I stumbled upon my passion for education in 2009 when I spent a semester in East Africa as part of my B.A. in International Development at McGill University, working alongside professors in the field, while learning about the environment and people of East Africa.
For our research project, we were assigned to groups focusing on one of the Millennium Development Goals – mine was Universal Primary Education. As I spent the next few months researching and learning about primary education in the communities we visited, I felt a passion I had never felt before. Each time I was in a classroom, I felt empowered and knew being in classrooms, advocating for education and teaching students about the world was my passion.
I went on to pursue my Bachelor of Education at Nipissing, and started my teaching career in Bluewater District School Board, where I am now a Vice-Principal.
However, it all started at McGill, and if it wasn't for my experience in East Africa studying Universal Primary Education, I may have never found my passion in teaching. This also laid the foundation for using the UN Global Goals (which once were the Millennium Development Goals) in my teaching starting in 2015. I used the UN Global Goals as a framework for Think Global, Act Local projects, where students had to choose a UN Global Goal and develop an initiative to do something about it in our local community.
This then led to The Changemaker Classroom which is an initiative I started so every teacher can bring the UN Global Goals into their classroom through monthly challenges. We focus on a different UN Global Goal each month, and at the beginning of the month, teachers receive an email with teaching resources, ideas and challenges for students to complete in their schools and community to work towards the UN Global Goal.
I am a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, Royal Canadian Geographical Society Innovation in Teaching Geography Award Recipient and Top 10 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize – and it all started at McGill.
