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Above is me when I was two! (Slightly giving it away from my peace sign)

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Hi everyone! My name is Liz, and I am so excited to meet you all this semester! I was born in Shandong, a Northern province of China, and raised in Shanghai. My family moved to Canada in fifth grade, and I have lived in Toronto since then. I grew up with my elder sister and two adorable nephews, who have greatly inspired me to become a teacher.

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A beautiful night view of the CN Tower taken on the UofT campus.

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I am currently in my fourth year, finishing up my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, with a double major in statistics and psychology and a minor in education. I received a conditional offer earlier this summer for the Combined Degree Program with the Master of Teaching, where I would take two graduate courses during my last (and current) year of study for a smoother transition, which is also what brought me here into this course.

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My friends and I wrapping up a dance cover.

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Dancing has always been a great passion of mine. I first learned to dance when I was five and have continued dancing until now, changing from Chinese traditional dance to hip-hop and K-pop. Since high school, I started grouping with friends to perform and publish multiple dance covers, with some videos holding thousands of views and winning small but meaningful awards.

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I have two adorable fluffy children, with the hamster above named Shushu, who is just over one year old, and Peanut below, who is almost 3. Shushu is currently living with me in an apartment, who we only see during nighttime and loves eating sunflower seeds. Peanut is back home with my sister and probably has become the queen of my sister's ten cats. They are absolutely the cutest things in the world and have also greatly inspired me in my day-to-day and teaching life.

Feel free to share photos or stories of your lovely pets with me too! 😘

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Since childhood, my dream job has always been to become a teacher, and I have utilized every opportunity possible to lead my lessons or help friends learn, even in grade five. Recognizing my passion and love for teaching, I came to UofT initially for the mathematics specialist program in teaching to work towards becoming a math teacher. Yet, I later discovered a deep interest in psychology and data sciences, which I adjusted and started counselling and teaching psychology, maths, and data management.

In many of my teaching experiences, my spring and summer at Branksome Hall Asia, an international school in South Korea, was definitely the most memorable and meaningful for me. As one of my first experiences teaching aboard formally, we spent time living on campus with the girls, teaching and seeing how they grow quickly, going on field trips across the country, learning about their dreams, and becoming friends with many students and teachers. Their smiles and gifts for me near the end of the school year indeed confirmed my love and a sense of purpose in teaching, bringing me here today to learn, practice, and improve my skills in becoming a supportive and loved teacher.

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A screenshot of my daily iPad screen time back in September 2021.

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As the pandemic hit without any alerts, teachers and students were both unprepared for the sudden change to online teaching/learning. Graduations were cancelled, everyone was isolated, and lectures were disorientated. With my 12th grade being fully online, many courses could not be delivered, and my high school graduation was also cancelled.

Later, as my undergraduate studies started, the transitions between secondary and post-secondary studies became even harder. Many usual support services from the university were unavailable online, assessments were much harder to counter the online format, and the average attitude and desire for studying among students were the lowest of all times. Like the screenshot above, I spent 7 to 10 hours daily studying for my courses, hoping for good course outcomes, but received the lowest grades in my four years of study. Not knowing how to study efficiently and choose the most suitable and interested courses was a pain, taking almost another full year of studies to adjust truthfully.

With previous experiences in online teaching and learning during the pandemic, our education systems have been re-examined and redesigned, which hopefully will help to produce higher quality courses and teaching/learning experiences for individuals of various needs and specialties, just like how our course CTL1608H1 is like :)