Photo courtesy of Mr. Sylvestre.
Laser News was lucky enough to secure an exclusive interview with one of St. Joe’s favourite teachers. Here is what Mr. Sylvestre had to say...
How long have you been teaching? What subjects do you teach?
I have been teaching since 2003 (YIKES, that’s a long time). I have been teaching at St. Joe’s since about 2009 (not 100% sure….the mind is the first thing to go they say). I teach the most amazing, rewarding, and important subject in the world: HISTORY. However, I’ve taught a lot of subjects in the Social Science Department (even Parenting—-good times!!!).
Are you involved in any clubs, teams, etc. at St. Joe’s?
Glad you asked. I am the coach for the St. Joe’s Debate Team and one of the coaches for our St. Joe’s Trivia Team. I was very interested in getting involved in these activities to give students even more options to get involved, especially for those that wanted something to do other than sports and art stuff. Luckily, St. Joes also offers Mock Trial, Model UN, and a bunch of Business activities too!
What is your favourite memory from St. Joe’s?
HMMM...that’s kinda tough. There are so many funny memories of random stuff that happened in class, but it was awesome when Mr. Gilbert’s class set off the fire alarm with a smoke machine while doing one of their videos. On a serious note, it was cool to see last year’s Grade 12s graduate because a lot of those students I had taught at least 3 times (some of them even 4 times because I taught them Civics too). So, it was awesome getting to get to know these amazing people as they grew into young adults. It will be the same this year too for this group of Grade 12s. They rocked and I am so lucky to have taught them history in grades 10, 11, and 12.
What advice would you give to students based on your own experience in high school and as a current teacher?
JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get involved. Make friends. Have fun. Don’t listen to that voice inside your head that makes you doubt yourself. Life is too short for negativity. You just got to dive head first into life and see what happens. High school is filled with opportunity. You just have to go for it. You won’t regret it even if it doesn’t turn out the way you thought.
How have you been keeping occupied during quarantine?
Well for the first couple of weeks I kept Amazon.ca in business by binging on vinyl records. Then I moved on to cooking non-stop all the time, trying new recipes. Then I decided to run 5 days a week, which resulted in me training for a half-marathon until I hurt myself. Then I bought a lot of books. Now my wife and I are totally into going for picnics down by the bridge and riding our bikes. I really miss the stuff that I loved doing before all this stuff went down, but I think I’ll look back at this time and be grateful for all the time I got to hang with my wife and do stuff I normally wouldn’t do. Plus, I think I’ve been getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night since March which hasn’t happened since I was a teenager!
And in case our readers wanted to know, Mr. Sylvestre also answered… “What is my zombie apocalypse plan?”
1. Swim to Belle Isle because zombies can’t swim. Right?
2. Invite Mr. Wilson to join me because he’s in the military and he knows his stuff. Plus, let’s face it—-he’s fun to be around.
3. If #1 and #2 fail, I figure I’m pretty much gonna get eaten so I’m gonna look to see if Kurt Cobain is walking this earth as a resurrected zombie and give him a hug.
We learned a lot about Mr. Sylvestre and hope you did too! What other teachers would you like to see in a Teacher Spotlight?