Charlotte Cotnam-Isea is an elementary school teacher at Highview Public School in Pembroke. When she was in elementary school, Cotnam-Isea was a student where she now teaches.
She’s the oldest of four children and says due to this she was always working with kids.
Cotnam-Isea taught some sports while she was in highschool and both her mother and grandmother were educators. After attending university to be a teacher and realizing there was no jobs available she got discouraged. Cotnam-Isea went to South America with a goal of learning Spanish and ended up moved to Brazil for a number of years. She says moving back to the Valley was a huge adjustment, especially for her husband who had to learn a new language, but says they feel comfortable here.
The Pembroke teacher fell into social work after moving back to Canada. She worked with youth at the Columbus House and also taught spanish to adults at Algonquin College. At 40-years-old, Cotnam-Isea went back to school to become a teacher.
She says she loves the variety and how every day, every year and every student is different. She also says while you have a curriculum you need to teach, it’s up to you to decide how to teach it and reach the students.
Cotnam-Isea says some of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic included learning new technology, not being able to do as much as they have in previous years and sitting all day. She says teachers are used to moving around the classroom and being engaged so that was a big adjustment.
Since Cotnam-Isea teaches special education for half of her day, she says those students were allowed to return to in-person learning sooner because of challenges with online learning.
Cotnam-Isea says if you have a kind heart and enjoy working with people you will probably like teaching. The elementary school teacher says those considering a similar career need to be prepared to put in extra time including working in the evenings and on weekends.
Listen to the full interview with Charlotte Cotnam-Isea here: