My name is Gracen Monet and honestly, I didn’t always think I was going to make it to university. As a child in the fifth grade, I began my struggle with crippling social anxiety. This was elevated when I was banned from coming back to school for two months because I developed a cough as a crutch for my anxiety. This issue continued throughout my school career and no teacher learned how to help me or how to encourage me. I was denied in classroom accommodations relentlessly because professors repeatedly told me university would not accommodate. Until I came to UVIC I was not helped in the classroom and teachers forced me to do the things that made me anxious because they said I was “facing my fears”. In some ways, this idea helped but in many ways it hindered my learning. In facing my fears I was once forced to have a panic attack in front of my grade eleven class during a presentation. I was forced to write my provincial exam in a room full of my peers causing me to get 60% and when I retook the exam in a room by myself I scored a 90%. Teachers constantly wanted to push away my needs because ‘It was too hard to arrange accommodations’ or ‘I was being prepared for the real world’. Originally this discouraged me from ever wanting to go back to school or to continue with my education. However, upon reflection, I realized I never wanted to have the same thing happen to any kid because no one deserves to not succeed. I have always loved kids, I taught Dance and Musical theatre for 6 years at my former academy. I knew that kids were something I would love to work within my job. With my combined passion for kids and my passion for supporting mental health and other disabilities mental or physical, I felt becoming a teacher felt right. To sum it up I came to UVIC because I wanted to make a difference in children’s lives and in the general classroom.
That is what inspires me so much about the learning in this class EDCI 336. I want to offer children a wide variety of learning techniques, therefore, they can find what works best for them. Whether they have a learning disability or not each child learns differently and to be able to offer an online-based platform this can help with children’s ability to learn. I am excited to be able to offer a variety of outlets for the children in my classroom and show them how to engage with their learning in whichever way suits their mind. EDCI 336 allows me to learn how to navigate making a safe space online with proper consent, knowledge on my and my future student’s online data and how to keep everyone safe on the world wide web. I will learn how to use different online resources in the classroom such as different apps or online programs. I will also learn how to make and maintain a blog to share my information with my peers so we can all improve together. The skills I am learning in this class will greatly prepare me for the ever tech-based direction our classrooms are heading and will provide me with the knowledge to help my students. I am excited to embark on this journey in the class and look forward to helping kids like me in the future.