About Miriam
Like you, I have experience at FACE.
I started at FACE when I was six years old, and graduated at sixteen.
That's a long time to get to know the program here, and I
was always grateful to be at FACE, and didn't want to be anywhere else.
Music was my strength, playing clarinet, bass clarinet, and
finally, bassoon. However, singing soprano was where I found my
home and especially wonderful for me was singing with the FACE Treble
choir from 1886 to
1996, having returned to it after graduation. I have been lucky
enough to be
taught by many of FACE's best teachers, including its founders, Phil
Beaugniet, David Paterson, and Iwan Edwards. I still sing with
Iwan, in fact, in the St. Lawrence Choir, which doubles as the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
Being in the Choir and pursuing other singing interests in addition to
teaching English and Drama means I too have a full schedule of
things going on, and that's the way I like it, having grown up that way
at FACE.
At FACE, I excelled in most subjects, winning the Couture prize for
singing, and the Francais Langue Seconde prize. My CEGEP
background is in Creative Arts at Marianopolis, where I studied
Religion, Philosophy (for which I won an award), Cinema, and Art
History. My Cinema studies encouraged me to pursue and earn an
Bachelor's Degree in Cultural Studies with Honours, which led me to
work in Television and Video. Unsure of my path, I did office
work as a day job for a while, and started to build a singing career in
Celtic music, hosting a radio show. Finally, while rehearsing
Mozart's Requiem with Iwan for FACE's 25th anniversary I was inspired to
become a teacher so that I might one day work with FACE students.
I volunteered with the kindergarten class, thanks to Louise Postill (my
first Choir teacher), and when I went to visit Jim Stiller, my beloved
Math and Science teacher from Elementary years, I was delighted to
discover he was now teaching English and Drama at the secondary level,
and he graciously let me volunteer with him and I continued to work
with him until I earned my Education degree, doing my final field
experience of two months full-time teaching by teaching his course load.
As it turned out, he needed a substitute for the week following,
and my career with the EMSB took off from there.
I was hired that summer to start a full-time teaching post in
September at a small alternative high school, Options II, where I
taught English and French at the grade 10 level. Three years
later I have many fond memories of our small, closely-knit community,
and lots of love and good wishes for my colleagues and former students.
It is with great anticipation that I start this school year at FACE,
which feels so much like home to me, and always has. The fact
that I will be teaching not only English, which is my strength, but
Theatre, which is my passion, excites and humbles me. I look
forward to working with all my students and colleagues, some of whom
are already like family to me, and have already shown their great support
for my presence and my projects.
My mandate at FACE is to foster a love of learning that will last a
lifetime. I will make learning accessible to all, with strategies and
assignments that will help strengthen comprehension, and I will teach
strategies for building useful habits and skills such as writing and performing. I will give each student
opportunities to employ their creative force. I will be learning
along with you and continue to enjoy learning with no end in sight.
I have found that teaching something is the best way to learn it, so I
encourage you as young people to do some teaching of your own, as there
are ample opportunities for such interactions at FACE, whether with
younger students or among peers. There is so much to know, so
let's enjoy this adventure together!
Have a wonderful year, and best of luck and habit- and skill-development to you in all of your classes,
Your Teacher,
Miriam
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