Robyn Robertson
Honey! I'm Homeschooling the Kids!
Robyn Robertson is a fifteen-year education professional, starting as an ESL teacher before accepting a role as private school admissions director. Currently, she’s an unschooling mom of 2, podcast host, and school board trustee. You’ll often find Robyn in the middle of a group of parents and families, dialoguing about how families can improve their educational experience.Robyn is a strong advocate for natural learning. Growing up in multiple countries before age six, Robyn attended private schools from a young age. After returning to Canada, she completed her primary education in the Lethbridge public system before studying Management at the University of Lethbridge.
Her experience as a community building home-educator eventually led her to launch her podcast Honey! I’m Homeschooling the Kids, which is a platform for educating adults about the joys and challenges of home education.Today, Robyn politically advocates for home education and bridges the gaps between the homeschool community and local educators.
Alisha Brignall
INSPIRED Founding Director
Alisha is a passionate advocate for homeschooling and individualized learning options. She has 4 children and is currently home-educating her 3 oldest using an eclectic unschooling approach. She blogs at Learning From My Kids where she shares her children’s struggles and triumphs with ADHD and other learning exceptionalities. Alisha felt that when starting her own homeschooling journey 8 years ago that there was not enough support for families that were looking for secular resources, curriculum, community, or support. She and Michelle founded Inspired to make sure that going forward there is somewhere for parents like her when starting their own homeschooling lifestyle. Alisha also provides consultation and planning help for families and is currently enrolled in the 2 year after degree program at the Werklund School of Education to help further her knowledge in education.
Workshop
Planning, Organizing, Reporting…how to do it all.
Michelle Goulet
INSPIRED Co-conspirator
Michelle is an early childhood educator and special needs mom who found homeschooling after it became obvious her first child would end up surviving school, not thriving in it. She has embraced the differences in her children and their learning styles through a project/Inquiry based approach to curriculum. This includes research, documentation, experiential learning, immersion and fine arts. Her 16 years of experience as an educator has been heavily influenced by the work of Reggio Emilia, play based learning and, more recently, Forest School Canada. She is the director at Wild Child, an alternative education program that offers forest and nature school for homeschoolers in Bragg Creek, AB.
Risa Kawchuk
Home Education Specialist
Risa has homeschooled her two sons, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, for over a decade. When her boys were younger they used lots of community resources (classes, workshops, field trips, library), internet resources, DVDs, games and so on; as they got older and more clear about their educational and career goals, they added more structure, including online classes and curriculum. They have benefitted from every approach to learning, from unschooling to classical, Montessori to Charlotte Mason, keeping what works for them from these ideas and discarding the rest. She loves working as a home education manager and seeing her students’ eyes light up when they talk about their passions, and she has learned so much from her families and their experiences. Her personal interests include birdwatching, soccer, Star Trek, board and card games, and cooking.
Workshop
Homeschooling on a Budget
AnnMarie Sparks
Home Education Specialist
I am a long-time homeschooling parent of five children. With my oldest four now graduated, and my youngest off to Bishop Carroll for his high school years, this will be the first time in twenty years that I will not be homeschooling. Although our family’s homeschool journey is coming to an end, I appreciate the close family connections, flexible schedule, and travel opportunities that the homeschooling lifestyle has allowed us. I am thrilled to continue working as a home education manager for Willow Home Ed and following along on the homeschooling journeys of the families I have the pleasure of supervising. I am a big proponent of child-led or delight-directed learning and have a passion for supporting families and encouraging students to follow their passions and achieve their goals. I enjoy reading, gardening, and travel, especially family road trips and cruise ships.
Workshop
Homeschooling on a Budget
Mandi Sharkey
Neurodiversity Specialist for E.P.I.C. Consulting Collaborative
Learning Coordinator for E2@Home
Mandi Sharkey is an advocate, certified trainer and educator committed to helping care teams and families in the neurodiverse community access the tools for more success with less stress. She has supported homeschoolers since 2010 and loves working as an advocate for all forms of inclusion. Her presentations cover Natural Play Therapy, Low Arousal and Proactive-style communication.
Workshops
Making Your Interests Fit the Curriculum
Behaviour IS Communication
Hanna Stroud
My Literacy Space
Hanna has operated a private tutoring and consulting company in Calgary, Alberta since 2008. Her background as a Special Educational Assistant and Literacy Assistant for the Calgary Board of Education for over twelve years has enabled her to work with students with a variety of learning styles and abilities in one-on-one, small group and classroom settings. She is also a National Trainer for Reading with TLC™, a program designed to improve reading skills. She has worked with Lively Letters since 2008 and witnessed how quickly her students have developed phonemic awareness and phonics skills because of the multisensory approach that is used by this program. This approach incorporates imagery, hand and body cues, oral kinesthetic cues, music, humorous stories and mnemonics (memory tricks). Students are able to use their strongest modes of learning to access and hold on to the information they need to acquire and have fun while they are learning.
