Edte531 Identity1

Who Am I?
:
I am a white male in my early 30s who is married to an amazing
wife who is an elementary teacher! We have two young sons ages 1
and 4, and own a house and too many things. I live in a quiet upper
middle class neighbourhood in Port Alberni. Both my wife and I were
born and raised in Port Alberni and feel lucky that we have been able to
return to the city to raise our family. I live a comfortable and stable life.
I grew up with a father who was a secondary teacher, a stay at
home mother (elementary teacher by training), and a younger sister.
School has always come easily to me. I have found success, or success
found me if you prefer, academically, athletically, professionally, and
personally. I have not struggled in the same way that others struggle to
achieve success. I have always looked at life as an opportunity and a
challenge to be the best possible me that I can be.
So why am I wanting to become a teacher? Its quite simple
actually. Teaching is in my blood! I grew up surrounded by the
education system and under the recommendation of becoming a
teacher. My teachers all of the way through elementary, middle, and
high school told me that I was a natural for teaching. I was a teacher's
assistant multiple times throughout my academic career. My wife is a
teacher, both of her parents work in our local school district, her
grandpa worked in our school district and was a school board trustee.
My grandpa was a teacher, my uncle and cousin are university
professors,
and
my
parents
were
both
teachers.
know
the
commitment, drive, heart, and enthusiasm required to be a successful

teacher.
Seeing as how I am an older student, I bring a wealth of real
world experiences and understanding to my future classrooms and
students. During my entire 14 year work history I have been in
leadership or managerial roles. With such positions comes great
responsibility and the expectation to help grow and develop other
employees. It also developed my ability to think quickly on my feet,
talk to anyone, an ease in talking in front of people, a smooth and laid
back attitude, and an outgoing personality. Only after some critical life
reflection and introspection did I realize that I have been an educator
all along!
Teaching fits my vision for how I want to live my life. Being a
husband and parent has helped me open my eyes to how much there
still is to learn in this world and how important life long learning is.
Becoming a teacher is a natural progression and a long awaited fit to
my life.
My Educational and Life Experience:

Growing up in Port Alberni, I attended 3 tiers of schooling. I was a
student at Eighth Avenue Elementary from Kindergarten through Grade
6. At Eighth Avenue, I was fortunate enough to have teachers who
cared and helped push me to greater academic success. I wasnt
allowed to settle for ok and my teachers made sure that I had the
opportunities to build a strong academic foundation.
From Grades 7 to 9 I attended E.J. Dunn Middle School. My
teachers at E.J. Dunn were unique and engaging. These formative
years helped to define who I would become for the next 5+ years of
my academic life. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my teachers and
subjects such as Social Studies, Science, and Math, I gravitated
towards P.E. and excelled with the opportunities and responsibility
given to the students by some remarkable teachers (two of the three
have since become principals).
For Grades 10 to 12, I was with the rest of my peers at Alberni
District Secondary School (ADSS). At ADSS, I was able to engage in
more targeted subjects through electives. I continued to enjoy core
curricular areas, but excelled in P.E. classes. I was very fortunate to
have teachers that were inspiring; many of whom brought personality
into their classrooms, not simply monotone drones reading notes from
a script and writing endlessly on the overhead or chalkboard. My most
memorable teachers drove me to express myself within my academics
whether it was in the classroom or through assignments. They engaged
my brain and created unique and memorable learning environments. I
can only hope to do the same for my future students.
After graduating, I returned to ADSS to complete additional
courses and upgrade; essentially a grade 13. The next year I fell into
UVic after having admission offers from UVic, SFU, and UBC. I spent
three and a half years at UVic pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in their Major
Recreation and Health Education program with a minor in Business.
Upon walking away from UVic, I worked on Hornby Island at an
outdoor education centre with school groups, tourists, and special
interest groups such as the blind and deaf communities and sports
teams. On Hornby I led groups through high adventure activities and
natural interpretation. This led me to my next academic pursuit.
I briefly attended the College of the Rockies in Golden for their
Adventure Tourism Business Operators Certificate Program. I wanted to
take my love for the outdoors and adventure based activities to the
next level. This sense of adventure and experiential learning plays a
major
role
in
my
kinesthetic
learning
approach
to
teaching.
Unfortunately, only a month into my 2 year program I smashed myself

