Meet Avery: Bringing Farm Life to Education through Tech

Hello all! My name is Avery Kotylak, and I am currently starting my fourth year of University in the Faculty of Education k-5 program. I grew up near a small town named Glenavon, which is around an hour and a half away from the city of Regina. I was raised on a farm since I was three and could not have asked for a better environment to grow up in. I love the farm, as I grew up working with cows and helping my family in the field. I have three older siblings who help out with the farm as well. The four of us are very close, as we were all born between the years 1999 and 2003. We were and still are each other’s best friends.

One fact about me is that I love watching hockey, even though I did not play the sport it holds a large part of my heart. To this day I still tend to watch hockey any chance I get, Go Oilers! Growing up I played a sport called broomball, which is a very rare sport. I had grown close to many new people through sports, which honestly might be my favourite thing about it.  Another fact about me is that I love spending time with my friends and family, it is rare that I will spend a day without seeing either my friends or family.

I graduated from Wolseley High School in 2021. Being in a small school, I had many opportunities to focus assignments on something I was passionate about. This also allowed the school to be a part of a community, by helping the town clean up or dropping in for visits at the nursing home. On the other hand, being in a small town school didn’t allow for much technology, as we did not have access to it. One computer cart was shared amongst all the students in the school. If there were more access to technology like this it would have made a great difference in school. As I love to get creative with different technology apps to help vamp up my assignments. I’m not sure if it is just me, however, I feel since I’m in k-5 education it is so important to have a creative side, and familiarity to technology.

Last semester I used Powtoon to complete an assignment, which I enjoyed. Doing assignments with technology may be frustrating at times for myself however, there are so many opportunities that make it all worth it. The assignment was this 2-minute documentary which focused on school communities, which was a big part of my school community growing up. Another platform I use a lot through university is canva, this is my holy grail. It has so many different opportunities to make an assignment creative and unique in its own way. I make everything on there from personal things such as Christmas cards and invites to assignments such as my All about me poster. 

I currently live back at home and have taken the last year all online, so my university journey is heavily technology-based since I am on platforms such as Zoom at least three times a week. I am new to blogging but I am excited to learn more about it and take a look back at my learning once this class is over!