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Jen Wilson (she, her)

I'm a literacy teacher in a 5-9 middle school. I'm interested in best practice around literature selection, learning through literature and multicultural counter texts to support multiple perspectives when learning about a singular concept. I hope to learn how to best support English Language Learners as the majority of our 900 students are in various stages of learning English.

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Where you are currently located?

Calgary

What is your preferred name and pronoun(s)?

Bernia/She/her

What are your interests and background related to this course?

Multicultural literacy; adolescence literature; high-interest texts for beginning English language learners

What do you most hope to learn in this course?

Adding to resource list (whether they be specific texts or sites)

How do develop (at worst) an appreciation for reading, and at best (a love for reading) among my students

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Hi everyone!

I'm Nicole (she/her) and I'm currently living in Burnaby, BC, but working as a Grade 2 teacher in Vancouver. The school that I work at has a high ELL population and many struggling readers in general. As a primary teacher, I'm excited to learn about different perspectives and strategies I can bring into my own literacy teaching practice. I want to explore ways that I can make literacy learning a successful experience for all of my students. :)

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Murdoch MacKay Collegiate, Redonda Street, Winnipeg, MB

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Murdoch MacKay Collegiate, Redonda Street, Winnipeg, MB

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Murdoch MacKay Collegiate, Redonda Street, Winnipeg, MB

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Hello beautiful people!

I am TJ Lange (He/Him) and I am situated under beautiful prairie skies (and a little bit of wildfire smoke) out here in Transcona Manitoba. I have always loved stories and different ways to interact with them. I have taught a literature class off and on over the past 10 years and love to discuss different approaches and texts to further add to my tool box.

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Cathy Kennedy

Hello all - I am in Cranbrook, BC. I am most interested in how to collect new material that fairly represents all works and all walks of life. I still appreciate and want to expose students to the literature deemed canonical and iconic up to this point in history, but I also desire more justified direction on how to select and analyse which materials should be included in ELA class studies and school libraries going forward in the 21st century.

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Hi! I'm Lisa (she/her), I have been teaching Grade 6/7 the past 16 years, and what excites me is pitching books to students with hopes to inspire them to read with deep and genuine interest. I am also passionate about daily class read-alouds as it allows me to assume the role of each character to further draw students to the developing storyline. I hope to learn more of how my personal biases impact my direction teaching literature in the classroom (ie: lessons planning, book choices etc.). I am also curious to learn out-of-school, social reception practices students hold as they interact with literature - practices that I may not be aware of in the classroom (I understand I can learn more than a thing or two from my students). In addition, I would love to push the boundaries beyond 'traditional' forms of literature and be open to 'what counts' as credible sources of text/literature to successfully reach all learners.

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Hi Everyone! I'm Lesley (she/hers) and I live and work in Steveston (Richmond) BC. I am currently Acting Vice Principal at my school in addition to my role as a Learning Resource/ELL teacher. I have always loved sharing picture books with my students. I am really looking forward to this course because I thought more of my Masters program would be connected to literacy (reading) in the traditional sense.

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Hi! Amber here (she/her). I live in Northern B.C. I am interested in early primary literacy and our struggling readers. I am always looking to learn about how to support our most vulnerable students and what literacy opportunities look like for these children. As most of my experience was in Grade 1 before I became a non-enrolling support teacher, I spent a lot of time reading picture books. More recently I am realizing what opportunities there are for all types of books out there!

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Hi everyone! I am Julia (she/her) and I am working as a SY Teacher Librarian in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I taught Grade 9-12 ELA before moving into my role as a TL so literacy instruction and promotion of literature are my strengths and my background. I am hoping to gain more skills for literacy instruction that I can bring into my classes as I co-teach and also to gain more insight into how I can help other teachers build literacy instruction within their courses.

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My name is Megan and I am currently working as an upper elementary Learning Support Teacher and interim vice principal in Langley, BC. I have always loved picture books, particularly ones that align with themes I am teaching in the classroom! Thanks to my summer classes this past year, I have recently become really interested in wordless picture books and the many ways they can help students experience themes, perspectives and events through a new lens. I am hoping to learn more about how to engage my students with literature, wordless or not, that deepens their understanding as both readers and learners!

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Jennifer Low (She/Her)

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Welcome back everyone! I love teaching with and about children's and young adult literature. One of my favourite experiences with students of all ages is engaging in literature circles!

In an elective course, I was introduced to feminist new materialism and posthumanism and I am keen to use these lenses to analyze literary works and consider how they might inform my teaching!

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Ladner, BC

He/Him

English Teacher and huge fan of literature and teaching literature.

