Heather Fleming

Heather Fleming is an international educator who has worked in parts of Canada, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Oman. With an impressive background in education, she is leading the way for technology integration in the schools she has been a part of.

International Education

Heather decided to begin her international teaching career in 1999. She had the desire to go and work abroad and after having conversations with someone who had spent a great deal of time in Abu Dhabi, she decided to jump in! She worked at Sheikh Zayed Private Academy who partnered with Bishop Strachan School in Toronto. This was a cutting edge school in the forefront of technology who was experimenting with the Reggio Emilia project and when Heather returned to Canada was able to see it in action. Heather spent a few years here and her career took her back to Canada. After sometime back in her home country, Heather stated that it was, “time for me to get back to all of my exploration that I did in my early career because it had progressed me so much professionally being there.” Heather made the move to the Hayat Universal Bilingual School in Doha, Qatar.

Educational Technology Roles

As a teacher at the Hayat Universal Bilingual School, alongside teaching elementary students, Heather was the Educational Technology Coordinator. Among her roles were budgeting, training teachers to use different programs, helping to manage tech support as well as supporting teachers on how to facilitate the use of the technology available to them within the school. When asked for advice for educators presenting professional development for other educators, Heather suggests:

• Be yourself when you are presenting.
• Start by saying, “I am not the expert in the room.” There can be many other experts with educational technology being such a vast topic with so many aspects. One person can't know it all, there is so much out there.
• Validate what they already know and where they are coming from. It can presented as just another tool for you to have, not the way that it has to be done. There are many different approaches to using technology.

It is evident that Heather has been successful facilitating and working with the teachers in her school as the coordinator.

The Takatuf Scholars Programme

Heather has spent two summers with the Takatuf Scholars Programme in Oman and it is one of the best experiences she has ever had. Heather works with high school students helping to prepare them for higher education and school abroad. As a team of teachers, herself and two Omani, she states that she, “brings an elementary perspective, they bring a college perspective, and we come together as a team,” to work with the students. Heather’s main role was facilitation of ed tech where they focus on the Google Apps, Google Drive, learning how to blog and maintain it and developing an eportfolio. They have also focused on different multimedia that the students can use for their final project including Google Slides, Powerpoint, video programs and different apps that students can use to present their projects. Students are also taught important tech skills as second language learners, including assessing the credibility of websites and email etiquette.

Technology with her Students

Heather most recently worked with elementary aged students and has used a range of technology with her young learners. She loves Google! Heather has used many of the Google Apps available including Earth, Drive, Email, Docs and of course as a search engine. Other apps that Heather suggests and have used are Tellagami, Explain Everything and has also experimented with augmented reality. When using technology with her students, Heather’s philosophy is that it should be a natural integration. When kids have a question they inquire into it together and they research information in the context of what they are learning. Heather stated, “it should be a combination of all of the resources we have available.”

Learning and Expertise

Although it is evident that Heather does bring expertise to the profession, she does not think so and her reasoning is a philosophy that many teachers should and do embrace- “I am a lifelong learner, I don’t know it all, I don’t consider myself to be an expert. I have lots to learn and I am excited to do it.” Heather says that we live in a world that is constantly changing and therefore, we must be constantly learning. As to how we do that, Heather believes that it is individual, just as we tailor learning for children to their individual needs. We learn from our students, we learn from our colleagues, and we learn from what we are interested in by independently going to seek out the information from different sources- we learn from everybody and everything we do. Heather also believes that we learn from someone that we connect with and that this is a trend globally in education. This is why she strives to connect with her students on a personal and individual level each and every day. She builds a classroom community where open-mindedness is promoted and an environment is created where the teacher is not the center stage, but rather, is the facilitator for the community of learners to function and learn together as a team.

What’s Next?

Heather is spending this summer in Oman before heading back to Canada again. She will be working with middle school students there. A last quote for Heather which sums up her refreshing attitude towards teaching, “Education is messy, life is messy and we all have different interests and things that we want to engage in.”

Written by Kendra Cantrell August 2016