This page includes some of the volunteering and activities I have done outside of my job.
Volunteering – St Ann’s Academy
While preparing for my Bachelor of Education application, I reached out to St. Ann’s Academy in January of 2022 to get some in-class experience. Through emailing with their Vice Principal, I connected with a Grade 5 teacher who allowed me into his classroom to observe. I learned an incredible amount during this time about what running a classroom entailed, and I was given the opportunity to create a lesson plan based on the BC Curriculum and teach this lesson in his class. Because I have some background in French, I taught an introductory Grade 5 lesson about gendered language in French. It was incredible to see how fast the students learned what I was teaching them, and this positive re-introduction to the classroom setting made me eager to begin the Bachelor of Education program.
English Tutoring
I love travelling and experiencing other cultures, so one day I want to spend some time abroad teaching English. I was connected through friends of mine with somebody who recently moved to Canada from Japan and wanted to work on his English skills, and I gave him a few basic lessons on English. We worked on sentence structure, writing, and conversational English during our lessons and because he was very eager he improved his English skills very rapidly. I learned a lot about what teaching English as a second language entails, and I will use what I learned from this experience when I teach English abroad in the future, but also in my classroom whenever I have students in my class who are ELLs.
Chess Tournaments – Thompson Rivers University Students’ Union
As a child I learned chess from an early age through playing with my dad, as well as by taking lessons and going to chess summer camps. I stopped playing for a long time, but during COVID like many people I was reintroduced to chess through the Queen’s Gambit and playing the board game online. During this “chess boom” I entered in an online tournament being held by the TRU Students’ Union. I did not do very well, but my friend won the tournament, which made me realize that winning the tournament might be possible for me. This year I entered the tournament again and was able to finish in second place and when the tournament is held next year I intend to finally win it! Chess is an incredible catalyst for spurring cognitive development and strategic thinking in students. I have played chess with children at my work many times, and I look forward to teaching it in the future to students who want to learn this great game.