Josephine Jones

Elementary Humanities Teacher

Josephine has been teaching for five years since graduating from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Education degree. She specialized in curriculum instruction and has taught grade one to nine throughout her teaching career. She was first hired by the Surrey School District, where she had the opportunity to teach grade six French immersion. The following year, she worked in the Indigenous community of Ulukhaktok, NWT, where she taught grade six to nine English, social studies, health, and art. Josephine had a ton of fun learning about the Inuit culture and being immersed in the Indigenous ways of living. She enjoyed creating experiential learning opportunities that align both with the curriculum and with the students’ Inuit culture. These learning experiences included going out on the land, ice fishing, hunting, ice collecting, igloo building, and storytelling. Josephine enjoyed inviting elders of the community to join the classroom for cultural activities such as storytelling, sewing mittens and slippers, drum dancing, and preparing traditional foods from the land. On the weekends, she enjoyed spending time with the staff, fishing, hiking with her two dogs, snowmobiling, learning Arctic sports, and playing board games. After two years of teaching up North, she moved to Alberta and joined the team at Tanbridge Academy.

As an educator, Josephine is a strong believer that meaningful learning takes place when students can apply their ideas in the real world in an experimental way. She incorporates hands-on learning experiences in her classroom, as she finds this is when her students learn best. Josephine prioritizes student movement breaks throughout the day. Her lessons include scavenger hunts around the classroom, four-corner debates and different activities that involve moving around the class. Josephine believes in facilitating a passion for learning. Josephine focuses on inclusivity in her classroom in order for her students to feel a sense of belonging. Josephine enjoys facilitating group projects and activities where students can work together as a team to achieve the same goal. Her classroom is a socially and emotionally healthy community, which also acts as a safe place for thoughts, conversations, and questions. Josephine facilitates many opportunities for students to share their learning and practice their socializing skills with one another. She believes it is the responsibility of educators to build resilience, perseverance, and a passion for learning within their students.

What Josephine loves about Tanbridge is the strong sense of community between students, staff, administrators, and parents/guardians. This community works towards the same goal of helping every student find success. She loves that Tanbridge is full of spirit, leadership, and experimental learning, as students have opportunities to participate in spirit days, present assemblies and concerts, and collaborate with other classes. Josephine appreciates that Tanbridge also recognizes the importance of sport, not only for physical health but also for developing communication, teamwork, and goal-setting skills. She enjoys that Tanbridge allows students to have choices, follow their passions, and make an impact on the world around them.