Christine Ho Younghusband

Budda’s Blend

Day 10 (of 187) – September 17, 2018

Where did the time go today? YIKES. Is this how’s it’s going to be? Every moment matters. It’s Monday and I arrived to work with a basket, 3 small pictures, some miscellaneous items, and a plug-in kettle to complete my journey of decorating my office. That’s it. I’m done. I’m pretty happy how my office looks and feels and I have plenty of room to spread all of my stuff on my desk as a clear indicator to me of the things I’ve got to do. YAY.

I unpacked my stuff and made myself a cup of tea… Tea given to me from one of my students. It tasted delicious, but it took me all day to drink it. As soon as I felt that I was somewhat settled down… it was one meeting, then an informal conversation, some photocopying, organizing my desk, another meeting, then another meeting… back to my office, a phone call conference, and yes… another meeting. The day ends with several other informal conversations and then it’s back home. Who needs that envelope? I just drove straight home. I thought about KFC. The envelope can wait for tomorrow.

Home by 6pm… inspired to make DINNER FOR ONE and I think that I have mastered my mom’s “Vi Guy” (aka. soy sauce chicken stir fry). Tonight’s dinner with brown rice just hit the spot for me to become grounded in my work and who I am. It’s also comforting. With another big cup of tea, I settled down in front of my computer to engage in another edu-chat on Twitter (aka. a personal goal for this year). The day will conclude to a HOT BATH and yes… homework. I hope to figure out the time to return back to my research. I am so grateful for the connections I have made so far since being here in Prince George. I look forward to the work ahead and stoked for the next few days (aka. teaching classes).

Thank you BUDDA’s BLEND tea. I’m enjoying my pedagogical journey so far here at UNBC in Prince George. It’s complex, diverse, and intrinsically rewarding. I hope to achieve what I hope to achieve. I am hopeful and optimistic. I hope to make a difference in some way and contribute to the profession, practice, and discipline. As challenging as things may seem, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. BELIEVE. Anything is possible.

Not One Pic

Day 9 (of 187) – September 14, 2018

Seriously. Not one picture from today. I must be losing it. I even had an awesome yummy lunch at the UNBC pub – The Thirsty Moose with my colleagues… and no food pic of my delicious bacon cheeseburger and fries. This is very unlike me. It must show my level of engagement… or I am actually heading into my EARLY HIBERNATION, as mentioned from my last blog entry. Not sure, but I’m getting suspicious. So here’s a pic of an article to depict the kind of reading I will be doing this weekend in addition to e-Portfolios.

As predicted, I stayed up late to get some work done. I was so happy to “catch up” with my course planning and prepping. I’m learning more about Blackboard and communicating with students electronically with PDFs and “announcements.” It’s continues to be really fun to figure things out and to see what works. I enjoy the learning curve and problem solving. With a late night, I went to the university a little later in the morning. No classes for me to teach on Fridays but it’s a day when one of my colleagues teaches, otherwise she teaches remotely online. This is always the best time to collaborate, hence lunch out to the Thirsty Moose. That said, it’s also an opportunity to explore the campus. UNBC is a beautiful campus, but I haven’t seen any moose yet.

I love taking the time to collaborate with my colleagues and to talk about how things are going. I am also building my capacity one day at a time but also learning more about my role, the school, and what we are trying to achieve. This is the exciting part. I love problem solving and finding ways to move forward. I am always fascinated by the complexities of systems. I felt this way when I was teaching secondary math, governing as a school trustee, and advocating for my mom when she was in the hospital. Systems organize people and dictates certain behaviours and actions. People are interconnected. With one shift, there’s a domino effect (or not). Systems always make me curious.

The day concludes with meeting with my master student to move forward with her study but also get our Ps and Qs organized so that she can complete her final project before the end of the school year. I loved where we met. STARBUCKS. And can you believe… NO SELFIE. I am losing it. Or, once again, an indicator of my level of engagement. We had an awesome conversation and we are an excellent match in terms of our personalities and work ethic. This supervision will be super fun. It’s going well so far. To treat myself from a VERY ENGAGING day, I wanted to get Chinese food from the food fair at the mall… but there isn’t one. What??? I considered a Costco hotdog, but in the end, I returned to my apartment and made dinner. The night concludes with laundry. WOOHOO. What a day!!!

