About Me
I have a PhD in English from the University of Toronto, am TEFL-certified, and I also hold an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM). I have over 15 years experience teaching English and over 17 years experience teaching music, two different fields, yet linked by their shared interest in how we express, connect, and communicate with one another. I have been passionate about words/language and music ever since my partly homeschooled childhood growing up in the West Coast wilderness in a household surrounded by books, where my musician parents helped teach me songs on the piano before I ever learned to read music, and helped me write out stories before I had any idea how to spell.
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My nontraditional forays into English and music in these early days have informed my teaching. As an educator, I seek to help students discover the most effective learning strategies that work for them, and I am constantly looking for new ways to improve my pedagogy to meet the changing needs of my students. I work to ground students in what is going well and to develop strategies to draw on those strengths to help students succeed.
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I teach English as a contract university lecturer, and I also teach private tutoring sessions to students of all ages and levels, specializing in reading and writing, ESL, English literature, and conversational English.
As a music teacher, I have taught in both more structured, traditional methods (i.e. using method books and prepping students for RCM exams) and also entirely by ear. I welcome piano students from beginner to advanced levels, students in beginner to intermediate music theory, and those at all levels of music history.
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When I'm not teaching and researching, I like getting out of town and back into the woods to hike and explore. I also like to sing, read, play piano, learn new languages, and travel.
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To find out more about my work in each of these fields, see my "English" and "Music" pages above!
