Hi there! Welcome to my ePortfolio. My name is Jessica McDougall, I am 25 years old and living in beautiful Victoria, B.C. I am currently enrolled in the University of Victoria’s Bachelor of Elementary Education Program and am in the second year of this program. I have enjoyed every learning moment thus far! I have always dreamed of becoming a teacher, and I pride myself on being enrolled in this program to pursue my dream. I believe that a career in teaching is rewarding and fulfilling, and I am most passionate about growing professionally so that I can create a positive classroom culture that motivates all children.

I believe that as future educators, it is important to always maintain a positive mindset. Although we will one day be educators teaching our future students, it is important to remember that we are constantly learning too. Developing a teaching philosophy will be dependent on our own individual experiences and interactions with students and coworkers and is an idea that will constantly be growing. Thus far in the program, I have enjoyed inquiry-based learning and learning through the use of manipulatives. I believe that physical experiences and hands-on play creates a physical relationship with learning that students can constantly refer back to remember for future use.

As a future educator, I will strive to make a difference and help children to succeed and achieve their full potential. I believe that it is important to enable a sense of belonging in a classroom where every child feels supported and valued. I want to be able to facilitate growth in all aspects of children’s lives, drive their desire to learn and inspire them to be role models and active citizens.

As aforementioned, I am currently in year two of the Bachelor of Elementary Education Program at UVIC. In order to be accepted into this program, I had to take the provided pre-requisite courses at Camosun College for the first year. At Camosun, we were required to take two Canadian Studies classes, two English classes, two Mathematics classes as well as two Science classes. I worked hard each and every day to thrive in the year one classes in hopes of being offered a spot in this program. To my surprise, I finished my first year at Camosun College with an 8.9/9 GPA and made it onto the Deans Honour Roll List for both the Fall and Spring semester. I was beyond proud of myself for finishing my first year strong and receiving an offer into this Elementary Education Program as I had always dreamed. I proved to myself that great things can happen when you work hard and put your mind to something. Throughout my next two years in this program, I will continue to push myself to strive in all my future classes to ensure that I can be the best teacher that I can for my future students. I am thrilled that classes will again be in person this September, and I am immensely excited about meetings my peers and learning in person.

I have had several experiences throughout my life that have reinforced my passion of becoming a teacher. In high school, I was involved in many various sports teams. I played hockey, soccer, baseball, volleyball and field hockey. My favourite sport of all was hockey, which I played for ten years. During these ten years, I was offered a position to coach a younger hockey team. Of course, I accepted this offer and to this day I am glad that I did. The hockey coaching job sparked my interest in teaching kids which developed my dream of becoming a teacher. After high school, I sought every opportunity that I could to work with children. I worked at a Before and After school care, a Boys and Girls Club, Children Event Planning, coached hockey teams and high school volleyball teams and volunteered in various Elementary School Classrooms. I believe that being a teacher is a rewarding job, and I enjoy teaching children in a fun and inspiring way.

In addition to working with kids, I also enjoy hiking, camping, travelling and the outdoors. I still enjoy playing various sports when I can, but I mostly enjoy being active. My favourite outdoor activities are snowboarding, wake surfing, kayaking and hiking. I am always ready for a new adventure and love exploring nature!

Thus far throughout this program, we have been assigned various inquiry-based projects and lesson planning projects. I enjoy completing inquiry-based projects, because it enables us to pursue a topic of our own choosing. While doing this, we are able to find a topic that we are interested it, and research it to discover more information. In addition, our classes have also required us to create lesson plans. I find that creating lesson plans individually or with a partner has been highly beneficial to our learning. In other words, it enables us to build an understanding on the amount of work and dedication that gets placed into these plans. It is also beneficial because each class that requires a lesson plan assignment, provides us with the opportunity to learn different approaches to teaching and diversify the way we teach them to discover what works best for us.

Below, I have attached my unit plan from this semester, which includes a yoga flow sequence for a yoga unit that myself and two partners created within a group. I also have included a lesson plan on a soccer unit that was also created within a group. In addition, I have included a warm-up video to a soccer unit that was completed last semester. Outside of our Physical Education class, I also wanted to include my Music Lesson Plan on Indigenous Drumming, which was also created within a group.

I also encourage you to take a look around this website, which I created in my Technology and Innovation Class! On the website you will find a free inquiry topic on exploring nature, as well as weekly reflection posts from each week of technology class this semester.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KaZw6FtVYkK4oqwMo_0f2jP9EuhAnHNupeplGyd9rSo/edit?ts=6053c6e4

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12PF8pOBlooHrMgu3MAHvGrrfYXGpJqRBWwNx3sOWvdY/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FtK_xf8M_yEKy6CBTy7ITCKZt4qge3qZOtk9f2gwWK4/edit?ts=6053ac06