COMMITMENT TO ONGOING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
I'm a life-long learner - I'm constantly looking to learn more and reaching out for opportunities. For a full list of my professional development (PD) workshops and certifications, check out my "Experience and Qualifications" section. Below, I would like to highlight some of the PD I have done that I found particularly impactful, from my chosen concentration and alternative practicum to workshops I've participated in.
As part of my commitment to ongoing professional learning, I have plans to continue my professional development. I am currently enrolled in the Special Education, Part I AQ, with plans to continue to take more. Of course, the PD opportunities that I will take in the future will shift in order to best meet the priorities and support student needs of the specific population(s) I am working with.
EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS CONCENTRATION
The central tenet of my educational philosophy is that all learners are supported in my classroom - to help me achieve this to the best of my ability, I elected to complete my Bachelor of Education Concentration (program focus) in the Exceptional Learners strand. In doing so, I took two additional year-long courses on the subject with Dr. Andrea Martin, focusing on using both book and craft knowledge to better support exceptional learners in inclusive classrooms, congregated programs, and pull-out support.
Through this concentration, I have been able to develop a professional learning network of teachers dedicated to supporting all learners as well as develop a deeper understanding of exceptionalities, IEPs, and how to properly accommodate and modify my teaching for the specific students in my class. During my practicum placements, I was able to put this learning to work, supporting my exceptional students. This concentration has provided me with the skills, knowledge, and resources that I need to properly support exceptional learners in my classroom.
To continue this learning, I am currently completing my Special Education, Part I AQ.
ONLINE COURSE MODERATOR FOR STOMP (ALTERNATIVE PRACTICUM)
As part of my exceptional learners concentration, I completed an Alternative Practicum (Alt Prac) with the Queen’s Regional Assessment and Resource Centre (RARC), working as a moderator for their online transition program, STOMP. STOMP is an online course for grade 11 and 12 students with mental health disorders – it helps prepare them for the transition to post-secondary education and the specific challenges they may face. As a moderator, I assessed student work online as they completed online modules and spoke to the students via phone calls and video chats to support them.
Through my Alt Prac, I was able to refine my assessment and feedback skills. As I was marking them online, all feedback had to be written – it really forced me to articulate my feedback carefully and prevented me from relying on the age-old “please see me”. I was also able to get further insight into how to facilitate an online course – through this pandemic and generally in this modern world, online teaching is becoming increasing prevalent and my new comfort with it makes me better prepared for online teaching in the future and more prepared to make online learning more accessible to exceptional learners.
Collaborative Collage Workshop with Nancy Douglas
This was the final collage we completed with Nancy Douglas (©Douglas 2020)
Collaborative Collage Workshop with Nancy Douglas
1924 CHICAGO: ON THE INSIDE
In this hands-on collaborative collage workshop, presented December 2019, in we explored collage as a medium to understand tone and mood of theatre pieces with Nancy Douglas. My goal in attending this workshop was to explore alternate ways to support students in analysis of mood and tone of theatre pieces, as while I had some methods, I felt as though I was insufficiently prepared and wanted to grow my pool of strategies.
In this workshop, we considered the musical Chicago by watching the film edition of the musical (2002, dir. Rob Marshall). Douglas provided us with an overview of the historical period, and provided us with some images and magazines, while we sourced other related images that we wanted to use, to create a collage that evoked the musical. This workshop was intended to demonstrate a method to use visual art in the context of a theatre classroom. First, through the collage, students would be able to, as we did, explore the tone, mood, and visuals of a chosen work. Second, the collage was a collaborative effort, allowing the group to practice that vital theatre skill.
This workshop not only provided me with a specific method to incorporate visual art into theatre, but it also got me thinking about other subjects and art forms that could be integrated into my theatre practice and teaching to support student interest and drive student engagement. These were wonderful ‘bonus lessons’ alongside achieving my goal of finding a new strategy to explore tone and mood in theatre pieces, opening my eyes to the opportunities of inter-disciplinary approaches in drama.
Certificate of Completion
GOOGLE TOOLS IN THE THEATRE ARTS CLASSROOM
In these unprecedented times, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been exploring how to teach a traditional performance-based drama class online, including taking this course through Drama Teacher Academy. While this course was created pre-pandemic, it still granted me some greater insight into how the whole suite of Google tools can be used in drama classrooms. Though I had been previously familiar with the standard set of Google tools, such as Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drive, and Google Classroom, the course shared innovative ways of using some of these, as well as explored the potential ways to incorporate other tools like Google Photos, Google Earth, and Google Sites into drama classrooms to organize student work and help them collaborate with each other.
Through this course, I now feel far more confident incorporating a variety of technical tools in traditional drama classrooms. However, with my newly expanded knowledge of the Google Suite, I also feel better prepared to tackle an online drama course. As theatre is heavily reliant on working together, I was concerned about what that might look like online with the pandemic. However, I believe that the Google Suite could be used quite effectively to build an online drama course that still invites and relies on person-to-person conversation and collaboration. Online drama courses can still ask students to create and perform, and not just through soliloquies! For example, students could collaborate via email and Google Photos to create costume designs for an assigned play or created work. They could also use Google Docs to write a script or create puppets out of items in their home and create a non-conventional puppet show through Google Meet. This course has opened my eyes to the variety of technological tools out there that students could be using to continue to connect even in these unprecedented times.
Image Source: https://news.uoguelph.ca/event/treaties-recognition-week-kairos-blanket-exercise/
KAIROS BLANKET EXERCISE
On four separate occasions over the past four years, I've had the good fortune to complete the KAIROS Blanket Exercise. From the first time I participated in it in 2017, I found a vested interest in Indigenous history, and the desire to both better understand it and teach it. When I was in K-12, I learned very little about Indigenous history, beyond Canada: A People's History and its inaccuracies. Prior to attending university, I had never even heard of residential schools. In my undergraduate degree, I took courses wherever possible that touched on Indigenous history, and have worked with my history curriculum professor, Dr. Heather McGregor, to come to a better understanding of how to teach Indigenous history in engaging, approachable, and respectful ways as a white settler teacher. KAIROS Blanket Exercise marked a turning point for me in my education journey, pointing out what I had missed in my education up until that point. Each subsequent time I completed the exercise I gleaned new information and perspectives, and I hope to be able to bring the KAIROS Blanket Exercise into my school for my students.
For the complete list of my professional development workshops and certifications, please check out my "Experience and Qualifications" section through the top menu or by clicking the button below!