Over the course of the Bachelor of Education program at TRU I have had amazing work experiences through practicums. I completed my Teacher Certification Practicum Placement at Ecole Nesika Elementary which is apart of School District 27. During this placement I taught lessons and units in all subjects in the 4 and 5 BC Curriculum. I built relationships with over 29 students and ensured all students felt attended to with individualized lessons, personalized feedback, class discussions and encouragement. As well as worked on classroom management, organization, assessment and teaching structure.
I have worked many jobs from high school until present day such as, babysitting, waitressing, ranch work, equipment operating and book keeping. However, the most important in helping me confirm my desire to teach was waitressing and working on a cattle ranch.
From 2016 until 2020 I worked part time as a ranch hand doing many jobs such as haying, feeding, range riding, calving, property maitenance and many other duties that go along with ranch work. Although, this many not seem in any way related to teaching I was able to make connections. Being around animals allowed me to see my ability to care and nurture a living thing much as young students need within the classroom to create a positive and safe learning environment. Bottle feeding claves is another great example because orphaned calves need to be taught to feed from a bottle and although sometimes difficult I was able to persevere and have patience until I was able to teach them, another quality needed in teachers. Lastly, this job was located in Tatla Lake, BC which is a rural part of the Cariboo Chilcotin region near my band of Tl’etinqox Government. This showed me the desire I have to live in this area and teach rurally, potentially at a band school.
From 2016-2018 I worked part time as a waitress, a job I loved but once again on the surface appears completely unrelated helped me further believe I would excel as a teacher. I began waitressing in high school and had always been shy but getting that job made me confident in speaking to people and in fact created a love for talking to different people and hearing their stories whilst serving. While I had previously doubted my ability to succeed in a career such as teaching due to my shyness, waitressing showed me I had the capability to engage with others and get to know them, once again, something teachers need to be able to do with their students.