Jackie Michaels began her career by working her way through a Bachelor of Science degree while being the IT manager for a small business. With her degree in Environmental Science, she went on to work in oil and gas reclamation. After her second child was born, she started a day home and worked with toddler and preschoolers for several years before going back to university for her Bachelor of Education in Secondary Education – After Degree. After graduation, she worked with a variety of students in many different environments developing a specialty in Special Education. She has been working as a Home Education Manager with ursa since 2019.

Jackie’s two children have experienced a variety of homeschooling and public-school environments. Her younger child has been homeschooled for the last 7 years while her older child has done both public school and homeschool by choice. Jackie very strongly believes that there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to education and that meeting the needs of the whole family is the best way to begin the journey to success. The needs of the student and the specifics of their situation should determine the best path forward. Sometimes this requires course adjustments quite unexpectedly. In her family’s own journey, Jackie’s children have needed to begin homeschooling midyear twice. She will always encourage you to figure out what your (parents and student) goals are and then help you decide how you want to accomplish them.

Beyond homeschooling, Jackie has many other passions. She works with a not-for-profit that provides language instruction and settlement assistance for newcomers to Canada. She loves working with motivated people who have chosen to make Canada their new home. She also enjoys playing video games in her free time, including on her nephew’s 10+ year server. She also dabbles in different forms of art from painting to knitting to sewing. And, in her very small amount of free time, she is improving her gluten free baking skills.