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Consulting Description: Common Core
Consulting Description: Classroom Management


Award-winning researcher and educator Dr. Laura Elizabeth Pinto is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty, Department of Theory & Policy Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She has been teaching in faculties of education for the past decade, and working with new and seasoned members of the teaching profession with an eye to applying evidence and promising practices to their work. Dr. Pinto began her career as a school teacher, which led her to write curriculum policy for the government of Ontario. Before long, she became a policy analyst and policy manager prior to commencing her doctoral studies. She is also a Past President of the Ontario Business Educators’ Association. She received the prestigious Canadian Governor General’s Gold Medal in 2009 for her research, as well as the Odyssey Award, among other honors. She has received and been involved in large-scale research supported by sought-after Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council grants, for a decade. Dr. Pinto co-authored three Canadian textbooks and related teachers’ guides: Insights (Irwin), Business Technology Today (Nelson), and Business Connections (Prentice-Hall) and authored Curriculum Reform in Ontario: ‘Common Sense’ Policy Processes and Democratic Possibilities (University of Toronto Press). She has authored and co-authored dozens of articles in academic and professional journals. She has co-written provincial curriculum policy, and continues to provide advice to various governments on matters of education policy. She regularly delivers papers and workshops at scholarly and professional conferences both locally and internationally. Dr. Pinto is deeply committed to democracy in education, and education for critical-democracy, and is particularly interested in the role of politics, policy production, and critical thinking to democracy.

Stephanie Spares is currently a high school business teacher at Mentor College in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada. Prior to her teaching career, Stephanie spent 5 years as a leader and mentor in a teen and young adults program in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. She decided to pursue teaching after a trip to Zambia with Habitat for Humanity in 2007 and she continues to participate in builds with the organization. Her first teaching position was with a public girls’ school in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England where she taught business and economics in 2010.

Stephanie has been a member of the Ontario Business Educators Association (OBEA) since 2011 and participates in the Chartered Accountants of Ontario Teacher Colleague Program. During the school year, Stephanie is involved in leading her school’s Sprott Business Competition (SBC) team and the D.E.C.A. group in addition to coaching at Mentor College.

Laura M. Driscoll is a Business Studies and Accounting teacher with the Toronto District School Board in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Laura has extensive experience remodelling lessons. She has used these techniques to increase student engagement in her own classroom. The strategies included in this book have been beneficial in adapting mandated curriculum requirements for all students, including those at-risk and with special education needs.

Laura has always had a passion for both learning and helping others learn, which led her to pursue her Bachelor of Education from OISE at the University of Toronto. She is an Ontario Certified Teacher and also a member of the Ontario Business Educators’ Association (OBEA). In addition to helping coach volleyball and track and field, Laura has participated in developing curriculum resources for outside organizations and securing and implementing grants for financial literacy education at her home school. Laura enjoys travelling, skiing, camping, biking and is an avid reader.