A Perfect Career
This episode features Charolette Player and her meaningful and rewarding career as an educator. Her positions include elementary school teacher and principal at Mother Teresa, renamed St. Teresa of Calcutta, situated in inner Edmonton. Her administrative roles with the Edmonton Catholic School Board consisted of Language Arts consultant and Staffing Manager. She has been an active member of the Big Brothers and Sisters program and is now an author of children's books. Her current release is “Martha Cream Cheese – A very special day!”
Charolette has a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta. In this interview, we cover her education at this institution and what led her to pursue a career in this field. She describes the courses and her first teaching experiences. She illustrates how she evolved as a teacher, exchanging her nervousness for excitement, knowing the influence she had on young minds.
We cover her decision to move on and pursue other challenges in this profession as a Language Arts Consultant. We address what this position entails, including responsibilities, duties and, more importantly, how she grew professionally and personally. The conversation segues into an overview of curriculum design. It is a general overview of how and why learning or study resources are developed.
With Charolette’s ambition for continued growth, we cover the next phase of her career as principal at Mother Teresa and St. Teresa of Calcutta in inner-city Edmonton. She describes her roles as an administrator but, more importantly, as a leader in the school and the surrounding community. We cover the various programs she initiated, including “The Paired Reading Program” and her involvement with Big Brothers and Sisters in this endeavor.
Her desire to further develop her career with her next move into the Staffing Manager role is discussed. She covers what this position encompassed, and her innovation to ensure good hires are placed. We discuss her decision to step down, leave a rewarding career, and enter retirement, and what that was like.
In retirement, Charolette discovered and pursued her passion for books and writing. We delve into her creativity, experiences, and passion, and unravel how her book “Martha Cream Cheese” came to be. She talks about all the steps in this process, including working with her publisher, “HummingByrd House”.
This interview will interest anyone who may want to pursue a career in education. Listeners who have a career in this field and are considering advancement will be interested, as Charolette is an example and has sound advice. Parents will be intrigued, as there are many fruitful discussions on what they can do to assist in a child's education. Authors and would-be writers will find the session informative: the process of becoming a writer, getting a book published, and the benefits of a publisher are discussed. Audience members considering retirement or already retired can find this conversation beneficial, as Charolette is an example of how someone can still grow in this phase of life. It is about finding our passion and purpose and being willing to pursue that endeavour. It is not easy, but that is how we all can grow, and that is what having a perfect career is all about.
