My name is Parminder, aka Pam. I was born into a Punjabi Sikh family in British Hong Kong. I am an aunt to two beautiful nieces, a sister, daughter, granddaughter, niece, friend, immigrant, life-long learner, teacher and an avid student of life. I have travelled to 21 countries on four of the seven continents and as a polyglot, I speak English, Punjabi, Cantonese, Hindi and French at various fluencies and am dabbling in Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Mandarin and Secwepemctsin (Shuswap). 

My journey toward becoming an educator was influenced by my maternal grandmother, my mother and my sister who are, or were, all teachers. My grandmother was a trailblazer who decided to further her passion for learning into a career in teaching in her native India. She did this when women were mostly homemakers and rarely pursued careers. To date, one of her proudest achievements is her career and the independence her work pension allows her until today. There’s more information on her influence in the timeline section of this portfolio.  

My teaching journey, that has spanned twelve years thus far, started off with a TESL course at the tail end of my Physical Geography degree at UBC when I was contemplating career choices and leaving my options open. Teaching jobs were very competitive in BC at the time so it was providence when one of my UBC instructors informed my class about an ESL teaching opportunity in Hong Kong. Having grown up in vibrant Hong Kong with wonderful memories during my childhood, I was eager to explore the city as an adult and visit my old haunts. What were the odds of being handed an opportunity to start my career in the wonderful city with which I was still enamoured? I jumped at the opportunity and was rewarded with nine wonderful years of teaching students English in the cosmopolitan Asian city. An ESL specialist teacher, I taught students from lower elementary to vocational post-secondary. It was a dream start to my career. The opportunity allowed me to make so many wonderful friends in the teaching field from all over the world. I learnt so much from all their journeys and experiences and more than anything, it cemented my belief that teachers do have a special calling. 

However, the political situation in Hong Kong took a nefarious turn when peaceful civil disobedience through silent marches, legal protests and sit-ins by activists were infiltrated by elements of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were stifled, and education soon turned to propaganda with widespread whitewashing of the atrocities committed by the CCP in books by book publishers and self-censorship by teachers not wanting to incur the wrath of the CCP. 

This turn of events made me ever more grateful for my parents’ foresight in choosing Canada as our new home to immigrate to and thankful to Canada for having such a welcoming policy towards dissidents, refugees and other immigrants.  After moving back to BC, I worked as a specialist elementary PE teacher at an independent school and later transitioned to classroom teaching as a Grade 6 homeroom teacher. My experiences here have added more breadth to my teaching, and deepened my appreciation and passion for it. It is a wonderfully unique career where I have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the youth in my care everyday. 

In my spare time, I enjoy playing field hockey, a highlight of which was captaining my team for two years. I also enjoy cycling, tennis and hiking. I like to try different sports when the opportunity arises, the latest being indoor climbing and I am eager to try pickleball which combines three sports that I enjoy— tennis, ping-pong and badminton! I have completed my level 1 sport coaching certificate through the Hong Kong Sports Institute and would love to apply it towards youth sport coaching as I believe there are many mental and physical benefits to inclusive youth sports. 

Going forward, I endeavour to create a learning environment that is inclusive, diverse, and which celebrates the unique backgrounds, experiences, challenges and perspectives that each student brings with them.

My timeline starts off in Punjab, India with my maternal grandmother. I feature the school she taught at when she first started her teaching career. At the time, it was rare for women to have careers so she was a trailblazer in that regard. My mother’s career trajectory started off and continues until today with teaching. She has always championed the profession she chose as a decent and honourable career. Her passion and commitment are unwavering and she has made a palpable difference in the lives of her students. Seeing these impactful differences that my grandmother and mother have made in the lives of their students, attached a noble-ness to the career that I still feel today. I believe that teachers are cut from a different cloth. Despite the odds with cuts to funding, swollen class sizes, unreasonable parental demands, impossible expectations by administration, they continue to champion the learning on behalf of their students. The number of hours that it takes behind-the-scenes to prepare for impactful lessons is often overlooked. The dedication and commitment that teachers show comes from a deeper place where teaching is not merely a career. It has a real and tangible impact that continues to be felt in the students’ lives long after they have graduated and left school.

