Friday, 29 May 2015

Well this is the beginning of the thing. I hope it works. For the PIDP 3250 program all students must make a blog with the following items
  •  A brief autobiography
Well this is not too bad, as I am not really a modest guy. I grew up in Vancouver, even though half of my life has been in other parts of the world. I returned recently to raise my family here.

I have been teaching something or other for the last twenty years, ever since I left York University. I have a degree in Biology, so as soon as I finished university in late 1992, I headed to Japan to teach English. Yes I know, it did not seem practical at the time either. However, I had gone through university without taking any summers off in order to graduate in three years, rather than four, so I wanted a vacation. Japan seemed like a good choice, and I could also teach EFL legally, because I had a university degree. Note to anyone thinking of doing this; it might be a good idea to learn a bit more Japanese before you head off to the land of the Children of the Sun. I had only thought about staying six months, but left seven and a half years later. Yes, I speak Japanese, which really impresses some people, even though 123 million other people in the world can also speak it. The trouble with learning Japanese is I always have to order at the sushi restaurant, even though most don't speak Japanese.

Not having learned my lesson about university, I returned to Toronto to take a Post-Graduate in IT Management. I graduated just after 911 in November 2001. You might also remember there was a dot com crash, and the need for IT project managers declined over night, so I returned to Vancouver, since the weather is nicer.

I took a TESOL course and started teaching ESL in Vancouver, which was nice at the time. Not but they don't pay a lot, so I decided to travel again.

I qualified for an ancestral visa to the UK, so I got on a plane for London and spent all my money before I got a job. Note to those doing this; the banking system is different there, and it took me two months to get accepted at a bank to cash my first pay cheque. This is why they have direct deposit. I started off doing government employment training teaching, which seems to have a fair bit of ESOL involved, so I did well. I received an assessor's certificate there, and was also an internal moderator for a work placement program. I transferred to the National Vocational Qualification programs, so by the time I went to my second company, I was promoted to a quality assurance coordinator. In my last position I was given the title of academic manager and put in charge of the post-graduate diploma program for management in the health and social care sector.

Six years later, I returned to North Vancouver with a wife and a child on the way. You might say that year was busy. I found work with the First Nations Technology Council as a Technology Training Specialist. We delivered IT programs to 203 First Nations communities in British Columbia.

Experience is one thing, but I still did not have a instructors diploma. And as I am looking for work again, I thought I would get my PIDP. But if you are reading this, probably you have a similar story.


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