Reflecting on this Community Field Experience, I know that it was not what I had originally hoped it would’ve been with the full-scale job action that occurred. However, we did get to spend 1 fantastic week at J.A. Laird Elementary, and 1 day at Eileen Madison Primary School. During that time, there were some amazing teachers and students that we had the pleasure of meeting. The teachers that I met were excited and open to sharing strategies that had worked for them over the years, however; it would have been nice for us to have the opportunity to offer them more of our own experiences/strategies – if we had the time. That week was valuable, only wish we would have had the chance to spend more time there.
Regardless, with the time we had away from school – there were lots of other educational experiences that we had the opportunity to engage in. Volunteering at the youth centre was great exposure for me with older children, visiting the residential school was an immeasurable experience, the pioneer museum made me realize how my perspective on my surroundings has changed with my “educational” eye, along with the many other little experiences we had over the past 3 weeks (visiting public library, summer literacy centre, community garden, musical out-post, arts-infusion, community sustainability, etc…).
Spending this time in a rural town has also opened my eyes to how different the feel of education is in a small town, in comparison to Vancouver. In Invermere, it felt more like a community educating the students; where as in Vancouver I felt a lot more removed from the community and parents, with everyone living very separate lives.
Overall, I thought that it was a great experience, it was in a beautiful town with wonderful people. I feel very fortunate to have had this experience.