Early Hibernation

Day 8 (of 187) – September 13, 2018

OK… It’s the end of my “full week” of work. Of course I’m going into work tomorrow to connect with colleagues and GET THINGS DONE, but I don’t teach on Fridays. Anyway, I woke up this morning to SUB-ZERO temperatures. Blue sky but what’s up with the -8 degrees??? This coastal-girl has some adjustments to make. The learning curve is HUGE. It snowed a bit yesterday and I turned on my seat-warmer in my car going to work… and yet, I wore my CROCS and NorthFace anyway. Take that!!! BTW: denial runs deep.

It was great coming to work today. Checked in with my colleague Deb K to say hello and she gave me these cute handmade mittens with a hole for the finger tips as a gesture of kindness and WELCOME to the cold weather. Sheesh. I love them… and that was exactly what I was thinking when I was walking from my car to the university. I need gloves!!! And, voila. It was a very serendipitous moment. I very much enjoyed my EDUC360 class today. This is a great class. Secondary, first year, teacher candidates. Today, we finally completed our course SIGN-UPS and started to talk about BC’s New Curriculum.

I think about what makes me tick and I am still driven by ENHANCING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTS. It truly is my purpose. I just love trying to figure out, now in higher education, how students can sense-make through complex content in a dialogical and collaborative way. I love social engagement as part of the learning process. Within 110 minutes, we finished our class SIGN-UPs, discuss again what the course framework and momentum would look like, watched Shelley Moore’s TEDxLangleyED Under the Table, discussed curriculum as policy, introduced students to the BC’s New Curriculum website, First Peoples Principles of Learning, and the Educated Citizen.

To make sense of BC’s New Curriculum, we started a learning activity where students got into subject speciality groups, co-imagined a learning activity in their subject areas (as learners), and worked BACKWARDS through BC’s New Curriculum from finding the course and grade level, identifying the content and related curricular competencies, then next class identify which BIG IDEAS their learning activity captures, start composing “I can” statements as they relate to the Core Competencies, and make connections to the First Peoples Principles of Learning. Whew. This does not include personalized learning, interdisciplinary learning, and assessment and evaluation. This is complex. I love it.

After this class, I zoomed down the hill to meet with one of the EDtech sessional instructors. This was so wonderful to meet another person from the School of Education and SD57. We chatted about e-Portfolios and how it will work for his class and our vision for practicum courses. We worked out a plan for this year and discussed what next year could look like. I also realized that I have to connect with another EDtech sessional instructor to see what this person thinks as well. This journey of collaboration to include and incorporate ides and needs of the students and faculty is all about compromise and finding the best fit for all. It’s been a fun process so far and this vision is definitely emerging. I will keep you posted but I am excited about the potential e-Portfolios can bring to the School of Education to make student learning cohesive and visible.

With all this excitement… all that I want to do is NAP. I am so tired this week. The one late night of course prep and a jammed packed Wednesday proved to me that I’m not the undergrad from the 80’s who used to do all nighters to get things done. I have NEVER BEEN an early to bed, early to rise person. I will get up in the morning, but it’s likely I went to be late. That’s just how it is. I am very happy that my classes start later in the day at UNBC and I have plenty of time to work done. But my Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays are jammed packed. Yay for Friday!!! Personally, I like to believe that it’s the COLD weather that is making me sleepy. EARLY HIBERNATION. It’s mid-September and it’s snowing and below zero. What? I’m going to bed. I may not wake until the spring.

