My pronouns are she / her. I grew up on the lands of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in a small northern town in Manitoba called The Pas. I moved to Vancouver Island in 2007 and now live, work, play, teach, and learn on the ancestral and unceeded lands of The Coast Salish people in the Cowichan Valley. I’ve been teaching English studies, Creative Writing, Communications, Composition, New Media Studies and Yearbook to grades 10-12 for 17 years. As an educator, I believe it is important to find and create opportunities and experiences for young people to strengthen and express their voices through authentic venues, like Victorious Voices SLAM poetry.

I am an avid reader and have a passion for creative writing. Feel free to check out my bookshelf on Goodreads or the current e-literature I’ve developed on itch.io. I also enjoy yoga, hiking, cycling, kick-boxing, calligraphy, paper art, painting, and playing video & board games in my spare time. I have a soft spot for YA fiction, sweet popcorn, and reality TV (from Ink Masters to Survivor to RuPaul’s Drag Race).

Questions or Comments? I’d love to hear from you:

• Email me through our course email: 2022newmedia11@gmail.com
• Join my open google meet room which will be open twice a week:
  • Mondays 10:00 – 11:00 am
  • Thursdays 2:00 – 3:00 pm

I believe that play is at the heart of learning.

I’ve been playing with blended learning and a “paperless” classroom for the past few years, and am interested in the impact digital environments have on learning and teaching. My goal as an educator is to establish a safe culture of learning and thinking in which youth can play, explore, take risks, develop their sense of self and community, and discover what they can do (in face-to-face as well as in online, distanced, contexts).

“Computer-based tools encourage spontaneous student collaboration… joint problem solving and shared learning.”

Chickering & Ehrmann (1996)

I want to examine ways in which teachers can create purposeful opportunities, in both blended and distanced settings, for youth to engage meaningfully with each other. By building a repertoire of strategies and applications to keep discourse student-driven, reflection-oriented, and open format, I endeavour to give learners the autonomous space to think, reflect, organize, and connect.

Teaching & Learning Theory that drives my Pedagogy

References

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm