About Me

          It has been a lifelong dream of mine to be a teacher.  In 1994, I moved to Medicine Hat and started taking courses at the college.  Then I met a wonderful young man that swept me off my feet and we got married. We had our beautiful daughter just over a year after we were married.  My husband was going to school so I supported him and stayed home to raise our family.  Once I started as an Educational Assistant in the school system I fell in love with the thought of teaching again.  I am a cancer survivor and as such I am driven to fulfill that dream now despite being older than many of my fellow students. 

            I live on a small hobby farm just outside of Medicine Hat.  We have lots of different animals that I absolutely love!  I plan on bringing in lots of animal babies throughout the years to visit the classroom.  As a family we love to quad and spend hours on our farm and in the mountains enjoying our time together.  I am passionate about gardening and in the summer find myself in my large garden daily fighting off weeds.  I love music; I sing, play the piano and am currently learning to play the ukulele.  I am also an avid reader thanks to my grade six school teacher who opened the magical world of books to me.

            The thing that makes me the happiest is spending time with my family and friends.  I am passionate about life and think that it should be filled with laughter and love.  I love to travel.  I lived in England for two years as a missionary for my church.  We have traveled all over every summer jumping in our motor home and driving all over Canada and the United States.  My husband is an instructor at the college so he gets several months off in the summer time.

            I know that I will be an enthusiastic, loving and dedicated teacher.  I have many years of experience teaching and working with children and youth and have loved each teaching experience.

My personal philosophy on teaching

              The most important aspect for me as a teacher is for each of my students to know that I care for them.  It is important to know each student personally including their background, their emotional and academic needs.  Once I know them and what they need in order to succeed in the classroom, I hope to vary my methods of teaching using the multiple intelligences.  I know through laughter, fun, interactive lessons and a warm, loving environment each student will thrive.

              I do not believe that a student is a ‘tabla rasa’(empty vessel), that information is to be poured into.  I agree with the philosophy of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky that students need to be actively learning and constructing meaning to lessons by building on what they already know.  Social interaction and active students in the classroom are vital to learning.  In the future, I hope to provide a classroom that is interactive using tables for working and white board paint on the walls for students to have group discussions and opportunities to teach each other.  I would like my classroom to be like a home which will provide a safe environment with comfy seating, indirect lighting and living things such as plants and a class pet.  In order for learning to be facilitated, mutual respect for all members is needed and no one should have a fear of being criticized in the classroom.  It should be a safe place to make mistakes as that is often how we learn.

              I am an advocate of character education in the school.  I believe, as a teacher, it is my job to be a role model both inside and outside the classroom.  It has been my experience that many opportunities arise daily to help students recognize unwanted behavior or teach better communication skills.  I understand that each person needs to prepare themselves to build up the society in which we live.

              I do not believe that to be an effective teacher I need to stand at the front of the room and lecture daily.  I believe that many truths can be discovered as students share and interact with each other.  It is my job as an educator to be organized, have well thought out lesson plans, keep up my own personal care, continue my person education, learn from fellow teachers and reflect on my day.  I personally believe that reflection is the key to becoming better.  It is a practice I use in my daily life as I ponder over my day each evening, thinking about what went well and what can be improved.  In continuing this practice I will be able to continue to direct my classroom and meet the needs of each student by trying to grow each day.  I believe that each student, myself included, needs to set goals and work towards stretching to become a better learner.