My name is Anika Jungheim, and I am enrolled in the Bachelor of Elementary Education at Thompson Rivers University. I was born in England and moved to Canada with my parents and five younger siblings when I was ten years old. Since then, I have spent most of my time living in Kamloops. I now have two children of my own; one who has graduated high school and is spending a year traveling and working in Australia, and one who is attending high school here in Kamloops.
I began my journey to teaching just over 20 years ago. At the age of 19, and as a young parent, I decided to apply to the Early Childhood Education certificate program at the then, College of the Cariboo. I felt this was the right career choice for me, as it would allow me to be with my daughter while I worked. I graduated a year later and began working at a group daycare center here in Kamloops. Within the next two years, I decided to return to school and complete the Special Needs and Infant Toddler portions of the Early Childhood Education diploma. I did this at the University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. After completion of this program in 2003, I returned to Kamloops, where I started in a managerial position in a large group daycare center. I had a second child in 2005, and I remained in this daycare position until 2013. At this time, the needs of my children were evolving. While working in a daycare environment was an ideal situation when my children were younger, as they grew older and their extracurricular activities became more encompassing, I needed to be available to meet their needs outside of school hours.
At this time, I decided to take the Teachers Aid Diploma program in hopes of working as a CEA for the school district. After completion of the program, I was hired in late 2014 and began my new career with SD73 in January of 2015. In September 2016, I came off the relief list and started a school-wide position at Arthur Hatton Elementary. It is here that I began thinking about furthering my education into teaching. In January 2017, I began to take the required courses I needed to gain admissions into the B.ED program at TRU. I took one course at a time, online, while I continued in my position at Arthur Hatton Elementary. It took me approximately two and a half years to complete the courses I needed, and in the spring of 2019, I received my acceptance letter into the program.
While completing the B.ED program, I am continuing to work as a relief CEA for the school district. The experience I have received in this position has been invaluable in my journey to become a teacher. It has provided me with the opportunity to become comfortable in the school environment, with students of various abilities and backgrounds, with teachers, administrators, community resources, and families. I have learned how to connect with those that need it the most.