Long Time, No Talk

It has been over a year since I last wrote on this blog. I can't quite figure out what caused me to stop, but it probably can be attributed to the lack of pressure from my Writers Craft teacher (which caused me to start this blog) in addition to my own laziness or most likely, being distracted by the latest venture in my life: University.

My first year at University went along better than I could have hoped. I met so many new people, made so many new friends and contacts, experienced so many new things, and learned so much, I can't even put it into words. However, it is not my recent year of Post Secondary schooling that has me blogging once again. You can thank one of my old high school teachers for that, and not the one who had me start this blog in the first place.

The story goes back to 10th grade where I had this one teacher, whom we shall refer to as "Mrs. Y." Not only was she my Grade 10 History teacher, she was my hockey coach and director of school plays that I worked as a Set Designer for and continued to remain a constant presence in my life through my 4 years of high school hockey, as well as an employer of my babysitting skills. In Grade 12, while exploring a possible intention towards a teaching career, I took a "Leadership' class which basically gave me the foundations to being a teacher and prepped me for what I may encounter in the journey of achieving a teaching degree. This class, like the University teaching program, required us to have a placement as a teachers assistant in either a Grade 9 or 10 class. When given a choice of students to help out in her class, Mrs. Y chose me.

 However, at the end of the year, I had decided that I would enjoy another career in art or film, rather than a teaching one. Yet, I believe that it is final pairing of Mrs. Y and I that  gave me the amazing opportunity this summer of a job as a MLI Teachers Assistant Working with her (and 2 other assistants) to teach English as a Second Language to visiting Japanese students. This has changed my whole perspective of teaching as a career. 

I enjoyed teaching ESL to the Japanese students, that I am no reconsidering the degree I'm currently pursuing. At this moment, one of the other teaching assistants and I are trying to plan a trip to Japan, to get a taste of the language, a feel for the culture, and an understanding of the education system there. Not to mention, we wish to visit our previous students! So, here arrives the reason for my out of the blue blog update: I will be starting a new blog, one that will document our work and efforts towards raising funds for this trip, as well as one that will act as a travel journal. The link will be posted shortly.