Hadih! My name is Julianne Slaney and I am a teacher candidate in the elementary years cohort at UNBC. I was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and I moved to Prince George when I was 2 years old. As I grew up, I spent a lot of time camping and fishing with my large extended family. I also developed many hobbies and interests such as reading, quilting, and playing soccer and curling. I still love to read and curl today and use these hobbies as an escape from the stressors of day-to-day life. I enjoy travelling to new places, as well as back to Newfoundland to visit my family there. I have a strong connection to my Eastern roots and I am very passionate about sharing this connection with anyone who is willing to hear about it. One of my favorite things to do as I travel is to collect Starbucks mugs from all of these different places to have a physical object that helps me remember the fun times I have had.
My journey to the education program was a little unconventional. I started my postsecondary education in the nursing program. I have always been a very compassionate and empathetic person; I thought nursing would be the perfect profession to help me channel these emotions and have them at the forefront of everything I did. As I was moving through the first year of this program, I instantly realized that this was not the right fit for me. I realized that even if I could finish the entire program, I would burn out very quickly as a nurse and have to find a new profession. After finishing the year out, I had to quickly pivot and find a new path in life. This is when I set my sights on the teaching program. I have loved children of all ages since I was still a child myself, so pivoting to the teaching program made a lot of sense to me. I felt like teaching would be a profession where compassion and empathy were not just wanted but needed in order to succeed. I was lucky enough to have amazing teachers in elementary school that I know played a part in shaping the person I have become today. I was excited and hopeful that I would get the opportunity to be a role model for children in this same way. Although my path to the education program was not straight and involved some detours and wrong turns, I feel as if I was always meant to be here and that there is nothing else I would rather be doing.
One of my main goals as a teacher is going to be to create a classroom that is a safe space and a home away from home for all students. I want every child who walks through my door to feel safe and loved, and to feel as if he or she belongs and were put in my class for a reason. I want them to know that my class is a space where all races, ethnicities, religions, cultures, sexual orientations, etc. are respected and appreciated; students will be accepted for who they are and what matters is that you are a person who is kind, respectful, helpful, and so on. I want my class to be a place where the collective group feels like a family of sorts and where all my students are not afraid to learn from one another, take risks, make mistakes, and ask any questions they want. I feel these are some of the most important factors in creating an enriched learning environment.
