My name is Eliza and I am in the Elementary PDP Program. I have a degree in Political Science and my passions are outdoor physical activities, crafting and travelling.
I am a certified Whitewater raft guide so I have excellent leadership skills and outdoor training knowledge. I am very physically active and I know the importance of moving my body to keep my mental health and physical health in check. When I am physically active every day I am better able to work and/or learn. I would like to learn how to integrate physical activities in the classroom as well as outside for my students to blow off steam and be able to focus on learning activities. Team sports are not my passion so I would like to explore different forms of physical activities in the classroom so my students can discover what sort of physical activity they connect to.
Teaching respect for, and connection to nature is also very dear to my heart. Through my Free Inquiry project I would like to learn more about Indigenous knowledge, Bands, languages, as well as how Indigenous people in BC connect to nature, and how this is taught in the classroom today.
I have a high attention to detail and organization as I was an Executive Assistant and Project Analyst with the government for two and half years. I believe these skills will serve me well as I know as a teacher you are always multi-tasking and things can change quickly in a classroom so having some flexibility is very useful. Having an organized classroom when children come in, in the morning is important because they should feel they are starting fresh every morning. I would like to learn how to stay organized throughout a school day.
I hope to gain experience in giving all children the attention they need and deserve in order to learn. I know this can be challenging with 20-30 kids in a classroom. Often there are children with special learning needs and all children have different levels at which they learn. I hope to gain knowledge of different kinds of learning activities in math, language arts, and science that are fun and interactive for children.
I am a queer woman and I hope to learn how to integrate teachings on diversity in the classroom as well as teaching about the gender binary and acceptance of all people. I am not talking about sexual education but rather teaching students in my classroom that any form of gender identity is valid regardless of their designation of sex at birth. How do you teach this to grade 1s? How do you teach this to grade 7s?
I’m sure I will have more aspirations and ideas of what I want to learn by next blog post 🙂