Meeting My PLN

Day 7 (of 187) – September 12, 2018

Today is a new day… it was a HUGE day… first, I overbooked myself. I am so grateful that I have colleagues who are willing to flex their time and reappointment to another time. After last nights class, I stayed up late… to blog… but also prep for my classes today. I am just pooped. That said, nothing picks up your day better than meeting members of your Twitter PLN face-to-face. I know Monica (@MBerra) from Twitter and Noelle (@noelle_pepin) knows me from Twitter. All in all, this morning was pretty much an one-hour love in. I did not want it to end. I love what they are doing at the SD57 District Learning Centre and I can’t wait to have Noelle come guest speak to one of my classes… and Monica work with my other class with the SD57 Education Kits during practicum.

This was a good start to my day… as I race back to the university to teach my two classes back to back… these classes went super well as well. This made me super happy. JUST BE YOURSELF. You teach who you are. Be the person you want to see… Classic… the Golden Rule at its finest. I had fun in both my classes, but the 10 minute transition from one class to another makes it a marathon of instruction. I just met my first class, the elementary practicum group, for the first time. Because I met so many of these students during orientation, it did not feel like a “syllabus day.” It was so great to OVER PLAN and go with the flow. Goodbye PLOW mindset. I wanted thisclass to get a good sense of who I am and what I am all about. With my second class, it was our second class together. Again… I was going with the flow and over planned this class too. I had stuff to pull from but also was was able to give space for students to co-create knowledge and collectively sense-make. I was a super fun class. We had our FIRST student led presentation too… using MEMES. How timely, because #bcedchat kicked off the school year with memes.

The day concludes with me chatting with a student after class, cancelling a meeting, putting aside some work for tomorrow… and racing home to attend the SD46 Board of Education meetings via phone. Yup. It was a full day. I even got an email from one of my students from last night indicating that he had enjoyed last night’s class. So cray, cray.

Habitual Pedagogy

Day 6 (of 187) – September 11, 2018

Oh my goodness… what a day. Not only am I writing my “second” daily blog of learning today, I clocked in more than 12-hours on campus… teaching, learning, and leading. No complaints. I loved it. I truly enjoy having my DOOR OPEN, as mentioned in my last blog entry, and having students and staff drop in to say hello, discuss course work, or share ideas. It’s an ideal workplace situation. I am totally stoked about starting and e-Portfolio with our Teacher Candidates and learning-by-doing what it means to facilitate this shift in teaching and learning. The best part is knowing that someone on campus has a collaborative expertise on this. This was a perfect storm. I will let you know how this goes. In the meantime, I was prepping for my night course EDUC 601 – Educational Research and Design. Well… all I can say is REDO please. I can do better.

I don’t want to be my toughest critic but I think I am. The students seemed OK, but they don’t know any different. I walked away from tonight’s class and thought… Why am I doing all of the blabbing? What do I know? How can I facilitate learning to help them know (without me dumping MY THOUGHTS on research)? We have a book… and what are their thoughts? I will admit, we were trying to get two weeks worth of “content” done tonight because we did not have class last week. UNBC’s classes officially started last Wednesday (and we’re a Tuesday night course). It was a “sit and deliver” on the course syllabus and Chapters 1 and 2. The students thrived when I just gave them the space to figure our their research problem and discuss with others. I so bummed that when push comes to shove that I would resort to what I know… HABITUAL PEDAGOGY.

A PowerPoint, my vague summary of the chapters, and me speaking about the BIG IDEAS of the chapters these students have pre-read before my class… Can this get anymore disappointing? OK. I’m doing my job… but not well. I know I can do better. I want a new HABITUAL PEDAGOGY that is student centred and student led… in higher education. I want students to be sense-making… collaboratively and cooperatively. I want to create a learning community that thrives on growth, experiential learning, and play. I am being a bit rough on myself. I’m not sure what I expect from my first class of any course in higher education. The syllabus run-down is really just me sharing my vision and expectations for the course. Nothing too exciting. But I could have done better on my chapter summaries.

