Dear,

I am extremely excited to be in my Professional Semester One and am currently in my fifth year

at the University of Lethbridge. I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in May of 2020, my major
was History and my minor was Religious Studies. I am now working on my After Degree in
Social Studies Education. I want to be a teacher because I love working with children, watching
them grow and I hope to have an impact on their life, I also hope to share with them my love of
History. I graduated in 2016 from Holy Trinity Academy which is in Okotoks, however I did
most of my education in Grande Prairie as I moved to Okotoks at the end of grade ten.
I took Ed 2500 in the fall of 2017 and was lucky enough to be part of a grade six classroom at
G.S. Lakie middle school. This practicum was mostly observational for me, but I still did have a
role within the classroom. I helped students with their assignments, gave them their morning
math activity and helped my Teacher Associate by marking some assignments. I was also
fortunate enough to plan and teach a lesson of my choice; I taught my class a small lesson on
Greek Mythology and gave them an assignment which my Teacher Associate had me mark for
experience. I loved everything about this practicum and am really looking forward to the next
step. I am very excited to learn more of what it means to be a teacher as well as, gain new
experiences in creating lessons, how to organize a classroom, creating positive classroom
culture, and how to organize multi leveled plans for different students.
In the summer of 2019, I lead day camps. As a day camp leader, I was responsible for planning
my camps which involved indoor and outdoor activities. These skills will help me in my
practicum because I have seen some of the activities that children love and planned fun activities
for children of many ages. This experience also taught me to be flexible with my daily plans
because things will always take longer then initially thought. This day camp was the only one in
Okotoks which was inclusive, so I have worked with a lot of children of varying abilities,
including some who had aids which provided me skills that will be useful in a teaching setting.
This experience really solidified why I want to become a teacher. In one of my science camps I
was talking about archaeology and my campers where incredibly engaged in the topic, watching
the interest they had in the topic while they came up with as many questions as they could was
an amazing feeling for me.
I have been an assistant teacher for Ballet at my previous dance studios. This volunteer work
entailed assisting the ballet teacher in making sure the class ran smoothly by, ensuring that
dancers were ready for class, make sure they stayed focused, demonstrated steps, and corrected
technique. As an assistant teacher, I was also required to create lesson plans as well as teach
some of the exercises I created which will help me in my teaching career because I have learned
skills that will directly transfer into a classroom and I will be able to greatly expand the abilities I
have had a small taste of.
I have been a dancer for seventeen years and have loved every aspect of it. I have competitively
danced ballet, jazz, pointe and contemporary and was lucky enough to attend Nationals in
Whistler, British Columbia in 2015. I have also completed numerous ballet exams through the
Royal Academy of Dance. Dance taught me time management skills as well as how to work with
a team, both of which I believe will be useful in teaching. I also enjoy writing and reading
novels; my favorite series is Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan and it solidified
my interest in Mythology. I enjoy sewing and knitting, as well as photography, and traveling
globally. I have been lucky enough to visit Italy and Greece on a high school trip and will
hopefully be able to visit my friend in Holland soon.
I am excited and nervous for this practicum. I hope to gain many classroom experiences through
this practicum and grow not only as a teacher but also as an individual. I hope that I can share
my talents and interests with your students and incorporate their interests into what I teach.
Thank you for inviting me into your classroom, I look forward to working with you and your
students during the next five weeks.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Paquette