Classroom Queen: Expanding the Realm of Technology

I’m the proud teacher of 19 grade 5 & 6 students in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I’m always looking for opportunities to integrate technology in my classroom. I also am always on the lookout for global collaborative projects for my students to participate in or ideas on which I can create a project.

I’m a graduate of the University of Regina’s Faculty of Education with a Bachelor and a Masters degree.  I’ve taken the course route towards my MED and my classes have focused on technology integration along with early childhood. I hadn’t planned on taking early childhood education classes but was fascinated by the content as well as how applicable what I was learning was to the students that I teach. I’ve taken three grad classes focusing on technology and computers in the classroom. As I’ve taken each class I’ve found that I’ve grown as a teacher and as a colleague. My learning curve continues to move up as I challenge myself to incorporate new ideas in my teaching. I can’t imagine ever feeling satisfied with what I do in the classroom and I thoroughly enjoy teaching in ways that are new to me. I want to challenge myself, challenge my students and challenge the way in which we all learn.

I’m a member of many ning communities and wikis that allow me to learn and share with teachers around the globe.

• Storytelling and Cultures
• The Global Education Collaborative
• TeachConnect
• Flat Classrooms
• Rellco
• Collective Intelligence

Personal Interests & Family:

• I’m a dedicated half marathon runner. Last year, 2009, I ran five half- marathons before I broke one of my toes. I know that sounds like such a little thing but it still hurts. I lead running groups at The Running Room and love nothing better than to run on a weekend morning then go out for coffee.
• I dance twice a week with my daughter who’s 18. We take a Bollywood dance class on Wednesday nights and a combination class on Monday nights. We laugh a lot, sweat and love our jingle scarves that make such lovely sounds when we move
• My family love to vacation and visit Cozumel, Mexico. We’re fortunate to have a home on the island where we can relax and regroup from our busy life in Canada. My husband is an avid fisherman and kiteboarder. I’ve tried kiteboarding but haven’t had a lot of success. I’ll try it again this year. I haven’t spent as much time snorkeling and scuba diving as I could but I think it’s always because I think to myself that I’ll do it on our next visit. I also judge the success of every stay on the island by the amount of books I read. I read 11 books over the Christmas holidays!
• My 20 year old son is an engineering student at the U of R. His days are full of calculus, computer science and science classes.