When I was 16 years old, I went to La Pocatiere, Quebec where I participated in a 5 week Explore Program. In this program, I was with 200 other students varying in age (16 was the youngest, I believe the oldest were in their 40’s) to learn or improve our french. We lived in dorms and took classes in the mornings. Our afternoons and weekends were spent doing activities, in workshops, exploring and immersing ourselves in the Quebecois culture. During these 5 weeks, I started to really love the french language and was confused, upon reflecting, with what had deterred me from it in the first place. I had been in French Immersion since age 5 and I was shocked that in 5 weeks I had gained more of an appreciation and willingness to learn for French than I had in my 10 years of French Immersion classes. After thinking about it some more, I realized that a big part of liking or disliking French for me was the teachers that I had. In elementary school, I had some amazing teachers that developed really strong relationships with our class and really got us excited about learning. In high school, however, the lessons were repetitive day after day, year after year with the same teacher and both my learning and interest in French began to decline. It was this realization about what an impact teachers could have on a student’s view on a subject that I started to think about teaching as a possible career path, specifically in French Immersion. After my second year of university, I started working with the YMCA of Northern BC as a Licensed School Age Summer Care Programmer. I planned and executed the summer care programming, incorporating a variety of activities, games, and field trips that fit the given weeks theme. It was working with the Y and the kids there that really solidified my choice to go into education. Seeing the games and activities I had hand-picked or created played out by the kids and the joy and energy they had while doing it was an amazing thing to see. I got to build relationships with so many kids and see them explore and grow throughout the two summers I was there. The look on a child’s face when they are learning something new or when they have created something they are truly proud of was the most amazing thing to see and I knew that seeing and creating opportunity for those moments was something I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life.
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