Ted Sloan is a pre-service teacher studying at Laurier. Having been a radio personality and actor were great preludes to his decision that teaching Shakespeare was only one of the things he wanted do for learners. From 2004-2013, Ted worked in every position at an independent radio station called Moose FM in Fort St John, British Columbia. He did everything from cleaning it to hosting a radio show and more, learning all aspects of the business in his tenure there. Ted went to a prestigious acting school and later discovered that he wanted to be a teacher. I first met Ted as a panelist on our weekly ONedMentors. We have had a few conversations on the show, and I was excited that he was able to join me during the VoicEdRadiothon, as his improvisational and radio skills were sure to come in handy on the live Personal Playlist Podcast.
Ted has a lot of interesting tales from his life. He told a story about a farm sitting fiasco when the cows got out and help was a ski-doo away. He recounted helping a friend run their bed and breakfast in Yellowknife and also rented out canoes to visitors. That year, the royal couple, Princess Kate and Prince William, were travelling through Canada, and Ted got to interact with them. Ted shared his arrival at his song choices by speaking of music as a memory marker. “It was so much fun...Each song got to be a story of where I was at somewhere in my life.” With each click on his iTunes list, he was taken back to a memory of such things as falling off the stage, the day his voice first broke on the radio, or the one playing when he asked his current friend to go out with him. He referred to the experience saying, “It was a beautiful reading of my own book.”
Ted’s nostalgic song is an ode to his home province and the small city where he's from in Northeast BC called Fort St John, about 14 hours north of Vancouver. “This song has all the elements of me,” Ted asserted. He added, “It says where I’m from, it's song words that I can attest to, it’s local, and full of friendship...” The band is from his home town, and he is friends with the lead singer. Ted referred to the female vocalist saying, “… she’s one of the best teachers I have ever met; she’s one of the best people I have every met and one of the best people I know.” In an article about the band and song, the songwriter Joseph te Bulte said that there's power in one's sense of place in the world. Ted painted the setting saying, “ BC is a beautiful province, and I consider myself very lucky to be there…you can stand on the tallest hill in my home town and you can see the flatness of the prairies, then you see the rockies on your left and you feel just lucky enough to be part of it all…Home is a different place to everybody, …but it truly gets into your bones.” Here is BC by Last Horse Standing:
While Ted had to be reminded of his identity song choice, it was not because he is forgetful. Our guest went through many different choice options and proceeded through a long process of extracting the right one to capture this moment in time. Brittany Spears’ I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman was an option because he grew up with the singer’s work and this song reflects his transition to becoming a teacher. Ted settled, instead, on a song by a band to which he was personally connected. Having worked in Country radio for 10 years, as well, he couldn't not have added one to his playlist. Asking existential questions of the universe like what's your plan, and where am I supposed to be, here is High Valley with Dear Life:
When Ted was speaking about love and support, I remembered that I wanted to ask about his father. When we were speaking before the show, Ted referred to his father as "the best teacher ever." His father, Dave Sloan, with whom he shares the same formal name, was going to become the principal of his middle school, and he was offered the position at the school Ted was going to attend. He gave his son a say in his decision with an understanding of the potential challenge, but Ted encouraged it. His father created a 7:30 am class that Ted attended where he referred to his teacher as Mr. Sloan. The hilarity ensued as the other students started calling their school father figure Dad, but Ted still referred to him as Mr. Sloan. Ted said, "He really loves to provoke thought and make you questions what you think." As his father has "gone up the ranks", he has maintained his 7:30 class on top of his other duties to ensure that he always has students at the centre of what he's doing and never forgets why he's there. Ted never knew he wanted to be a teacher, and his father's response to hearing that this was his career path was "Are you sure?" Ted uses that as a gauge to ensure that he is making the most of every learning experience.
It was a real honour to have been selected for the acting school that Ted attended. He was one of only 12 in his program, and one of the other students who was very young but very good grew to become a close friend. This man was uneasy about singing at the start of the program, and one of Ted's last moments with him was when he sang the song that Ted chose for his inspirational song. The man had become more comfortable with singing and was celebrating himself on stage. Ted said, "There is something remarkable about watching someone you love stand and be 100% comfortable in themselves... and not only that but have the courage to say this is who I am and I don't know if you like it, but I've looked in the mirror and I've said I like it." This song is about a character who does just that from a play called La Cage Aux Folles. It is also a wish Ted has for his students to feel or even sing its lyrics, if there's a place and time that this could happen in his classroom. Here is I Am What I Am:
Ted taught me a great metaphor for teachers. He said that it's like "getting to be the moon". What he meant by this is that it can often appear when someone is leading or using their voice that they are standing in the light. His mentor told him this analogy because the moon is not a light unto itself but, instead, reflects the light of the sun or the best of the world around it. What a great way to speak about our profession, knowing that our role is to reflect the light of the learners around us, ignite inspiration and help them shine. If you want to get in touch with Ted, you can find him on Twitter.