That said, I was encouraged by how students from my previous classes are already talking to me about what they are planning to do in our class in the next coming days… to collaborate and bounce ideas. I love that. I was heartened by how quickly my night class gelled and gracefully engaged in small group discussion to talk about research and their research problem. We’ll see how this goes. No one was scathed and I am judging pretty early in the term (i.e. after the first class). In hindsight, my first class of other courses I taught at SFU had a “slow start” and would only gain momentum by Week 6. We are only in Week 2. I should be kinder to myself, but I do understand why it would be difficult to adopt BC’s New Curriculum with HABITUAL PEDAGOGY. I am a huge supporter of BC’s New Curriculum and 21st Century Learning… and here I am defaulting to “lecturing” (even though that’s my job title). I am learning as I am doing. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

Building Relationships

Day 5 (of 187) – September 10, 2018

I am slowly but surely flooding my office at UNBC with “stuff.” There is no way that I will handily fill 5 BOOK SHELVES within the school year, but I am prepared for the challenge. I am also slowly but surely catching onto this DAILY BLOG on days of learning. Yes, I am learning. And yes, I am one day behind, as anticipated because it takes time to form new habits. That said, I had no classes on Monday but I like to go to the university to work and meet new people. All that I have to do is LEAVE MY DOOR OPEN. This is nice. Personally, as an extrovert, I like the door open. But having my door open provides an invitation to others to walk by and say HELLO or have a seat to have a chat. I liked that. I met more faculty (new to me), connected to familiar faces, and chatted with some students one-to-one. What I am appreciating most about teaching and learning at UNBC is that I can be myself. I feel authentic to my practice and to those I work, teach, and learn with. This is a nice feeling. I like being in a state of change, personally and professionally, which helps me to gain a deep understanding of the change process and how RELATIONSHIPS are at the core of what we are trying to do and achieve.

Today will not be a super long blog reflection on learning. I’m anticipating to write another blog entry tonight on today’s day of learning. I’m teaching tonight too. Anyway, I love that I continue to make connections with other people to broaden and deepen my understanding of teaching and learning. I am diversifying my understanding being in a different place with different people and I love the opportunity to make myself vulnerable to the learning process with hopes that it will influence my teaching practice and thus improve or enhance the learning experiences of my students (aka. teacher candidates) and their students to be. This is a good place to be and I hope to continue building relationships so that we can move forward together towards a common goal. Don’t get me wrong… as much as I am excited to lunge forwards 3 steps… I do step back one or two because it’s the right thing to do. This is the thing about relationships. It’s a give and take process. There are no winners. It’s opportunities for teaching and learning. In the end… realizing this after a brief conversation with another student this morning… it’s not about what you teach that students remember, it’s the relationship that you have created and nourished… and how you made them feel in that relationship will last a lifetime.

You Can’t See Yourself

Ah yes… my fave… a FOOD PIC. This a photo of a Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict from “Ohh Chocolate in downtown Prince George. It was sooooooo delicious and sooooooo unexpected. First of all, there was something yummy in the hollandaise sauce that was tangy and somewhat addictive. So, goodbye potatoes dipped in hollandaise sauce. It was the first thing to go off my plate followed up by the strawberry garnish as a palate cleanser. Then I moved onto the piece of maple bacon COVERED IN CINNAMON. What the? So delicious!!! This does not speak to the main course of the meal… the Eggs Benedict. At first glance, you’d think that the HUGE piece of salmon is lying on a piece of toast, but no. With closer inspection, it was a piece of toasted croissant. Moist and tender to the knife and fork. The egg, sauce, salmon, and croissant was a winning combination and this was a LOCAL chocolate coffee house. YUMMY. Best of all… Breakfast special for the month of September… TWO breakfasts for the price of ONE. Winning!!!

This blog entry is not a food review… but really, today’s brunch AND COFFEE at Ohhh Chocolate were outstanding. It’s not even a commentary of the awesome local venues that are up and coming in Prince George, but I hope to go to more. I’m really enjoying myself. Furthermore, it’s not one of my DAILY BLOG ENTRIES to reflect on each day of learning; a challenge I have personally taken on from Ian Landy @technolandy because I think it’s absolutely crazy to blog everyday. So, I might post this blog entry onto my personal Facebook Page. Day’s like this is an opportunity for me to get out of my apartment (or university campus office) to connect with those I know who live in or near Prince George. Today, I made plans with one of my former Math 12 students from Chatelech Secondary… Deb Petula… now Deb Young… to have brunch. Ohhh Chocolate is like a modern, locally owned business with lots of yummy things to eat and drink.

