Mr. Trousdell was the first person I encountered on my first day back to school in Canada. I had arrived an hour too early and was awkwardly standing in a hallway doubting my choice of switching IB schools halfway across the world. So drastically different from the disciplined school environment I was used to, I had no instruction on our first day besides to find my homeroom. What was a homeroom? Mr. Trousdell passed by and probably figured that I looked lost, it turns out he was my homeroom teacher and so he unlocked the room and turned on the lights. I suspect that he actually had other places to be that morning but he stayed with me until other students showed up. He was so friendly, genuine and has always, throughout our high school experience created a safe space. In this instance he asked about Hong Kong and I learned about Tesla (he was wondering whether she might grow up to be bilingual in Cantonese and English). As a result I was no longer nervous for the day. You were the teacher I would always hear about from other students. Pranks, strange quiz questions; but most of all your demonstration to us on how to be wonderfully and delightfully unabashed in our nerdiness. Finally I was able to take a class with you in Urban Agriculture. I went into the beehives WHICH WAS FASCINATING, and learned that you not only had bees at home, but also chickens. Here I am now, in the Agriculture Faculty, doing local school projects that are trying to imitate the pioneering work you did at WVSSs garden and hive. My teachers and classmates are always surprised when I tell them about Mr. Trousdell. I definitely did not appreciate how extraordinary your efforts were until I realiased how difficult it can be to champion even just a small garden into some schools. You are one of those teachers that makes people want to become teachers. The slightly crazy but completely awesome kind. Thank you so much for all your enthusiasm and extraordinary dedication to making our high school experience great. Most of all, thank you for always being SO KIND, creating safe spaces for us to learn, by mistakes and by uninhibited exploration.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:14:01 +0000
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