Jason Deehan

If I am like Frodo Baggins - on a mission to make a difference while living a life of adventure - then my father is my Bilbo Baggins. My global aspirations and explorations began with my dad and a choice he made when he was a young man. My dad grew up in a small town in Ireland. His roots in the town go back more than 500 years. No one in his family had left the region. My father was different. He dreamed of a different story. Instead of a career in the local post office, he learned to play the saxophone. Instead of staying put, he joined a band that sought fame and fortune overseas. While his musical ambitions did not pan out the way he had hoped, my inheritance was, nevertheless, impressive: my father’s habit of breaking from destiny was passed down to me. Rather than go into music, I went into writing. When I became a father, I began to understand the value and importance of education. I walked away from a ten-year career in advertising and became a teacher. And, when an opportunity arose to teach overseas, I jumped at it. And when I say “jumped”, what I really mean is that I totally panicked as I accepted a job in Kuwait just before the start of the second Gulf War! Despite the anxiety, I left the comfort of home and headed out the door.

 

While on this adventure, I have blossomed as an educator and a person. As an educator, I have had the good fortune to work with many talented teachers and administrators. I discovered great books, podcasts, and blog sites. I have attended a number of international conferences, as both a spectator and a presenter. I have been introduced to new ideas and practices, trying them on for size and making many of them a part of my day-to-day instructional practice. In terms of content, I have enriched my social studies instruction through the inclusion of costumes and artifacts, and have sharpened relevance by better connecting the past to the present. Beyond content, I remember assessing students using a test. Scores were lower than expected and I reflected on the questions students asked during the test. I realized that students weren’t struggling with the content. They were struggling to understand the academic language with which the test was constructed. This sparked my interest in academic language instruction and the belief that all teachers are language teachers. Other areas of interest also developed while overseas. Growth mindset. #Observeme. Sharing best practices. Talk-Read-Talk-Write. Pineapple charts. Clarity. Structure. Student voice and choice. Authenticity. Collaboration. Experience-based learning. These are the stamps in my teaching passpost. My actual passport is pretty full of stamps also. And I can’t wait to add a few more!