Workshop
Create and Motivate Readers - Tips, Tricks and Reading Games
Monica Truong
Founder - Chinook Free Learners Coop
Monica has lived and traveled in 4 countries teaching english and is an architectural technologist who is passionate about truly sustainable homes, cities and communities. She decided to unschool her 2 daughters, and the local homeschool community gained an energetic, creative lady who immediately started a homeschool First Lego League Team, the Chinook Free Learners Coop, and recently did 2 family road trips to attend conferences on democratic schooling and unschooling in Oregon. Monica enjoys camping with her daughters (even in winter), is a voracious reader, and loves to create events for the homeschool community.
Workshop
Self-Directed Learning From the Trenches
Math Ease - Math as Easy as 1-2-3
Lyndsay Prasad
Teacher Turned Homeschooler
Lyndsay Prasad is a former high school teacher and post-secondary instructor/curriculum developer. She recently completed her first year as a homeschool parent after pulling her children from public school last year. As a teacher-turned-homeschool-mom, she very quickly realized the importance of the de-schooling process, not only for her children, but also for herself.
Lyndsay has an M.A. in Writing and is a strong believer in lifelong learning. Her areas of educational interest include literacy and writing pedagogy, inquiry based learning, technology in education, study skills, fiction writing, travel writing, and service learning. She also has a keen interest in outdoor education, based on her former employment as the director of youth services for the Lethbridge YMCA, where she oversaw children’s sports & recreation programs and ran a residential summer camp in Waterton Lakes National Park.
Lyndsay loves to research curriculum materials and resources while drinking copious amounts of caffeine. She regularly ditches school in favour of field trips.
Workshop
From School to Deschool to Cool: The first transition is one of mindset, and other beginning homeschool challenges.
Kirstie McLeod
Homelearning Advocacy and Support Association of Alberta (formerly AHEPS)
Kirstie McLeod is the President of the Homelearning Advocacy and Support Association of Alberta (formerly AHEPS), an inclusive secular homeschooling association that seeks to advocate for, support and connect homeschoolers across Alberta. The mother of four kids, she has been homeschooling for a decade now, both in BC and in Alberta. Kirstie has two undergraduate degrees, one in English and one in Microbiology (or as it is now called, “Cellular Molecular and Microbial Biology”) – a foot in each of the arts and the sciences, and too little time to pursue either at the moment. Because of her experience as a mom of special needs kids, she is a huge advocate of flexible learning practices, integrated emotional learning, and leading to a learner’s strengths.
Workshops
Traditional vs. School-Directed - Pros and Cons
Secular Curriculm Resources
Marina Gabor
Summit Writing Academy
Marina worked as a fourth-grade classroom teacher in Thailand for two years before meeting her husband, Paul, and starting their family together. Marina started homeschooling her three daughters in 2013 and hasn't looked back.Prior to developing Summit Writing Academy's dynamic writing curriculum, she tutored Classical Conversations' Essentials class. Marina's love of learning, teaching, and watching others learn is evident in her dynamic teaching style.In 2017, Marina co-founded Summit Writing Academy with Reuben Thiessen to offer a fully integrated learning platform which would support their vision of creating confident writers and thinkers.
Be expected to participate with some simple tests and physical exercises!
Workshop
Five Keys to Developing a Writing Habit
Stacey Piercey
IT Entrepreneur
Stacey worked in the IT industry for 20 years in start-ups as a developer, web producer and usability specialist before leaving to homeschool her 3 boys. She currently works as a freelance writer specializing in technology, web usability and entrepreneurship.
Workshop
Samantha MacLeod
Creatively MisAligned Homeschool
A true multipotentialite and returning INSPIRED speaker, Samantha MacLeod has been actively engaged in child development, politics and is currently the
Past-President of Homelearning Advocacy and Support Association of Alberta (formerly AHEPS). A leader in the home education community in Alberta, this is her 9th year homeschooling her 5 kids ranging in age from six to sixteen. You can find her at Creatively Misaligned Homeschool, a youtube channel she created which details her experiences as a homeschool parent. When not engaged in running a business, politics, her community, vlogging or homeschooling, she also knits, and makes mead.
Workshops
From School to Deschool to Cool: The first transition is one of mindset, and other beginning homeschool challenges.