of their five basketball games, With such high school stars as London's Margaret Knowles and Dorothy Thorpe, Ridgetown's Edna O'Neill, VVind- sor's Betty Thompson. Eileen Daugharty, Beth Gatlield and Mabel Morgan, Blenheim's Irma Cudney, and other players such as Eleanor McCormick, Bernice Wenig and Pauline Morley, the girls of '45 defeated such collegiate teams as London Central, London South and Beal Technical. Not content with defeating mere Collegiate teams the team, spurred on to greater heights, defeated the lassies from Western's Brescia Hall. In the opening game played in Cen- tral Collegiate gym. against the then undefeated Central girls we, sparked on by an aggressive forward line, made up of Morgan, Knowles, McCormick, Cudney, and our versatile O'Neill, who shone on both the forward and guard line, and a strong line of defense composed of Thomp- son, Thorpe, Daugharty, and Catfield, walked off with a 19-9 victory. Elated by this victory we managed to eke out a 10-5 victory over the cage team from the north, namely, Brescia's Six. Being a little too confident, after defeating our neighbours here in the south, the South C. I. Sextet by the score of 17-12, we lost our second game to the Centra! lassies by a 17-12 score, but only after a hard fight. Alas and Alackl After such a disgrace we came up from behind in a hard tussle against the Technical girls, winning our last game 12-3. - Thus completed a very successful Basketball Season! In the Realm of Basketball at L. N. S. in '45, we salutefaliss Prendergast for her won- derful coaching and organization of our team. Donna Long, our time-keeper. Lorraine Hodgins, who was regularly on hand as score-keeper for our games. Margaret Lyman, for her untiring efforts in arranging our games and managing our team. Marg. was unanimously chosen by members of the team as manager and it can be truthfully said that the Normal School never had a more efficient manager. HIGHLIGHTS IN THE WORLD OF SPORT What member of the girl's basketball team appeared at all games wearing a form-fitting white jersey? What two members of the girls' basketball team were seen stopping all buses on Dundas Street East about five minutes before our opening game, looking for a suitcase containing the uniforms of approximately tive members? Vllho left the suitcase on the bus? How late were we in starting the game? XVhy did these two members insist on riding all over London when they finally located the missing suitcase? You're forgiven this time, Marg. and Betty. Hope it won't happen again! . What member of the team knew Central Collegiate sufficiently well to supply those members of our team whose uniforms had been left on the bus with Central uniforms? Did you go to Central, Dorothy? INTER-FORM BASKETBALL VVe congratulate Eorm 3 on winning the inter-form basketball championship in a tourna- ment held during the winter months. The tournament took the form of a six game sei ies. However, to determine the championship team, play-offs were held between forms 2, 3, and 4, After three hard-fought battles Form 3 came out on top. We extend hearty congratu- lations to Jean Martindale. Form 3's captain, and members of her team. ELIZABETH GATFIELD. Page Eighleen

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My Profession liver since I was a small child, my main ambition has been to be a teacher. Why, someone once asked me, do you want to be that? just think of the exciting life you would have if you were an airline hostess. Or if such a life requires too much energy for you, you could be a secretary, who takes life easily, sitting on a chair all day. If even this doesn't suit you, you could benefit humanity by being a nurse. But a teacher! Bah! Mark my word! You will be a nervous wreck in two years, and no one will appreciate your efforts. You will be the target of all the community gossip, too. lf you don't believe me, just wait and SVC. Your arguments are right in some degree, I answered. But now let me tell you all the pleasures of being a teacher. To begin with, I know I shall like the nork. It will be thrilling to know that I have revealed to some young mind some of the wonders of science. I can imagine the sensation I shall get when some child finally understands why the area ofa rectangle is length X width X 1 square unit. lt will be similar to the feeling I had when, at last, l could distinguish the difference between combinations and permutations. Yes, it will be a hard fight, but think of the trium- phant victory! And who wouldn't rather work with the active minds of young children than with account books, or hypochondriacs? I am sure I shall be amused countless times with their peculiar expressions. and childlike views. Fancy the stimulating experience of kindling the mind of some youngster who might become a second Sir Ernest MacMillan! But even if you do not consider these as motivating forces, I still have other reasons for wanting to become a teacher. One is the fact that the future life of the nation is largely in the hands of the teacher. Since there is a very slight chance that someday I may be a member of parliament, l can find satisfaction in knowing that some of my pupils will probably, someday, in some way, infiuenee the political life of our country. And teachers are powerful factors in guiding children to see the truth and to have good characters, and well-informed minds. Thus, it is clear, teachers affect to a great extent the future of our land. Then, too. I have selfish reasons for choosing this career. The first is that I have a weakness for wanting holidays. XYhat other profession allows one to have two months holidays every summer, and two days holidays every week? None, of which I know. The second selfish reason is that teachers now have quite good salaries. Now what other vocation, I ask you. has as many advantages as teaching? My friend could not suggest to me any profession with more arguments in its favour than teaching has. Now. in case you have to stand up for our profession. just reinforce your argument with these lines: For me is the life of a teacher, I love the young boys and smart girls, If I teach them with zest and with interest, lily reward will be worth more than pearls. You may have your excitement or patients, Or scrub all the live-long day: But I shall have children to work with, And shall make my work interesting play. Now, if you are in doubt of your future, And like youngsters better than pay, Your life is all laid out before you, just pick up and follow the way. DOROTHY E. CHANDLER. Page Twenty