1. Tell us about yourself: Christina Gauley, M.Ed Leadership & Administration, class of 2017.
  2. What are you doing now?: I am currently a Fine Arts Specialist teaching at South Sahali Elementary in Kamloops, BC. I teach all students K-7.  I am moving into a new role as District Fine Arts Coordinator, beginning in September 2017.
  3. Why did you choose a program in the School of Education at Gonzaga? I originally hesitated to choose a program that I thought was gearing me into Administration, since that was not my intended path. I chose to apply to Gonzaga because I had heard from other teachers in Kamloops, including Music Specialists, who found the program to be extremely beneficial regardless of how one intends to pursue leadership.  I love that Gonzaga manages to create a cohort-based classroom for distance education; it is a marvelous way to provide the support and community needed for taking on this kind of degree.
  4. What influenced you the most during your time at Gonzaga? My thesis advisor, Dan, is one of the most outstanding teachers I have ever met. I was constantly amazed at his quiet ability to get us to do what seemed originally like an insurmountable task.  I feel so grateful for his faith in me that I could find the inner strength to take on the challenges I’ve faced in the last few years, and in his support of all of us in our cohort.  Also, the discussion and perspective I have gained from working so closely with 12 other educators, and from tackling difficult subjects honestly, without holding back, has allowed me unexpected growth. I feel so lucky to have gained the insight and expertise from the rest of my cohort.
  5. What was your greatest lesson learned at Gonzaga? In my undergrad studies, I was a very successful crammer. I procrastinated projects, essays, and studying for exams, and then locked myself in the library until I had produced something I deemed worthy of handing in.  I was frightened at the start of this program, because I knew that I couldn’t do that.  I work full-time, and I am a single mother of three young children – there could be no all-nighters.  There was no way I could lock myself in the library; assignment deadlines would overlap with report cards, kids would get the flu, life would be difficult, and I would still have to make it work.  In one of our first courses, one of our professors said something that I took as gospel and used unfailingly throughout the program:  “Write one sentence every day.”  So I did.  Usually the one sentence turned into more, but on the toughest days, one sentence was all I could handle.  But I didn’t miss a day, and I didn’t miss a deadline.  My children still felt loved, and I managed to earn my masters degree by following that simple guideline.  So my most valuable lesson is that it turns out you can actually climb a mountain one step at a time.  You literally just have to keep walking, and it actually gets done.   It is such a liberating truth to learn.
  6. What is the most rewarding aspect of working in your field? Most challenging? The most rewarding aspect is to see joy and pride on the faces of children who have succeeded in creating something that they didn’t think they could do. Teaching music and performing arts, I encounter a lot of kids who think that they just ‘aren’t musical,’ and I love taking that challenge on to find out what they actually love about music, and hook them into loving more.  The most challenging thing is living and working in a culture that undervalues the arts.  Many school boards and governments pay lip service to appreciating the arts but when it comes down to it, our North American culture sees the arts as a delightful extra, a piece of dessert but not a meal in itself.  Arts advocates link musical study to improved literacy skills in an attempt to ‘legitimize’ studies in the arts, but in doing so we contribute to the problem: do you see reading teachers convincing parents of the importance of literacy so that it improves their piano skills?  Of course not.  I don’t mean to belittle the importance of reading, so much as point out that the study of the arts is important because music, drama, dance, and art are part of what it means to be human.
  7. What critical issues do you see that need to be addressed in your field? Part of what I am excited about in my new position next year as District Fine Arts Coordinator is to work with general classroom teachers in infusing their classrooms with music, drama, dance, and art. I am hopeful that as more general teachers incorporate arts studies into their classrooms, our culture can begin to see the way the arts influence everything that we do.  I am also excited to work with specialist teachers in helping them become stronger advocates for arts education, and help them inspire colleagues to collaborate and weave arts into other areas, rather than quarantining them to the theatre, dance studio and music room.
  8. What advice do you have for future education professionals? Find what you love about your job; what you value the most. Do the soul-searching required to know the deep answer to that question, because once you know what you really care about, decisions become so much easier.  Every choice can be boiled down to those core values, and once it’s all aligned, it’s so much easier to see the path ahead. It is totally hard work to figure it out, and it may get kind of messy. But it is completely worth it. Know what you love, and make it happen.