Hi Everyone :)
I'm teaching for the next few months. As part of an introduction to Biography writing, I'm sharing a 'kid version' of my own bio. Enjoy :)
About
Your Teacher
My name is Miss Leigh-Wong. I am
currently Banting Middle School’s EAL and Inquiry teacher. In addition to being
a teacher, I am also a school counsellor where I help kids from ages 5 to 18 develop
a positive self-esteem and image. Sometimes, my career as a counsellor and
teacher can be described as helping kids find their authentic voice and true
talents. It’s kind of like helping them see what they are good at instead of
focusing on what they don’t do too well. As a counsellor and teacher, I
sometimes have to tell kids that taking drugs is NOT a good idea and sharing
with them that jail is also NOT a good place to end up.
I like teaching, especially in
the area of Fine Arts. Teaching kids how to draw, paint and make jewelry is by
far one of my favorite activities in life. My interest in art started when I
was five years old where I saw my Mom always drawing on scrap pieces of paper.
She then would use these papers as dinner place mats, so I was always looking
at her drawings, even when I ate. Dad wasn’t too bad of an artist himself,
although he never encouraged me to better my artistic skills. He was always
drawing because he needed to create realistic
sketches for his carpentry projects, such as building a staircase.
Although I continued to draw and make jewelry, my artistic creativity as never
always encouraged. Sometime after fourth grade, I gave up on making art all
together because my parent’s said I needed to do more Math. What they didn’t
know is that I began painting and making jewelry again when I started my first
year in university.
Although I like being a teacher,
I really enjoy being a school counsellor too. I’ve always wanted to be a
counsellor, since I was age eleven. It was at this age where I started going to
the library and reading books on Psychology. I remember standing in the
Psychology section of the community library and being the only kid reading
these heavy, thick books. Everyone else around me had grey hair and looked like
a professor straight from the movies. That didn’t stop me though from achieving
my childhood dream of being a counsellor. All that reading, studying and
volunteer work eventually paid off two years ago, when I was accepted into
graduate school to study counselling. After all this time of non-stop studying,
I’ll be graduating this December with my M.ed in Counselling Psychology.
I come from a hardworking and
humble family where all of us appreciate what we have. My mom grew up in
Singapore and my Dad is from Hong Kong. I have a younger brother who also
chased after his childhood dream of becoming a police officer. One year ago,
after completing his kinesiology degree and turning my parent’s basement into a
gym where he could work out every day, 24 hours a day, my brother Nathan was
accepted into the Vancouver Police Department.
In my free time, I continue
teaching Art to kids, especially during the Summer time. Recently, I enrolled
in silver smithing classes where I make jewelry using silver, a rawhide hammer
and a torch. Oh, and did I tell you that I also work as a flight attendant
during the Summer? Some people think I’m crazy because I do so much in life,
but my philosophy is that it is better to go to bed tired and happy rather than
tired, bored and worried.
