RUNDLE HISTORIAN Mr. Peter Morrow

#RAAlumni

his year is my seventeenth year at Rundle Academy and I can’t believe the time has flown by the way it has! After graduating with a BEd from the University of T

Alberta in 1999, I returned to my home city of Calgary to

find out that there were few jobs to be had in the public system

that year. So, I began to explore the world of the independent schools instead. I knew very little about Rundle College or what

might separate it from the others: it was just another school on my list to apply to. I was given the opportunity to interview in front of Mr. Hauk and the Board of Directors, and later received

a call to say that, although I wasn’t the successful candidate,

would I come see them again and interview for Rundle Academy? I really didn’t know the difference between the two, but Mr. Hauk, along with Ms. Reid (the Academy’s principal at the time), must have seen something in me that suggested the Academy would be a good fit for me. I’ve never looked back.

“I love it when students come back to visit and share a memory or two with me about what the class was like the year I taught them, and what aspects of the class helped them when they moved on from high school.”

To be honest, my first couple of years at Rundle were difficult. As a new teacher in a small school, I was given many

different courses to teach, and it was a struggle keeping up with learning the curriculum for each, while also trying to

understand my students’ needs. I remember a junior high drama class where I spent much of the time chasing students

down who were trying to leave the building. One semester they needed someone to teach grade 7 art. At a complete loss, I had everyone bring in a plastic model and we spent the semester building them!

As I settled in, Rundle gave me the opportunity to focus on high school English courses, and ultimately take on a leadership

role in the English and Humanities departments. Although I teach many of the same courses each year, every year is

different at Rundle Academy. The students are what make my job interesting - new faces each semester also means finding new approaches to tackling the same material. Often a group of students will help define my teaching approach that semester: a talkative group of students leads to more discussion, a quiet group to more introspection. I love it when students come back to visit and share a memory or two with me about what the class was like the year I taught them, and what aspects of the class helped them when they moved on from high school. Alumni, don’t forget to come back and visit us and tell us about your life since Rundle!

Peter Morrow