Tales of heroism make Michelle Forde a student favourite
Being fun, relatable and an idealistic advocate earns beloved English teacher Star’s Honourable Mention
Minutes before the bell rings at any school, students are clamouring to go, but in Michelle Forde’s room, most are on the edge of their seats for storytime.
Launched as a way for the English teacher to extol that “there is a story in every person and we are a living text,” the pastime has morphed into a highlight, with some students claiming she has enthralled them with tales about “a squirrel that tried to eat her cookies” and the time she “wrestled with a bear.”
The squirrel never nabbed the treats and wrestling, she said, is the students’ exaggeration of how she sidestepped the animal, but the heroic light in which students regard Forde is no mistake.
In her eight years at L’Amoreaux Collegiate Institute, the sprightly Forde has struck an impressive balance between being the fun, relatable teacher students love and the idealistic advocate schools need.
It’s why she nabbed an Honourable Mention in the Toronto Star Teacher of the Year Awards.
Under her leadership, her classes and equity club have become mini analysis hubs, launching studies on everything from technology in the school to mental-health resources. Their findings triggered the expansion of Wi-Fi to the Scarborough school’s market square and prompted layout changes in the library.
They also landed two grants — one funding a student wellness centre for those grappling with stress and one bringing yoga lessons to the school.
Forde is too humble to accept credit, but she admits, when it comes to teaching, “It’s not the textbook. It’s the person” and the community that’s important.
“You won’t really remember, after all the years passed, what a specific teacher taught you, but you will remember the activities you did, the experiences you have and how you
“She has high expectations, but that’s good because it makes us strive to be better.” ZAINA BIRKDAR STUDENT OF MICHELLE FORDE
felt and were supported,” she said.
It’s a lesson Forde knows well and one she credits to Carol Talbot, her own Grade 9 and 12 English teacher, who inspired her to pursue a teaching career.
Talbot, she says, “strongly advised” Forde not to go into teaching, calling it a rewarding job, but a difficult one that might make Forde burn herself out.
It wasn’t enough to deter Forde, who says Talbot now chuckles about her previous advice, and for that, students like Zaina Birkdar are grateful.
“Usually teachers will be able to say, ‘I can understand you are dealing with something hard’, but she listens to what you have to say and will share her own experience with you so you feel like you have a connection,” Birkdar said.
That relationship doesn’t mean Forde goes easy on her students.
“She has high expectations, but that’s good because it makes us strive to be better and pushes us to work our hardest,” said Birkdar, as Forde giggled in the background.
And if that’s not enough, Birkdar is still letting her imagination run wild, joking that Forde “fought off a bear. I can’t believe a person escaped a bear.”