Ellie's Story

Ellie’s Distance Education Story.
Ellie moved to the NWT in 2020. Ellie says, “I came here [to Yellowknife] and I ended up as a JK EA [Junior Kindergarten Educational Assistant] and then the school shut down for COVID. The school team just kind of put a shout out that if anybody would like to pursue their education, there's a little bit of funding… and I thought to myself, ‘oh, wow, I’ve never even thought about [pursuing postsecondary education].’ I thought that would be amazing. I love what I'm doing [and] I would love to have a little education to go with my experience.” That is why Ellie started in the Early Learning and Childcare program. Ellie says, “I'm on my last course for my certificate” and “it'll take me [about] two and a half years to finish it [my diploma] this way. It’s given me the opportunity to work full time and do [my] education at the same time.”
Engagement.
When asked about engagement Ellie says, “I think it [studying] works beautifully with working in the field.” “I feel like I come up with five examples like it's what I'm doing all day. So, it's very relevant to what I'm doing. I think it's helped me understand things… and I've already raised four children. I've spent tons of time on camps and after school programs … so, it's like very hands on to what I'm doing. So, I find it very engaging. I find it, it's very relevant.”
Ellie really enjoys the program: “I look forward to my evening sessions. I find them informative. I enjoy the interaction with my classmates …. I personally like that they put us in breakout rooms. I feel like just listening to the teacher you're not interacting as much because you're supposed to have your microphone off essentially. It's too confusing if everyone's phones are on, so when they put us in breakout rooms, I think we all enjoy the interaction at that point.”
Engagement.
When Ellie was asked about her personal beliefs and the strengths that she brings to her distance education experience, Ellie says, “Okay, so I would say that part of my motivation is that I love the field and I'm not sure what our future holds. I'm not sure that we’ll be in Yellowknife forever. And when I move on, I thought it would be kind of cool to be able to actually work in the field with an education, so I feel like that motivates me quite a bit. So, like personally, I think that would be my main motivation … that's sort of what keeps me going.” Ellie also says, “I see a ton of value in children … I’m NOT authoritative … [and] I'm very nurturing, very patient, very loving and kind, like all those kinds of things.” Ellie says, “My natural abilities that I think work well with working with small children especially and I think I'm intuitive and … pretty good at being able to perceive like what the teacher is going to need next or like how my child who's having, who's very dysregulated, fits into to the class as a whole or like reading the cues and the child I'm working with … I think those are my strengths [and contribute to success].”
Supportive Relationships.
Ellie feels that she has a huge professional network and she says, “I really feel that way … I feel really blessed like I feel like I've learned a ton and we just had a PD day and I got to do the whole service program, which is learning about autism, so specific strategies with children with autism. So that was like a full eight-hour day of training. Like that was part of just because I'm an employee. So, I do feel like I've had a ton of training, I feel like I have a ton of people around me.” Ellie also says, “I do feel tons of support of my coworkers and the school.” Ellie also says, “I feel like… my kids are very proud of me for doing this” and “my husband is on board with me doing it.”
Course Content and Resources.
Ellie’s inspiration for her program’s assignments and activities comes from a very rich and creative environment in her school. Ellie says, [I] “walk around the school or observe what other EAs are doing and was able to use their expertise too.” Ellie feels that the assignments are “so very relevant to what I'm doing and I feel like the way the course is set up, it's, I would say it's more reflective. I do feel like a lot of my assignments have been quite easy …. For example, we needed to make a toy that was concrete for different ages. Those kinds of creative assignments are made … in our school.” Ellie has since moved from the JK to a 2-3 split classroom and has found that assessments and “some of these assignments maybe would pertain to that [JK] level.”
Ellie also commits to regular study time and assignment preparation. When discussing her personal schedule Ellie says, “I try to dedicate Saturday morning to my schoolwork … I don't really dive into the material until the weekend … there's a disadvantage to that because a lot [the activities that were supposed to be done in the assignment]. I can't necessarily have done what I needed to do with the kids and then my assignments are due by Monday after work. So I'd really have to get my assignments done on the weekend because I don't really have time during the week. Just working full time and managing with my own family responsibilities … if I had two weeks do my assignments, I feel like I could do a better job.”
When discussing online peer-to-peer learning Ellie says, “often assignments will be put in Padlet form. That’s where actually you're supposed to … read everybody else's [work] and … comment. That's part of your assignment, and other people's but I quite enjoy it. I actually often will look to see if somebody's posted something before I start because it just kind of gives you like, oh yeah, I did understand that right, or … confirmation that you understood the assignment properly. So, I definitely feel like I have benefited from other people's sharing things for sure.” Ellie also has the benefit of connecting with others in her program who are studying at a distance in her community and uses these relationships to collaborate with others in their shared professional practice. Ellie’s example included connecting and collaborating with another intern and she says, “we are now working together with a boy at recess.”
Assessment and Evaluation - CAP Assessment Grading System.
When Ellie was asked about the grading system she says: “I love it in many ways, I absolutely love that there is no exams and tests. I was very intimidated at 46 years old, go[ing] back to school, and I thought ‘there's no way that I can do this,’ but actually someone in my church is one of the instructors and he convinced me I could … I don't know how well I would do on a test anymore. So I … really love … [that] there's no tests, and I think the CAPs are great, like I said, it's… reflective, like it's like you learn this and then you go see it in your day. I love that concept.” Ellie adds, “One day I'm going to be a JK teacher; I need to learn how to do these things. So, I'm thankful for the opportunities to learn it and to do it … I feel like it is a great way to learn something and then be intentional about finding examples of it. To see it work to see doing it, [then] like to see it in action … for example, this observing, I can see the teacher doing this, now that's not my role, so that's not what I'm writing the CAP on. … and then I think to myself ‘now how can I do that?’ and then I work that out.”
Challenges.
When asked about the challenges she faces when studying at a distance, Ellie says, “I would say my main challenge is time.” Ellie indicates that technology is also a challenge for her, “I am not a tech person … it takes me a long time and tech is a challenge for me.” Ellie says, “Aurora College [also] has had a few key challenges with [technology] between our program and [some students] … Last year [class] was through Zoom, this year it's through Teams and this year, it's through Moodle, last year it was not. So, last year they had problems with all that so over the summer they fixed those [technology issues] this year, that's why it's [the program’s] back through Moodle and Teams.” Ellie also shares, “I spent three or four hours figuring out how to how to put my assignment up the first day [and] how you upload your CAPs again that took me like an hour … uploading it, or printing it, like those kinds of things… would be my challenge.” When Ellie asked how she resolved her technology issues she says, “I reached out to a classmate and we did our own little private Zoom meeting, she walked me through it.” Other supports for Ellie include, “emailing instructors [they] are really good to get back to you and Elrica, she oversees she’s like the secretary maybe for the program, I'm not sure completely, but she's amazing. Like, she considers any question and she gets back to you. She spent like an hour on the phone with me one day trying to help me figure out my login and stuff. In the end I think it the problem really went back to me and she was very patient for an hour.”
Doing courses from a distance can also be limiting because Ellie’s experiential learning opportunities are restricted to the learning spaces she is in. Ellie expressed that if she chose to enroll in the face-to-face program offering, her early learning experiences would be more diverse. “If I was doing this, potentially on site [face-to-face] my placements would be [at] other places as well.” However, “at this stage in my life, I wouldn't be interested in full time [face to face] school. I'm working to supporting our family right now… so this is feasible.” Ellie says, “So, there's pros and cons to everything, but it's pretty amazing that I can do my placement and still be working full time ... I think that's pretty amazing.” Although most of Ellie’s children are grown she still has her youngest child at home. “My first priority is being a mom and wife, so to do those two jobs well, I don't think I could have taken this on [in a traditional face-to-face classroom setting].”
Ellie expressed that some of the course requirements conflict with her roles and work responsibilities and she provided some examples of this tension. Ellie struggled with the final part of the learning story assignment which was to send the learning story home to the parents. “This week, we're supposed to do a learning story with a child. But as an EA [Educational Assistant] … we're not supposed to be communicating with parents. Like that's not my role, that's the teacher's role. So, I don't really have the right to ask a parent if I can observe their child or if I can send them a learning story about the child, so I feel a little bit like … do I just make it up? I'm not sure what to do with that dilemma.”
