After School Teacher/Certified Assessor
for Oxford Learning Byron
I like taking the scenic route in life.
Here's a bit about what drives me in my work.
I'm from a small town in Southeast Texas. Not content with remaining in the same area, I wanted to move outside of my comfort zone.
It just so happened that I met someone who lived 1,400 miles and an international border away from me. We fell in love and decided that we should make a life together in Canada.
So I moved beyond the borders and now I am living in Southwestern Ontario. I love taking on new hobbies and learning things as I go!
As far as my work experience goes. Much of my prior experience consists of meeting children's needs in a care-giving or educational capacity. However, my passion lies in testing and measurement of individual abilities in adults and children.
While I am extremely interested in testing and measurement, I am interested in providing children and families with accurate information. More importantly,
my focus is to enthusiastically highlight individual strengths. I meet everyone where they are at emotionally and educationally and provide them with the best information possible.
I am driven to help children reach their full potential by providing the tools that work best for them. I carry that same passion when working with adults.
I am currently transitioning into the field of Psychometry. On top of my work as an after school teacher, I am working as a Certified Assessor for Oxford Learning in Byron. I am also a freelance Psychovocational Assessor/Psychometrist looking for work. I love the field of Psychology and I thoroughly enjoy providing individuals with information about themselves.
My goal is to provide people with the understanding of their strengths.
While I am new to the field of Psychometry, I do have a bit of testing experience with individuals across age ranges and abilities.
In 2017 I returned to university and completed the Honors Specialization in Psychology program. Much of what I learned during this time informed my subsequent work. I also completed the course, Collaborative Research in Application of Psychological Science. Here is a bit more about my work history and experience in the program and course.
I am currently continuing my love of working with children and youths in an educational setting. I conduct small group instruction for up to three students with varying educational needs and subjects. I also administer cognitive and educational assessments for new students and select the appropriate learning plan for their needs.
I deeply love working with people to help them understand more about themselvesd. In this position I honed my interviewing abilities. My work here consisted of administering psycho-vocational and educational testing to individuals who were previously in a serious car accident. I also wrote lengthy and in-depth reports for insurance companies.
After three and a half years as Lead Instructor/Assistant Centre Director, I was promoted to Centre Directore of Mathnasium London North. I managed the learning plans and family experience of around 70 students (both in-centre and online). I also managed young and enthusiastic staff. My tenure as Centre Director occurred during a time of multiple lockdowns and government restrictions due to the Coronavirus. It was a definite challenge to work around all the fast-paced changes while providing superior service! I most certainly learned a lot about my abilities in the process.
Not completely satisfied with my Four Year B.A. in Pscyhology, I decided to re-enroll as a student in the Honors Psychology Program. In 2017 I graduated from King's University College at Western University's Honors Specialization Program in Psychology with distinction.
When enrolled in Collaborative Research in Application of Psychological Science, I worked with a group to identify the problem of math anxiety in young students and help develop a way to intervene on the negative effects of math anxiety. MAILL is a guidebook and workshop designed to assist educators in identifying math anxious learners and offer strategies on how to engage these learners in math. The goal of MAILL is to assist teachers in reducing math anxiety for students as young as Grade 1.
My Honors Specialization Thesis in Psychology, "Do We Know What We Know? Investigating the Validity of Number Representation Indices", focused the debate within Numerical Cognition about whether or not the Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Number Representation Systems are related. My research investigated the ways in which we measure Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Magnitude Representation Systems were related.
In 2017 I wrote an OpEd about persons who are found Not Criminally Responsible due to Mental Defect (NCR-MD). My goal was to educate people on the realities that these types of offenders face and how we should have a bit more understanding beyond the shock of the headlines.
In 2012 I graduated from King's University College at Western University's four year Psychology program with a minor in Criminology.
During my time in university, I worked in multiple Psychology labs and conducted research. I worked with Psychology professors at Western University and King's University College at Western University.
Assisted primary researcher with longitudinal data collection of child participants in a large scale numerical cognition research study.
Informed parents of child participants about their participation in the study.
Maintained identical settings across young child participants.
Conducted data analysis on current and previous datasets.
Entered sensitive data into SPSS.
Assisted researchers with longitudinal data collection of child participants in a large scale child personality research study.
Conducted parent and child informed consent and assent sessions before task participation.
Ensured task environment was uniform across participants visits.
I had the opportunity to take several interesting courses that still serve me well in my work.
Have any questions about my work? Please feel free to contact me.