I would be delighted to get some new strategies and lenses for engaging my students with literature and nurturing a love of literature.

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Hi everyone! Nice to e-meet you all. I'm Cath (they/she), an Aussie expat now living in so-called Vancouver. My background is in early childhood education - I taught early primary/elementary school in rural Queensland before moving to Canada in 2022. I completed my M.Ed at the end of 2022 with a focus on Learning Difficulties and the Science of Reading, and am now enjoying a somewhat slower pace of life studying children's literature with a focus on authentic queer representation in middle grade novels. I also work in a kids book shop where I get to spend my days reading and recommending books to kids and teachers alike. I'm looking forward to expanding my toolkit of research theories, and looking at how I can weave together my various backgrounds and interests in my research.

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Hi, I'm Amanda (she/hers). I currently teach Grade 2 in Abbotsford, BC. I'm interested to see how this course may impact the read-alouds and books in my classroom library.

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Hello, I am Denise (she/her), coming to you from Cranbrook, BC - I acknowledge that I am currently living in and appreciating the beauty and serenity of the traditional and unceded territory of the Ktunaxa people. I was an English major back in my undergraduate days at UBCO, so I bring a background of loving literature; additionally, I teach predominantly grade twelve students and teach them literature annually. I bring my fondness and consistent use of literature use in classrooms and my own spare time. I hope to read about ways literature is still relevant in today's classrooms, differing definitions of literature, and examples of things I can bring into my teaching.

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Hello and happy Mother's Day from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Treaty 1 territory. I've been an educator since 1992 and our course readings for first two modules are giving flashbacks to my early career as a high school ELA teacher! This is my jam! I hope to someday teach teachers, so my goal for the course is to update and refine my prior knowledge of the joys of teaching literature! My research interests are Indigenous pedagogies and Arts-based research.

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Hi everyone!

I am currently a grade 8 Humanities teacher in my hometown of Powell River, B.C. on the beautiful Sunshine Coast.  As a Humanities teacher I am always looking for new literature to bring into my classroom, as well as creative ways to deliver content to my students and new ways for students to interact with the materials I present.  When students come  to me in grade 8 many of them are not keen to read, I hope to learn ways to re-engage my students with reading by providing them with materials that they want to read.

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I'm an early intervention specialist in Calgary with a non-profit where we see kids with disabilities at home, daycare, preschool, etc. We have a kindergarten program and I just started a home reading program with them. Last year I was a literacy specialist for K-4. I'm excited to learn more about literacy and reading theories. I've been waiting two years for this course!

I'm particularly interested in literacy teaching with Gestalt Language Processors (GLPs). I get to work with several kids who us Gestalt Language Processing and it's a very new and exciting area that there is currently no research in. If you haven't heard of GLP, there are some great Instagrammers such as Meaningful Speech, Bohospeechie, and Amazing Autistic Abby who talk about it. Chances are there are some in every school.

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Township Road 350, Huxley, Kneehill County, AB

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Hello everyone! I am currently sitting outside my house listening to the birds sing and watching the land turn green in Treaty 7 territory. The land on which I currently reside and am constantly learning more about. In the spirit of honor and respect, I acknowledge the history of the Indigenous people, embracing teachings, and finding strength in the journey I travel progressing towards knowledge and reconciliation.

My background and interests lie around simply being a better teacher and leader, but also parent at home. I love to learn; and want to know it all! I find it hard to narrow down my passions to particular areas as I believe in knowledge as a power, and adds perspective to be a better educator… so want to know it all ;) I would say my particular interests lie specifically within play based pedagogies, inquiry based learning, art based inquiry, neurodiversity, and teaching practices that increase student success in and outside the classroom spaces - specifically on literacies. I am currently a grade 5/6 core subject teacher, and will be moving into the principal role next year at my favorite school. My school is tiny - consisting of 8 staff members (including myself), grades k-8, and 60 students. We are a small family with many cross curricular and graded activities unique to our setting, which also turns out a high percentage of post secondary students and valedictorians. (Brag moment- I was just looking at our school’s data! ;))

I am interested in learning more about being a culturally responsive teacher when choosing pieces of literature for my classroom, sharing this knowledge with my staff, finding more pieces of literature I can use in the school, as well as more literacy practices to increase all students’ success. I am looking forward to another incredible term for learning! :)

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My preferred name is Theresa and I use she/hers. I am the course instructor and have a long standing love of literature and the teaching of literature. I hope to learn as much from you as you learn from me and the course about how we might enrich classroom teaching by introducing critical perspectives.