PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

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Chris Castellarin has taught full-time in the public education system in British Columbia, Canada for 29 years consecutively. During his teaching career he has at some point or other taught every grade group between Kindergarten and Grade 5. But most of those years were focused on teaching students in Grade 1. Chris also spent a couple of years part way through his teaching career as an acting vice-principal and as a resource teacher with a focus on early intervention in literacy. 

 

Chris is the co-author of the Active Friends Peer Mediated Friendship Groups Manual with Dr. Nancy Bradshaw (PhD). He is also the creator and host of a locally broadcast television show on Rogers Spotlight Community TV network channel 4 in the Cowichan Valley and Victoria called Lessons from the Classroom. In addition, Chris has a YouTube channel with over 1500 educational videos that receive on average 30,000 views a month. Lastly, his website EarlyGradeLessons.com is used by thousands of Grade One classroom teachers, educators and parents globally.

Chris holds a Master’s in Education degree from the University of British Columbia. A Diploma in Education from Latrobe University in Melbourne Australia and a Bachelor of Arts degree and Certificate of Liberal Arts from Simon Fraser University.

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EDUCATIONAL and PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

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Masters Degree in Education – 2007 UBC, Vancouver, Canada

Thesis focus on the multilingual classroom and social justice for “English as an Additional Language” (EAL/ESL/ELL) students. Subsequently, three UBC professors have used my research and data during formal presentations and referred to my findings in their own published works. A copy of my published thesis Multilingual Students in Monolingual Schools: Enhancing the Status of ESL Students can be located online at http://einsights.ogpr.educ.ubc.ca/v14n01/articles/castellarin/index.html on the Educational Insights website.

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Diploma in Education – 1994 La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

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Bachelor of Arts and Certificate of Liberal Arts – 1993 SFU, Burnaby, Canada.

 

 

                  

VARIOUS LEADERSHIP ROLES

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Although having taught in the Cowichan Valley School District for six years now, I have been an Elementary School Teacher for the past 29 years from 1995 to present. Most of my career has been in Vancouver (for over 22 years) where I started teaching, although I have a bit of teaching experience in Melbourne Australia as well.

 

Created a 40-week Grade One thematic program with a cross reference guide of grade-level literature, audiovisual resources, posters, props, musical activities and black-line master worksheets. This was to later be developed into the educational website titled Early Grade Lessons dot com

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Created an extensive Grade One Phonics and Spelling/Word Family program using Smart Notebook software and then afterwards using the Wix website development program.

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Developed an online Primary Grades Visual Guide and Storybooks (with over 80 storybooks) Teacher Resource for Student Self-Reflections.

 

Proficient in the use of Interactive White Board technology, website design, videotography, film editing and iPad lessons.

 

During my time with the Vancouver School Board I was an active school member of the School Emergency Response Team (SERT). Trained in First Aid and Search and Rescue techniques. Currently serve as the in-school Health and Safety Rep. for the CVTU. 

 

Implemented dual/first language and multi-language books for use in the classroom, as well as multi-modal literacy formats and modelled the practices through in-service workshops.

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OTHER LEADERSHIP ROLES

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Head Teacher – 2007-2008, Queen Elizabeth Elementary 2017-2018 Carnarvon Elementary.

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Acting Vice Principal – General Wolfe Elementary January 2010 – December 2010.

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Acting Vice Principal - Queen Elizabeth Elementary May - June 2009.

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In-Service Leader - teaching numerous Pro-D sessions on the curriculum areas of Early Literacy, Social Responsibility and Classroom Technology.

 

School Advisor to numerous Pre-Service (Student) Teachers.

 

Co-wrote, formatted and printed manual of the Peer-Mediated Friendship Program, “Active Friends,” which was implemented at General Wolfe for several years and then developed as an in-service program delivered by the VSB as a series of professional development sessions.

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Author of a “quick scale” rubric for Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) kits to assess student grade-levels/expectations.

 

Author of a VSB Student Safety Plan, in use by some schools within the VSB as well as by Vancouver Coastal Health.

 

Resided on a District/Provincial committee to review and give formal feedback to the Red Cross’s updated version of the CARE Kit for Sexual Abuse Prevention.

 

Resided on a District committee to review and give formal feedback on the updated version of the Second Step kits.

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Author of the online Student Self-Reflection of Core Competencies Visual Guide for Early Primary in addition, to the performance scale student self-reflection worksheets. A link to the website is at https://www.corecompetencyvisualguide.com/ 

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Creator, Producer and Host of the TV show Lessons from the Classroom broadcast on Roger's non-profit Spotlight community station channel 4 on Vancouver Island.

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Creator, Producer of the YouTube Channel Mr. C. The Teacher with over 1500 educational videos.

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Through research we know that a child's brain is still developing right into their teens and possibly beyond. Many times I have witnessed students excel with a real talent in an area such as reading or math having developed rote memory of number facts or sight-words and decoding skills only to level off in their ability in the older grades. So while rote memory skills are important in areas of math facts and sight-words I also place a great deal of importance on kids being able to prove their work. Developing a child's divergent thinking skills, creativity and problem solving skills are equally important if not more so. For more information on following your child's cognitive abilities look into the concepts of Executive Function instead of concerning yourself with the outdated concepts of Intelligence Quotients, There are some good books available from the public library such as Smart but Scattered by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare.