Derek Ford

Background

About Derek Ford

I am a skilled and enthusiastic K-12 Educator with a passion for helping children develop into responsible and capable future citizens. My teaching experience includes the exploration of skills related to the British Columbia and Ontario public school curriculums. I have a personal and professional passion for environmental education, the social sciences, and literacy as fundamental building blocks of successful course planning and in the development of life long learning. With over several years of experience working with youth in summer camp and school settings, my career has included roles as an Inclusion Support Worker, and Inclusion Coordinator for the Town of Milton. These roles have provided me with the necessary skills to engage a variety of individuals and have transitioned into my teaching career as ways to provide Universal Designs for Learning. Camp Carolinian was built from the passion of multiple decades' worth of outdoor learning in Ontario. I have been working with youth in the Halton Region since 2011, while growing up on a small rural property in Milton, Ontario; sharing a connection with the outdoors. With over a decade of summer camp experience, the idea for Camp Carolinian started from a diversity of municipal summer camp experiences and a passion for learning from the great outdoors. Whether it is through teaching, connecting with youth during summer camp, or going for a nature-based walk through my local community, I work each day to integrate personal, professional and pedagogical ways of living into my own experiences to support my own well being and development as a lifelong learner.