I am really looking forward to participating in this learning journey will all of you. First, I will share a little about my self. I am a mature student in my third year of the Elementary BEd program at UVic. I have four children, two of which are school aged, and a puppy that fill my days with chaos and laughter. I enjoy camping, hanging out at the beach, and spending time with family and friends.

This course excites me because I am interested in furthering my understanding of how to design classroom spaces that support ALL students. I look forward to learning new ideas to increase connection, engagement, social and emotional learning, and collaboration in my instructional design.

I recently learned about a woman named Susie Wise, who is a founder and former director of the K12 Lab network at the Stanford d. school (which is seriously cool, I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already!). She has experience in education and tech and focuses her work on equity design and innovation practices. Susie wrote a book called Design for Belonging (2022) in which she discusses how to build inclusion and collaboration in our (classroom) communities. Below is a snippet of her designing for belonging framework which I hope to bring forward in my work as an educator.

Excited to e-meet and work with you all this term! Cheers 🙂