My name is Michael Saretzky, and I am grade 6/7 teacher in Red Deer, AB. Although I grew up in BC, on Vancouver Island, and graduated from UVIC, my wife and I have been teaching in Alberta for the last fifteen years. After nine years in Hinton, just outside of Jasper, we moved to Red Deer three years ago, I . My son (9) and daughter (6) both go to the school that my wife and I teacher at, a year-round school, with about 65% ELL students.
This is my 8th course in the MET program, so I am getting close and I hope to finish the spring of 2021. The global events really helped persuade me into taking this course, as I believe that education is changing, and although it has always been changing and adapting with technology, I believe the pandemic has been a catalyst in speeding up the change. I do believe that there will be a place for face-to-face learning, but even in grade 6 I have been impressed with how some students who may be quite social in class are very focussed in online learning, while some introverted students are more willing to ask questions online.
Outside of school I enjoy traveling, although I also did a few trips with classes as well. I also enjoy cooking, which I have been quite fortunate to include into some of my previous teaching assignments. Not only with teaching foods, but I also ran the school concession as part of the foods program and each of my school trips has incorporated some type of cooking lesson.
Hi Mel,
Yes, it is nice to all be in the same school, especially since we have a year-round calendar. Although it is funny, every time my wife get interviewed at a new school, we get told that they don’t normally put married couples together, yet this is our third school we have been in together and the last one we actually taught a PE class together. I love being at a school with such a high ELL population, and I also like that my own children are learning about so many different cultures first hand too. It has been a crazy experience though, I have had classes with about eight different languages in them and all at different levels of English.
Hello Michael, it’s awesome that you and your wife teach where your children go to school and that there are so many students who are ELLs. I miss my ELL students tremendously! They were an amazing bunch of kids. Look forward to learning with you in the course!