For the Love of Literacy

I have been nurturing my dual passions for education and child psychology since attending Carleton University in 2003.  I discovered soon after graduating that I had a natural talent for teaching children along a wide spectrum of development and abilities.  I pursued Montessori teacher training and applied the theories and methodology to create a nurturing and stimulating learning environment during my first teaching job. 

After spending 4 years teaching in a Montessori school, I moved on to an elementary school that focused on accommodating students with a variety of different learning needs.  I had to be patient, observant, flexible and adaptable in order to provide my students the opportunities they needed in order to get an education.  I taught students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, ASD, dyscalculia, giftedness, and oppositional-defiant disorder to name just a few.  The joy it brought me to watch these students, who often felt written-off and hopeless, gain confidence and make progress they never knew they could let me know I was pursuing the right career.

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While teaching, I attended as many workshops and training courses as I could to enhance my professional development.  I received training in the Wilson Reading Program, an Orton-Gillingham approach to help students with reading and spelling difficulties and disorders.  I applied the training to my students at school and took on other literacy-deficient students in my off hours.  Literacy is such an essential skill, and seeing students with considerable difficulties begin to find ways to access the written word with newfound confidence became my passion-within-my passion.