Behind the Costume: Who Am I?

My teacher costume looks a lot like my regular clothes. In fact, it's hard for me to take it off. Taking off my teacher costume, or shutting off my teacher brain would strip me of who I am. Sometimes people tell me to take a break from thinking about teaching. I may as well take a break from breathing.

A huge nerd.

My name is Shauna. I love to create safe, inspiring places for kids. They need someone who believes in them. I help them become the people they never knew they could be.

Aside from being heavily into everything child-centered and progressive in education, I'm into acronyms, jokes, rainbows, My husband (Captain Handsome), cats, Rom-Zom-Coms (romantic zombie comedies, obviously), retro future, doodling, NPH, octopuses, binge watching TV shows, making faces, photographing post apocalyptic scenes, travelling, eating small bites of cherry yogurt, my four awesome brothers and funky necklaces.

Some things I'm excited about professionally right now include: maker education, student leadership, mental health, differentiated instruction, educational technology, independent schools, teacher education, collaboration, safe and caring schools, empowerment, informal leadership, No Box Thinking, making international connections, storytelling, blue sky thinking, learning life lessons from Walt Disney (the person, not the brand).

Ask me about any of the happy-making things in the two paragraphs above and you'll see me in my teacher costume in full glory.


The Nitty-Gritty

I was a teacher from birth. I was called the "Earth Mother" of my pre-school class; tape recorded my 6 year old self teaching lessons to a legion of stuffed toys (who all had different voices, by the way); created and marked fake worksheets while attending a no-marks, no-worksheet, no-homework alternative school.

I'm a life long summer camper (started going to Red Pine at age 2), elementary and high school student council executive, Leadership Camper and member of OSSSA and CISV. That stuff is no longer on my resume, but it helped to make me who I am today.

I thought I wanted to be a speech pathologist while in university at Mount Allison studying English Literature and the World Religions. I got to run International Orientation and work in Student Services as the temporary International Student Advisor. I was involved with WUSC and refugee students. I realized that, though teaching felt natural, it wasn't "easy" and it was something I should try. Ten years after graduating from the Ottawa U BEd program, I'm returning to the university as a part-time professor. I run into former students all the time and love sharing how we impacted each others' lives.

I have my specialist in Integrating Information and Communications Technology in the Classroom. I am qualified to teach JK-grade 10 with English as my teachable. I am a workshop junkie, addicted to Twitter and love to push myself and others to try new things in our profession.



Humble Brag Time:

LinkedIn profile

Featured in uOttawa Teacher Education video: Welcome a teacher candidate in your classroom

Finalist for CST Learning Project Elementary Students Connecting with SOLE, 2014

Recipient of EdTechTeam Student Device Grant, 2014 (31 Chromebooks for my class!)

Featured in Kitchissippi Times "Going Beyond the Classroom", 2013

Recipient of Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, 2013

Finalist for EduGala Innovation Award, 2013

Featured in Skype in the Classroom Mini-Documentary, 2013
Skype In The Classroom from Dan Rascal on Vimeo.

Not-So-Humble Brag Time:

NPH and Jim Carrey both recognized me
from Twitter.