Modelling a Commitment to Professional Learning

A leader engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical reflection to identify opportunities for improving leadership, teaching, and learning. 

I have always had a great passion for gaining knowledge. I love to learn and always strive to deepen my current abilities as well as add more skills to my repertoire. As a classroom teacher, there is a constant struggle to stay current yet not get bogged down in the new and untried. Finding a balance between the tried and true and the new strategies is a challenge that I thoroughly enjoy. Throughout my career, I have attended many professional development opportunities and am always striving to learn more efficient and effective ways to support my students.

I model lifelong learning by talking about what I'm learning with my students and my coworkers. I share as much as I possibly can with my fellow teachers and often have staff members coming to talk to me about something they have learned, or something they know I have.

 "The only wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." ~Socrates

During my career as a teacher, I have attended many professional learning opportunities. Some of the more highlights include:

• International Colony Educators' Conference - Winnipeg, Manitoba. August 14/15, 2014

• Emotional Intelligence - Expanding Influence: Achieve Training Centre. Edmonton, Alberta. November 1, 2015

• Instructional Coaching Institute - Corwin. Lawrence, Kansas. January 11 & 12, 2016

• Hapara Certified Educator - Hapara. Online training. October 2016

• LittleBits Steam PD. Online training. October 2016

• Google Certified Educator, Level 1 and 2 - Online training. February 2017

• IDEAS Conference: Leading Educational Change. University of Calgary: Werklund School of Education. Calgary, Alberta. May 4 & 5, 2017

• Resilience, Recovery, & Relationship: Towards Flourishing Children & Youth Conference , A Neufeld Institute Conference. Calgary, Alberta. November 15 - 17, 2017

• Teacher Growth, Supervision and Evaluation - ATA. Red Deer, Alberta. February 13 & 14, 2018

• Visible Learning Institute and Visible Learning for Math - Corwin. Calgary, Alberta. August 23 & 24, 2018

• Code Create Teach -  Kids Code Jeunesse & Lighthouse Labs. Rocky Mountain House. August 21, 2018

• Aspiring Leaders Cohort - Wolf Creek Public Schools. Ponoka, Alberta. September 2017 through June 2018

• Crucial Accountability  - Sonja Dykslag - Red Deer, Alberta. March 2019

• First Aid. August 2022