about shelli

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.

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

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 years old.

 
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 find belonging 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 and one that I take seriously. Working with children is an honour and privilege I never take for granted. 

After hours, I can be found reading (non-fiction is my favourite), painting, writing, listening to music, or travelling. 

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. Lastly, 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 appreciateyou for being here.

~ shelli

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

I completed my Master's degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto, where I explored 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