Heather Lailey

Christian, Concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Parent

I grew up on a turkey farm in a rural community in southern Ontario to two loving parents, with two younger brothers. I took piano lessons and volunteered in my country church all through my childhood. Giving piano lessons in my home studio during the school year and waitressing at a membership golf club in the summer meant I graduated with my Honours BA in English and French from Brock University at the same time as I received my ARCT piano pedagogy degree with no debt and enough money to buy a car. I have taught English and French at 6 different high schools in my 23 year career, been a teacher coach and worked part time at Brock University for 7 years teaching the candidates how to be a secondary English teacher. I started the Youth for Change club at Thorold Secondary which raised thousands of dollars for a community in Sierra Leone through Free the Children. I have received the DSBN Director's Award for Extraordinary Contributions and have been nominated for the OTIP teaching award and the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Volunteering, reading, making the world a better place, being a leader, education, music, creativity in writing and art, travelling to new places, the environment, outdoor adventures, theatre, teaching Teacher Candidates at Brock University part time, serving in Children's Ministry at church and being on stage.

Knowing when to be a brick wall and when to show grace when dealing with your students, children and colleagues is a challenging balancing act due to the ever increasing cases of mental health issues (anxiety, depression) in adolescence.

English literature, Piano teaching and performance, Secondary Education

After being exposed to some amazing TED talks at a couple of conferences I attended, I began viewing them on my own for classroom use. After developing The Passion Project for my Grade 12 class with a TED talk style presentation at the end, I have been committed to finding talks to recommend to students. My colleague Eric Moccio asked me in June 2015 to join him in planning to host our own TEDxYouth event for our board or our school and we are currently working on the application for 2017.

Sight reading music, multi-tasking. My friends at work know I am good at baking because I love to share it. I love singing alto and would be a part of a choir if I had time though I usually am the accompanist.