About krista
Background |
Growing up, Krista had a very supportive childhood and education, which inspired her to go into education. She wanted to be the kind of teacher who was encouraging and understanding, while remaining firm and consistent, like the teachers she admired.
In 2009, Krista met her husband Paul. In 2011, she graduated from the University of Winnipeg and accepted a position with Lakeshore School Division at Ashern Central School teaching grades 10-12 English, grade 9 Social Studies, and grade 9 Computer Technology. On July 12, 2014, Paul and Krista were married in Winnipeg and celebrated on their acreage in Teulon, complete with a bouncy castle (for both the kids and adults), and a slurpee machine. On their honeymoon, they traveled to the East coast and hiked along the Cabot Trail. In the summer of 2015, the Belangers headed West and fell in love with the mountains in Alberta. After discussing life in Alberta with one of Krista's friends living there, they decided to look into making the move West. In August 2016, they took the plunge. Krista worked at SML Christian Academy teaching grade 5 for three years. In the mean time, Paul received an employment opportunity in Victoria, eventually moving him to Victoria in September 2018, and Krista upon completing the 2018-19 school year. Krista worked as a Learning Commons teacher at Prospect Lake Elementary (a K-5 school) during the 2019-2020 school year, gave birth to her son in 2020, and worked as an inclusion support teacher from 2021-2023 at Royal Oak Middle School. |
Work life |
For the first two years working at Ashern Central School, Krista lived in the community and spent many hours at school developing her lessons. It was normal for her to get to work at 7 AM and leave around 9 PM, only breaking for lunches, breaks, bus duty, and dinner. In those first two years, she developed a wide repertoire of material, spanning a number of subject areas including English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Computers. Krista still spends a significant amount of her spare time doing work, but in a different way.
After moving to Teulon, Krista's commute time increased to three hours of driving a day, promoting her to become creative with her time on the road. Krista set up her students with Google accounts, having them write essays and assignments in Google Drive and in Google Classroom. She would sync her devices at the end of each school day and link them to the bluetooth in her car. As she drove, she would have her device read her students' work out loud and she would comment on their work by speaking. Once she was home, she would sync her comments and her students would have feedback on their work when they got home. To read more about Krista's creativity, please select Professional Highlights on the left menu. Upon moving to Alberta, and teaching grade 5, Krista's repertoire of teaching material and skills expanded to all core and extra areas of the curriculum. Krista's teaching in grade 5 was self-contained, with the exception of her Physical Education classes where she observed her prep periods and took on a technology role. In 2018, Krista decided to go back to school, attending UBC courses online and received her Teacher Librarianship Diploma in July 2019. In 2019, Krista began working in the Saanich School District at Prospect Lake Elementary as a Learning Commons teacher, serving students and teachers of grades K-5. Meanwhile, she began taking courses at the University of Victoria to earn her Masters degree in Special Education. She graduated from the program in the summer of 2021 and spent the next 2 years working as an Inclusion Support teacher at Royal Oak Middle School |