Introduction



 An Introduction to: Aleksandra Taylor  I currently teach at Minnekhada Middle School.  I work as a grade 6/7 student services teacher.  I have worked at Minnekhada Middle for five years. I started out teaching a grade 6/7 class.  I had never taught at the middle school level and had no intention of leaving the elementary level.  However, as I was on the recall list and no full time elementary positions were available at the time, I decided to take a chance!  I loved my first year so much that in order to stay I took a placement teaching student services, and I love my current job!  Now, for the past two years, I have shared the student services department head position with different partners.

My previous teaching experience includes (subjects, grades…) I have taught grades K to 10.  I started out teaching elementary and I had several contracts teaching grade K/1, and grade 2/3.  I had also taught summer school, where I was given the opportunity to teach grade 10, and then grade K/1.  I had also worked a student services contract at the elementary level with an exceptional skill development teacher.  This is where I feel I earned my strips!  At times the work was overwhelming; rewriting IEP’s when the district decided to have a consistent format, learning to work with some high profile skill development children, informing parents that their kids had a learning disability.  However, the staff was so collaborative and entertaining that I still keep in touch with them.  As for the student services position, I thought I would never work it again, but I became hooked on the excitement and challenges that it brings.

I have taught in Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam /Port Moody, BC for my whole career. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I did the “old fashioned” approach to finding a career. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> From high school I went to university, and when I finished I was hired in 2000. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I have worked for the district since, and it’s hard to believe that it is coming on nine years!

I don’t feel all that comfortable with technology. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I’m young enough that I should know more about it, but it was never an interest of mine. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> So as I faced hurdles with computers and technology, the less I trusted its capabilities. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I am able to do basic tasks, (email, search the web, etc) but I want to be able to use technology more in my classroom. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I don’t want to feel left behind which is what I feel is happening, especially around the area of adaptive and assistive technologies. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I enrolled in this program hoping to gain inspiration and the ability to use more technology within the classroom successfully without fear. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I feel that, especially if I plan on remaining in student services, this is the area that the implementation of technology can have the greatest effect, and I don’t want to feel that my students are missing out due to my inability to teach them. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> Other things you should know about me… <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I was recently married. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I live in North Vancouver, where I love to garden and spend time outside as much as I can. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I love things organized and colour-coded (when I can muster it up). <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I came to Canada in 1981 at the age of 5 with my parents who fled Poland through the Canary Islands and Spain. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> I spoke only a mixture of Polish and Spanish in grade one. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> So now I love teaching ESL classes. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Papyrus; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt; msospacerun: yes;">