About Me
My Personal Mission Statement
I will always remember where I have been and embrace where I will go through maintaining positive relationships with family and friends. I will choose the ethical way by making a personal commitment to honesty and integrity. I will find peacefulness within myself by looking inward while using my heart to guide my dreams and desires, and my mind to pursue knowledge, creating balance among all of my obligations.
HELLO! BONJOUR!
My name is Janet-Marie Ramsaywak and I am a full-time Elementary Core French Teacher, currently on maternity-leave, pursuing a MEd at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, focusing on Curriculum and Pedagogy with an emphasis on Digital Technologies in Education.
I obtained a Honours Bachelor of Arts in English and French and Bachelor of Education with a specialization at the Intermediate/Senior level at Lakehead University.
I have been working for the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board for five years. I am a Google Certified Educator, Level 1 & 2, as well as a Certified Google Trainer.
I have presented on integrating technology in educational practices at the Ontario Modern Languages Teacher's Association Conference, Thunder Bay Google Summit as well as the KPDSB Summer Institute.
I am most passionate about my job as a full-time mom to Hendricks the Bulldog and Jetson. I love hard and alternative rock, sci-fi movies and a good old-fashioned.
I hope you find this site both useful and inspirational. Enjoy!
Why Did I Start A Wellness Journey?
When I started this journey seven years ago it was not about being depressed or feeling burnt out.
I was still completing my Bachelor of Education and I had yet to even start my teaching career. There was an abundance of information about teacher burnout talking about how teachers were leaving the profession at a profound rate.
My understanding of the importance of happiness in the classroom was largely influenced by Dr. Randy Boyd of Lakehead University. I appreciated the fact that he did not focus on simply cultivating happiness for students but also focused on the importance of cultivating and promoting happiness for yourself. I immediately subscribed to this idea that we can only control 40% of our happiness through intentional activities after he assigned Lyubomirsky’s book as our Course Reading.
I have tried many intentional activities, especially after completing the Person-Activity Fit diagnostic. However, something lacked…
It wasn't until the Fall of 2018, while we're sitting through a staff meeting that I became critical of the way the school board was presenting Mental Health and Well-being resources. Why were we treating mental health and well-being like a topic added to an agenda and checked off once it was complete?
Your mental health and well-being are ongoing, so why isn't the conversation ongoing as well?
This sparked an idea to create a Staff Wellness Group. If you want more information on the group please go to The Staff Wellness tab.