Pedagogy - Teaching in Action
My teaching practice is grounded in creating a safe and supportive learning environment in order to cultivate a thriving community of learners. This is developed through establishing group norms in a participatory manner, building positive relationships, and fostering social emotional learning (SEL). I am also very interested in meaningful learning, thus making education accessible, relevant and positive experience for all involved. For this reason I promote inquiry-based learning where students have options to collaborate, innovate, and learn from trial and error. As well, I work hard at faciliting an interactive and engaging multi-modal learning experience that caters to the needs of diverse students. As a professional biologist I have a special interest in environmental education and experiential learning. For the past decade, my focus as an educator has been on strengthening links with food security through school food gardens, healthy eating programs, and connections with Indigenous food system knowledge. Overall, I wish students to enjoy learning while practicing their own mastery in the process.
Cultivating a Community of Learners
Going beyond classroom management through setting up participatory group norms, building relationships, fostering social emotional learning, and providing opportunities for restorative justice. Read more ...
Lesson Planning
involves being prepared as a teacher to meet the needs of your students. At the beginning of a unit I like connect with the BIG Picture while going over specific lesson objectives. Each class begins with a class agenda, and wraps up with a lesson summary activity. For examples of assessment tools - Read more ...
Meaningful Learning
involves being able to connect new knowledge with existing knowledge. Strategies include those that make the relevant learning outcomes explicit, help organize information, encourage social learning, promote higher-order thinking processes and provide opportunities to reflect on learning. Read more ...
Assessment 'for, as and of' learning.
I encourage a student-centred approach of assessment for learning, where students are involved in developing assessment criteria and practicing assessment. Assessment as learning is a reflective process that provides opportunities for learning growth. Assessment of learning can be a final step where achievement of learning outcomes can be evaluated. For examples of assessment tools - Read more ...