Hello fellow METers!
I’m coming to you from Southwestern Ontario, where we had double digit temperatures and a deluge of rain yesterday, and are back to icy conditions today. A typical winter weather experience in these parts!
By day, I currently spend most of my working hours as an advisor to Co-operative Education students at Conestoga College in Waterloo, Ontario. This is a great fit with an interest in experiential learning that developed during my training as a Co-Active Coach. Coaching is my true love. As a coach, I provide a safe space for people to re-write their stories, to courageously step beyond their comfort zones, and to live their best lives. I am passionate about learning how to use storytelling and innovations such as virtual reality to inspire a sense of agency and possibility for those who seek big changes in their lives. While working within post-secondary education, my interests are in “self-education”; increasing self-awareness and empowering self-improvement. I enrolled in the Masters of Education Technology program at the University of British Columbia to understand how to people learn (behaviour change) and how to use technology to expedite, enhance and sustain behaviour change.
My primary interests are:
1) using immersive virtual reality simulations to help people to explore their strengths, preferences and fears, and then to practice living their “preferred life” in VR; experiencing life as it could be, and practicing (and overcoming) anxiety-provoking scenarios
2) using storytelling for cognitive reframing and confidence boosting, shifting someone from the perspective of “victim” to “victor”
3) using visualization for behaviour change
Outside of work, I’m a mom to a 16-year-old daughter who I enjoy immensely, and we share a home with a 1-year-old Malshi dog (my first dog ever…that’s been an adventure, to say the least. Watch this to see where my daughter catches her in the act of stealing her underwear under her bed: Caught Red-Pawed). I’m a CBC Radio One junkie, Brene Brown groupie, and recently binged on Netflix’s “Broadchurch.” I have big dreams of owning a home and retreat centre in Arizona one day.
I like the experimental and playful flavour of ETEC 522 and I look forward to learning with all of you!
