Category: Extra curriculars

Waking up for an 8:30 class can be challenging, waking up for an 8:30 class to the pouring rain when you know you’re about to spend the whole of the class period pulling plants is even more difficult. However, this is the view of a young adult, not one of a soon to be an educator. In the eyes of a future teacher, this experience was one that I hope all my students get to experience. Volunteering with the Greater Victoria Green Team participating in a eco-restoration session was a very valuable opportunity for me. Even though it confused me the point of pulling the plants when I thought the point of restoring the environment was conserving its species, I learned from the experience that the plants we were pulling were an invasive species that had actually begun to destruct the nature around it. It is information like this that I wish to teach my future students, and for us as a class to participate in the same outdoor educational sessions.

I grew up in a small rural community surrounded by forests, agriculture and the ocean where a main aspect of the culture was to appreciate and be in nature. In high school, I was part of an integrated outdoor education program where I was challenged personally, physically and mentally in the aspects of my school work and in the outdoor excursions we got to take part in. It is one of my goals as a teacher in the future to allow my students the same outdoor educational opportunities that I got to be apart of as I wish my students to feel the same love for nature as I have.

All the volunteers from the eco-restoration volunteer session at Mystic Vale

Me practicing my tossing skills

I grew up with an ocean in my backyard. Literally. My child consisted of summers of waking up at 6 am to “save” the crabs and starfish from drying out in the sun and/or getting eaten by seagulls, sailing across the straight to the small provincial park island “Mitlenatch” and exploring its shores, paddle boarding, kayaking and if we were brave enough swimming. Needless to say, I love the water and it has always been a source of both comfort and adventure for me.

From what you have read about myself already you will know that I have spent my last three summers instructing a kids kayaking camp where I teach my students water safety, basic kayaking strokes, paddle boarding, and canoeing. To be in this position I must be on the instructor platform of Paddle Canada.

I am a certified Paddle Canada Level one, instructor of three years, earning this title by participating in a week-long intensive. With my skills as a paddler throughout these three years of teaching, I have also gained valuable skills as an educator. As the guardian of these camps, I have learned the skills of leadership. Being the adult in charge of the lives of these children has taught me problem-solving. While on the water surrounded by a dozen children ages 7-14 the unpredictable can occur at any moment, one must be quick-witted, flexible and innovative and be able to embrace the challenge of changing conditions at all times. I have also learned the importance of setting a professional relationship between student and teacher. On an on-water classroom where the risk level is drastic, there is a time and a place for when the “friend” must be replaced by the  “authoritarian” and it is up to the teacher to be able to switch roles and have his or her students respect and listen to the change. This is one of the most valuable teaching principles I learned from all my work on the water.