Classroom Volunteer Work
In the course of my journey as an educator, I have spent a lot of time in classrooms as a volunteer. I have loved interacting with a wide variety of students, from differing backgrounds and with differing abilities.
My first volunteer position within a school was at Aberdeen Elementary, where I split my time between a grade 6 class and a grade 2 class. I learned so much from both environments, but found that I truly thrived in the early primary classroom.
Participating hands on in the students’ daily learning activities, as well as their more involved projects was fulfilling and enriching for both myself and the students.
Activity Develpment
Even before exploring the idea of becoming an educator, I have surrounded myself with children and found myself in various childcare positions. In the process of caring for children of differing ages and abilities, one of my favorite tasks has been developing enriching activities for these children.
Incorporating learning opportunities into our everyday activities was a fun challenge for me, and had great benefits for the children in my care. Creating activities that take advantage of various everyday learning opportunities and teachable moments was incredibly fun and fulfilling.
Some examples of this type of activity development are: counting and sorting the apples from our backyard apple trees (incorporating math skills, as well as sustainable food sources), collecting, washing, sorting, and painting rocks from our environment (working on fine motor skills, getting out into nature, exploring our natural environment), building binoculars to take with us to the wildlife park where we explore and observe animals (hands on creative crafting, learning about our environment and the natural animals within it).
Schooling and Research
Schooling has been a constant part of my life, at various levels and in so many ways. I have been attending formal post secondary education for nearly 8 years, and I have loved so many things about it. One of my favorite things about school has been researching topics that I was passionate about. Having opportunities to dive into research has been so valuable for my learning. To this day I have kept the research I have done throughout my undergraduate studies, as a resource for suture studies, and because I am incredibly proud of my research.
As I have branched into education, my research topics have shifted, but my habit for deep diving into research has remained. This has transferred into accumulating classroom resources from various sources, and building a comprehensive resource base that I am incredibly proud of and have so much fun collecting.
Student Enrichment
Creating and building classroom resources is one of my passions. I have so much fun cutting and laminating activities, assembling games and resource packs, and putting together gift bags and prizes for the classroom. Building my collection of classroom resources is a constant project that I am always working on, and one that I involve the whole family in (as pictures is my husband helping me assemble packs of loose parts, and my sister helping me assemble end of year gift bags).
By starting to build my classroom resources now, I am hopeful that I will always have an enriched and inspiring classroom, keeping students engaged and always involved in something.