Carol and Ryan

Floating through education? Me, too! My name is Carol Fisher. I am heading into my eleventh year of teaching for the 2024 – 2025 school year. My experience has been varied and vast. I began my voyage into education when I was a teenager by interning at the Swift Current Public Library to run programming for children and adults. I ran everything from the Summer Reading Program to K-pop Dancing for Middle School to Tech for Seniors. My interest in education began manifesting at that point. Still, I was genuinely inspired by my mom, Mrs. Fisher, who has been an Educational Assistant for several years. After my library internship, I was hired to continue programming for another six years before I ran off to Regna to attend the University of Regina (U of R) for a Bachelor of Education with a major in English and a minor in Theatre.

I remember debating intensely about my minor between Theatre and History. I ended up making the wrong choice. I have taught history more times in my teaching career than I ever did in Theatre. During my university career, I began learning my second language, 한국어, thanks to the syllabus requiring me to learn a new language. I was also able to attend a student exchange program with 울산대학교 through the U of R as well. I was smitten with the country and knew Korea was my next stop for my journey. After graduating from the U of R in 2015, I worked as a substitute teacher for the Chinook School Division, where my mom works, of course! It was short-lived, though, as soon I was zipping off to South Korea to work as an ELL teacher at the public school 동산여자중학교. As an ELL teacher, I also volunteered to teach basic Korean to the new foreigners to my city, 순천. I loved teaching others and grew my Korean level tenfold through the process. Before I left Korea, I took the TOPIK (Korean proficiency exam) and passed with one mistake!

I still dream of taking the higher levels, but that dream is on the back burner. After three years, I decided to move back into teaching literature instead of the English language. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a job in Korea. Still, I was able to find a starter job in China, working together with an old colleague from Korea. I worked at a school called Vermont International Academy (VIA), which no longer exists. It was a small American program inside a much larger Canadian school. It was my first time exploring Common Core. I taught English to grades 8 – 9 and American Literature to grade 10. During my three years at the school, I also taught Korean, Drama, and World History (thus my renewed passion for history). During my third and final year at VIA, I met my now husband and his daughter. With changes in my life, I needed to move to a larger school. My partner and I moved to Wuxi, a slightly larger city, where I began working at Boston International School (BIS) and fumbling through IB teaching. It was a hardship I had never experienced before in my career. Still, it gave me a love like I’d never experienced before. Teaching DP is still a growing love I have been fostering. It was at this school where I began my own education again through the U of R with my master’s degree in Education. I taught English A for grades 7 and 9 – 12 at BIS for two years before I needed to make a change once again for my daughter’s schooling. Currently, I have just finished my first year at Nanjing International School (NIS), the oldest international school in all of China. I am gearing up to finish my master’s degree in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, hopefully, next summer, where I can keep growing as a teacher and helping my learners.