CAROL ANN C.

Carol Ann is an Ontario Certified Teacher. She has focused her more than 25 year career on two distinct curriculum areas: Special Education (Grades 6,7,8, all subjects) and English as a Second Language (Grade 7 through University). She has also been a School Librarian for grades K-5. Teaching in these areas has taken Carol Ann to many parts of the world. Her classroom in the Bahamas sometimes had goats walking through. In Greece, the siesta meant she started work at 4:00 pm and finished at 10. In New Zealand, kea birds pulled the rubber windshield wipers off her car in school parking lots. Along the way, she earned a Masters of Education degree (in Toronto) lectured at several universities (Monash and University of Sydney in Australia). She earned her PhD. while traveling regularly between Rhodes and the University of Toronto. Her students were her very best teachers. Everywhere she went students, despite differences in culture and language, responded positively to to her belief in them as capable learners.

JULIE G.

Julie is a writing and literature professor at a Toronto college with a Master of Arts in English from McGill University. After completing her B.Ed at Queen’s University in 2005, Julie began her teaching career as a high school English teacher. Following her desire to travel and live abroad, Julie spent a year teaching ESL at an international English school in Dublin, Ireland. While living in Dublin, Julie travelled throughout Europe and visited sites full of literary history, such as the homes of James Joyce in Dublin, Victor Hugo in Paris, and John Keats in Rome. These experiences convinced her that she was not finished being a student, so upon returning to Canada, Julie decided to pursue her MA and wrote her thesis on James Joyce’s short story collection, Dubliners. For the past 10 years, Julie has been helping college students improve their writing, analytical, and academic skills.

ABBI I.

Abbi has a Bachelor from the University of Toronto, majoring in Cognitive Science, with minors in English and Philosophy. She then went on to complete her Bachelors in Education at Queens University. Since graduating, Abbi has been part of the Toronto District School Board, where she has worked in a variety of K-6 classrooms for the past 4 years. Specialising in Educational Technology, Abbi’s teaching centres around special education, and cross-curricular connections. Currently, Abbi is a Grade 2/3 teacher.

VINUJA S.

Vinuja graduated from the University of Toronto with a Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Sociology, and History. She is a graduate of OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education where she completed a Master of Teaching degree with a focus on the Primary/Junior grades. Since the start of her post-secondary journey, Vinuja has taught, tutored, mentored, and led a range of age groups towards accomplishing their academic goals. After completing her first position as a Summer Program Director for young children, she knew teaching was her calling. Since then, Vinuja has worked in education based roles including volunteer teaching in a downtown public school, tutoring students with literacy needs, programming academic activities and lessons for a daily after school program, and others which shaped her love for education. Most recently, Vinuja was a student teacher with the Toronto District School Board. She taught in an online Kindergarten class, creating differentiated lesson plans to accommodate learners and providing culturally responsive/relevant content. Through these meaningful experiences, Vinuja developed a stronger skill set to work with students and their families. She believes that engaging students through their identity, creativity, and curiosity helps them gain confidence and succeed in future endeavours.

MARK G.

Mark is a Primary/Junior Ontario Certified Teacher from Toronto. He graduated from the University of Guelph with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English, and he completed his Bachelors of Education at Queen’s University. Mark has continued his professional development in teaching by taking additional qualification courses in Primary/Junior Math and Reading, as well as Intermediate English. These studies have helped Mark expand his teaching strategies to help students build on their mathematical thinking, reading, writing, and vocabulary. Mark also has experience as an ESL teacher through TDSB’s Teaching English as a Second Language program. Reading and writing has been a lifelong passion for Mark, and he is always excited to share that passion with his students.

Mark’s passion for teaching started with soccer coaching. This job showed Mark how satisfying teaching can be, in making lessons fun and engaging, as well as watching students progress with each session.​ ​This passion carried over to his practicum experience teaching in Toronto as well as his time as a supply Educational Assistant in Ottawa. Working as a teacher, especially as an Educational Assistant, gave Mark an insight into how impactful a 1 on 1 interaction can be. Mark firmly believes in the importance of getting to know his students on an individual basis. Mark uses students’ individual interests to attach meaning to their learning, and caters the lesson to fit the individual needs of that student. Mark finds his inspiration in teaching by helping students forge their own path as lifelong learners.

Outside of the classroom, Mark enjoys being active and continues his in-home workouts though he misses intramural sports very much. He is an enthusiastic supporter of all the Toronto sports teams. Mark is looking forward to working with his students at Prep Academy.

