Visual Thinking Classroom

I am a full-time ✏️ classroom teacher and certified 📖 teacher librarian with over 11 years of classroom experience. I'm ❤️ passionate about 🌎 universal design & making high school classrooms more accessible through visual learning! As a ✨Visual Thinker✨ with an eye for art and design, I create resources that are as functional as they are beautiful. My students THRIVE when they have worksheets with built-in scaffolding and writing supports.

I’m passionate about the transformative power of ✨VISUAL DESIGN✨ to make learning more inclusive, engaging, and meaningful, especially for learners who think and process the world visually. My classroom (and my store!) is rooted in the idea that when students can see ideas 👀, they can better grasp them. I like to use ✨VISUAL✨ educational resources that provide instant support and scaffolding for all learners! My Teaching Pedagogy (a.k.a. the Hills I Will Die On): ✅ Offering student choice creates buy-in and ownership. ✅ Provide sentence stems for meaningful self-assessment and reflection. ✅ Design handouts and worksheets with scaffolds already built in. ✅ Always project clear instructions on the board. ✅ Show lots of exemplars of student work to set high expectations. ✅ More reading = better readers. ✅ More writing = better writers. My pedagogy is rooted in the belief that students learn best when complex ideas are made visible. I draw on principles of visual literacy, Universal Design for Learning, and inquiry-based instruction to create resources that are rigorous, accessible, and engaging. In my classroom, visuals act as scaffolds that support deeper thinking. Whether that’s through thematic visual supports that make abstract ideas concrete, character cards that spark discussion, or visual prompts that guide literary analysis. I believe the English classroom should be both challenging and inclusive, so my materials are designed to give every student a meaningful way into the text.

There’s no better feeling than passing students in the hallway and overhearing them talk to their peers about what we’ve been learning in class. When learning has extended beyond the classroom walls, that’s when I know the lesson has stuck!

● B.A. English Literature & History, 2012 📖 ● B.Ed. Secondary Education, 2014 📓 ● Post Graduate Certificate in Teacher Librarianship, 2021 📚 ● Post Graduate Certificate in Curriculum Development & Instructional Design, 2024 📋

I've travelled to 15 different ✈️ countries 💼 and even lived in Shanghai, China, while working at a government-certified✔️ offshore high school. No matter how many times I teach The Outsiders, I still cry when 💔 Johnny dies. I have taught in four different public school districts in two Canadian provinces. I now call 🏔 British Columbia home, where I live in a funky 🌻 Victorian house with my husband and son. Our winters are for skiing, our summers are for swimming, and we soak up every season in between.