Presenters

For bios of the educators and academics who presented at previous conferences, click on the links below:
2011 presenters
2010 presenters

Keynote Speaker

Patrice Baldwin

Patrice Baldwin is President of the International Drama Theatre and Education Association, a Council member of the World Alliance for Arts Education and Chair of National Drama. She was a headteacher, school inspector, national curriculum arts consultant, local government Adviser for Arts Development and Improvement and has worked for BBC Education as a series consultant and scriptwriter. She is a well established educational author.

Workshop Clinicians

Drama Clinician

Larry Swartz

Larry Swartz is an instructor in literacy as well as dramatic arts at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He has been an educator for over thirty years and is well-known for his use of children’s literature to help young people grow as readers, writers and citizens of the world. As a classroom teacher, consultant, author and speaker, Larry has shared his enthusiasm and expertise with teachers, administrators, teacher-librarians and parents throughout Canada, the United States and Asia.

Larry has developed an number of titles for the BOLDPRINT series and is a consultant for BOLKDPRINT Kids K-3. He has helped to develop numerous language arts programs and has also written a number of professional development books for educators.

Drama Clinician

Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Lori Sherritt-Fleming, a graduate of Brock University and Ireland’s National Theatre School, has been an artist educator for 17 years and has served as a mentor artist with the Royal Conservatory’s Learning Through the Arts Program.

She founded The Tickle Trunk Players Theatre for Literacy Troupe and Kloshe’nem, a program that works with First Nations communities to empower Aboriginal youth by engaging them with activities infused with their culture, art and history. She has written several books including resource guides for teaching First Nations Studies.

An author,playwright, producer and actor, she presents globally at education and arts conferences and is on the artist’s roster with ArtStarts, British Columbia as an Artist in Residence and Touring Artist.
.

Music Clinician

Lori Moccio

Lori Moccio holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Education from Brock University. She is a music special and certified Orff Levels instructor with Carl Orff Canada. She teaches Gr. 1 French Immersion for the District School Board of Niagara where she passionately integrates the arts into all she teaches. Lori recently concluded nine years at Richmond St. Public School where she taught grades one through eight music and dance. She sits on the Arts Team for the DSBN and helps to create initiatives that promote the teaching of the Arts. Lori also teaches AQ music courses at Brock University. A passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic teacher, Lori loves sharing the Orff approach with others.

Music Clinician

Catherine West

Catherine West is the Coordinator of music AQ courses for OISE/U of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), the editor of Ostinato, the national journal of Carl Orff Canada, and a senior associate with Connexionarts (an arts-in-education consulting company). She recently completed a term as Instructional Leader in music with the Toronto District School Board. She has an international reputation as an author, workshop clinician, and course instructor, and has worked with clients such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the GRAMMY’s Leonard Bernstein Foundation, Opera Lyra (Ottawa), the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association (Australia), the Bermuda Teacher’s Union, many school districts, and the Ontario Ministry of Education. She has authored many books and curriculum resources, including co-authoring the recent TSO teacher resource, How the Gimquat Found It’s Song.

Dance Clinician

Marc Richard

Marc Richard is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at York University. His research attempts to make the learning visible in creative dance education in Ontario schools. He is the Canadian Representative for Dance and the Child International (daCi), has reviewed curriculum for Council of Ontario Dance and Drama Educators (CODE) and served as the dance consultant on the Ministry’s arts webcast project. Marc is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and holds an MA in Dance. He is a director, choreographer, teacher and writer as well as a faculty Member in the Musical Theatre and Performing Arts Preparation Programs at Sheridan College.

Dance Clinician

Deb Kapp - ACTION PAK

Deb Kapp, BA, HBFA, BEd, has been teaching Dance at L.B.Pearson School for the Arts, London, Ontario for the past 18 years. L.B.Pearson is an Arts Enriched school, where students from ages 8 to 14 study and learn through all the Arts. The Dance program is a comprehensive program. She is a graduate of York University’s Dance Program (1979). Deb taught ballet and Creative Dance at the Thornhill School of Ballet. Deb is co-author of “Action Pak: Dance Education Resources for Teachers”. Deb has been writing Dance curriculum for the Thames Valley District School Board and regularly presents workshops for teachers on how to teach Dance in the school setting.