Meeting up with folks like Deb (and Nicole Doran from a few weeks ago) is an opportunity for me to explore the City of Prince George through the lens of my former students but also current residents of Prince George. I am slowly but surely getting my bearings but I think this will take some time. To get anywhere that’s not College Heights, UNBC, or Winners, I have to turn on my MAPS APP on my iPhone and trust that I am going to end up where I want to be. Thank goodness for technology. Without it, I would definitely still be in my apartment wondering if I knew anyone in Prince George. That would be a sad state of affairs. Here I go… up and over the hill via the university to get to the other side of Prince George to head to an area called “The Bowl” to pick up Deb from her home. I met her husband Jack and waved hello to her two little ones who were in the house. They were super cute and still in their jammies. You knew it was Saturday morning.

It was clear to Deb that I had no idea where I was going. She had to be my human MAPS APP to get to our destination. On the way there, we chatted about how she landed in Prince George. I did not realize that she schooled at UNBC, met her husband at UNBC, and started work in Prince George soon after university graduation. She’s been in Prince George for 17 years… which means I taught Deb at least 18 years ago… now that BLOWS MY BRAIN. Has it really been that long? Must be true though… I just can’t believe time flies. We chatted all morning as if no time had few by. I liked that Deb had to tell her friend this morning that she couldn’t do coffee with her because she was going out with her MATH TEACHER. Oh ya… feels good!!! I had no idea that I was Deb’s favourite teacher and favourite math teacher. I enjoyed having her in my math class but I did not know I was a favourite. Huh. YOU CAN’T SEE YOURSELF… the title of this blog entry.

This cognitive awakening got me thinking about my research and self-assessment. How do we know what we know if we can’t see ourselves? This is metacognition at it’s finest. I’ve always believed that we all need “a mirror” to see ourselves. I don’t think SELFIES are going to cut it. That’s all orchestrated and designed for social media, but how do we really see ourselves? How do we measure ourselves? I wonder about this. I do recall not being other people’s favourite teacher, but is that really true. I loved how Deb said during brunch today… that I made math easy to understand and FUN to learn. She said that I made math too seemingly too doable that she wanted to go to university to study math and become a teacher. That was my biggest compliment I took from today. I had no idea I was achieving this with my high school math students even though it was my intent.

We had an amazing brunch… as mentioned earlier… and seen in my favourite to do FOOD PIC. We headed out to check out another area that many locals had mentioned. We went to “The Hart.” I was surprised how many people I’ve met and chatted with mentioned that they live IN THE HART where it apparently SNOWS MORE due to higher elevations. Not going to lie… I’m glad I’m not living there. I’m not handling the snow already and it’s a beautiful summer day heading into fall. Let’s not talk about this. So, we drove out to THE HART and I managed to make my way around a ROUNDABOUT. Yup. it’s the small wins that matter most. Wow. I was so glad to drive out that way. I had never been here before and can see why people live out in The Hart. It’s a bit of a distance and well… I like the convenience of where I live (for me) at College Heights. Now, I know.

En route, Deb mentioned the Northern Lights Winery. I wanted to go back there because my other friend, Kat, who taught up in Prince George with a French Cohort with SFU said it was a place to go. So let’s… It was AMAZING. A beautiful location along the Nechako River… an establishment built only 3-years ago that makes FRUIT WINES. Of course we engaged in a wine tasting and both Deb and I walked away with two bottles of wine each. From apple to huckleberries… the wine was unusual and delicious. What an awesome find in Prince George. There was a tour from France visiting the winery and it’s great to know that they too serve brunch, lunch, and dinner. I’m coming back to get two more bottles of fruit wine… but possibly closer to October when the cherry wine comes in.

