My Work and Experience

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I've been sharing my passion for math for over a decade now. My journey began in Macedonia, where I taught public school math and earned my Bachelor's degree in Education in Mathematics. After getting my state teaching license, I mainly taught in middle school.

When I moved to Vancouver, Canada, with my husband, I realized that I was starting from scratch. I invested my time in volunteering since pursuing further education wasn't immediately accessible. It's been a unique journey, exploring new avenues and making the most of the educational volunteering opportunities here in Vancouver.

I started volunteering at Science World, and since I love birthday parties and parties in general 😃 I have volunteered there for more than 100 hours. 

After one of  the Birthday Parties at the SW, 

wearing the ''insect-eyes'' glasses 

During the same period, I was volunteering at the Burnaby Family Life at the Occasional Child Care Program. I was thinking about maybe switching my career to early childhood education, so I volunteered there for 10 months. Honestly, I found myself missing my calculations, numbers, and patterns – even those tricky word problems. That's when I realized that pre-K just wasn't for me.

Also, I worked for two years at an after-school program in Vancouver. During this time, I made significant progress, like improving my English vocabulary for mathematics terminology and learning about the Canadian math curriculum.

In the wake of the pandemic, I transitioned to online tutoring, ultimately leading me to fully commit to starting my tutoring business. Over the past couple of years, I've dedicated myself to the Outschool education platform, where I've had the privilege of guiding nearly 800 students. It brings me great pride to share that I've garnered over 350 five-star reviews, a testament to the quality and impact of my online tutoring services. I'm excited about the journey ahead in providing exceptional education experiences for my students.

 In-And-Above Math

I participated in the Macedonian Congress of Mathematicians with a poster presentation in 2016, discussing the role of teacher experience in grading tests. 

Proudly showing my poster

In 2017, I conducted research on comparing students' grades in math and physics in the first term of Grades 8 and 9 and presented my findings to my faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

In 2021, I presented a popular math topic, Egyptian Fractions, at the 5th seminar "Mathematics and Its Applications, at my Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics- Skopje, and here's the fun part—I did it online; all the way from Canada! I have improved my Egypt Math Fluency to that level that I could lecture my colleagues on that, and yes, there is such a thing as Egyptian Math Fluency 😀

    Continuing Education

My formal Canadian education journey began with taking English 11, English 12, and many other courses. Next, I enrolled in the Train the Trainer Program. It has been the best decision ever! I learned so many things about creating courses, policies, methods, approaches, trends, and theories. It was so eye-opening. As a public school teacher, I was used to pre-made curricula provided by education officials, but here I learned that I can create a course; I learned how to create a course, and on top of that, I learned how to professionally execute the course.
And that's not even close to why this was the best decision. It was because I found colleagues and teachers with the same passion for teaching, who were invested in delivering the best lessons, and for whom this was the most important job in the world. Our task is to hand over our knowledge. How can it not be? 
As a newcomer, there was a period when I felt like I had lost my role in my society, but now I know where I belong. I belong to a group of lifelong learners who are passionate about sharing their knowledge with the rest of the world. 

Ok, ok, so let's not get too emotional 😳 hehe

So, I completed the Train the Trainer program with 3.83 and decided that there was no doubt that I should enroll in the PIDP program.

Since the beginning of 2024, I've been officially an aspiring adult education instructor. Yay!!

Empowering Success: My Proudest Moment

One of my most significant achievements was pairing an A-student with a solid F-student for a STEM sciences project at the city's fair. When I told her my suggestion, she asked, "Ms. Mariana, do you know what you are talking about? " Initially, she was hesitant to participate; it wasn't an easy sell, but after some time, she agreed. Now, I can be pushy sometimes, I know that, but oh well, I also believe I have a talent for recognizing the potential in people 😁

Together, they created a wonderful project on 'Cylinders in Our Everyday Life', and they both presented it to fellow students and teachers from other schools.

The outcome? They won the very first prize and even received a medal! I couldn't have been prouder, but more importantly, THEY were proud of themselves! I remember waiting for them for hours 😆 while they were taking selfies with their medals: medal upfront, medal on chest, medal in hand, then both medals... hehe

 

My hobbies and passions

Although math is my main focus, I still have some spare time for DIY craft projects and decorations around my house.

Other than DYI, I love playing classical guitar and volunteering at the venues that organize events for classical music performances😊 

Thank you for reading this section.

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