Personal Profile of Chris Assmus B.A., B.Ed.

1. Personal Profile of Chris Assmus B.A., B.Ed. Taking the lifelong approach

2. My Background I have been lucky enough to have lived in various places across Canada and the world. In August of 2011 I decided to shift my career ambitions from Quebec to British Columbia. The shift in education in my adoptive province encouraged me to arrive in my new home with ambitions of carrying the French Immersion torch. Having the opportunity to study and grow using the French vernacular has made me the adaptable and resilient person I am today. I wanted to bring this context of growth to the beautiful shores of Vancouver Island. My undergraduate experience in Ottawa led me down the pathway of exploring the gap between the French and English populations of Canada. Seeing how having the influence of two cultural beacons benefited the people of Eastern Ontario, I decided to explore Vancouver Island. A colleague of mine moved to British Columbia to meet the need for French Immersion ambassadors in the province. After seeing how much the lives of small pockets of British Columbians were effected by the opportunity to learn using a second language, I decided that my calling was to expand those pockets with my own experience.

3. My Education After graduating from École secondaire polyvalente de Pierrefonds in 2005, I attended CEGEP at Collège John Abbott in Montréal. After a shoulder injury ended my rugby playing career, I took an interest in refereeing. Under the mentorship of master-referees who also happened to be career teachers, I gathered the courage to follow my dream profession to the University of Ottawa where I would receive my Honours Bachelor of Arts in 2010. My rugby refereeing career forded me the opportunity to visit British Columbia and Vancouver Island on several occasions. After finding out more about the visionaries present within BC education, I decided to make the move to Nanaimo and complete my Bachelor of Education in 2012.

4. Field Experience I have been blessed with the gift of having the opportunity to work under the tutelage of master teachers at both Dover Bay Secondary School and Nanaimo & District Community School on Vancouver Island. At Dover Bay I taught French Second Language, English, Humanities, and Social Studies under the mentorship of Mrs. Heidi McWhinnie, Mr. E.G McPerson, and Mr. Dan Companion respectively. At NDSS I taught French Immersion sciences humaines under Mme. Josée Birchand Social Studies under Mr. Nathan Stevenson. Both classroom contexts offered unique challenges and provided me the platform to teach to the needs to each student using a variety of instructional and assessment styles. The inquiry-based learning ethos of French Immersion was an eye opening experience for me as an educator. My time teaching inquiry based lessons at NDSS changed my entire professional development focus.

5. Philosophy of Teaching Teachers and students should be learning together continuously. Learning is more than just the successful attainment of criterion-based learning outcomes. It is the ability to interact with something new every hour, every day. As a teacher, my vocation is to be active and responsive in each of my students’ development. I must empathize, understand, anticipate, connect with, and make decision that benefit the long term success of all my students. Success itself can mean different things for each student. As a teacher I must commit my career to understand what success looks like for every student am I forded the opportunity to learn with.

6. Rugby: From the Local Club to the Big Stage One of my life’s inspirations has been rugby. I formed some of my most important friendships and learned some of my most important life lessons playing the game. Even through injury and switching from playing to refereeing, the game has given me the opportunity to see the world and create benchmarks for my growth as a human being. The roots of rugby are in schools. It is only with completeness of character that one is successful in the game of rugby, as player or referee. Each person has specific strengths that are pivotal to individual and collective success. This is what rugby has taught me about life. I would like to teach others this important lesson to as many people as I can; my classroom ethos starts here.

7. The People in my Life The people in my life provide me with support. They are the ones that reinforce the confidence I need to get to know every student I teach. Without my family and friends around the world, I would not know how to connect with others. Each person has a special lesson to teach. The people that support me teach the lessons I need day in and day out.

8. Personal Development The current areas that I am exploring as a professional are classroom kinesthetic learning, experiential learning, and inquiry based learning. I have attended cross-curricular seminars such as Gary Anaka’sBrain-based Learning, Mick Byrne’s Direct Feedback, and Linda McDonald’s Mobile Classroom. In the future I would like to diversify my assessment and management tools by exploring self-regulated classroom learning. I would also like to develop my own personal development study on risk taking behaviours in second language immersion environments. My independent study ambitions fit in well with existing model united nations and community building initiatives There are many public school districts and independent schools who boast great visionaries as a part of their personnel. From a personal standpoint I would like to develop my professional relationship building skills so I can best access the development resources that manifest themselves in the educators I work with.

9. Communauté francophone de l’ île de Vancouver Je voudrais être impliqué dans un rôle actif en agrandissant le profil des sociétés de la francophonie en Colombie-Britannique. Ça commence avec l’implication des jeunes francophones, francophiles et des élèves de français deuxième langue (FSL).

10. Contact MePour se connecter Christopher Frederick Assmus B.A., B.Ed. +1 (250)-739-2527 Chris_assmus@hotmail.com

11. Image Sources Page 1 www.bilan.usherbrooke.ca Page 2 www.uottawa.ca www.viu.ca Page 3 www.doverbay.ca www.ndss.ca Page 4 www.successfulteaching.blogspot.com Page 5 www.judysteasdalephotography.com Page 6 www.facebook.com Page 7 www.newthoughtgeneration.com Page 8 www.bcferries.com