Meanwhile, her husband, John Wren (BSc/08, PhD/14, BEd/15) was a lab instructor with a PhD under his belt.

Although the successful, happily married couple were content in the careers, something was missing.

There were parts of the job they loved most, and they wanted more of it.

“I enjoyed interacting with people, interacting with students— particularly mentoring young undergraduates and graduate students in our lab every summer,” recalls John, adding that a career as a professor or a chemist would not have had the element of human-connection he craved.

Both coming from a long line of teachers in their families, the Wrens decided to change careers and move into education.

John was first to take the plunge. And while the change was dramatic, it was overwhelmingly positive.

“I certainly came into the program a hardened science major, believing in grinding students down and rebuilding them from the ground up—all the classic science teacher tropes,” John said, adding he experienced a dramatic shift in approaches at the Faculty of Education.

‘…Education instructors taught from a place of compassion. In science, you’re making change in the science field. But in education you’re making change in people.’

“But education instructors taught from a place of compassion. In science, you’re making change in the science field. But in education you’re making change in people,” John said.

Christine was nervous about changing careers: Had she made the right choice?

“In education I feel like they focus more on the building you up as a person because you’re going to be going out there and impacting people’s lives and impacting students as learners and people,” Christine said. “And so, it just felt like a happy place to be.”

The faculty’s supportive faculty, as well as its focus on process and learning surprised her.

The right choice

“It made me feel like I made the right choice.”

Both John and Christine come from families with a long history of teaching. And pursuing a bachelor of education at University of Manitoba was a natural choice. Besides, both of their fathers, Bernie Schulzki (BEd/’84) and Graham Wren (BEd/’90) completed their BEd degrees at U of M.

“There’s a long tradition of the BEd program being accessible to young parents,” John says.  “When I was a child, my dad used to take me into classes and he would hide toys in his briefcase”

One of the greatest qualities that both Christine and John learned in the BEd program was empathy, mindfulness and adaptability—all qualities that came into play during the pandemic.

When the pandemic started, Christine was teaching during practicum in a small school. At the time, she was using her background in engineering, starting a coding club as well as a robot fight club—experiences the students never would have had otherwise.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 saw those clubs cancelled, but she was able to send the robots home with her students.

Teachers need to be compassionate

“I felt like that was like that was something outside of the regular classroom time that fostered a spark of interest in science and maybe gave them hope for what they want to do in the future,” Christine said.

As the pandemic wore on, greater inequities among students became apparent. Some students didn’t have Internet access, and had to rely on picking up printed assignments from the school. The lack of Internet access also made communicating with these students much more difficult.

“It was such a chaotic time. We were doing everything we could to make sure that nobody was left behind,” Christine said, adding that educators became more innovative with their approaches.

Because he was taught to use Google Classroom in the BEd program, John was seen as an expert in the use of remote-learning technology. As a result, he led professional-development sessions, helping other educators to learn how to use the software—now considered an essential skill during pandemic lockdowns.

He also learned that during the pandemic, teachers needed to be compassionate. For example, he and other educators explored different ways of assessing students.

“Grades and assessment are not as important as learning,” he said.

Christine was inspired by the resilience of the Grade 9 and 10 students she worked with during the pandemic.

“Kids surprise you with how much they can do. And I think if you believe in the kids and give them a chance, they will rise to the occasion,” Christine said.

She and her cousin would set up chairs and a table in the corner of the room where Elvina Mukhamedshina assumed the role of teacher and her cousin, the student.

“I loved marking whatever papers I assigned to him, giving him these fake marks,” Mukhamedshina said, “but I never consciously thought that I was going to be a teacher.”

This June, Mukhamedshina [BSc/2016, BEd/2019] joins some 150 BEd graduates completing their two-year teacher preparation.

Reflecting on her experience at the Faculty of Education, Mukhamedshina says she is grateful for the opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.

Connecting with community

As a new Manitoban from Russia, Mukhamedshina discovered she could connect with her new community by re-connecting with her love of working with children. She enrolled in education after three years of working at Mini-U, WISE Kid-Netic Energy, Kumon, as well as the YMCA, all while working to complete her BSc.

“Mini-U revealed a side of me that I really didn’t realize I had,” Mukhamedshina said.  “It was an opportunity to work with kids, to see them grow, to transfer my own knowledge and skills onto them, and to see them succeed … it was very fulfilling and empowering.”

Elvina teaches biology during practicum.

With a vibrant community of some 30,000 students, faculty and staff, Mukhamedshina enrolled at U of M because of the options and opportunities it offered.

“I chose U of M because I could still continue exploring other sides of myself,” she said, noting she took courses in economics, sociology and psychology, French and anthropology. “And after finishing my science degree, it felt natural to stay here because … it really felt like home.”

Two years in the Faculty of Education BEd program prepared her for success in the classroom by providing her with a solid grounding in teaching strategies, theory and research. Most valuable of all, classroom experience in four practicum courses gave her the opportunity to put her lessons into practice.

