Sylvia Hannah Sinclaire began her educational career as a grade two teacher. In her first few weeks of teaching, she encountered students who struggled with reading and had difficulty remembering how to spell words. Sylvia began to research why this happens for some individuals. She has spent nearly fifty years thinking about and learning how to assist students to become proficient, accurate readers, spellers, and writers. Sylvia has taught in classroom, small group, and clinical settings, with students from five to fifty-five years. As well, she worked as a Reading Specialist/Consultant in a large Alberta school district assessing students’ literacy needs and designing appropriate interventions. Sylvia opened and was the director of private educational clinics in Edmonton and Victoria, B.C. She worked with the Learning Disabilities Association of Alberta assisting in the development of the “Reading Readiness Screening Tool” and in designing workshops and an online course using this tool for the identification of and intervention with children at-risk of reading difficulties in kindergarten and grade one. Sylvia is the author of the teaching manual “Why Your Child Can’t Read And Spell And What YOU Can Do About It” and decodable books entitled, “Phonemic Awareness and Sequencing (PAS) Stories”, which accompany the “Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech”.
Kelly has spent her educational career supporting students with a variety of needs and supporting staff building instructional strategies. She wanted to know more about how students learn and why they had difficulty learning...so back to school she went! As a teacher and a Reading Specialist, Kelly holds a Masters degree from the University of Alberta in the area of language and literacy development and specialized assessment. She built her knowledge of UDL through her work at the University of Manitoba. Her work as a Consultant supported teachers in building inclusive practice in all divisions. She has in-depth experience doing professional development, with a focus on instructional strategies and implementation of such strategies. She has taught pre-service teachers at the University of Alberta for the past year. Kelly's joy has been found in supporting staff in the use of research-based strategies that make teaching and learning intentional and meaningful.