Biographical Information

I'm a 1980 graduate of W. J. Mouat Secondary School, Abbotsford, British Columbia. I studied General Sciences for two years at U.C.F.V. and then transferred to the University of British Columbia. I obtained a Bachelor's of Science (Chemistry) from U.B.C. in 1984 and then, following a year in the Faculty of Education, joined the teaching profession. After two years of teaching in Barrhead Alberta, I came back to Mouat to continue my career. I have worked at W. J. Mouat for the last fourteen years teaching Science and Math. The courses I have taught include Science 8-10, Math 8-12, Chemistry 11 and 12, and Physics 11 and 12. I started a Masters degree at U.B.C. in 1995 with a keen interest in learning more about how teachers and students could use computers to teach and/or to learn science. I joined the U.B.C. Action Research project TESSI (Technology Enhanced Secondary Science Instruction) in 1996 after meeting Dr. Janice Woodrow, a recognized leader in the use of computers in the teaching of Physics. The goal of TESSI is to develop a pedagogical model to demonstrate ways to infuse computer technology into classroom instruction - a task that is much easier said than done! I continue to work in this project, building resources and methods to apply the TESSI model to the Chemistry classroom. In December 1998, I completed a Masters of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction (here is the final version - the Introduction and the Chapters/Appendices in pdf). The topic of my thesis was to identify issues that a teacher faces when attempting to implement computer technology in the Chemistry classroom.