I have been a teacher since 1988 graduating from UBC with a Bachelors of Education. I went back to university at the age of 24, I had wanted to be a teacher since I was in grade 7 and was now ready to go back to school and reach my goal. Upon graduation I was lucky to get a temporary contract for the following school year in Surrey. The next year it became a continuing full time contract. I taught from September 1988 to June 1999 for the Surrey school district at the elementary level. At that time computer labs had been in the school for just a few years.
I got married while attending university and have now been happily married for 27 years. We bought our first house in Surrey the year after I graduated. In June 1992 our son was born and then our daughter in September 1994. I was lucky to be able to work part time after the birth of our daughter, at that time Surrey had a great opportunity for teachers to job share, and you could stay with your partner for as many years as best suited you.
In 1999 we moved back to Victoria, Gordon Head, where my husband I were both raised. I was lucky to get hired by the Greater Victoria School Board. It took a few years to move from TOC to a small continuing contract.
I was hired to work at a new school called Home Learners’ Link, this was the first year of distributed learning for the school district. We started as a K-8 school offering onsite classes, most resources were paper based. The demand grew for a secondary component so we progressed over two years to a K-12 school. We moved our secondary school to a new location and collaboratively named it The Link, within a year our middle school moved to this location as well. Over the next few years our courses moved from mostly paper based to being offered online, using Blackboard. Two years ago both of our schools moved to our present location at SJ Willis Education Centre offering K-12 in one location. From the start we have been a hybrid program offering both face to face and distance learning. Presently some of our courses are a combination of online learning and paper based where was as others are all online. I presently teach Math 8 with a face to face component/tutorials for those who live locally and Physical Education 5-12 at a distance as well as offering an onsite daily drop-in gym time and related field trips throughout the school year.
I got married while attending university and have now been happily married for 27 years. We bought our first house in Surrey the year after I graduated. In June 1992 our son was born and then our daughter in September 1994. I was lucky to be able to work part time after the birth of our daughter, at that time Surrey had a great opportunity for teachers to job share, and you could stay with your partner for as many years as best suited you.
In 1999 we moved back to Victoria, Gordon Head, where my husband I were both raised. I was lucky to get hired by the Greater Victoria School Board. It took a few years to move from TOC to a small continuing contract.
I was hired to work at a new school called Home Learners’ Link, this was the first year of distributed learning for the school district. We started as a K-8 school offering onsite classes, most resources were paper based. The demand grew for a secondary component so we progressed over two years to a K-12 school. We moved our secondary school to a new location and collaboratively named it The Link, within a year our middle school moved to this location as well. Over the next few years our courses moved from mostly paper based to being offered online, using Blackboard. Two years ago both of our schools moved to our present location at SJ Willis Education Centre offering K-12 in one location. From the start we have been a hybrid program offering both face to face and distance learning. Presently some of our courses are a combination of online learning and paper based where was as others are all online. I presently teach Math 8 with a face to face component/tutorials for those who live locally and Physical Education 5-12 at a distance as well as offering an onsite daily drop-in gym time and related field trips throughout the school year.