I would like to acknowledge that I live, work and play in Quesnel British Columbia on the unseeded territory of the Lhetako Dene Peoples. I have now completed my B.Ed with UNBC humanities emphasis, where I have completed practicums in Gr. 10-12 Music, P.E., First Peoples History 12, Psychology 11 and Social Studies 10. My background has been teaching with SD28 since 2018, mostly Gr. 7 classroom with some added Gr. 8/9 English/P.E and Elementary Music. My extras after schools involve teaching private piano and vocal lessons, coaching volleyball, playing various sports and training my horses.
Who was I prior to teaching to make me into the educator I am today? Previous Material Coordinator and Labourer in the Pipeline industry for Willbros Inc. at CNRL in Fort McMurray, Alberta, where I was the only female in my company working in the field among 150 male employees. This position helped me learn to advocate and be confident in myself. I also had to adapt my preferred learning style to on the fly/ hands one learning under extreme weather conditions and timeline pressures. I feel this position overall helped me grow into the person I am today, and help share these new competencies and confidence with my students to help them grow too.
Prior to Pipelining, I obtained my B.A. in Music at Nebraska Wesleyan where I had opportunities to perform in many parts of the world from tours all over the U.S.A. and Ireland (playing mostly piano, trumpet and bassoon) as well as vocal performances at Carnegie Hall in NYC, Syros, Greece, Veradero Cuba as well as miscellaneous performances here in Canada. At NWU, we have to audition and interview to be accepted into the program, and continue to perform in front of a staff jury at the end of each semester to continue with our program. This intensified arts program helped develop discipline, intrinsic motivation and organizational abilities I will carry with me in every day life and the classroom.
Last, what I feel helps piece “who I am” together: is how I ended up in Nebraska in the first place. Nebraska won my heart not on the music scholarships and opportunities I completed my NWU academic career on, but what started with a scholarship to WNCC for softball. I moved from Quesnel B.C to Victoria B.C to attend the Lambrick Park Baseball/ Softball Academy at 15 years old billeting with a family I had never met. I learned at a young age how to budget, time management and be accountable for my own success. From there I was awarded an athletic scholarship to Nebraska that little did I know; would forever shape my future.
Now? I happily moved back to Quesnel to help aid my Grandmother on our farm. I have 2 beautiful horses: Madonna (21 year old, black Arabian) and Deliga (17 year old Paint/Thoroughbred). I now enjoy my days spent riding Western, English and recently began beginning jumping along with playing slo-pitch, volleyball and coaching Gr.7 boys volleyball.
With these experiences of travel, performance, life skills and more; I hope to further advance my teaching knowledge, practice, philosophy and pedagogy while attending the B.ED program at UNBC and look forward to returning to the classroom in January 2022.