NIOUSHA D.

Niousha started her post-secondary studies in Mechanical Engineering. Later due to her enthusiasm for teaching, she switched programs and graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Science with honors in Mathematics for Education. She completed her Bachelor of Education in the Intermediate/Senior grade levels at Nipissing University. She completed her teaching internship in the Embank Junior Academy, where she taught in a split Grade 7 and 8 classroom with a few students working at grade level 4 and 6 for math. During this time, she voluntarily stayed in the classroom during all lunch and snack breaks to give personalized one-on-one support and help students who had fallen behind in math catch up. While completing her undergraduate degree, Niousha was given an opportunity to tutor a group of grade 8 gifted students to prepare for the Math Kangaroo Competition. Knowing that the students sacrificed their weekends to be in her classes, she filled the class time with all kinds of fun games and activities such as pretend auctions and dice rolling competitions for learning probability. Before Niousha started tutoring, she worked as a Mad Scientist for a year and taught tons of safe science activities including explosions, launching a rocket, and making slime. Through her experiences, Niousha has developed a deep passion for working with children and youth and guiding them to reach their full potential while having fun. Alongside having years of teaching experience at primary and intermediate levels, Niousha also tutored students at university and high school levels where she ran personalized interactive lessons. Niousha believes that education should adapt to students’ readiness and interests in order to enhance their curiosity and confidence and that it is the teacher’s job to learn about their students, make these adaptations and engage them in an effective learning environment. In her spare time, Niousha enjoys painting, sculpting, and resin art, as well as spending time with her friends and family.

ENRIQUE R.

My name is Enrique Ramirez, I am a French as a Second Language (FSL) and Math teacher from Toronto, Ontario.

 

My Bachelor of Education was conferred as part of the first Consecutive cohort of French teachers trained at the Glendon campus of York University. I also earned my undergraduate double major in French Studies and Math (along with the Trilingual Certificate of Excellence in English, French and Spanish) at the same campus. 

 

I started my Masters of Education (with a focus on math teaching) at the end of August 2020.

 

From October 2019 to June 2020, I completed a work year abroad in southwest France as the official English language assistant and Spanish tutor. My duties principally entailed leading classroom activities and reinforcing the teacher’s lessons, in both the elementary and secondary levels, at “Lycée Jean Taris” in the Bordeaux Academy school board.

 

I look forward to bringing my strengthened French skills to the classroom when I teach FSL (and math in French) along with elementary and junior school subjects in an english or francophone classroom environment.

JORDAN B.

SHAHRAM A.

Shahram has been quite the globetrotter from an early age. He was born in Tehran, Iran; raised in Copenhagen, Denmark; socialized and educated in Toronto, Canada, which he now refers to as home. To date, Shahram has lived in 6 different countries (Denmark, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) and traveled to 62 others.  

Shahram received an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Sociology and also a Bachelor of Education from the University of Windsor. Additionally, he completed his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Management with a certificate in International Baccalaureate (IB) Administration from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Prior to making the transition back to Canada, Shahram taught internationally at prestigious private schools for nearly a decade. These schools followed the Ontario, British Columbia and IB curricula and framework. 

As​ an extremely passionate educator, ​Shahram’s teaching experiences have helped him refine a personal teaching philosophy and pedagogy in education that combines the importance of inclusion within the classroom, ongoing feedback, respect, and creating meaningful student-centered lessons. Shahram’s defining characteristic as an educator revolves around the joy, pleasure and passion that ​he receives from teaching beyond the required curriculum. He branches off into various learning atmospheres by becoming actively involved in the development of the ​​whole child.​​ The ‘aha!’ moment in students and seeing everything begin to click for them provides him with an immense pleasure and continuously drives his passion and pedagogy as an educator. It is important to nurture a child’s creative abilities to develop a sense of themselves, understand others and the world around them, and navigate information so that they can confidently take risks and solve problems. ​Reflection​ and ​introspection​ are fundamental components of Shahram’s pedagogy and also his own personal growth and commitment to lifelong learning. 

ALEXANDER M.

Alex has been teaching and tutoring for over ten years in the Toronto area. He has developed extensive experience in a large range of High School math courses (including Advanced Functions and Calculus & Vectors) and University math courses (such as first Calculus courses from the University of Toronto and York University). During this time, Alex completed his undergraduate work in Astrophysics at U of T, and a Master’s degree in Astrophysics from McMaster University; these degrees are in addition to a degree in Engineering from McGill