Giulia Lato: My Teaching Portfolio
Education in Everything
About Me
"I didn't go into education for the income; I went in for the outcome."
Hi! My name is Giulia Lato, and I’m an aspiring educator studying at McGill University. I’m in my third year in the Bachelor of Education program. However, I’m in a specialized program called Pédagogie de l’Immersion Française, which is certifying me to teach in French immersion classrooms. I’m also currently working as a substitute for the Commission Scolaire de Montréal, which has given me the chance to spend more time in classroom with young children, which is quite exciting!
When I’m not studying, I’m either at my part-time job or I’m spending an unusual amount of time with my cat, Ginger. I have a real passion for animal activism, which is why I love to spend with time with all animals, including my cat! Sometimes, I think about how I will incorporate my love of animals into my teaching practices because I hope to instill this passion for animals rights in my students when I have my own classroom.
​Education
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Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School
2000 to 2006 -
Vincent Massey Collegiate High School
2006 to 2011 -
Dawson College
2011 to 2013 -
McGill University
2013 to 2017 (expected date)
My Education and Volunteer Experiences
Apart from animal activism, education is very important to me, which is why I've always devoted a lot of time and effort to my education. In elementary school, I was enrolled in a French Immersion Program that really helped me perfect my French. I am very thankful for this because I am now perfectly bilingual, which is a great skill to have for any job market, especially education. I enjoy learning new languages, which enouraged me to take Italian classes as well. In high school at Vincent Massey Collegiate, I was placed in advanced English and French classes, which kept me challenged and interested. VMC is also where I started to volunteer with children in daycare centers and where I continued to tutor younger students, which I had started to do at the end of elementary school at Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Once in Cegep at Dawson College in the Child Studies program, I continued to find ways to tutor and to volunteer in daycares and after school centers. Tutoring adults in Cegep was quite different, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. At McGill University, I had the opportunity to interact with children in different ways, through my field experiences and classroom volunteering. I also kept busy by volunteering within my own Faculty, in Career Fairs, Speed Networking events and Open Houses. In order to gain real teaching experience, I also work as a substitute teacher at the Commission Scolaire de Montreal. This employment has allowed me to test out various teaching techniques with different grades and cycles.
Volunteering
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Elementary school Tutor Club
2006 -
Daycare helper
2009-2010 -
High school Tutor
2010-2011 -
Cegep Tutor
2012-2013 -
After-school Program at St-Columba House
2013 -
Classroom Volunteer
2014 -
Community Center Share the Warmth
2015 -
Various McGill Education Events
2013-2015
Volunteering in Action!
Community Center
McGill Pancake Breakfast
After-school Program
Classroom Volunteer
Important Documents
Travel
I also love to travel, and have had the privilege of going to France, Italy, and several cities in the United States. Although it may not seem like my travelling is related to my teaching, I really think it is. When I look back on my trips, I sometimes surprise myself with what I’m capable of doing when I set my mind to it. What I’m trying to say is that we shouldn’t underestimate ourselves because we’re all capable of a lot of great things when we put our mind to it! For example, after coming back from my European trip, it took me a while to realize that I had actually planned a successful trip with two of my friends and managed to have a really great time in unknown and foreign places!
On the same note, I’ve surprised myself recently with the way I’ve changed my life around and dedicated a lot of time and effort to my fitness. About a year ago, I joined a gym and this has completely changed my life. Fitness has now become a passion of mine because of all the benefits that exercise has for the human body and mind. My personal experiences with fitness and a healthy lifestyle has really made it clear to me how important it is for children to be aware of healthy choices and for them to have opportunities to be active in the school environment. I didn’t think much of gym class before, but I won’t ever underestimate it’s importance again because I’ve seen what an unhealthier lifestyle can do.
Art
On top of that, I’ve come to recognize the importance of art in the classroom because of an art class that I took in my final year in high school. This class scared me a little bit at the beginning because I didn’t think I had many artistic skills, but I discovered how much I loved art and loved doing it. It was one of the best educational experiences I’ve had as a learner because I got to learn so much about myself as well as the process of doing art. I loved sitting down at the end of the day and drawing. I could do it for hours without realizing that the time had gone by. This is why I’m going to try and make art an integral part of my classroom because I’ve seen first-hand how it can be an amazing experience as a learner. One of my goals as a future teacher is to experience art with my students and I hope it will be therapeutic for them, as it was for me. Creating these drawings made me proud of myself, which I hope is a feeling that I can help my students experience. I also liked the way my art teacher taught us because she led us through the steps of creating certain drawings, such as a portrait drawing. In the gallery below, there are drawings of different parts of the face, which might look odd, but really helped me when it came time to draw the entire face. This process taught me to be patient and to take things one step at a time, which are great values for students to develop as well.
