No one can ever know what the future holds and while some people like this fact, others like to know what has the greatest possibility of occurring so that they are prepared. I think that I am someone who finds herself in the middle of the two extremes. Although it would be nice to have a heads up with some aspects of life, knowing everything would make it very boring. 

As a teacher I know that things are constantly changing. When asked what my plan and goals for my career are, my usual response is “right now I am obtaining my masters degree while teaching in a DL setting which gives me the ability to stay home with my daughter. With all the government politics surrounding education
and teachers, I do not think I will be making any changes in the foreseeable future but I am tempted to re-evaluate when my own children are all old enough to go to school.”

Having a husband that was homeschooled until grade 11 and then attended the local Christian school for grade 12 and me having attended public school all the way through, it makes for some interesting discussions about our thoughts for our own children’s education. I feel as a parent my decision might be made a little easier with the fact that I am also a teacher and know (hopefully) more than other parents (non-teachers). With all the changes that are happening in the public school systems, my hope is to one day enter but if there is a lot of turmoil then I am also happy staying with my position teaching DL. 

More and more technology is coming into the public schools anyways so who knows, in 20 years there may not be much of a difference at all anymore?

My full name is Breanne Laurel Quist. I am happily married to my husband Nick (married Sept. 6, 2009) and we have a daughter - Aliyah Laurel (born Sept. 15, 2011) - and we are also 6 weeks away from welcoming baby #2 into the world. Aliyah and I have the same middle name, as does my mom, it was something I wanted to pass down. With Nick's family the second born of the second born gets to have two middle names so when we have our next child, he or she will be the fourth generation of this tradition.

 The picture that I have included is a picture from Aliyah's first birthday party. It is very rare that we are all in a picture together, ususally I am trying to hid behind the camera instead of being in front of it but I am glad we took these.  We also took pictures of Aliyah with all of her grandparents and great grandparents; She was very lucky to be born with all 8 great grandparents still alive and well but unfortunatly my grandpa passed away when Aliyah was 7 months old.

  I currently live in Nanaimo and I am teaching all subjects in grade 8 and 9 through Anchor Academy. I love my job because not only am I able to teach and do so while staying at home with our daughter, it is also a Christian school and as a Christian (since I was 5) this is a great fit for me!

 In my spare time my husband and I host a lot of games nights (mostly because we are the only people who have kids that we play games with) and we cannot wait for Aliyah to be old enough to play games with - right now playing usually involves forts, duplo, play-doh and dolls. We also like to watch movies and the Big Bang Theory (the only show Nick will watch with me). We also take a lot of walks, mostly around our neighbourhood but also mini hikes in Nanaimo and Ladysmith. I am also currently persuing my Masters of Education at Vancouver Island University.

The pictures below are:
1. My mom, Aliyah, me and my grandma (my mom's mom)
2. Aliyah with all of her grandparents, greatgrandparents, aunts, uncles, Nick and myself (missing one set of aunts and uncles and her pregnant in the picture aunt now has a twin boy and girl)
3. A picture of my grandma and grandpa before my grandpa got sick (he passed away April 1, 2012). Growing up I spent a lot of time going to visit them whenever I had the chance and I still visit my grandma whenever I am in Ladysmith. 
4. An ultrasound picture of baby #2
5. A picture of Aliyah and I on one of our many walks (this one is at the Nanaimo waterfront)

Today I watched two videos, one on YouTube and one TED talk about information overload and technology. One left me with a lot to think about and the other left me with a question that I am now mulling over and would like to share (at the end of this post). Today we have technology at our fingertips pretty much everywhere we go. With desktops and home phones moving towards laptops and smart phones and the introduction of wi-fi that is widely spreading to pretty much everywhere you are never far from a huge bank of  information. 

With all of the information we receive through various outlets it is not hard to believe that at one time or another we will have an overwhelming sense of too much!  In the “Information Overload and Technology” video 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy456TR7hvs) it is stated that the amount of information we receive in one day is equivalent to 201 single spaced pages and if we only read all of that information then we will retain only 10%. The first time I used Twitter I felt this way, I felt like there was a lot of links, ‘chat’ and thoughts thrown in my direction and it was becoming too much and I was not following anything very well.  Since learning a little bit more and working through it I have been able to take advantage of the hashtag options and search for my ‘information’that way and now things seem to make a lot more sense as when searching a hashtag all posts seem to be a lot more related.  JP Rangaswami suggests that “there is no information overload, just filter
failure”and now having figured out my early frustrations with twitter I could not agree more!

In the TED talk “Information is food”, JP Rangaswami asks a question that I would also like to pose: If you viewed all the information you take in like you view all the food you take in, what would you do differently?