How a St. John’s teacher is keeping Confederation relevant
With a musuem-like classroom and deep personal interest, one Beaconsfield Junior High social studies teacher is engaging students in N.L. history
When you walk into Mike Torraville's classroom, a collection of items representing Newfoundland and Labrador stands out.
Beside his desk, Torraville has an ugly stick. On his laptop, there's a sticker of a Newfoundland postage stamp. The sweatshirt he wears says "flat out."
On the wall, he has newspaper clippings from The Telegram, a display case full of old fishing gear, a piece of wood from a redone house he lived in, and even a phone book –– which he calls an artifact for today's students.
On special occasions, Torraville brings out an old wooden trunk, once a gun cabinet. It's painted light green. Inside are fishing nets, a military cap, an Oster manual hair clipper, doll furniture, and a 3D picture of the province's first premier, Joey Smallwood.
EIGHTEEN YEARS TEACHING N.L. HISTORY
Torraville has been a teacher at Beaconsfield Junior High, where he's head of the social studies department, for 18 years.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Grade 7 to 9 social studies curriculum focuses on the province's history – a responsibility Torraville doesn't take lightly.
"The culture, I see it lack in a lot of people today," he said.
Torraville believes COVID and people moving out of outport communities affect the retention of N.L.'S culture. He wants his students to know where many of their families came from.
"Your culture, you've got to keep it going," Torravile said.
HOW FAR WE'VE COME
One of his students told him it's important to learn about culture in class because "we realize how far we have come as a province," he explained.
"I moved to St. John's in 1989 from Gander Bay, a community with 400 people. I was 17 years old," Torraville said.
Four students were in the classroom with Torraville during SaltWire's interview. Torraville said a lot of students their age don't always see the importance of learning about N.L.'S history and culture.
Roan Rue Lokke-murphy, 13, is an exception. He spends time with his grandfather building boats –– skills Lokke-Murphy will likely pass down someday.
"I know you (Roan) spend a lot of time with your grandfather, and that's what's missing today," Torravile said.
Chloe Hayes-gosse, 13, spends a lot of time around the bay with her grandparents. She loves it. "I'd probably move out there if I had the chance to," Hayes-gosse said.
For both students, the rural nature of a small town is attractive.
"It's really calm and peaceful here," Lokke-murphy said.
A VOYAGE TO DISCOVERY
Torraville said these places also illustrate the changes the province has gone through over the past 75 years.
"We realize how far we've come from living in saltbox houses on the side of the ocean to living in Southlands in a $500,000, $600,000 home. How far we've come with medicine," Torraville said.
The N.L. Schools curriculum requires Torraville to teach out of a 2005 Voyage to Discovery textbook. Torraville said the book is amazing, but it's only one source, so he jazzed up the material to capture students' interest.
"Teachers can't depend on this. The one thing the board pushes is the knowledge, application, and integration of the material," Torraville said.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Before the pandemic, this looked like a school-wide field trip to different small towns.
"Every September, we shut down the building for one day. We take our Grade 8s to Winterton or Ferryland. We take our Grade 7s to Cupids. We take our Grade 9s on a walking tour of the city," Torraville said.
In Ferryland, students shifted soil in the archeological dig; in Winterton, students visited the wooden boat museum, learned how to tie knots and checked out the make-and-break engines. In St. John’s, students explored their city and its history.
Torraville said the school doesn’t do as many field trips anymore because of costs. So, since the pandemic, instead of bringing students to Winterton, the Winterton Wooden Boat Museum will come to them.
“They do some putting the model boats together and it’s amazing to see the kids using actual tools their great grandfathers used,” Torraville said.
“We had a full-size dory in this classroom,” he said.
HANDS-ON LEARNING
Beaconsfield has also brought in organizations like the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers (FFAW) and fish harvesters, where kids can learn how to become fishermen.
“That’s one thing that we are missing now. The population of fishermen is getting older, so we’re trying to get people involved,” Torraville said.
“The only way to show them that is to show them in Grade 8 or 9 where they can learn if they take a year course they can be a fisherman.”
One year, students got to split cod tongues.
INTERESTING LEARNING
Ava O’brien, 14, and Kawthar Alakhdar, 15, are in Grade 9. They find learning about the province interesting.
“Honestly, it’s good to know where your roots came from and it’s good to know how things were handled back then. I found it interesting,” O’brien said.
Alakhdar moved to N.L. last year. When she would get home after school, she’d often talk to her family about Jigg’s dinner, mummers, and Newfoundland’s participation in the First World War over supper.
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF CONFEDERATION
As the 75th anniversary of Confederation approaches, Torraville is prompting his students to look back at where the province came from and how far it’s come.
“I always tell my classes my grandfather was dead set against Confederation. He died in 1952. Why was he against Confederation? He wanted us to be independent,” Torraville said.
“When we get into doing Confederation and why N.L. joined Confederation, we’re going to look at what impact it had. Some would say it was an April Fool’s joke, but it happened and we are a part of Canada. There’s good, there’s bad.”
JOEY SMALLWOOD
As Torraville looked at the students in his classroom, he held the 3D image of Joey Smallwood.
“This gentleman, you either liked him or you disliked him. My grandfather had him up in his living room and everywhere you turned, this picture was looking at you,” he said.
“You say a nasty word against Joey Smallwood, man, it was like blasphemy.”
Starting with Premier Andrew Furey, Torraville moves backward to teach his students about Confederation to make things relevant and capture their interest.
As his sweatshirt says, this is a responsibility Torraville has been “flat out” in completing for 18 years.
The common consensus among his students is that Torraville is making N.L. history and the province’s Confederation interesting.
“You got to make it relevant, otherwise, what’s the point?” he said.