Personal Description:

My name is Christine, and I am an educator and performance poet. I've been teaching poetry, storytelling, public speaking, and writing to school-aged students since 2017.

I hold a BA in English (with a concentration in creative writing) and a minor in theatre from the University of New Brunswick. I'm a Dean's List Scholar. As a poet, I’ve performed on stages around Vancouver, BC including as a feature for the Vancouver Poetry Slam. I'm passionate about mental health awareness, and have a short film currently touring festivals (Left Opened) that explores the experience of anxiety using poetry, improvised piano, and dance.

I love to read, write, and practice acro yoga. I believe that learning should be joyful.

Tutoring Experience:

I’ve worked with Viva Voce Speech Arts Studio (teaching voice, performance, and language arts to school aged students), Vancouver Biennale (developing and conducting multi-week poetry and theatre workshops in schools), and Kudoz (facilitating spoken word poetry workshops with adults with cognitive disabilities). I also had the great pleasure of adjudicating the Speech Arts segment of the Pacific Northwest Music Festival in 2019.

I’m currently working with ArtStarts in Schools to offer an 8-week poetry writing workshop for teens.

Tutoring Approach:

I always start by getting to know my student. What do they love? What are their interests? What do they find challenging about this subject? What do they find interesting?

I design my lesson plans based on the student, and gather learning materials (poems, stories, etc) that are uniquely interesting to them. With younger students especially, we'll break up more intellectual work with movement and improv games like 'pass the action' and 'what are you doing?' which serve the dual purpose of improving confidence. I think these games are also where the student/teacher relationship is built, and that relationship is so important for effective learning.

I also incorporate mindfulness practices into my teaching. I've been studying Breathexperience breath work since 2016, and although I don't teach that work directly, I do teach my students how to sense their breath.

What will we do in class?
This depends on the students' needs. I can help them with school work assignments, or we could dive into independent explorations which compliment the learning they're doing in school. Class work could include: reading, telling improvised stories, reading and writing poetry, learning sentence structure, expanding vocabulary, and developing their communication skills. I base my lesson plans off of the BC English Language Arts Curriculum. You can find a copy of my grade 1 curriculum in the 'Resources Offered' section.