Here we go!

Though I am relatively new to the blogging scene, I’m looking forward to having somewhere to share ideas about all things education-related (which encompasses a lot of stuff!) with not only my fellow student teachers, but also the online community as a whole. It’s exciting to think of what kind of knowledge we might gain by opening up our teacher education up to an open, online forum!

Here's the basic educational facts in a nutshell: I graduated from UVic in June with a BA in English, and I am going to be teaching English and Social Studies: History. But more importantly...

I want to start my blog off with a bit about why I am in the PDP with all of you...

I have known I wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten. No joke. Since then, I’ve told anyone who’s asked me the same answer. The only thing was, I was dead-set on being an elementary school teacher. In fact, before last year, I really hadn’t put any thought into the idea of secondary. So after graduating high school in 2003, I set forth to go for that B.Ed in Elementary. I completed my Associate of Arts Degree from Camosun College and then transferred to UVic to finish off the rest of my prerequisites for the Ed. Program. After applying for the Elementary Program (and subsequently being denied due to my GPA- those damn math courses), I sat down and really thought about what I was doing.

I realized a few important things: One was that I loved my English and History courses, and I was incredibly sad that, in finishing my undergrad, I would no longer get to study poets such as Gray or Keats, or get to analyze such topics as the cultural and social changes during the Renaissance. Another was that I really enjoyed working with teenagers at my Aquatics job- and I’d been able to build great relationships with many of them. I realized the massive potential teens have if they are exposed to great educators- and since I have been successful in teaching at the pool, I felt like I could bring that experience to teenagers in a classroom.

So with that, I decided to set forth. I busted my butt last year to get my grades up as high I could to apply for the PDP- and here we are!

Sure, there are still a bit of nerves I’m going to have to overcome (I think we all have a bit of that)- but I’ve realized, after just two weeks of classes, that I think we're going to have an incredible support system in each other to get through the next 16 months...

And we’re all gonna ROCK! J