My Name is Riley McQueen, I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta and moved to Victoria last fall for School and track. I did my undergrad in Communications and Culture with a minor in Sociology at the University of Calgary. I have always been interested in teaching, and have worked with kids for the past 5 years in kids camps as well as working in special needs classrooms as a Child Development Facilitator. I originally was wanting to pursue a career as an Elementary teacher, but changed my mind last year. I decided that Middle years is an age group I can relate to more strongly and for me was the time where I as a student needed the most guidance. I had a really special teacher; Mr. Brady who was one of the biggest influences in my life during those crucial teenage years and I want to play the same role for my future students.
After reading over sections of the IRP I expect English in middle schools to be a lot more interactive. I see there being a major emphasis on the engagement of the students through storytelling, role playing, and discussion. It was interesting the point made in class the other day in regards to how learning is done through reflecting. I see the classroom discussions on literature being discussed in a manner where the teacher takes on various roles to help the students be within the story and make sense of it through taking on and experiencing the different perspectives each character represents. I feel English Language Arts is about communicating and engaging with the students about how the roles various genres and styles of literature shape our understanding of the past, present and future. I expect to come out of this course with a strong and confident foundation to know what it takes to help engage students in the process of understanding and interpreting various pieces of literature and concepts in the English Language Arts in the middle years curriculum.
