About 25 years · Grades 1–12, adult & teacher learning

The classroom comes first.

I have taught for about 25 years, from Grade 1 to Grade 12, in Canadian and international schools, and I train teachers. Everything else on this site grows out of that work: the learners I teach, the team I lead, and the teachers I have trained.

At a glance

Teaching: About 25 years, Grades 1–12
Secondary: Newton International College (Sep 2023 – Mar 2024); YRDSB (Mar 2024 – 2025), incl. LTO at Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School
Teacher learning: Hill Spring workshops (about 50 educators); teachers in China (2024); 100 pre-service teachers at H.J. College of Education
Leadership: PQP Parts 1 and 2; Grade 2 Team Lead
Certified: Ontario Certified Teacher

A course screen for teachers: one Grade 3 child’s exit slip, and a question asking what the teacher would do with it before any definitions — Work for teachers: Master Growing Success.Read the case study

In the classroom

About 25 years of teaching across all grades, with literacy expertise across every grade. In math I teach with Jo Boaler’s approach and math talks.

An independent school in OntarioSep 2024 – Present
Grade 2 Team Lead: runs the team’s weekly meetings and makes sure unit and long-range plans are in place.
York Region District School BoardMar 2024 – 2025
Long-term occasional teacher (Grades 7–11), summer assessor (literacy and numeracy, Grades 7–12), and night-school supply teacher (Business and other subjects). Appointed to YRDSB’s International Languages (Hindi) roster.
Newton International CollegeSep 2023 – Mar 2024
High school teacher; created Ontario-curriculum science material for an elementary sister school in China. Wrote lesson plans, unit plans, course overviews and course outlines for eight Ontario credits: four ESL levels, Civics and Citizenship, Career Studies, Fashion, Visual Arts.
Seneca Hill Private SchoolSep 2022 – Jul 2023
Grade 5 homeroom teacher; ran whole-school mock elections and trained students for a whole-school fashion show.
Hill Spring International School (IB)Aug 2020 – May 2022
Homeroom teacher, Grades 3 and 4; mentored Grade 5 in the IB PYP.
American School of Bombay (IB)Jan 2019 – Jul 2020
Learning Support Associate, Grades 2 and 3: one-to-one support, Fountas & Pinnell LLI, and work on students’ IEPs.
Raising Hope Kids Club2012 – 2019
Founded it and wrote its curriculum.
Podar’s Blossoms, MumbaiJun 2000 – Apr 2005
Senior Kindergarten homeroom teacher.

Leading a grade team

Since September 2024 I have been Grade 2 Team Lead at an independent school in Ontario. What the role involves:

Run and facilitate the Grade 2 team’s weekly meetings.
Meet with the school heads and convey information between them and the team.
Provide training to the team as required.
Ensure the unit plans and long-range plans are in place.
Plan field trips and experiential learning for the grade.

Curriculum I’ve written

Units and unit tests across all grades.
Secondary: a Grade 10 exam course (MPM2D), with 130 questions worked in full.
Secondary: lesson plans, unit plans, course overviews and course outlines for my courses at Newton International College, eight Ontario credits: four ESL levels, Civics and Citizenship (CHV2O), Career Studies (GLC2O), Fashion, and Visual Arts.
University: the session design for a second-year physiology case session.
For teachers: Master Growing Success, a self-paced course on Ontario’s assessment policy.
Grades 1–5 curriculum websites in math, science, social studies and Language (across different genres).
Elementary math, science and social studies units for Grades 1–5, and Language for Grade 3.
Grade 2 units and tests in math, language, science and social studies.
Elementary: Ontario-curriculum science material for Newton International College’s elementary sister school in China.

All the work, every level Ontario units, in detail

Teacher learning I’ve led

At Hill Spring International School I ran teacher workshops on assessment, translanguaging and inquiry-based learning, which reached about 50 educators.
In March 2024 I trained teachers in China at the request of Newton International College.
I trained 100 pre-service teachers at H.J. College of Education, Mumbai, as workshop facilitator in creative writing and language teaching.

In my own words

I write about classroom practice on The Learning Conditions (opens in a new tab). Eight pieces to start with:

Humanistic Leadership in Schools: Leading with Model, Coach, and Care (opens in a new tab)
Leading a school the way a good teacher plans: structures and accountability that honour people’s growth while keeping standards high.
An Intentional Piece – Social-Emotional Ethical Learning (opens in a new tab)
Why social-emotional and ethical learning has to be an intentional part of the curriculum, with classroom tools: Kelso’s Choice, big and small problems, and sentence stems for conflict.
The Purpose of Education: A Reflective Journey in Creating Value and Happiness (opens in a new tab)
Soka value-creative education (beauty, gain and good) turned into questions I ask of my own classroom.
Every Child is a Writer (opens in a new tab)
Every child can be a writer because every child has things to say. A safe, non-judgmental workshop, the agency to choose a topic, modelling, and writing conferences that begin with what the child has done well.
Innovations In The Learning Sector (opens in a new tab)
Learning environments and agency: “Learners are agentic and we only need to provide opportunities.”
Low-Stakes Writing: A Must for Children (opens in a new tab)
Ten minutes a day of writing that is not graded, so a child writes without fear of judgement, and how that practice grows into reflection and metacognition.
Children’s Questions: A Trajectory to Learning (opens in a new tab)
Why children’s questions drive learning, and how I changed the way I answer them.
Error Correction (opens in a new tab)
Why self-correction comes first, with signals a class agrees on together (a thumb pointed back for past tense, forward for future) so correction becomes less stressful.

Qualifications

MA in Education: University of Mumbai, 2019
International Diploma in TESOL, Teaching and Training (Asian College of Teachers): 360 hours; passed the TESOL Canada examinations
Ontario Certified Teacher: Ontario College of Teachers, in good standing
Principal’s Qualification Program: Parts 1 and 2 (2026)

Full résumé

What the classroom turned into.

Units, courses, assessments and tools for children, teachers and adult learners, each with the teaching decisions behind it written down.

See the work Get in touch