I’m excited to be joining EC&I 830 as it’s been a bit of a last minute surprise.  You see I’m an ETAD student looking to finish up my 9th and 10th classes by the end of the summer.  I was struggling to find electives at the U of S for spring and summer session, so I reached out to Alec for course ideas.  He mentioned the possibility of EC&I 830:)  And so began a fun process of applying through the SUGA agreement to have this course approved.  Fast forward from March to this morning at 7:30 a.m. when I checked my email and found out I was in the class but I’d missed the first one.

So I’m very happy to be here working on my 9th class.  I’ve also started my 10th class in the ETAD program an independent study on leadership in online environments.  Seems like when it rains it pours… or snows as it was today in north east Sask.

I’m married to my high school sweetheart…. which means we’ve been together for 23 years. He’s a shop teacher, a DJ and currently plays in two bands.  We have 1 daughter who’s 7 and she has lots of energy 🙂

I’m in my 17th year of education and for the past 4 years I’ve worked as a Learning Consultant for the North East School Division.  That means I work with teachers from Pre-K to Grade 12 in almost all aspects of education.  My first 13 years included teaching high school biology, science, photography/video editing/21st Century skills class (where I first met Alec when he Skyped into my classroom).  I spent a few years as a Learning Based Resource Facilitator which then merged into a role as a Differentiated Instruction Facilitator.

Here’s an example of some of the things we used to work on when I was in the classroom.

My interest in Ed Tech started in undergrad classes and continued to evolve into my classroom.  When the opportunity to work with the SaskEd WBLRD projects presented itself I jumped at the chance to learn Dreamweaver and build online resources.  I’ve been through several evolutions of web design tools.  I’ve taught in a 1:1 hybrid environment – truly my favorite teaching experience.  I’ve co-taught through digital tools with a teacher in a different town.  So learning about social media and digital technology are truly some of my favourite things!  Occasionally,  the digital realm finds its way into my Learning Consultant role:)

In my spare time I’m a Managing Executive Stylist with Color By Amber a home based eco-friendly, socially responsible jewelry company. Since I’ve joined the business world my desire to better understand social media has evolved. I’m curious not only about how I can use social media to support my business, but rather how can I use social media to build resilient leaders and support my team of 90 plus stylists nation wide.

I just finished my ETAD portfolio and you are welcome to take a look around.  I look forward to meeting all of you online and am excited to learn from all of your experiences.

So that’s a bit of my story, can’t what to hear what your story is 🙂

If you’d like to stay connected online, here are a few of my social media connections: