top of page

Professional and Personal Achievements

Student Achievement Officer

Ontario Ministry of Education

I have been able to reach out (virtually) to the following schools to provide: a review of EQAO data, offer a Staff Meeting presentation, workshop or book talk, review of improvement plan or acted as a sounding board for future planning: Fr. Daniel Zanon School, St. Basil, St. Charles Garnier, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Timothy, St. Martha and Mary, St. Peter and Paul.

​

Working with DPCDSB consultant to co-create practical math strategies for teachers to help them with implementation of the Fundamentals of Math

​

Working on a 4 session SAO Capacity Building series to help support SAO work with Secondary Schools.

YCDSB - Student Success Specialist

In two years, I have, with an incredible team of educators been able to successfully support and implement the following projects:

SHSM/COOP/Experiential Learning

  • 7 new SHSM programs

  • ICE training for staff

  • ICE certification for students

  • created the YCDSB CLA for our programs

  • created the COOP ePortfolio for our schools

  • 12 Community Connected Experiential Learning projects spanning a variety of areas of interests helping to engage community partners 

  • supported connection of Dual Credits to SHSM programs

​Education and Career/Life Planning

  • the Individual Pathways Plan (ePortfolio) in all 15 secondary schools

  • reboot the Individual Pathways Plan (ePortfolio) in all 82 elementary schools 

​Technology Enabled Learning/21C

  • helping to build a makerspace at St. Robert Catholic High School

  • have supported the creation of 6 innovative spaces in 15 of our secondary schools

  • supported Splice Week at St. Jerome and encouraged spread of this initiative in other elementary schools

Student Success

  • review with all stakeholders the Student Success Intervention Strategy model in order to update our processes

  • re-imagined Focus on Youth program to better support at risk youth (ages 15 to 21)

  • created a new protocol re: 12 - 12+ re-engagement

  • Supported expansion of Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program to include more students

  • began the authorization process for a new IB programme at Holy Cross Catholic Academy

Indigenous Education

  • co-created and oversaw the FNMI Board Action Plan

  • oversaw the training of over 300 teachers in Indigenous Cultural Competencies Training​

  • Blanket training for 15 (train the trainer)

  • supported Community Speaks events

  • New online self-Id process for Indigenous students

  • supported FNMI inspired projects both at the board and the school level

  • supported implementation of NBE grade 11 courses in all 15 secondary schools (helped to build resources)

Summer Programming

  • expanded Summer eLearn options and built the program from 6 sections to 34 sections with close to 1000 students enrolled and earning credits

  • new Summer Credit Recovery blended learning model to help recover close to 500 credits for students

  • CODE Summer Learning: Sirius Stars - re-imagined and updated summer learning programme for students in grade 4, 5 and 6 to include robotics and coding - launched a new site in Keswick to bring the total number of programs to 3

  • Design Thinking grade 8 to grade 9 course offered at St. Augustine who partnered with York University and Newmakit Makerspace

  • Kick Start Summer Program - literacy, numeracy and phys. ed grade 8 to grade 9 course offered at St. Maximilian Kolbe

A 7 Year Journey as an Administrator at Father Michael McGivney C.A.

Being keenly aware, as a school leader, that schools are for all students, I have worked hard at FMM in particular, to ensure that we have world class educational experiences and opportunities for all students.  It is for this reason that I have overseen the implementation and development of the Specialist High Skills Major program at my school.  We started off with Arts in Culture, followed by Health and Wellness and this year we implemented the board’s first SHSM in Non-profit.  

 

I have also worked very hard with staff and students to make FMM a tech-enabled learning environment.  Not only is the school now WIFI invasive, but I ensured that access to tech is not an issue by making chromebooks and iPads available to students through the library, and installed 5 commercial grade collaborative workstations to support inquiry learning.  To ensure that the technology is not just an add-on, I organized our PD Days around how to infuse technology into the classroom with the focus being on how technology can support the inquiry process.  

 

In addition, to building a team of teachers who deliver workshops (teachers teaching teachers weekly on Wednesdays after school and on PD Days), but I built a student tech team whose mandate is to act as an advisory group, as a support for teachers struggling with tech and to run workshops to improve student comfort with the use of technology and online tools (students teaching students).

TELL Conference: Summers of 2015 and 2016

Over the last couple of summers, I have had the opportunity to present to administrators from around the province at the Technology Enabled Learning Conference.  Not only has it been a great opportunity to work with colleagues, but it has been a tremendous opportunity for learning in a variety of areas.  It has also given me a provincial perspective of what is happening in 21st Century Learning.

A Couple of Video Tutorials I put together...

I have never put a video tutorial together before so working on these was definitely a learning experience.  I put the Cross Panel Site together using a google app, Screencastify.  Truthfully, my intention was do to a google hangout with the curriculum team as I was away on training, but when the internet proved unreliable, I decided my best bet was to use Screencastify to do my presentation "at a distance."

The second video tutorial, is meant to support staff who will be using Google hangouts to have subject council meetings.

Webinar Presentations from 2015 - 2016 - CPCO and TELL Project 

These are presentations that I put together with two wonderful colleagues.  Over the course of the year, not only did we work to support efforts on behalf of the TELL (Technology Enable Learning) project, but we got to work with the Catholic Principal's Association.  Never done a webinar before, so the learning curve was steep and very exciting.

​

For CPCO:

 

For adfo, CPCO and OPC:

CPCO: Professional Development for PQP

Webmaster and designer of the connect2innovate website, intended to support the learning for PQP candidates regarding technology enabled learning.

CPCO: 10 Day Challenge

Co-constructed with a team of 5, and uploaded the first set of Challenges PQP candidates were expected to complete as part of their course requirements.

CPCO: Connected Leadership Modules

Co-constructed and uploaded the next iteration of the Technology Enabled Learning tasks to the connect2innovate website. The purpose of the tasks is to help candidates learn what it is to be a technology enabled administrator.

TELL Mentor: introduce and support PQP candidates with the Connected Leadership Modules.

Co-Presenter (CPCO): 4 webinars ranging in a variety of topics

CPCO Workshop presenter: TELL Summer Institutes,

Co-Author: with Brian Coulson:

Effective Communication and Parent Engagement in a Digital World, originally published in Principal Connections, Winter 2017, Volume 21, Issue 2

IB Educator's Network

June 2016, I was honoured to be selected to be one of a group of 30 educators trained to be able to deliver IB workshops and/or to be members of IB authorization teams.  Doubly honoured when I realized when I realized the calibre of my colleagues and the fact that we were selected from candidates across the Americas.  This is the video I had to put together for IB as part of the interview process.

Contributions to ONTedleaders, Learning Community Blog

I have never really blogged before.  In fact, never really thought anyone would be interested in what I had to say about anything, but here they are.  First one was a great opportunity as I have never co-written anything before, so it was a great chance to work with an awesome colleague on an interesting topic.  The other two blogs were inspired by things that were happening to me at the time they were written, so I like to think they have an urgency and passion that only happens when you are working through a challenge.

My Promotion to Sandan (Third Degree Black Belt) after 10 Years of Training

Getting my sandan (third degree) black belt in Karate has been a 10 year journey for me.  It is hard to express the satisfaction I felt after this grading.  Over the last year, I have had to work through an injury, a lengthy recovery, and a lot of disappointment along the way.  It is said, to be build something new, you have to tear down something old.  Well, I can tell you that that is exactly what happened to me as the months and weeks and days drew closer to my extensive evaluation and finally my graduation December 2016. Thanks to everyone who literally carried me through.  I almost quit, but I didn't.

bottom of page