My name is Alana Lemke and I am technically a fourth year Bachelor of Arts student at Thompson Rivers University. I’m originally from Chase, BC but I have lived in Kamloops (with a small break in the middle) for the last ten years. I work as a scheduler/dispatcher for a restoration company in town. In my spare time, I enjoy camping, watching scary movies, riding roller coasters and taking road trips.

I actually began my journey towards earning my degree in 2007. For four years, I worked towards my degree but did not quite complete it before choosing to move to Burnaby and enroll in BCIT to earn a diploma in broadcast journalism and TV production. When I returned to Kamloops a few years later, I began working on completing my degree via distance education, along with a few evening classes on campus. History 3510: The History of Childhood and Education is the very last class I need to take in order to graduate. It seems like a fitting last hoorah – learning about the education system in Canada as I wrap up my own formal post-secondary education.

My interest in this class also comes from my lifelong love of learning and school. From a young age, I enjoyed being in school and doing well in school. I was always eager to play school at home, and I would beg my mom to create worksheets for me to complete at home. When my brother was old enough, I would create worksheets for him to complete (though he was a lot less enthusiastic about this than I was!). I never suffered from “test anxiety” and would use any excuse to create flash cards to study. Although completing a degree and diploma in the last decade has dampened my enthusiasm slightly, I still enjoy school overall, and dream about becoming a teacher one day.

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