My name is Hannah Winsnes and I reside in Red Deer, Alberta but I have also lived in Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Winnipeg, Camrose, and Edmonton. My husband and I just celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary and our only child got married this past spring. Some things about me are I have never had a coffee, I did a brief stint in the Navy after I graduated high school, I have not had any animal meat for over 30 years, I love kayaking down the river, a perfect evening is sitting on the patio with my husband drinking a glass of red wine, but any day is a good one if I am with my family laughing!

My educational background is quite varied.  I grew up disliking school and some would say it is a miracle that I have ended up where I am now.  I was older when I went back to school and started my career as an educational assistant in a foundations classroom. I loved this role and how I could help but I wanted to extend my reach so I went back to school and earned my bachelor of education graduating at 40.  I worked for a few years in mainstream teaching but then found myself in an administrative role of inclusion coach for many years.  In this role, I helped to develop programs and shift thinking about the value and support to create a diverse classroom to meet the needs of all students.  Last year, I left the public school system and now teach at our local college in the Educational Assistant and Bachelor of Education program with my focus being on developing inclusive environments.

I completed a distance post-diploma from Athabasca University and as well as completing my first. year of distance learning with Thompson Rivers last year. My first experience with online learning was during COVID-19 and I would classify this as ‘triage’ teaching.  I taught one online course last spring for the college and will be teaching one again in 2024.  However, my primary experience is heavily focused on face-to-face education and not online. I am looking forward to learning strategies to apply to my classroom to develop a rich distance-learning environment for my future students.