Interactive Webinar Series
Educators in BC are invited to a webinar series exploring the engagement of middle years learners in multi-age and multi-grade classrooms.
Our multi-part webinar series is led by Dr. Leyton Schnellert and Tammy Renyard, featuring special guests every session.
- Tuesday, October 17 — Brittani Hislop, Lynda Lee, Joanne Calder
- Thursday, Nov 23 — Shelley Moore, Belinda Chi, Bryan Gidinski, Marna Macmillan, Kiran Abraham
- Tuesday, Jan 30 — Angela Stott, Jennifer Eddie, Rebecca Labonville
- Tuesday, Apr 23 — Nikki Lineham, Kendra Jacobs
The four webinars will be recorded
Leyton Schnellert, PhD
Leyton is an associate professor in UBC’s Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy and Eleanor Rix Professor in Rural Teacher Education. He focuses on how teachers and teaching and learners and learning can mindfully embrace student diversity and inclusive education. Dr. Schnellert is the Pedagogy and Participation research cluster lead in the UBC Institute for Community Engaged Research and co-chair of BC’s Rural Education Advisory Committee. He has been a middle- and secondary-school classroom teacher and a learning-resource teacher for grades K–12. His books, films, and research articles are widely referenced locally, nationally, and globally.
For more information about Leyton visit: leytonschnellert.com or on twitter as @LeytonSchnell
Tammy Renyard, District Principal SD79
Tammy Renyard is a District Principal in the Cowichan Valley School District. Tammy was seconded to the Ministry of Education prior to this role to support the implementation of the re-designed curriculum focusing on professional learning opportunities for the province. She is passionate about culturally responsive instructional design and assessment to support deep learning for all learners. Literacy has always been both a passion and a teaching focus. Tammy has led professional development and classroom-based learning rounds for middle and secondary educators in BC, Alberta, the YK and NT. Tammy also works as a mentor-coach with Vancouver Island University’s Master of Education in Educational Leadership.
Session Recordings
Session 1:
Session 2:
Session 3:
Session 4:
Special Guests
Shelley Moore
Originally from Edmonton, and now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, SHELLEY MOORE is a highly sought-after teacher, researcher, speaker and storyteller and has worked with school districts and community organizations throughout both Canada and the United States. Shelley’s presentations are constructed based on contexts of schools and communities and integrate theory and effective practices of inclusion, special education, curriculum and teacher professional development. Her first book entitled, “One Without the Other” was released in July 2016 to follow up her TEDx talk. Shelley completed an undergraduate degree in Special Education at the University of Alberta, her masters at Simon Fraser University, and completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia.
For more information about Shelley visit: blogsomemoore.com or on Twitter as @tweetsomemoore.
Brittani Hislop
Brittani Hislop and Lynda Lee are multi-grade intermediate elementary school teachers in the Richmond School District, situated on the Sturgeon Banks estuary. We are passionate about playing with place-based education, fostering inclusive practices, collaboration, and integrated curriculum.
Lynda Lee
Brittani Hislop and Lynda Lee are multi-grade intermediate elementary school teachers in the Richmond School District, situated on the Sturgeon Banks estuary. We are passionate about playing with place-based education, fostering inclusive practices, collaboration, and integrated curriculum.
Joanne Calder
Joanne Calder is a grade 6 & 7 teacher with the Delta School District and has been teaching for over 25 years. She is enthusiastic about teaching critical thinking and decision making skills and on taking student learning outdoors. Her website is www.joannecalder.ca and she can be found on Tiktok @middleschoolminute.
Belinda Chi
Belinda Chi is a Program Consultant-Learning Lead with the Burnaby School District, with a focus on middle years literacy and Universal Design for Learning. She is currently a third year PhD student in the Faculty of Education: Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and she is passionate about critical literacy, social justice and inclusion.
Bryan Gidinski
Bryan Gidinski (he/him, www.lostboysconsulting.ca) is an intermediate teacher and consultant with over 25 years of teaching experience. He has a passion for writing and creates rich writing experiences for students, so that they develop comfort and become experimental with language and composition, and he is an advocate for ensuring that marginalized students see themselves reflected in curriculum.
Marna Macmillan
Marna Macmillan taught elementary and middle years students for many years and then worked as a teacher coordinator, with a focus in the areas of Social Emotional Learning, Middle Years and Literacy. She has worked alongside teachers and administrators to support and embed competency- based curriculum, literacy and assessment practices and social and emotional learning into teaching and learning. She deeply believes in the power of story, relationships, and building collaborative school and classroom cultures that foster connection, belonging and agency.
Kiran Abraham
Kiran Abraham is a Program Consultant-Learning Lead with Burnaby Schools whose portfolio areas include ELL and Literacy. She is passionate about empowering teachers to create inclusive learning environments for multilingual students in ways that honour their home languages, cultures and lived experiences.
Angela Stott
Angela Stott is the District Principal of Pedagogy in Gold Trail. Connecting people and the threads of ideas between them is a skill she continues to develop as she connects people to practices that strengthen pedagogy in schools and across districts.
Jennifer Eddie
Jen Eddie is a middle years teacher in Lillooet BC. She is all about melding place based and project based learning into her class culture. Her goal is to trick kids into learning more than they’ll ever admit to.
Rebecca Labonville
Rebecca Labonville is an English and Arts teacher in Golden BC. She nurtures student engagement with a focus on responsive teaching, feedback for learning, and student agency. Rebecca has a talent for stretching all learners.
Nikki Lineham
Nikki Lineham is a math teacher, math education consultant, co-founder of Educating Now, and a PhD candidate. Nikki is passionate about making mathematics accessible for all people and strives to support teachers, students and parents in developing numeracy skills. She created Educating Now, an online resource for teachers, as a way to support teachers in learning to use manipulatives, visuals and language to help their students develop deeper math understanding. Nikki completed a postgraduate certificate in ethnomathematics at the University of Hawaii in 2019, which inspired her to study culturally responsive mathematics education and spatial reasoning through her PhD studies at the University of Victoria.
Kendra Jacobs
Kendra Jacobs is an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, facilitating ‘Teaching Children Numeracy’ and ‘Numeracy for Diverse Learners’. She is the founder of Mathematizing 247, where her mission is to inspire and empower elementary teachers to create engaging, joyful and equitable math opportunities. She works as a part time classroom support teacher, alongside educators to support instruction that nurtures the development of independent and self-regulated learners.
