It was 25 years ago...

25 years ago this year, I began my journey as a teacher. I didn’t exactly have a clear vision at the time; however, 25 years later here I am doing something that I genuinely love to do.  I feel as though I accidentally found something that fits me perfectly although I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when I chose it, or it chose me.

In 1998-1999, I was living in rural Ireland following my graduation from university. I was working and had a job that was perfectly fine but didn’t really utilize any of my skills, apart from occasionally speaking German with tourists and/or calling vendors in Europe for my bosses. I wasn’t unhappy in this job, but it was clearly not a career. I had taken a few stabs at finding different kind of jobs, a bilingual tour guide at the Jameson’s Distillery, office job, shop girl. I was at a crossroads in terms of what to with my education and skills.

Teaching ESL had occurred to me, along with translation. I completed a correspondence class in German-English translation before moving on to TESL. I started with a correspondence course that was pretty much a review of what I had learning in my undergrad degree. I, then, joined an in-person class in Dublin on weekends. I completed this course shortly before I left Ireland and returned to Canada. Once home, I was faced with the same question. What next?

At this time, my grandmother was in the early stages of dementia, so I was looking for something that would allow me to help her. A friend helped me to get a job at the mutual fund company where she worked. It was definitely not my thing, but a great chance to work and save money for the next steps. Prior to starting this job, I had started volunteering in an ESL program for survivors of torture. I shadowed a number of very competent and inspiring teachers and eventually took on more responsibility, starting with one-on-one literacy work to supply teaching. This was the beginning of my teaching career. I travelled all over Hamilton to different settings and classes and learned my craft. When I mentor new teachers, I often recommend that they spend some time moving around supplying to find what type of class suits them best. Although this was prior to the formation of the LINC program, I had clearly found the place where a good chunk of my teaching would be.  

Since then, I’ve worked in different places, contexts, at a variety of levels and come to love working with newcomers specifically. It’s honestly quite hard to imagine doing anything else.