Get connected with Teacher Betty! There’s something to be said about people who choose teaching as a career. They are dedicated, often patient and most of the times fairly organized. But then there are those who were called to teach. They always knew that this is what they were intended to do and they approach teaching with a newfound passion that cannot be explained, it’s not simply a job, it’s their life. This is what you will feel if you ever sit and chat with Bertheille Laveist Chittick, more affectionately known as “Teacher Betty”. Teacher Betty has been teaching for 25 years. She started out at the Sr. Imelda Kindergarten after working for a few years at Scotia Bank. Having seen her in the classroom and knowing her affectionate approach with students, I could not think of a better person to get up close and connected to as we take a closer look through this Classroom Connection.
MTP=My teacher's pet TB= Teacher Betty
MTP: Tell us about how you first started teaching.
TB: I started teaching in 1986... a long time ago, I’m celebrating my 25th year. I started out at the Bank of Nova Scotia. Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. I told people my dolls were never dummies, they had to go to school. They were my students.
MTP: Did you have them lined up like a classroom?
TB: Yes they were lined up as a class and I would be the teacher and I would teach class. We lived in Statia for a while. My uncle had many kids, and my grandma always said everybody has to eat out of the same pot, so everyone would come home to visit their grandma. Then we had to do homework. After we were finished eating, I was always the teacher, helping my cousins to finish their homework.
MTP: What was your first challenge when you started teaching?
TB: Oh when I started teaching there were 36 children in a classroom, that was a challenge! I mean before this you would have done your student teaching, so there was someone helping the classroom teacher. But that was challenging…36 kids in a class!
MTP: Well you must be happy that that number has come down a bit?
TB: Yes, but still with the numbers down, with all the changes, it’s still much more difficult.
MTP: I can see that because I’ve heard another teacher say this before that even with the bigger classes in the past, because of the requirements that are now set on teachers and the behavior of students today, that it still seems just as difficult even with the smaller class sizes.
TB: Right, yes I agree with that 100%
MTP: How would you recommend first year teachers deal with the stress of balancing work and their social life? I know some teachers feel very stressed out and feel that they spend their weekends with lesson plans and stuff for teaching that they don’t have a life and it can be frustrating, what’s your advice?
TB: That’s why if you decide to go into the teaching field right now, be prepared to make it a 24/7…literally 24/7 type of job. Because besides dealing with the children teaching in the classroom, they (administrations) are demanding a lot of paper work from you. I find it is way too much, especially for the lower grades. You have to make all of these lesson plans. For example I do a week plan, a day plan and I have to do (curriculum) webbing. All teachers are really into their jobs and their profession and they want to be the best at what they do, so they are going to do their research and work to feed the children with all of the good things they can find out there, like modern technology, but it really does tire you out. Sometimes you may find yourself up until 2 or 3 o’ clock in the morning researching stuff.
MTP: So basically there’s no way to run from it? I guess you have to know if you are going into it, just know this is what you will have to expect, a lot of work. Would you say it gets better after the first year or even after a few years?
TB: It can, if you just want to be complacent and say hey I’ll run with this for 5 years and do the same thing. But if you’re the type who says “ahh, I want to change it up, I want to see something new, I want to do this differently”, then you will be up all the time.
MTP: Right where we were going! So how do you stay current on changes in education so that your lessons don’t become repetitive?
TB: OK. I am not the tech expert, but I do a lot of research. With the younger teachers coming in, I visit them. I also love to travel and when I am off island, I will visit schools and “steal” some ideas. For example just in December I took a visit to the French side and I saw some cute things that they did with toilet paper rolls, stuff that I’ve never thought of, so now next year I have some ideas that I can go with. The internet also helps a lot.
MTP: And that’s exactly my goal for this website. I had a professor who once said you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, a lot of the best ideas are borrowed, or as some say “stolen”. How would you compare teaching now to when you first started?
TB: When I first started, it was much more....fun. It was more fun because you really just walked into your classroom, you met a group of happy children, teaching them and you would see them learning. Now you walk in to the class and you see kids with a lot of baggage. And you have to be more of a psychiatrist, psychologist, doctor and nurse to these children more than the teacher that you want to be. You want to just walk in, hug a child and say“C’mon let’s go! Learn”
MTP: Yes because there’s so much you have to go through before you can actually get them to learn. Is there anything you think teachers can do about that, or would it strictly have to start from home?
TB: Yes, if your school has a good support system like with the social workers and other staff members that can help out, you can see changes and if the parents are willing to cooperate, you will see changes.
MTP: How do you get that cooperation from the parents of your students?
TB: I’ve always had that extra touch, maybe because I am teaching the kids who are in school for the first time, so they(parents) are also looking for cooperation from me. I try to build that relationship with my parents. I don’t beat around the bush. Most times they can see the behavior in the child as well and a lot of times they are also seeking help.
MTP: Have you ever had a parent in denial about their child, how do you deal with a situation like that?
TB: It was really hard up until something really bad happened to the child one day. We had to call her in and with much tears, we said it’s there, it can’t be changed, but there is help. And once it sank in that these people want to help me, it was good. She ended up leaving to Holland with her child.
MTP: That's good that she was able to get help. Do you think St. Maarten children are receiving a good education?
TB: I am going to be real honest with this question, I don’t. I say this because firstly we have a lot of working mothers who cannot help their children. Also we have a system, where parents are putting their children in a Dutch system and they can’t help them at home (because of the language). Yes they are coming to school to be taught but it’s only so much they can get at school and no more. In America and Holland they get extra classes at a professional level. We have teachers that are giving extra classes but the time they can spend with the number of kids they have in these afternoon classes, the kids cannot get the help that they need. They are not getting enough. The system is also not set up properly. For the twenty-five years I have worked in it, I expect more. We have done the foundation based education, a curriculum that was made without teachers being involved. I know teachers who have been in the system for so long and they weren’t asked to give their input, they just give us the curriculum, here it is and work with it. And still along with this curriculum you still have to go out there and seek and find your own materials and get your own worksheets. I think we can do a lot more work in the education system and I personally do not believe the mentality of the people on this island, this system where no child stays behind, (blijf zitten) I don’t think any child will study, so what are we producing? They are not going to study, parents are not going to be behind their backs, or I should say some parents cannot be behind their backs so what are we producing?
MTP: So tell me about teaching groep 1 or pre-k, what attracts you to this age group? What do you love about it?
TB: When those children come to you, now, some have been to preschool, some have a little more knowledge, but still at the beginning of the year you have all these little busy bodies, and you know at the end of the year you have taught those children. You know you have taught them how to sit in a chair, how to hold a sandwich, how to hold a pencil. A lot of people will say “Oh you’re just teaching kindergarten,” but the things you are teaching these kids are so important, you are teaching them manners. Even some that come from day care centers, you still have to teach them basic skills. The first few weeks you do so much talking that at the end of the day you don’t have a voice. You teach simple things like the colour red. But at the end it’s like wow I did it. I taught them the basics.
MTP: So what motivates you to keep teaching based on all of this that we’ve talked about for 25 years and you’re still going strong?
TB: I love children! I love teaching, I just love it, I don’t think there’s anything else I can see myself doing. If I did anything else it would have to be in the education field.