I have always enjoyed sports, such as soccer, basketball, tennis and snowboarding. I am a decent  snowboarder, although I never felt I excelled in team sports. I played both soccer and basketball in Elementary school, where I enjoyed the game and comradery of the sport. However, once it got more competitive, I decided to coach instead. I managed the basketball team alongside the coach from ages 11 to 13. This inspired me to coach soccer, as I understood the game and found that I enjoyed managing a young  team. I coached the little league when I was in  Grade 9 through to Grade12. It was very rewarding and I always wanted to give as much equal playing time to all the children so not to discourage them. For the most part, teaching was always something I gravitated to but was not certain about. Once the stresses of having to know “what you want to be when you grow up,” which is stressed in the Grade 10 course, Planning. It’s really to ensure that you are taking relevant courses in the field you are planning in order  to get entrance to post secondary. At the time, it felt very overwhelming to choose something so important.  That was when I bounced back and forth of wanting to be a teacher or whether I wanted to do something else. Once I graduated I took a year off and worked full time, to get some perspective and life experience. The following year I attended College in Salmon Arm and enrolled in Business. After the first semester, I knew it wasn’t for me, second semester I switched gears and took a few classes towards a Bachelor’s and applied to Thompson Rivers University. I am currently in my third year of my Bachelor of Arts and am planning on applying for the Bachelor of Education (Elementary) within the next two years. Through coaching little ones in soccer, my peers in basketball to volunteering in classrooms, it has given me insight on how much I enjoy the role of educating. Understanding the different teaching styles in order to help the large spectrum of children’s learning styles. Now that I am volunteering in the classroom , I have met two inspirational teachers who have different methods of teaching and certain techniques to engage all of their students. It’s little things that are important to not overlook that may have not occurred to me.  For example,  there was one student in the class who does not have a father, and the class was making cards for Father’s Day. The teacher made him a separate card that said “To Grandpa” instead of “To Dad”. Although, this is something small, it’s important to consider all things a teacher can do for their students to still make it special for that individual and inclusive. An example of how the other teacher was inspirational was her patience. She had a way of allowing incorrect responses by the students, without making the individual feel “stupid”. Her approach of allowing the process to happen without belittling and rather encouraging so that the right answer was discovered, really kept the students participating.  That is something I found important because not all teachers are aware of how they go about this situation in their classroom. Volunteering with these teachers have been beneficial to the courses I have taken in the past year. I feel I pay attention to the details and look at courses more analytically.  Last summer I took an English literature class on fairytales, following with this fall, a children’s literature course. With these English courses and our History of childhood and education course, it has broadened my views on education and has made me look at everything a little more critically and thorougly as well. To see all the nuances in the details is important in education.  This History course has given me more insight on how the schools have been run in the past as well as the constant changes being made to keep up with current situations.  It has also made me realize the amount of different views people have on education and the constant debates of what public education should look like.