where passion meets education

Hello and welcome!  
I'm honoured that you're here!

My name is shelli (she/her), and I am an educator for liberation, diversity and inclusion.

Since 2008, I have been a Primary/Junior/Intermediate educator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).    

I live in Tkaranto on Land established under the Dish with One Spoon and Wampum Belt treaties. With humility and respect, I commit to learning about and changing my ongoing complicity in settler colonialism in Canada. Education is vital to "reconciliation" across Turtle Island.

I self-identify as Brown and a Caribbean person with South Asian ancestry.
I was born in Trinidad & Tobago and immigrated to Canada with my family when I was seven.

 
I come from a family of educators. My parents are retired educators; my grandfather was a teacher, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins work in education.   

My passion for education stems from my familial influences and early experiences in Canada as an immigrant and young learner. Like many, I struggled with my intersecting identities and the inability to belong within a singular community. Because of these experiences, I strive to be the teacher I needed while growing up by transforming and creating spaces where all my learners, especially those from marginalized communities, feel accepted, seen and heard.

Being an educator is a calling that I take seriously. Working with children is an honour and privilege I never take for granted. 

After hours, I read (non-fiction is my favourite), paint, write, listen to music or travel. 

Music is another major passion I love incorporating in all subject areas with my learners. I have performed professionally as a steel pannist with steel bands and parang bands for over 28 years. I consider myself a subpar guitarist, but I have fun with it anyway! 

I am constantly reflecting and evolving as an educator and human being. 

When we know better, we do better.

The key is to keep learning, have fun while learning, and root everything in love and respect.  

I appreciate you for being here.

~ shelli

"Education is the most powerful thing you can use to change the world."
~ Nelson Mandela

DEGREES

• Honours Bachelor of Arts, University of Toronto, Ontario 2006
• Bachelor of Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 2008
• Master of Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 2021

PROGRAM OF TEACHER EDUCATION

• Bachelor of Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 2008

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Primary and Junior Divisions June 2008
• Intermediate Division, First Nations, Métis and Inuit Studies July 2020 

          ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Special Education, Part 1 June 2011
• Mathematics, Primary and Junior, Part 1 April 2014
• Mathematics, Primary and Junior, Part 2 June 2015
• Mathematics, Primary and Junior, Specialist April 2016

NEW TEACHER INDUCTION PROGRAM 2013

AWARDS

Recipient of ETT's 

Excellence in Teaching Equity Award (2022)

OTIP Teaching Award Nominee 

 Elementary Teacher Category (2017)

PUBLISHED WRITING

Transforming education to save lives
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
October 23, 2024
https://newsday.co.tt/2024/10/23/transforming-education-to-save-lives/

Rethinking education for our youth

Trinidad Express
October 21, 2024
https://trinidadexpress.com/opinion/letters/rethinking-education-for-our-youth/article_4ac40536-8f3f-11ef-a637-d7a33bee18f8.html

 “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” 

~ Albert Einstein  

I completed my Master's degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto, where I studied various conceptual and theoretical frameworks. 

Common themes of personal interest include decolonizing education, (de)colonization, (anti-)colonialism, settler-colonialism, identity and the discovery of our multiple selves, Indigenous issues, critical race theory, anti-racism education, transformative education for liberation and much more.

 GRADUATE COURSES:

1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission & Indian Residential Schools
2. Knowledge, Mind and Human Subjectivity: Foucault & Education
3. Cultural Knowledges, Representation and Colonial Education
4. Childhood Social Studies, Education and Critical Inquiry
5. Introduction to Decolonization in Education
6. Spirituality and Schooling 
7. Critical Media Literacy Education 
8. School and the Community 
9. Anti-Islamophobia Education as Transformative Pedagogy: Implications for Teaching
10.  Environmental Racism: Causes, Consequences & Policy Implications from a Global Perspective

I ALSO ENJOY...

• Reading 
• Listening to vintage music from the 60s, Motown, classic rock, conscious and rockers reggae, anything with guitars and a message, and everything in between
• Watching movies I've already seen
• Spreading awareness about injustice everywhere I go 
• Mentally planning my next painting
• Daydreaming about travelling
• Waiting for the next heavy rainfall and thunderstorm
• Getting better with all this technology
• Eating more fruit  
• Painting and poetry
• Being in the water