TEACHING

Norm MacQueen (OCT) is an educator, actor/comedian, writer, cartoon animator, and communications specialist with a proven track record of experience over many years.

While still in his teens, Norm was a writer-performer with Ottawa’s popular Skit Row Comedy Troupe-performing improv and sketch comedy at the Penguin Nightclub, on radio stations CHEZ-106, W-1310, and personal appearances across Ontario and Quebec. His written comedy sketches appeared in Skit Row’s TV series on the New ‘RO and during a limited run at the National Arts Centre. Later Norm starred in a Stratford production of the madcap farce Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii and the Broadway musical-comedy Pal Joey at the National Arts Centre, directed by Martha Henry.

2-D animation has also featured prominently among Norm’s pursuits. A gifted cartoonist, Hollywood beckoned when he was hired by legendary Warner Bros. director Chuck Jones to work on the Roadrunner theatrical cartoon Chariots of Fur. Heading up the coastline to San Francisco, he later worked on children’s computer games for Brøderbund Software-including the popular kids' classic, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

Returning to Ottawa, Norm was hired as a staff animator-writer by Artech Studios to work on a variety of multimedia titles for children and adults alike including My Little Pony, Jeopardy, Guess Who?, Trivial Pursuit, and Raze’s Hell. Here he wrote dialogue and comedy for such notables as John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Nye, Brooke Burke, Terry Bradshaw, and others. He also wrote the internet cartoon comedy series As The Reels Turn for Gaming Solutions Inc. and saw two of his short stories published in the literary magazine Blank Page.

Norm’s a professional actor and member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists (ACTRA). His screen acting credits include Act of War (Atari), Kevin Spencer (CTV), Getting Along Famously (CBC/Colin Mochrie), An Unperfect Christmas Wish (Lifetime), and The Greatest (Amazon Studios). He starred in the award-winning children’s edutainment series Prime Radicals (TV Ontario) and narrated the documentary film Open Doors for the Presbyterian Church of Canada. More recently, he joined the cast of the TV comedy series They Came at Night from Mexico’s 3PAS Studios and Eugenio Derbez. He also starred in the US feature film comedy Love & Chaos from Triad Filmworks and Drew Derry.

Norm has done corporate communications for such diverse clients as the Council for Exceptional Children, the RCMP, the Canadian Aviation Museum, Veterans Affairs Canada, CUPE, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, and the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem (CSYV).

Norm is a qualified, certified, experienced secondary school English, Literary Arts, and Visual Arts teacher. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Carleton University and a Diploma in Classical Animation from Sheridan College. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa and later earned a Master of Education from the U. of O. with a specialization in Cultural Literacies. He was also awarded a scholarship by the CSYV to study at the Yad Vashem Holocaust/Genocide Educators' Centre in Jerusalem, Israel.

Norm is currently on full-time contract with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) - assigned to Canterbury High School of the Arts. In years past he taught at a number of high schools in Canada's Capital including Glebe Collegiate, John McCrae, Adult High School, Hillcrest, Merivale, South Carleton, and Colonel By. He also taught ESL for Toronto's Red Leaf Private School.

In 2017, Norm participated in the OCDSB's official response to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on First Nations issues. Specifically, he developed and taught the first Grade 11 College-Level First Nations English course offered at the school to which he was then assigned (Adult High School). The course, NBE3C, was very well-received by students and served as a guide and template for colleagues who subsequently taught the class.

Norm's professional/educational associations include membership in good standing in the Ontario College of Teachers and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation.

Further info. may be found on Norm's profile on Apply to Education and the Ontario College of Teachers' website.

Contact: norman.macqueen@ocdsb.ca or nmacqueen@myyahoo.com