on a mountain bike and had to end my time at school.
This brought me back to Port Alberni where I bounced from job to
job pursuing opportunities that encompassed who I was, who I am, and
who I wanted to be. I looked for unique opportunities and am glad that
I have the varied work experiences as they have helped me to become
the person that I am today and open my eyes as to the world around
us. As you will notice, many of my jobs rely on personal interactions
with a wide variety of people across many different scenarios. Some of
my other work history includes:
Retail Manager with Tom Harris Cellular TELUS

Sales & Marketing Manager with Alberni Technology
Solutions
Marketing Manager with Westcoaster.ca
Adventure Centre Manager with Batstar Adventure Tours
Personal Trainer & Gym Supervisor with Rehab In Motion
Assistant Manager with Landmark Cinemas
Campground & Marina Staff with Port Alberni Port Authority
Community Support Worker with a Special Needs Male in
his early 20s.
Currently I am in pursuit of my Bachelor of Education with VIU as

teaching is the next evolution of who I am!
My Future Classroom:
EDUCATION IS AN ADVENTURE. EXPERIENCE IT!
A teacher should engage their students and empower them to
experience their education. A wise person once said that variety is the
spice of life. I believe that my teaching style, lessons, and classroom
should have some spice and always incorporate variety. Students
learn in many different ways. Lets celebrate those learning differences
and create a truly unique classroom environment where every day is a
new adventure!
I view life as an opportunity and a challenge. It is my personal
challenge to help every student create the opportunity to succeed
within the 4 metaphoric walls of my classroom. I work very hard to
create connections with every student in my classroom. Although I may

not fully understand the challenges that they face before and after
school hours, I try to instil an opportunity to be great mindset while
within the classroom. I recognize that each student brings something
unique to the classroom community and I attempt to give them a
platform to show how great they can be and not simply settle for
ordinary.
This leads me to push my personal boundaries and create
unique, engaging, and a variety of differentiated lessons. I strive to
take myself out of my comfort zones in order to help my students find
theirs.
Core Values:
Caring, Understanding, Accepting, Cooperating, and Experiencing
are the five guiding principles that I strive to bring to my future
students, parents/guardians, colleagues, and classrooms.
Caring to me means making every interaction with students a
personal interaction. Students will open up to those around them that
they can trust. If a teacher is able to earn a students trust, that
teacher is able to open the students mind to a world of possibilities
and attempt new and exciting experiences that were previously
outside of the students comfort zone.
Understanding is generated by a teachers ability to observe and
listen to the student verbally, emotionally, and physically. As a teacher,
our ears, eyes, and minds must be open to what the students are
saying. Often, students will tell teachers more with their body language
than with their words. When we are aware that a student is telling or
showing us something, we need to make the time for the student and
provide them the opportunity to discuss whatever they are feeling.
Accepting requires teachers to keep an open mind while working
with their students. Teachers have to deal with a wide variety of
situations on a daily basis. There are no set parameters as to how each
student will react to the varying demands on their emotional, physical,
and intellectual balance. Teachers must navigate the many twists and
turns, ups and downs, in a students day, both at school and brought
from home. If a teacher closes their mind to a students situation the
student will mentally turn the teacher off and stop responding.
Teachers must accept their students no matter what emotional,
physical, and intellectual baggage a student is carrying on any given
day. It is part of a teachers unwritten job description to be able to help
the student sort through their situation.
Cooperating is imperative to help form an inclusive classroom.
Each student brings a different set of abilities to the classroom and
when a teacher is able to balance and blend these diverse abilities, a
truly unique learning opportunity is created for everyone. By creating
an open and emotionally safe classroom, teachers are able to break
down previously constructed mental barriers and build a student

