Geography Teacher – Abbey Park HS
What do you love about your job?
There are three main things that I love about my job – working with amazing inspiring young people, working with phenomenal supportive colleagues who care about kids, and getting to talk geography all day every day. I call that a triple win! Physical geography is amazing and one of my passions, so I’m so excited to share that with young people!
In this challenging year, what have you tried that is working?
Leaning into connections and mindsets I’ve made from my Bronte Creek experience, I spent this time during COVID really valuing community and caring about the humans . I let go of expectations of covering ALL the curriculum. Rather, I focused on slowing things down and getting connected, with students and with colleagues. I put an increased focus on letting people know you love them.
What is a challenge and isn’t working…yet?
This last quadmester, all remote really hits home that I miss HUMANS! Not seeing humans and having those daily personal interactions with colleagues and students is hard. I miss the buzz, the energetic sounds of the Abbey Park front foyer. I’m a people person, I definitely need humans. I miss seeing eyeballs instead of black boxes with icons on a screen. Thinking about it, I also feel for the Grade nines in particular, who don’t really know everyone in their grade the way other cohorts and other years do.
What is one tiny victory you have had?
One tiny victory, (maybe more than “tiny” is learning how to navigate Brightspace. It was a big learning curve and now I’m navigating that platform. Also, another victory I’ve had is finding ways to create engaging learning remotely: whether it is through ‘rose and thorn’ discussions (something good and something that didn’t go so well this week), using jamboard and breakout rooms. These are new tools in my teacher tool chest that I’ll continue to use next year.
Words of Encouragement and Love for staff
So much LOVE. We need to use the word LOVE more in education. I have so much pride for our colleagues, we are all navigating new territories, with plates SO full, it is amazing to watch that PHENOMENAL (my favourite word, it brings me such joy) commitment to kids. Keep on doing an amazing job, even when it doesn’t feel good at the moment. I really value colleagues and friends that have your back, they celebrate and they hug you when you are feeling crappy. I hope that I too live that in turn. LOVE!
