What time is it?
This is me sitting in two time zones on my trip to Las Vegas (March 2005)
My Educational Background
University
I took a year
off after high school before heading to Laurentian University. 
I
studied Anthropology and found a love for Forensic Anthropology. I decided
to take the thesis route and was lucky enough to do some field research at the
Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. It was a once in a lifetime
opportunity and one I greatly appreciated. For those interested, my thesis
was to debunk a method of determining age at death using the sutures of the
skull, first devised by Meindle and Lovejoy (Meindl,
R.S. and C.O. Lovejoy. 1985 Ectocranial Suture Closure: a revised method for the
determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral-anterior sutures. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology , 68(1):57-66.).
Post-Graduate
Although I
loved the world of anthropology, finances prevented me from going further (I had
an open invitation to the University of Bradford, England). So onto
another chapter of my education. After three years of work I entered the
Therapeutic Recreation program at Georgian College. 
After 8 months education and a field placement at Royal Victoria Hospital,
Barrie, I attempted to enter the workforce. I say attempted because,
although therapeutic recreation is an important aspect of the health care
system, jobs are few and far between where I live. This lack of work,
finally led me to teaching.
I took the long road to teaching, despite knowing since I was a kid that this was where I was headed. I don't regret my educational choices, as a matter of fact I think they make me a better teacher.
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My Teaching Philosophy I
believe I have an important job –
to teach improve my students reading abilities, to problem solve, to be
stewards of their environment and responsible members of their society.
It is also my job to provide a safe learning environment.
It is also my job to instill in the students a love of learning. Through
my experiences children and adolescents I have come to believe that
teaching and learning is a cyclical process and there must be a life-long
love of learning to complete this cycle. In order to effectively teach
others, teachers must continue to learn and gain knowledge. It is my
intention to continue to education myself throughout my career, be it
through teaching in-services, commercial workshops and/or university
courses. I
believe a teacher can best manage the cycle of life-long learning through
organization and the integration of these four cornerstones which act as
the foundation of teaching knowledge in the classroom: knowledge of
subject, students, methodology and knowledge of self.
As a teacher the more knowledge I gain from the learner the better
I will be at tailoring the expectations from the curriculum through
planning activities and creating an environment that helps them learn. By
using varied teaching methods, I enable the learner to better relate to
the material because it is presented to meet a variety of learning styles.
I have come to realize that the young minds are like sponges, with
absorbent minds that love to learn. Their
learning is done at an individual pace and they need as many opportunities
as possible for active exploration, which will help them make sense of
their surroundings. Children
need to have a safe, supportive environment to make mistakes and be
successful. To create this safe learning environment, I encourage
students to ask questions and give their views on the material we are
covering. With this in mind I
try to plan and implement concrete experiences with the material the
children are learning. I
have a life long love of learning and I want to share this love with the
learners I will encounter in my teaching career.
I hope to teach children tolerance and kindness of a love of
learning. There is no better
gift I can give back to children then to instill knowledge and a love of
learning. |
This takes you right to my Ontario College of Teachers Qualifications page
A little bit more about me...
What can I say? It's my husbands fault, but yes, I love NASCAR! And yes, I am a Gordon fan. I even bring NASCAR into the classroom and the students (and even the parents) seem love it.
I've visited three tracks (been to Michigan four times and going to Vegas in March 2007!) and am looking forward to visiting more.
I am fascinated by the Everest region of the world and long to visit Nepal. This is not me. It is simply a beautiful picture I found one day.
My Tibetan Prayer Flag
I got to cross a destination off my "places to visit" list when I visited the Grand Canyon in March 2005. We opted to visit the West Rim and it was amazing! (The top picture was taken on our way to the Canyon)
Places I still want to visit, to name a few...
Victoria Falls, Africa Paris, France Ayres Rock, Australia
The above pictures from Webshots.