Sheila Cavanagh

Background

About Sheila Cavanagh

After teaching in Ontario we moved to BC where I worked for several years in a small community north of Whistler at Sk’il’ Mountain Community School. For ten years I worked in the Northwest Territories. I developed the curriculum and ran the Bush School at Francois Lake, an alternative on-the-land program, integrating core subjects with traditional Dene on the land skills and culture. Until 2015 I worked as Principal at Lutsel K’e Dene School in Lutsel K’e, a fly-in community on the east arm of Great Slave Lake. I learned many traditional skills from the elders - skinning and cleaning caribou, making dry meat, fish, preparing sinew, and beading and sewing hide. In 2007 under the South Slave Divisional Education Council, we implemented the Leadership for Literacy Initiative. A full time Literacy Coach and extensive PD on research-based best practices rapidly increased literacy levels and in 2009 the LK Leadership Team was awarded the SSDEC Excellence in Education Award in 2009.In 2012 I completed the MET program at UBC in Vancouver. I designed on line, cross-curricular courses integrating project-based learning and critical thinking skills integrating new technologies to support student learning and teaching. During three years at Kitasoo Community School in Klemtu, a BC central coast community near the Great Bear Rainforest, we worked to integrate the XaisXai language and culture and the resources of nature and community into the core curriculum. We also hosted David Hodges and the N'we Jinan team at the school. Students created a huge mural for the school library and wrote and recorded a song which they performed at UBC, Vancouver with groups from other schools that had recorded songs that year - awesome performance by the students!For the past year I was Principal/teacher at Rosie Seymour Elementary School a K-10 school in Canoe Creek, BC. We successfully participated in the School Assessment process with FNESC in May 2019. We held a Culture Day with several other schools featuring many traditional activities for students- medicine making, crafts and some traditional foods.