Farewell to Mr. Howard

Last semester, we said goodbye to a longtime teacher here at John McCrae: Mr. Howard. 

Mr. Howard has been teaching for 35 years, 22 of which were spent at John McCrae. He first started down the teaching path as a teenager, when he got involved in his local Scouts organization, and later branched out to lead more youth groups. After discovering how much he liked working with other people, as well as discovering an interest in business, Mr. Howard decided that the perfect job for him was teaching, which let him combine both of his interests.

Throughout his time here, he has taught the Marketing, Accounting, General and International Business courses as well as History, becoming an essential component in the lives of many students. When Mr. Howard wasn’t teaching in the classroom, he was running the overseas History trips to Europe, a part of his teaching career that he remembers and cherishes fondly. During our interview, he expressed that from a professional development point of view, these trips were the best learning experience for him that he has ever had. As well, he mentioned that visiting some of the historical sites such as Juno Beach and several cemeteries were extremely powerful experiences for his students, and some even decided to pursue History throughout more of their education because of these trips. 

During after school hours, Mr. Howard became involved in the school’s Junior Achievement Club. There he was able to apply his business knowledge and teach kids how to run their own business.

After his teaching experiences, Mr. Howard finds that the most rewarding part about being a teacher is feeling like you have added to someone’s school experience; seeing a student come out of your class with more than they started with is what makes teaching special.

Mr. Howard leaves John McCrae with some words of wisdom for new teachers: 

 “Be yourself. (...) Do the best job you can, and [be] prepared at what you want to do. You are going to make mistakes, that’s going to happen. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, (...) but don’t run your classes as someone else you might admire, because you’re not them. You can try activities and things they do, but as far as being genuine, you need to be genuine with your students, because if you aren’t genuine with your students, your students will realize that pretty quickly.”

Now that Mr. Howard has retired, he hopes to continue his pastimes of gardening, camping, reading, and traveling around the world as well as to different parts of Canada. 

On behalf of John McCrae, we thank you for your dedication to our school and students, and we wish you a fantastic retirement!