Hello! My name is Janet Kuyvenhoven and I live and work in Toronto. I began my PME journey at Queen’s last fall and currently, I am working on two courses for the summer months.

I have been teaching for many years in several different countries, including the United States, England, Australia and Canada, in a variety of elementary schools, including public, private and Catholic schools, in multiple grade levels and subject areas. In amongst these years, I have had two children, lived abroad and had the opportunity to travel to many fascinating places around the globe. For the last several years, I have been teaching in an elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario, where there is a large population of newcomers, students living in subsidized housing and families living in a shelter.

Outside of my career, I have a family, a husband and two children, who keep me very busy. We enjoy traveling as a family, camping, exploring the natural wonders in this world as well as experiencing different cultures, music and spending time with friends and family. We recently moved to a small ocean-side town in Victoria, Australia for a two-year period where we enjoyed living and learning about everything Aussie. When we returned to Canada, we quickly converted back to Raptor’s fans, teaching our kids how to skate and ski, enjoying all things Canadian.

At this point in my life and in my career, I am ready to pursue my goals of getting a master’s degree in education to further develop my knowledge, refine my teaching practises and perhaps to work towards moving in a new direction in my education career in the future. I am looking forward to the courses ahead of me to deepen my understanding and knowledge of effective teaching practises. I anticipate being able to use the knowledge I will gain from these courses in my teaching practises in the upcoming year at my current school. I am excited at the possibility to improve my craft as a teacher as a direct result of the learning goals in these courses. My job as an educator is to develop life long learners in my classroom but I believe that it is equally important for me to continue my learning as well in order to be the best teacher I can be.