Canadian classrooms are a microcosm of Canada’s diverse society, and educational assistants play a vital role in helping all students feel valued, capable, and included. The Educational Assistant’s Guide to Supporting Inclusion in a Diverse Society uses case studies and examples to present an accessible, practical guide to acquiring the key skills and knowledge you need to be an effective, professional enhancement to the classroom.

Topics include:

• The many and varied roles and responsibilities of EAs
• Ethical duties of EAs
• Effective advocacy techniques
• The role of reflective practice in solving problems
• Building relationships and communicating with students, parents, teachers, and school administrators
• Recent research on the brain, self-esteem, resilience theory, and multiple intelligences
• The importance of an individualized, holistic approach to student learning
• Universal Design for Learning, and strategies for differentiating academic and social learning
• Techniques for observation and documentation
• Positive guidance strategies for challenging behaviours

Carole Massing began her career as an elementary school teacher and developed a special interest in early learning when her own children were small. Since that time, she has taught in post-secondary programs at MacEwan University, the University of Alberta, and NorQuest College. She has also consulted, researched, and developed curriculum in early learning and child care, interculturalism, and human service administration. Carole teaches in the Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration program at MacEwan University. She earned her PhD in elementary education at the University of Alberta.

Carole Massing's profile page

Bonnie Anderson began her teaching career as an educational assistant and went on to work as a classroom teacher for three decades. She worked primarily with children with exceptionalities in inclusive and specialized programs. Bonnie developed and coordinated a very successful arts-based program at her school. She now teaches at NorQuest College in the Educational Assistant program and the Early Learning and Child Care program, and has just developed the curriculum for a new program for EAs.

Bonnie Anderson's profile page

Carol Anderson has pursued a diverse career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and dance writer. Her writing includes numerous articles on Canadian dance, the biography Judy Jarvice Dance Artist: A Portrait (1993), a look at Canadian dance near the millennium entitled Chasing the Tale of Contemporary Dance (1999), and This Passion: For the Love of Dance (1998), an anthology of original Canadian dance writing that she compiled and edited. Her most recent book is Unfold: A Portrait of Peggy Baker (Dance Collection Danse Press/Presse 2008). Anderson is a former artistic director of Toronto's Dancemakers, of which she was a founding member. She has danced for over twenty years and continues to teach, choreograph, and perform selectively. Born in New York City, Joysanne Sidimus studied under George Balanchine at the School of American Ballet, subsequently joining the choreographer's New York City Ballet. She later performed as a Soloist with London's Festival Ballet and as a Principal Dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada.
Joysanne Sidimus is the founder of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre as well as the founding Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Artists' Health Centre Foundation, which created the Artists' Health Centre, a comprehensive health care facility for artists at Toronto Western Hospital, and the Project Director of the Senior Artists' Research Project, examining the difficulties faced by Canada's senior artists. In 2003, she was awarded the Governor General's Meritorious Service Medal. In 2006, Ms. Sidimus received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Carol Anderson's profile page