Thank you Deb Young for taking me around Prince George. My mantra: One venue at a time. I loved how Nicole Doran (former Chatelech Secondary student) took me around to different places in Prince George as well as brunch at Nancy O’s. That was amazing. Next time, it will be Chicken and Waffles brunch (with a side of bacon). I will be meeting up with Melissa Darney (another former Chatelech Secondary student) on Monday morning and I met up with school trustee colleagues Trish and Tim from the SD57 Board of Education. I have also met folks from my Twitter PLN… Glen Thielmann who now teaches at UNBC and Shannon Schinkel who will be guest modding #bcedchat later this month. I was reunited with Deneen Sawchuk who teaches in SD57, but did teach in SD46 with me years ago. We went to Zoe’s Java House. YUM. My colleague Deb Koehn has been great introducing me to Prince George and UNBC. We went to Sushi 97 last week for lunch. That was good. My kid would have loved it. Now, I’m in the midst of making plans folks from Quesnel… Dot who used to curl with me in Gibsons and Gloria who served with me on the BCSTA Board of Directors and current chair of the SD28 Board of Education.

Thank goodness for people. Without them, I would be hibernating in my apartment in College Heights… blogging about what could have been. Instead, I’m blogging about what is… with gratitude, great experiences, and good conversation. I am so pleased to know so many people in the Prince George area. There are more and I will meet more. FUN!!!

Cruising Around

Day 4 (of 187) – September 7, 2018

I am cruising around campus today and I have slightly deviated from my one route to and from the Teaching and Learning Centre to anywhere else. No classes for me today and “the floor” was very quiet. I believe only one of four cohorts were in session. It was a good opportunity to do some work and get things done. Fridays is also the day Gretchen, one of my colleagues, is on campus. She’s on campus only on Fridays and teaches the rest of her courses online up north. Yes, she lives somewhere more north from Prince George. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s doing it. Anyway, we connected and I helped her move her furniture in her office. In return, I coerced her to go to the UNBC Faculty Association New Faculty Welcome Reception. They were serving lunch… why not? It was fun to cruise around campus with her to find the FA Lounge and meet new people.

After lunch and introductions, we left the event with some swag and bought UNBC Orange T-Shirt Day shirts from the bookstore. We had a chance to talk about EDUC490 and connect up with the Education Coordinator Deb later in the afternoon with Practicum Placement Coordinator Carol. Gretchen was getting stuff done and so was I. Today was a great opportunity to talk to the IT/AV department and visit the university library. And check the picture above… UNBC WEATHER DEPT… I was captured by the MATH. This was a pleasant surprise during my university exploration and checking out the university cafeteria where we bumped into the Dean with her son (who’s attending the university). It was a really good day. It makes me think about the importance of understanding place to understand my work and my place. I had a good day, but now it’s time to go to bed.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and Monday where I get to meet up with former Chatelech Secondary students (from my era as secondary math and science teacher) who now live in Prince George. I am really happy to meet and reunite with people here in Prince George. It’s a good reason to get out of my apartment or office at the university. I love connecting with them. It makes me feel more settled in Prince George. And thank goodness for technology. I don’t think that I would be able to do what I am doing now without technology. I feel connected to my family even though they are still on the west coast in Sechelt. Love the daily SnapChats, texts, and surprise FaceTimes. It makes me feel good… like going to bed early. Not my normal, but hey… I just bought snow boots.

No Class Selfie

Day 3 (of 187) – September 6, 2018

Unbelievable. I review my pics and this is what I’ve got. This is one of 3 pictures of course sign-ups. That’s it. I had full intentions of taking a selfie with my EDUC 360 class… my first class at UNBC… but nope. I must have been focussed… or not focussed. This would depend on your perspective. I chatted about stuff that I did not intend to while going through my course syllabus. Admittedly, going through the course syllabus is not one of my favourite classes to facilitate, but it’s was definitely a great opportunity for my class to give me FORMATIVE FEEDBACK on my course syllabus and ask questions. Dang… I did change my mind on some of the course assignments and yes, there were errors in my course syllabus. AWESOME. I appreciated the feedback. No only did I learn how to get stuff posted to BLACKBOARD (a different platform from Canvas), I also updated my course syllabus with version 2. The irony does not escape me when much of my course chatter was about FORMATIVE and SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT. This was nice.

