Growing up I knew that I was passionate about two things, travel and working with children. From being a camp counselor and volunteering with Special Olympics for many years, I knew at a young age that I wanted to work with children in some capacity. After my first year in university, I caught the travel bug when I went backpacking through South East Asia for three months. I fell in love with exploring a new place and culture, meeting new and amazing people, and that feeling of uneasiness when you are pushed outside your comfort zone.
Through my experiences working with children and people with special needs, I was inspired to apply to Ryerson University for Early Childhood Studies and complete the concurrent education program with York University to receive both a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Studies and a Bachelor of Education in Primary/Junior Education. This program provided me with the opportunity to explore working with children in more ways than just as a teacher and opened my eyes to all that I still wanted to learn about educating and supporting children. I decided to apply for my Masters of Education in Special Education at the University of British Columbia, focusing specifically on Supporting Inclusive Education. As I am from Ontario, the opportunity to move to a completely new place, travel and explore as well as continue to learn and grow in my career of working with children allowed for me to follow both of my passions.
While completing my M.Ed., I also got my first year of teaching under my belt in a kindergarten/grade one classroom. The opportunity to take what I was learning in class and in theory, and apply it to practice the next day at work provided an immense amount of learning opportunities as well as self-discovery in regards to the kind of educator I want to be.
When you travel, every day is a new and exciting adventure. You follow your instincts, your passions and explore a place and culture unknown to you. I believe that when you teach, you are also using these same ideas. You follow your instincts to make the best decisions for you and your students, you follow your passions as well as your students to explore learning in a fun and engaging way.
The bucket list of countries and places I want to explore grows each and every day, just as the list of ideas and experiences I want to have with the students in my classroom grows constantly. Upon the completion of my M.Ed. I intend to take some time for myself and go to some of the places on this never-ending bucket list. When I return to Ontario I intend to use everything I learned thus far in my travels to be the best educator I can be, as well as continue to follow my passions.
All pictures included on this website are personal photos