2. Travels in Egypt - A travel experience that really challenged me and took me completely out of my comfort zone was a trip I took to Egypt with my two sisters. It was a 10-day trip through the Sahara Desert where we were guided by Bedouins as we toured the desert, camping under the stars and eating the local delicacies cooked by our guides. There was no running water, toilets, or privacy for that matter. It was as far removed from what I would consider a holiday yet I had one of the best times of my life. It gave me a whole new appreciation for how in-tuned people were with the land when your survival depended on it. One evening, a light wind blew through the area and we were at the mercy of the elements. There were foxes, scorpions and snakes that lived in those parts and we had to contend with them as there was no door to shut them out. Floating down the Nile on a sailboat will forever be one of the highlights of my travels.

3. Travels in Myanmar - Burma was a magical trip that felt like being transported to a page in a history book. Time seemed to have stood still in the otherworldly landscape. The ancient city of Bagan, a UNESCO heritage site, was breathtaking. From the architecture to the ruins of the temples and pagodas that still stand there today, the raw and unadulterated beauty of the ancient city is a sight to behold. It was truly eye-opening to hear about how this was the centre of civilisation in the region.

   My sister and I took the local train to the hill station town of Kalaw. It was a rickety ride with the train swaying a little too much for our comfort as it skirted the mountain side. We encountered a slight hiccup when a car had fallen onto the railway tracks ahead of us from the road above. It was all hands on deck as the locals pitched in to help right the car and clear the tracks. It was an unforgettable experience.

Photo 2- Place-based learning is a powerful and engaging mode of delivery. Here, the students are at Science World in Vancouver for a visit related to their Science unit on Space.

Photo 3- Hands-on learning is a fun way to engage students in inquiry. Here, they are doing a Makerspace challenge.

Photo 4- Gamification is a fun way to bring concepts to life. Here, intermediate students designed a Math problem-solving game for the primary students to play.

TESL certificate, LLED, UBC - At the tail end of my undergraduate degree, I was considering various career options and teaching was one that kept popping up. I decided to enrol in a TESL certificate program through the UBC Faculty of Education’s Language and Literacy Education Department. I had been tutoring throughout high school and university, and really enjoyed the interactions with the students I tutored. It also came quite naturally to me and the feedback I received from students was overwhelmingly positive. So when an ESL teaching job was advertised through the program, I applied and was successful in the interview process. It did not feel like work to teach ESL as I was so comfortable with it. It also gave me the opportunity to work overseas which I was eager to do. Things were lining up nicely with my life and career goals and I was feeling motivated, driven and purposeful after feeling lost during my sophomore year at university.

Level 1 Sports Coaching Certificate, Hong Kong Sports Institute- I had been playing field hockey socially for several years when I decided to pursue coaching to try my hand as a field hockey coach. I enrolled in the general coaching certificate course offered by the local Sports Institute. It was a comprehensive course where the course material included Motor Control and Performance, Legal Concepts in Sports, Overview of Fitness & Principles of Training, Food, Nutrition and Sports Performance, Introduction to Planning, Biomechanics of Movement, Sports Anatomy, Human Physiology 1, Coaching as a Profession, Coaching Effectiveness, Psychology in Sports Coaching, Predisposing Factors of Injury, Role & Responsibility of the Coach in Doping and Sport, Introduction to Sports for the Mentally Disabled and Introduction to Sports for the Physically Disabled.

2. Championing Change: Conversations with Dr Imogene Lim by TRUFA Human Rights Committee - I attended the three functions put on by the TRUFA Human Rights Committee where Professor Imogene Lim was the invited speaker. The first event ‘From the Trenches: Championing Change’ was about the treatment of the Chinese Canadians by the Canadian government when the Head Tax was imposed. The tax not only applied to new immigrants to Canada but Canadian born Chinese Canadians. The second event was the screening of the film ‘Unarchived by Hayley Gray & Elad Tzadok’. I found particularly intriguing the section on the multicultural community of Paldi on Vancouver Island. The third event was ‘Let’s Talk Unconscious Bias & Consequences’.

3. Knowledge Makers 2024 (UNFAO) - I attended the Knowledge Makers 2024 conference at TRU whose theme was ‘Coyote Brings the Food’. This was a joint conference put on by TRU and the UNFAO. I particularly enjoyed the presentations by the authors of the Special Edition Volume 8 Knowledge Makers Journal. The theme was ‘Climate Change, Food Security, and Indigenous Women’. The focus was on Indigenous women addressing environmental challenges and food insecurity using traditional knowledge, ways of living, and land stewardship. I found particularly engaging the presentation by the Maori speaker on how she was digitizing the land claims that the ancestors of the people of Waikato had signed with the New Zealand government but were being hoodwinked out of.