Ellie discussed challenges when course activities fall outside of employment roles and responsibilities. “If I'm going to be asked to be educated as a Childhood Educator then I would … appreciate the value of going in and rearranging a classroom for example. We did that but it's not my classroom. So, I went in on the weekend and we arranged … a breakout room. I rearranged that, took pictures of it, and then I put it [the classroom] back the way it was because it's not really my space to do, I'm not the teacher.” Ellie has used these experiences and referenced them in her CAPs. She has explained how she would do these activities if she was the teacher, however her program instructors have told her "that, that's wrong, like I need to make it my own. So, I feel a little bit of this contradiction of that, whatever that is.” Due to time constraints, there is not enough time to talk with instructors and get feedback on these and other issues. Ellie says, “earlier in the week I thought I should just send an email [to talk about resolving the issue]. I haven't gotten around to that. So now it's Saturday and I need to do my assignment.” Ellie wants to resolve the incongruences between work restrictions related to her position and the course requirements. Ellie says that “our instructors have suggested another option … if you know a child in your school and … their parents, we have several kids whose parents work in our school. So, then I thought to myself and that's what I suggested to the girls [other interns in the program] was like I'm like you could take pictures of [student’s name] and ask his mom [parent’s name] and she's like a teacher, ask her if you can do it about him.” Unfortunately, due to time constraints, Ellie says, “I don't always have the time or ability to process it further.”
One Word to Describe Why You are Successful.
When Ellie was asked to use one word to describe herself Ellie says, “I am motivated.” “I would like to think that we're describing [me to] be more like loving and nurturing but I don't know if that completely answers the question as to why I'm successful. But it's [motivated describes me] particularly in the realm of like going back to school, like doing this. I think that maybe would describe me in my job and I don’t know if it [being loving and nurturing would] fully describes me as a student. But I think I'm pretty motivated, like hard a worker…. [This brings up something for Ellie] … years ago kind of brought up the whole thing of like if we're going to do something, if I can do something, if I'm gonna, if we’re going to, do something as a family, let's do it well. That's kind of the thing I live by. Like if I'm going to put myself into this, I'm going to, I'm not going to half put myself into that, I'm going to be in the classes I'm going to do my homework. It's something of a commitment of me. I'm going to make it happen. So that's kind of what I mean by motivated.”
Most Important Thoughts from the Interview.
When Ellie was asked about the three most important things she wanted to be remembered for in this interview she says, “I think this is an amazing program. That I'm really thankful that I get to do [this program] … it's a really great opportunity ... So yeah, particularly about Aurora College, I think being able to work full time and have a course that I feel like as much as I said, the challenge is time. That would be true, like if I was going back to school, of course, like you’re throwing a whole other thing onto your plate. So, I think that college is doing a really good job of making it manageable even though it's a sacrifice, to work full time and get your education which I think is a really neat opportunity and I love it.” Lastly, Ellie says, “I'm really passionate about my job and working with children and then I love it and I'm really enjoying it. I think I'm becoming better at my job through this education and I'm thankful for that.”
Final Thoughts. - Appreciation of Indigenous Ways.
Ellie says, “I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to be in class with people from all over the territory. I had somebody in Tuk, quite a few in Inuvik, Fort Simpson and there was a bunch of us in Yellowknife.” Ellie adds, “I'm not Indigenous [but] it was really neat [to] just hear their stories and their perspective and I learned a ton through my classmates through that, like I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people from all over. And it's again just such a unique experience because it's online and to hear their stories and work things through with them. And so yeah, I don't think that I touched on that, but I really appreciated it as well.”
Ellie also notes that there were similarities between others from the North with her own experiences from southeastern Canada and says that “as far as being similar, tons of other women, actually many my age even. So, just natural similarities because of that, like we'll just have done similar things.” Ellie says, “the people that you're online with are in the field as well. So, lots of similarities with working with children are like, you know, what we do day to day and whether that is obviously discussed.”
Ellie continued by saying, “a lot of Indigenous people were in that class and they're living in communities [that have been] greatly affected by the things we're talking about. So just a lot of hands-on stories.” Ellie says, “It was just a lot about residential schools and just a lot of different things that these different Indigenous people have gone through ... a lot of them are just saying, you know, like ‘my mom, my grandmother, this is how this affected me’ like, just very personal and relative. And I feel like it gave me a better understanding and perspective than if I was just being taught it through other ways.” When discussing an example from learning through play Ellie says, “Different things that they were doing in their communities were different than I had had, certainly I had different experience before moving to Yellowknife. Maybe similar to here, but just like a little bit of a different slant. Like going out on [the] land… I forget what they were hunting but the classes all went out to hunt something and I thought ‘oh neat.’” Ellie also appreciated the importance of oral traditions, different ways of living, learning through play, and “living on the land” which helped her to understand “Indigenous intent particularly.”