A Little Bit About Me!

Hi! My name is Jelisa. I am a current student at the University of Regina in the faculty of Education. I am working towards becoming a high school teacher, in the areas of English and Drama.

I am very passionate about The Arts. Under the shining stage lights is where I feel most at home. In high school, I took part in the Yorkton Regional’s fall production, The Addams Family. Being out of high school, I was given the opportunity to step in as assistant director of the Yorkton Regional’s fall 2022 musical production, Beauty and the Beast. During my time working at the Madge Lake Bible Camp, I participated in the yearly Christmas dinner theatres as well. Last year I participated in the Saskatchewan Youth Choir directed by Scott Leithead in Regina (as an Alto). I missed auditions for this season, but hopefully I’ll have another shot next year!

I spend most of my free time journaling, baking, and spending time with my friends and family. I have two little fur babies at home, Sylvester and Weezie. They’re a handful, but I love them both.

At two years old, I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. That being said, I grew up with a number of challenges. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve decided to look back at my experiences with a positive light. Growing up with a disability has taught me to be kind to others, always. You never know where someone has been, and what they are going through.

I’m excited to bring creative, hands-on learning in the classroom. I had a positive experience in school, and I want my future students to have that, too. Practical activities and repetition are how I learn best. Students are more likely to grasp the concepts being taught to them if they have an interest in it. Rather than teaching pen to paper, I want to make sure that I am as invested in my students’ learning as I wish them to be.

“I Believe” Statements

Experimenting with ChatGPT

Generative AI technology has become a huge stressor in the classroom. I hadn’t heard much about AI technology until my high school years. When I was in elementary school, the worst academic fraud that you would hear of would probably be paying someone else to do your homework (don’t get any ideas now). I never had an issue with that sort of thing throughout my academic career due to the fear tactic (and a very big conscience).

We would hear horror stories about students who were caught committing academic fraud (detention, expulsion, mark on your academic record). So I never dared to pull a fast one– a goody-two-shoes through and through, haha.

When I saw that we were going to be discussing AI technology, I knew it was time to rip the band-aid off and dip my toes in the water. Everybody’s been talking about ChatGPT, so I took a look at it. ChatGPT is a virtual chatbox assistant that is focused on language. Read More

Hour of Code

I decided to go with option 2 of the assigned blog posts for this week. In class we discussed coding. Before taking this course, I’m not sure if I’ve had any experience with coding. Also known as scripting or programming, coding is becoming an important skill to have these days. It is simply the method of communicating with a computer— programming languages that give the software instruction to perform a specific function.

A huge amount of the the population are making a living by computer programming on various platforms (iOS and Android, etc).

Outside of the professional world, coding provides children (and/or students) with some very important skills— as well as a way of looking at the world. They can learn problem solving and critical thinking skills, discover future job opportunities, and even broaden their imagination. Read More