‘We learned about what it means to be a culturally inclusive teacher, what it means to be a teacher who understands universal design, what it means to integrate technology into your classroom and how to integrate Indigenous perspectives.’

“That’s where learning happens,” she said. “You learn what worked or didn’t, and you make it better in your next practicum.”

Course work included ways to integrate technology into the classroom, and researching innovative and forward-thinking approaches to teaching in education.

Integrating technology, forward-thinking approaches

“We learned about what it means to be a culturally inclusive teacher, what it means to be a teacher who understands universal design, what it means to integrate technology into your classroom and how to integrate Indigenous perspectives,” Mukhamedshina said.

She gained valuable research experience, winning an Undergraduate Research Award, and presenting at WestCAST—an education conference for all of Western Canada’s Faculties of Education. These experiences provided a solid foundation for when she plans to pursue graduate studies, she said. She realized the BEd program provides a pathway to teaching, but also research in future studies whose insights she can bring back to the classroom.

“I can see that the field of education has unlimited potential. I had a taste as an education researcher, but also as a practical educator in classroom.”

As senior stick for Education Student Council, she gained valuable leadership experience and developed important relationships with her peers and faculty—the highlight of her BEd experience.

“You grow together with your peers throughout these experiences,” she said. “I’ve also had amazing professors here at the Faculty of Education, who have inspired me to be a forward- and critical-thinking educator, and I really enjoyed my time here.”

To find out more about how to apply for a teaching degree at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, click here. 

As night fell on Hudson Bay, the stars emerged, brightening against the darkening, crisp sub-Arctic sky. From the silent heavens, dropped shafts of brilliant blue-green, shimmering overhead like glowing stage curtains, twisting in a light breeze.

The Northern Lights dance over an Inukshuk in Churchill, Man. Photo by Matthew Sinclair. (Click to enlarge)

Against this backdrop of the Northern Lights’ dancing chorus-line of dazzling colour, trots a grey wolf onto the horizon, silhouetted against the iced-over bay, sniffing the air as if more concerned with finding its next meal than drinking in the celestial spectacle overhead.

To a wide-eyed Jordan Grenier, it was all playing out like a scene from a Farley Mowat novel. He could scarcely believe his eyes.

He wondered: If this is Day 1, what comes next in my practicum experience?

If he left the city wanting to get away from it all, Grenier soon found himself closer to community than he’s ever been.

In this remote coastal town, once a month, everyone gathers at the school to share a hot breakfast. Grenier frequently encountered students outside school hours, often fundraising for school trips—an added challenge in this town, located some 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

 “There is definitely a strong sense of close community,” he said of the town of 1,000 people.

Home to polar bears and beluga whales, an Inuit museum and the historic Prince of Wales Fort, Churchill is a world-renowned a tourist destination, but as a science teacher, Grenier was keen to explore the research conducted at the Northern Studies Centre.

Northern crossroads of scientific discovery

Grenier took a Grade 10 science class to the centre, where they dissected a wolverine and explored exciting new projects benefitting the community. 

A fox trots across the tundra. Photo by Matthew Sinclair. (Click to enlarge)

Standing at the intersection of unique ecosystems that include the boreal forest, the Arctic tundra, and the Hudson Bay Lowlands, with its marine ecology and wildlife, Churchill presents researchers with an array of opportunities.

 “We talked about how those ecosystems are unique and how they interact with each other in the Churchill area,” Grenier said, adding the class also toured Rocket Greens, a project where community members can buy a weekly subscription to access leafy green vegetables, such as chard, bok choy spinach, grown at the centre hydroponically in a shipping container without soil. In a town where families pay a shipping premium for groceries, the program is proving popular.

Well-resourced school

Housed in the Churchill Town Complex, Grenier was surprised to find how well the high school was resourced. In addition to a health centre, swimming pool, indoor playground, curling rink, theatre, hockey arena, gymnasium and fitness centre, the town complex also houses a library and elementary school—all resources available to teachers and students. 

“I have been in a lot of science classrooms, but this one has the most resources in terms of equipment and materials,” said Grenier, whose teachable major is music and minor is general science.

With the town complex connecting the elementary and high schools, teachers are also presented with opportunities that include cross-curricular learning, Grenier said.

Perhaps Grenier’s most important takeaway as a teaching professional was that conducting his practicum in a town of 1,000 opened his eyes to the benefits of teaching smaller class sizes, including the opportunity for more one-on-one time with students.

“We have five weeks to build as good a relationship as a possible—with smaller class sizes that’s more manageable,” Grenier said. “When students aren’t engaged, I have the time to build connections with students to find out how I can connect their interests with the course material.”

Living in a small town, Grenier found opportunities to build professional, caring relationships with students—both inside and outside the classroom—learning and sharing lessons that will stay with him the rest of his life.

• • •

Epilogue: Since completing his practicum, Grenier has accepted a teaching position at H. C. Avery, a Grade 6-8 school in Seven Oaks School Division where he will be teaching band and choir.

• • •

To find out more about how to apply for a teaching degree at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, click here.