My passion for learning and inquiry is something I hope is passed along to each of my students over the school year.  My day to day life is wrought with experiences that pique my curiosity, and I find myself researching new things all the time — my knowledge base is growing continuously, and my teaching repertoire perpetually evolving.

Recently I have been looking into ways to connect with learners who may not respond to more “traditional” teaching/learning methods. Drawing on Multiple Intelligence theory, neuroscience techniques (Brain Targeted Teaching by Mariale Hardiman), and research on “Teaching for Understanding” (Making Thinking Visible by R. Richhart, M. Church & Karin Morrison) I am exploring how arts-integrated learning and artistic thinking can enhance learning and social-emotional development for learners of all backgrounds and abilities.

My classroom experience up to this point has exposed me to learners with very diverse needs, and I’m seeing more and more the necessity of differentiating learning and assessment to ensure the success of all students.  Integrating the arts through artistic thinking fosters personal connection to the learning material and encourages creative, divergent thinking, which in turn promotes deeper understanding of content and SEL.

Looking forward, I’m interested in making more explicit connections between arts-integration, inquiry, and First Nations ways of knowing, and bringing a framework that incorporates all of these perspectives into the classroom as a holistic approach to teaching the whole child.