August 28, 2026 – I love learning

First of all, I cannot believe that it’s the end of August. Where has the time gone (when you are in you non-teaching term)? LOL. I’ve had a great spring/summer. I had a tonne of wonderful intentions, and I got to some of them. I have a few more to go, but I love what I do. Part of what I do is going to and presenting at conferences. At the end of May/beginning of June, I went to the University of Winnipeg to attend and present at the Canadian Society on the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. I presented twice at the Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE) Conference, and served as the program manager for the Canadian Association for Action Research in Education (CAARE). The program went great… and I was so inspired by other people’s work, affirming that my work is very aligned to action research, leadership, and system change.

I also spent some immense time revising a chapter with major revisions, and I am not quite sure if the direction I took was acceptable, but dang, I learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from “doing.” As much as my mom would tease me about “doing things the hard way,” it has always been in my DNA or biological programming to “learn by doing” or experientially. I have to figure out through action how to do something, make mistakes, and try to make things better. The learning process is iterative, learning takes time and patience, and learning helps me to learn more about myself and what’s important to me. I may have mentioned this before but I heard someone say awhile ago that RESEARCH is ME-SEARCH. At a 3-hour land-based learning workshop at the UNBC Teaching and Learning Conference mentioned at the end of their session is RESEARCH is RE-SEARCH… meaning the iterative nature of searching and researching. Loved it!!

MY MIND WAS BLOWN!!

I have so much gratitude for the folks at UNBC and CTLT who organized, planned, and created the UNBC Teaching and Learning Conference. I had the opportunity to present twice at this conference, once with teacher candidates in a panel presentation and once with my research team for a 1-hour workshop. I was so proud and very thankful for the presentation with the the teacher candidates. Our timing, content, and flow were exceptional, and I appreciated the time, work, and effort by these teacher candidates to make this panel possible to tell their story of the WestCAST experience and their undergraduate scholarly work. It was truly amazing. Last year, I presented with a teacher candidate and a teacher from the local school district about EDUC 376 and numeracy night at one of the elementary schools as a Lightning Talk. The year before that, I co-presented with three teach candidates as a 1-hour workshop and doing a Lightning Talk.

I love working with Teacher Candidates with WestCAST and with other work that extends beyond the teacher education program. I think that working with folks who have the same mindset as me… to try something new, to be independent with mentorship, to collectively sense-make to co-construct knowledge and understanding are up my alley. I feel that I have that with my research team as well that is focused on Recruitment and Retention at rural locations in BC. Our workshop presentation went well despite the low attendance. I loved how the small groups were gaining momentum with each question posed, and their willingness to share their small group discussion with the whole group, and my team’s willingness to co-present with me remotely via Zoom. I feel very lucky.

LEARNING AND LOVING WHAT I DO

During the Teaching and Learning Conference, I went a few sessions (i.e., the lightning talks, teaching excellence, land-based learning workshop, keynote speakers, and public scholarship) and I loved learning something new and to consider how this learning is important to my teaching. The public scholar session seemed like an excellent idea for my EDUC 394 students to participate in as an assignment, and some my opt to take that writing further to an online platform or as an opportunity to further their inquiry in their EDUC 405 class or as a conference presentation at WestCAST. Who knows? I loved the land-based learning session because it allowed me to check out the pit house in the Forest of the World, listen to the work coming from health, and think about what I would like to do in my EDUC 394 class this fall. The condition of the pit house is changing in comparason to the last time I took my class there 6 to 7 years ago.

I just love the Teaching and Learning Conference, as well as any other conference that gets me excited and inspired by teaching and learning. This year, I want to go to the BCAMT (BC Association of Mathematics Teachers) again. It’s been a while, but that group is definitely “my people” and I feel that it’s a good thing to “fill my cup” with learning that not only helps my practice, but also engage in learning more about what people are doing in their practice too. It’s different from an academic conference, of which, I am also exploring, but there is something about “returning home” to your roots or origin story that will not only remind you where you have come from, but inspire you to what’s next. I have a conference to register for as soon as I complete this blog post. I’ve been humming and haaaa-ing this conference. It’s new to me, the conference and travel costs are ones to consider, and I’m not sure what to expect, so why not? Professional learning is my jam.