My journey in education began in 2009 when I decided to start coaching high school band retreats and teaching private oboe lessons while completing my music degree at University of British Columbia. I also volunteered as a band assistant at Boundary Elementary Program, thoroughly enjoying the process of helping each student work towards their best sound during band performances. I love guiding students towards creating beautiful music, sharing their feelings of achievement and frustration alike, and I still tutor privately today through Beethoven at Home Music School. At the same time I started working as a nanny, which made me realize how much I love to work with children and help them develop. I care deeply about environmental sustainability, and bringing children out to nature to explore and learn its beauty was the basis of many favourite outings with my little charges.
Despite my interest in teaching music, I initially felt that it would be a more secure career to study nursing. I entered the Bachelor of Nursing Program at UBC in 2013. However, after one year I realized my heart was not in this profession. Similar to teaching, nursing is a helping profession that has be done for reasons beyond job security. I wanted a career working with children, and in the nursing field I found I was working with the physical health of children when what I really wanted was to work with their minds. Feeling dissatisfied with my experience of nursing, I made the courageous decision to leave a career path that I felt did not fit my interests.
This experience strengthened my resolve that I am made to be a teacher of children. I worked as an educator at Saplings Outdoor Program, an outdoor daycare for young children, and as a student teacher at Cheakamus Centre, so I find myself at a crossroads of passions. I want to show children how they can find inspiration through the great outdoors and I hope to guide their expressions of creativity through music. This is why my inquiry focused on the effects of playing music outdoors on the music education of students, as I think the development of confident players involves getting out of the four walls of practice rooms to the community. (To see more on this, check out the Inquiry section on the menu.)
I also want to be part of a movement that reduces the stigma surrounding mental health. My sister passed away due to complications resulting from drug addiction, which I know was fueled by an underlying mental health issue. Our social attitudes are instilled through adults at a young age, and there is now a public health crisis resulting from a drastic increase in drug overdoses in BC. Aside from a personal longterm plan to cycle to raise funds for mental health research for the benefit of youth, I want to be a teacher that creates a safe space for sharing grade-appropriate information, asking questions and, should students need it, seek help on this topic.