It’s interesting trying to transfer what I know and understand from my teaching and learning experience at SFU (Simon Fraser University) to teaching at UNBC (University of Northern British Columbia). As the saying goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know” but you’re surely going to find out when you put yourself out there and TRY. It’s interesting to hear how other classes went. I shouldn’t be my own toughest critic, but as always… it could have been better. I was orienting myself to how to use technology of the classroom, getting my PowerPoint going, and turning up the volume. That’s still true… except I’m not navigating how to use the TV/VCR (lol). I was getting used to the class orientation, class size, and plowing through my course syllabus in less than 2-hours. I was so used to students not really knowing each other, classes ranging from 28-38 students, and 4-hour classes. It was a shift in momentum for me… but I’m looking forward to more.

Well… that’s the only class that I’m teaching this week, but I have much more to do and achieve. Now that I know the basics of BLACKBOARD, I need to get my other classes on board. I have some prep to do for next week’s classes and I want to get my head back into research with SFU’s Centre for the Study of Educational Leadership and Policy (CSELP). I’ve been postponing that and really, I need to take the lead on that… because I have something to learn. So I really appreciate having an office where I can leave work at work… so that I can get to different work at home. This is the pros and cons of not being with my family. There is a huge part of me that wants to be in Sechelt to be with my kid, man, and dog. On the other hand, this is my time in Prince George to make the most of this teaching and learning experience in Prince George at UNBC. I must stick to my core belief… “anything is possible.” The goal is to make it happen. Onwards and upwards.

Teacher Orientation

Day 2 (of 187) – September 5, 2018

Wow. It’s Day 2 of the Teacher Candidates Orientation at UNBC. It was so great to see again and listen to BC Ministry of Education’s Superintendent of Learning Pat Duncan speak to our Teacher Candidates about BC’s New Curriculum. It’s nice to hear from the person “on the top” talk about what’s being imagined for BC Education and WHY we are doing it. I was shocked about the exponential growth of technology and access to information. It was a nice reminder to listen to Pat with the continued message from the Ministry of Education that change is happening, it needs to happen, and it’s going to be messy. It’s so crazy for our Teacher Candidates to consider especially when we have been educated in a school system that was predictable, efficient, and routine-like.

I also appreciated that after Pat’s 1.5 hour presentation that he field questions from our Teacher Candidates after his spiel, during lunch, and afterwards with our Year 2 Teacher Candidates. Our students asked some really difficult questions and I could not help myself but jump in from time to time about my take on BC’s New Curriculum and where I think we’re heading towards. It was a great dialogue and we also heard from other UNBC instructors… Glen, Deb, and Richard… contributing to the conversation. I am grateful that our students were not shy to ask the tough questions. Ir reminds of me of the “wicked question.” Questions with no clear answers. This can make some people uneasy and frustrated, but also it may make others excited and liberated. For me, I’m the latter.

Thank you to the School of Education Coordinator Deb Koehn and Placement Coordinator Carol Fedyk for making this 2-day learning experience with our Teacher Candidates possible. For me, it was very classic “education” but also it was a great way for our students to transition back into university life and for teacher training via Practicum. Lots of learning ahead and I also felt like this 2-day experience was part of my orientation as Lecturer/Instructor at the university. For this, I am grateful. The day concludes with me doing work in my office and preparing for tomorrow’s class and beyond. I sent my detailed course syllabi to our copy centre with no expectations of getting my copies until next week. NOPE. I got them within an HOUR!!! I was shocked and dismayed. Thank you Barry for your kindness, communication, and quality of work. This made my day!!!