experience where everyone can share their enthusiasm.
Experiencing is the most important guiding principle that I want
to instil in my teaching. I believe that teaching takes on many forms
and can be achieved in many different settings. Students dont learn at
the same pace, in the same way, or in the same setting. Teachers must
evolve and reinvent themselves from lesson to lesson, assignment to
assignment, and day to day in order to maximize the experience for all
students within the class.
In order for an inclusive and experience based classroom to exist,
teachers must create an emotional, physical, and intellectual safe zone
where students feel comfortable to participate to their full extent. This
safe zone can be very difficult to create, as children can be very cruel
with their actions and words, as they often have not learned to filter
and deal with what they are emotionally or physically feeling.
Assessment is one area where teachers can significantly affect a
students emotional comfort level. Many students, and people in
general, have anxiety when dealing with stressful situations such as
tests. As part of developing an emotionally safe classroom, I believe
that changing the culture associated with assessment is necessary.
Challenges can replace tests, students can have some options as to
how they will be marked or in the projects that they undertake, and
teachers can choose assignments that cater to a variety of learning
styles and student abilities throughout the academic year. People

thoroughly enjoy and love to play games. Why not gamify the
classroom and help the students to have fun and feel successful while
assessing.
Parents/Guardians are a very intricate part of a students
educational experience. Teachers need to find a common ground with a
students parents/guardians in order to promote cooperation and
positive reinforcement of classroom experiences at home.
We as teachers may not always understand our colleagues
theories and practices, however we can accept their ideas and
cooperate with them to help foster their concept of an ideal learning
experience. Teachers dont have all of the answers all of the time. It is
our job to find those answers though. Questions and answers can come
in many forms, which as a beginning teacher may bring a whole new
set of questions and answers. It is comforting to know that we can
cooperate with colleagues in order to find solutions to the various
situations that we will face.
As you can tell by my five guiding principles that I have detailed
above, I believe in an inclusive classroom where differences are
celebrated! I believe that everyone has the ability to contribute and
enhance the classroom experience. One of the teachers priorities
should be to incorporate each of the students unique skill sets in order
to promote a more enriching class experience.
How I Facilitate Social Change:

As part of creating an open and emotionally safe classroom, I
want to celebrate diversity. Canada is a mosaic of ethnical and cultural
diversity. We have a rich and controversial history. I want my students
to understand where we have come from in order to build a positive
and bright future together. Whether we are learning Social Studies or
Science or Art, I want my students to recognize and value the
differences within the subject and our classrooms context.
Opening students minds and eyes to the opportunities in the
world around them is a huge priority of mine. Society has come a long
way to building bridges to acceptance and normalization of many
social issues. However, there will always be work to do here. Even as
we in North America struggle with such normalization, I feel it is
important for students to recognize the global scale that such social
issues take on. We live in a global society and economy. Students
should realize the impacts that they can have not only within their own
community, but worldwide!
Finally, life is a teachable moment. I hope to guide students to
becoming positive global citizens. There is no one way that I can hope
to create social change within my classroom. Through an incorporation
of online pursuits such as WEDay.com and Kivu.org as well as curricular
and spur-of-the-moment teachable moments I hope to inspire my
10
students to keep their eyes open to seeing and minds open to change
opportunities in the world around them at all times.
For The Win!:

Being an educator is part of my identity. Throughout my life
adventures I have been an educator and a leader. As I have evolved, I
now stare at a teacher when I look in the mirror. I strive to mentally
engage my students, create diverse learning opportunities, and
celebrate unique differences and cultures within my classroom; not shy
away from them. Life experiences and personal philosophies drive my
belief that EDUCATION IS AN ADVENTURE. EXPERIENCE IT!
11

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Who Am I?

commitment, drive, heart, and enthusiasm required to be a successful

My Educational and Life Experience:

Unfortunately, only a month into my 2 year program I smashed myself

Retail Manager with Tom Harris Cellular TELUS

Currently I am in pursuit of my Bachelor of Education with VIU as

create connections with every student in my classroom. Although I may

down previously constructed mental barriers and build a student

styles and student abilities throughout the academic year. People

How I Facilitate Social Change:

For The Win!:

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