AIM Presenters

Program Creator

Wendy Maxwell (M.A.) has 20 years of teaching experience, as both a Core French and immersion teacher. She is the author of Histoires en action !, Jeunesse en action !, Stories in Action! and seven volumes of plays. She has also co-written dozens of songs with her husband, Matt. She has developed a major breakthrough in second language instruction, and is the recipient of a 1999 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2004 H.H. Stern Award. She has made appearances on Radio-Canada (CBC), CityTV (Vancouver), the Vicky Gabereau Show and the Europe-wide TV5. Wendy has given workshops in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.

Presenters

Dan Bart (B.A., B.Ed.) has been teaching French since 1990 and has used been an AIM teacher since 2003. Now in his twelfth year at Island Public School on Toronto Island, Dan was one of the first Toronto District School Board teachers to implement AIM in the public system. Many current AIM teachers have visited Dan in his classroom to get their first taste of AIM in action. Since 2005, Dan has presented workshops in Ontario and New Brunswick.

Shannon Bourbonnais (M.Ed) is the AIM Curriculum Services Consultant for Western Canada, and is a French language consultant at York House School and teaches after-school AIM programs.

Shannon has been featured in AIM videos. She has facilitated workshops across North America and has appeared on TV and on the radio, demonstrating how the AIM works.

Ann Chiasson (B.A., M.A.) has been teaching in French immersion settings for 14 years. For the past four years, Ann has had great success using AIM with her Kindergarten students. Ann has presented AIM workshops across North America.

She also has opened her classroom doors to many visiting teachers wishing to see the AIM in action.

Tim Dittrick is a Middle Years Basic French Teacher at Henry G. Izatt School in Winnipeg. He has been using AIM’s Histoires en action! for the last two years. While implementing this revolutionary new methodology, students not only began to enjoy, understand and use French, they also started to take French out of the classrooms to their own homes. So exciting was this process that consultants from the Department of Education of Manitoba recently came to observe this new, exciting approach to teaching Basic French. Currently Tim does all he can to inspire and support Basic French teachers using AIM.

Sylvia Duckworth teaches elementary core French at Crescent School in Toronto, and has been using AIM since 2000. She teaches at a boys-only school and never ceases to be amazed by the levels of fluency her students attain with AIM. Sylvia has trained AIM teachers across Canada, in the U.S., and in Holland. She also specializes in how IT can be incorporated into the AIM program. She and her students love to receive visitors who want to see AIM in action. She can be reached at sduckworth@crescentschool.org .

Catherine AR Gillion (M.Ed). Catherine has been involved in Education for over 30 years as a teacher in the Public, Independent and Montessori School Systems. She has taught Core French from Pre-school through to Grade 8 (Middle School). In 2004, she joined her enthusiastic colleagues in piloting the AIM program in Middle School. Inspired by the response of her students, she took up the challenge of implementing and teaching the AIM program for Grades 6, 7 and 8 in an independent Middle School upon moving to Langley, British Columbia. Catherine hopes to continue to introduce, assist and encourage Core French teachers in the use of AIM.

Carolyn Huber (B.Ed). Carolyn received her Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan in 1991. She has been teaching Core French for 15 years and has been using the AIM program since April 2005. Presently, she is teaching in a small rural K-9 Catholic school in Saskatchewan where she is responsible for teaching Core French to students from grade 1 to 9.

Karen Oraas (M.Ed.) began using the AIM in 2001 and has since used it with students in the public and private sectors from kindergarten to grade eight. Currently, Karen teaches core French in grades six to eight at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, BC. Most recently, Karen has collaborated with Wendy Maxwell in the writing of Jeunesse en action!, the new program for junior high students. She enjoys giving workshops to inspire teachers and to show them all that students are capable of achieving in a core French class.

Edite Sammons (B.Ed) has taught core French since 1980 in both the public and independent school systems.In 1999, Edite was the first teacher to pilot the AIM in her grade one core French classes at Havergal College, Toronto and was subsequently awarded the Havergal Chair for Teaching Innovation in 2001. For several years now, Edite has been an AIM presenter, giving workshops across North America and Holland. Currently, Edite teaches French full time using the AIM at The Country Day School in King City, Ontario.

Robert Slabodnik (M.I.T.) has been teaching high school French for 12 years in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Robert has been using the AIM for three years and also teaches AP French Language. Robert was recognized as a "Top Teacher of Puget Sound" in 2001 and recently taught in France on a Fulbright Academic Exchange through the U.S. State Department. The National Endowment for the Humanities selected him to be a "visiting scholar" for their 2008 seminar on French culture.

A graduate from the Univeristy of Ottawa, Richard Smith has been teaching Core French for the Ottawa-Carleton District School board since 1999. He established himself as an energetic teacher prepared to employ innovative methods of instructions which he did in 2004. He discovered the Accelerative Integrated Method and has never looked back. From kindergarten to Grade 8, success was immediate with his students. Motivating, challenging and inspiring young minds at Hawthorne Public School became a fun and engaging experience for all. Since 2005, Richard has been giving AIM workshops across Canada, Yukon and in Europe (France). In June 2008, he was hired by his board as a half-time AIM Instructional Coach. Drawing on many years of experience with AIM, Richard’s passion pushes him to continue advising and coaching teachers on ways to achieve the same success.

Emma Tilbury (B.A. M.Ed.). Emma loves teaching a variety of ages and abilities. It’s like being on stage with a captive - at least most times - audience. In her third year at Crestwood School she was made Head of the French Department and is now responsible for hiring new teachers, planning and implementation of the curriculum, and mentoring. She enjoys having teachers from other schools spending time in her room watching the AIM in action.

Renée L. Villeneuve is the Junior French teacher at Havergal College for girls in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Arts specializing in the French language as well as a Bachelor in Education (Cum Laude). She has taught French using the Accelerative Integrated Method Program (AIM) since
2003 at the primary/junior and intermediate levels. She also taught at The York House School for girls in Vancouver where this revolutionary approach of second language teaching was developed.

Renée is now a consultant for AIM Language Learning Inc. and is looking forward to
working with all future AIMers.

Laurie Faber has been involved as a teacher and mentor in French as a Second Language programs for Edmonton Public Schools for over 20 years. She has taught using the audio-lingual, communicative and thematic approaches. Laurie learned about the Accelerated Integrated Method while working on her Master's of Education degree and studying Multiple Intelligence theory. The AIM has revolutionized the way she teaches FSL; she has found that this methodology is theoretically sound and dramatically improves student L2 development in all language domains. Laurie is a certified AIM facilitator.