About

So this here is my post that is dedicated to who I am as an individual and an educator. It is a part of my professional portfolio that is an important part of my blog and an important piece of my ECMP 355 grade! I will try my best to contain the basics about myself in this one post. 


My name is Riley Engele. I am 21 years old, entering my fourth year of Arts Education at the University of Regina. I have lived in Regina, SK my whole life, I went to elementary school at Ethel Milliken and I was a third generation Sheldon-Williams student. From an early age, I had a passion for music and theatre. I began participating in musicals in the first grade, and have been acting, singing and dancing ever since. Sheldon-Williams seemed like the obvious choice to me because of their musicals. I performed in musicals all four years of high school, Seussical, Anything Goes, High School Musical, and I played the role of the "Wicked Witch of the West" in The Wizard of Oz. I was on the honor role throughout my high school career, and I was influenced by some amazing educators while I attended high school.

I have known that I wanted to be a teacher since I was six. On the worksheets done in the early grades, "teacher" was always what I put when asked the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I received early conditional acceptance to the University of Regina's Education program and I have loved the program and all that it has to offer. 

The Arts Education is slightly different than the other Education programs at the University of Regina, very focused on the different strands of the arts: music, dance, drama, literature and visual arts. I was able to find my niche in each of these strands, I have sung in choirs throughout my childhood and have been playing guitar for three years, I am also in a band, called The Seven Seas; I have participated in dance shows at my high school and know ballroom dance; like I've said, I have performed in a variety of musicals, as well as one-act plays, I also have a passion for reading and analyzing scripts; I have been an avid reader all of my life and love to write (and blog!); and I found that I do have something to offer in the visual arts as well, I have experience with photography, painting, as well as costume renderings for theatre. 

In past summers, I have worked as a counselor at Lumsden Beach Camp, a place where I went as a child and then returned as a counselor. I have also been a volunteer choreographer for a dance show at Sheldon called "Poco Loco," as well as a section leader for Sheldon's vocal jazz group. I participated in the SRC at Sheldon for two years, as a drama representative and as secretary. 

 Recording at SoulSound Studios in Regina, SK, May 2011

My interests seem to fit right into the different strands in Arts Education:
  • Playing guitar
  • Singing
  • Reading
  • Performing (music and theatre)
  • Watching live theatre
  • Being with family and friends
This summer I have the privilege of working as a Therapeutic Summer Program Worker at Regina's Autism Resource Centre. I am very excited to begin working there. I am looking forward to learning how to integrate the arts into programs such as the summer program at the ARC. I hope to be a sponge this summer, and soak up all of the knowledge that I can, and learn to work with young people of many different abilities.

 Walking along the Atlantic coast in P.E.I. - June 2011