Chey Cheney

I am excited, humbled and proud to share that we were recently honoured with the prestigious Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, where, along with 20 other educators from across the country, we were distinguished for our contributions to teaching and learning.

🙌🏻❤️🇨🇦

We did a thing @pavwander.bsky.social 🙌🏻

A headshot of Chey Cheney and Pawan Kaur Wander.

A headshot of Stephen Wong.

A headshot of Keith Hoare.

A headshot of Julie Found.

Each year, the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence celebrate educators who go above and beyond.

Congratulations to our five educators, Chey Cheney, Julie Found, Keith Hoare, Pawan Kaur Wander, and Stephen Wong, for being this year’s recipients!

Learn more: bit.ly/3KqPMsJ

On ETT Teacher Talk, Betty Zhang shares why designing your own lessons fuels creativity & helps students connect to learning in new ways! 🎨

Listen 🎧 where you listen

#TeacherTalk 🎙️

🥇 From the classroom to the page, Amplifying Our Practice has always been about celebrating the real, everyday brilliance of educators.

Today, we are so honoured to win the 2025 ETFO Writers Award!

Thank you, ETFO!

🙌🏽🙌🏻❤️📚 #TeacherVoices #ETFOAward

The grade 8s are making great progress constructing the school and playground in Minecraft for our latest Geography unit.

The likeness is astonishing and one group add me as the school “guardian”, exceptionally clever and humbling

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All these platforms have evolved into something I no longer recognize.

My feed seldom has people I follow in it.

We built these race cars 🚘 with our STEAM TEAM, and my room is running out of quality space to display them, so we got clever and maximized this space just below the ceiling!

There are still tons of 👀 looking and fingers pointing as they say their projects are on the wall!

Thank you, Tim.🙏🏻

🚀 Our Grade 8s just dropped their Genius Hour websites — and WOW!

From F1 racing to poetry, makeup tutorials to beat-making, cooking tips to new languages... these webpages are full of passion, purpose, and personality!

💻🔥 #GeniusHour #StudentVoice

If only my high school and elementary teachers could see me now!

From a “behaviour class” and English grade 12 dropout to an award-winning writer.

Some of us are late bloomers in the academic space - and for that reason, this award brings me great pride!

🥇 From the classroom to the page, Amplifying Our Practice has always been about celebrating the real, everyday brilliance of educators.

Today, we are so honoured to win the 2025 ETFO Writers Award! Thank you, ETFO! ✊📚 #TeacherVoices #ETFOAward

🏆✨ We are thrilled to share that Amplifying Our Practice has been awarded the 2025 ETFO Writers Award!

After five years of immersion in the writing process, this recognition means the world to us, and we are so proud to celebrate the voices, learning and growth of teachers everywhere. 💙📚 #ETFO

After weeks of planning, designing, and building, our Grade 8s unveiled their famous building replicas made from popsicle sticks! 🏛️🗼

The creativity, persistence, and STEAM skills on display were incredible!

#STEAMEducation #StudentBuilders

Jackie Robinson on full display in the classroom for #JackieRobinsonDay

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” JR #42

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I tip my cap 🧢 to the team, which committed to 8 practices a week for a month to improve their game and compete for a banner.

They put in the work, improved immensely, and played phenomenal volleyball. Unfortunately, we lost today in the quarter-finals to end our season.

Our Grade 8s are wrapping up Borders by Thomas King with a creative twist—designing personalized bookmarks that reflect the novel’s themes of identity, belonging, motherhood and Indigenous pride.

The artistry and insight are next level!

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Thrilled to share our Unleash Learning experience!

We dove deep into @GoogleAI's Gemini & Notebook, exploring innovative ways to bring learning to life. 🎙️

We used Gemini's AI podcast creation to craft a 10-min summary of our picture book, "The Magnificent Microphone"!

🤯

Is there a better way to start the afternoon then coffee and wedges from the grade 8s?!

Teacher life 🙌🏻

Season 3 for Episodes 7, 8 & 9 are now LIVE for the Sikh Heritage Month podcast for the
@tdsb.on.ca

Check out these awesome student-led conversations with Rosey Kaur, Tina Singh & Gurratan Singh

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1AWjrF4...

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From the field to the front doors—our students are using Minecraft to build our school and yard in pixel-perfect detail!

The project is packed with geography, math, and collaboration. The level of excitement and teamwork is unreal! 🏗️🌍 #MinecraftEDU

Our class graphic novel study of Borders has been a sensational hit. We explored themes of identity, motherhood, and perseverance.

The class culminated their learning with personalized bookmarks 🔖

Creativity activated and unlocked 🙌🏻

It was great to get back into the coaching space this March (first time post-COVID) and support a great group of motivated grade 8s in improving their volleyball 🏐 skills and knowledge!

We played great all day, finished second in our pod and earned a birth at quarter finals

Getting ready to kick off Sikh Heritage Month w/ 3 new Eps of the SHM Podcast.

This student-led series now boasts 9 episodes featuring incredible guests, amazing student talent & valuable teacher resources to support teaching & learning across the system! 🧡💙 @tdsb @TDSB_SHM

Excited to listen to Grade 8 podcast members sharing🎧🤩
🎙️organizing topics & facilitating recordings 
🎙️editing 
🎙️Host of Sikh Heritage Month Podacts 
🎙️Host on premier episode of the snack program  
Can’t wait to launch our class podcast series soon 🤩
@cheycheney.bsky.social @pavwander.bsky.social

A huge thank you to the organizers of #DigitalFluencyForum for giving us the stage to share our journey with podcasting, storytelling, and digital equity in education.

Honoured to be part of a community that values amplifying voices and meaningful innovation.

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Still buzzing from an incredible experience keynoting the #DigitalFluencyForum!

We are grateful for the chance to share our journey, connect with passionate educators, and reflect on how technology isn’t the innovation—what we do with it is.🚀🎙️

#EdTech #AmplifyVoices

Can’t wait? 📖 The English version of The Magnificent Microphone is already available on Amazon! 🛒

But if you’re looking for a free digital copy in Tamil, Urdu, or Punjabi, stay tuned—our 🚨giveaway🚨 is launching soon! 🎙️ #TheMagnificentMicrophone

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We are culminating our class novel study of Borders by Thomas King with four custom bookmarks acknowledging four critical themes the story illuminates.

We are doing a hybrid of digital and paper constructions, and students are off and running

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BIG NEWS!

We are excited to be KEYNOTING the upcoming Digital Fluency Forum with the TDSB.

As active classroom teachers, it's rare that current teacher voices are asked to Keynote educational conferences, but we are humbled by the invitation and keen to share our experiences.

🔥🙌🏽