Outside of her role as Dance Educator, she is the Producer and Artistic Director of the show “Art Harvest”. “Art Harvest” is an annual showcase of Dance Education programs in Southwestern Ontario. In November of 2005 she won an Award of Excellence from the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America for the innovative and creative programming of the presentation “Resilience in the Face of Trouble and Despair”.

This presentation included selected works of Anna Sokolow and Danny Grossman for Holocaust Awareness week. Deb is a co-founder of The London Alliance of Dance Educators, and a Board member of Dance Ontario.

Visual Arts Clinician

Shauna Daley

Shauna Daley is an artist and a teacher. She graduated from Brock University with an Honours degree in Visual Arts and then went on to complete her Bachelor of Education degree at Brock. Shauna is interested in completing her Master’s degree in Art Education with a focus on Critical Creative Thinking and Drawing. She has worked as a Visual Arts Educator with the Niagara Falls Art Gallery teaching visual art lessons underpinned with cross-curricular expectations in schools across the region. She has also opened her own art studio in Grimsby, Ontario where approximately two hundred students from the community cycle through her programs.

Visual Arts Clinician

Athanasia Psarakis

Athanasia Psarakis is currently in her 17th year as a middle-school visual arts and core French teacher at W.H. Ballard Elementary School in Hamilton, ON. A well-known arts presenter at Board conferences, Athanasia has also worked with Theatre Aquarius, a Hamilton theatre company, developing educational support resources around visual arts lessons linked to various productions showcased at the theatre.

Visual Arts Clinician

Sharon Hellinga

Sharon Hellinga is a teacher with the District School Board of Niagara, at Lakeview Elementary School in Grimsby for the past 12 years. Her present teaching assignment is teacher-librarian and rotary visual arts instructor, both of which include students from all three divisions. Sharon actively pursues opportunities to create community awareness for the school's visual arts program, including participation in a variety of student art shows, entry of student work into various contests, and coordinating the creation of a large permanent mural for the school. She was recently recognized with the Norah Morgan award for promoting arts in education. Sharon completed both her undergraduate degree and BEd at Brock University.

Visual Arts Clinician

Nancy Gill

Nancy Gill has taught Grade 6 and Visual Art on rotary for 14 years at Power Glen Elementary School in St. Catharines. Her university degree is in Visual Art, and she has her Honours Specialist in Visual Art. She also is a working Artist who enjoys drawing and painting in her studio at home. In addition to her busy schedule at Power Glen, she also participates on the Elementary Arts Council, the Showcase Art Show, the Critical Thinking and Integration for the Arts and teaches the teachers how to teach Art through inservices and workshops for the District School Board of Niagara.

Dance Clinician

Kate Cornell

Kate Cornell has twenty years experience of teaching novices to love dance and create movement. She began by teaching ballet in a private studio and then moved to the Education department of the National Ballet of Canada and Toronto Dance Theatre. In 1998, she published her first book with Nadine Saxton entitled Toronto Dance Theatre: Stages in a Journey. Kate’s research has been published in magazines, newspapers, journals and anthologies. In 2000, she began teaching with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s innovative arts program, Learning Through the Arts (LTTA). In LTTA, Kate taught the entire Kindergarten through Grade Seven Ontario core subjects such as math, science and history using dance and drama. In 2003, she went on tour with the National Ballet and conducted movement workshops for underprivileged children in Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC. In addition to her work as an artist in the public schools, Kate has lectured extensively at Ryerson University, York University and Charles Sturt University with a particular focus on arts education and dance. She is the Director of the national scholarly association the Canadian Society for Dance Studies and has a PhD in Communication and Culture. Kate sits on several committees including the Board of Directors of the international organization the Society of Dance History Scholars.