1998–2002
BA (Honours), English
University of Victoria
An academic foundation in language, literature, research, and close reading, including honours work connected to Indigenous learning.
Thinking Practice · Nanaimo, BC
Ryann McQuarrie
Educator. Learner. Writer.
Teaching begins with noticing.
01
About
Pathway to teaching
My work has always involved helping people understand.
I did not begin in a classroom, but much of my work has always been educational in function. After earning a BA (Honours) in English and completing coursework in UVic’s Secondary Education Professional Development Program, I spent many years in communications, digital production, and project leadership. Those roles taught me to identify an audience, clarify a purpose, organize complex information, and create resources people could actually use.
Returning to education—as an Education Assistant, after-school program builder, and casual Computer Assisted Learning Tutor—did not replace that earlier expertise; it gave it a new purpose. I now use the same habits to support learners, collaborate with families and colleagues, translate research into practice, and continue toward BC teacher certification.
20+years making complex information usable
BAHonours in English, University of Victoria
PDPSecondary Education coursework completed
Graduatestudies in Literacy, Language and Learning
02
Before the classroom
Before the classroom
The work changed.
The way I think did not.
Before I designed learning materials, classroom systems, and literacy resources, I spent many years designing communication.
Across writing, digital production, project management, web publishing, and client service, the settings changed but the central question remained remarkably consistent:
Who is this for, and what will help them understand?
That question now shapes how I approach education. My earlier career taught me to translate complexity, anticipate where people may become lost, organize many moving parts, and make ideas useful.
The through-line
The medium changed. The questions remained.
Before the classroom
- Who is the audience?
- What do they need to understand?
- Where might they become confused?
- What structure will guide them?
- What should they be able to do next?
- How will the work improve through feedback?
In the classroom
- Who is the learner?
- What do they already understand?
- Where might the task create friction?
- What scaffold will support entry?
- What meaningful action should follow?
- What does observation tell me to revise?
I did not leave my earlier expertise behind when I entered education. I began applying it to learning.
Selected earlier contexts
Universities and digital humanitiesMuseums and cultural organizationsTechnology and professional servicesNonprofits and community initiativesTourism, publishing, and public-facing organizationsIndependent writing, editing, and web production
Contributed writing, project management, web support, account service, or content development in settings including the University of Victoria, Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Pacific Opera Victoria, Ocean Networks Canada, and the Vancouver Island School of Innovation and Inquiry.
Reflection
Not a previous life
For a long time, I described my move into education as a career change. I now see much more continuity.
I had already spent years asking how ideas move from one person to another: listening for ambiguity, anticipating misunderstanding, organizing information, revising through feedback, and creating resources that had to work beyond the room in which they were made.
Education changed the purpose of that work. The people I was designing for were now learners, families, and colleagues, and the consequences of getting it right felt much more immediate.
I used to design websites, campaigns, stories, and systems. Now I use many of the same strategies to create clearer explanations, stronger supports, more usable resources, and better conditions for participation and learning.
The work did not disappear. It found a more meaningful application.
See this through-line in practice
Family literacy resource designMaking Early Literacy Research Accessible to Families →Program and staff resource designDesigning a Literacy-Rich After-School Program →Onboarding, systems, and procedural designDesigning an Adaptable CALT Quickstart Guide →Concise advocacy and visual communicationMaking Neurodivergent Masking Visible →03
Education & experience
Education & experience
A career built through communication,
education, and continued learning.
Post-degree study
Secondary Education Professional Development Program
University of Victoria
Completed the Secondary Education PDP coursework; currently exploring the most appropriate pathway to complete BC teacher certification.
1999 onward
Communications, writing, digital production & project leadership
Public, academic, and private-sector work
Worked across universities, agencies, nonprofits, technology, culture, tourism, and community organizations. Roles included professional writing, project and client management, web publishing, content strategy, and resource development. Across those settings, the work required the same core skills: understand the audience, clarify the purpose, organize complexity, and make information usable.
Explore Before the Classroom →2023–present
Computer Assisted Learning Tutor (casual/on-call)
SD68 secondary schools · Island ConnectEd
Working across SD68 secondary schools and Island ConnectEd broadened my practice into distance and independent learning. I support students in navigating coursework, technology, progress, and connection, and created a district CALT training manual to help orient newly hired tutors.
Recent practice
Education Assistant & program builder
Elementary classrooms and school-age care
Supported diverse learners in elementary classrooms and school-age care through literacy intervention, co-regulation, visual supports, behaviour support, small-group learning, and inclusive classroom routines.
Current learning
Literacy, Language and Learning
Graduate studies
Connecting structured literacy, language comprehension, assessment, executive functioning, and inclusive education with classroom practice and resource development.
04
Classroom practice
Classroom practice
Four practices that shape
how I work with learners.
Making complexity usable
My communications background taught me that knowing something is not enough; information has to be organized and explained in a form another person can actually use.
In education, that means translating research, instructions, routines, and expectations into language and resources that make sense to learners, families, and colleagues.
- Family literacy resources
- CALT resource development
- Professional-learning materials
- Clear explanations for learners
Beginning with the learner
I try to begin with what the learner is already showing me: what they understand, where they hesitate, what overwhelms them, and what helps them enter the work.
From there, I can adjust the explanation, structure, representation, choice, or level of support rather than assuming the learner should simply adapt to the task.
- Differentiated classroom materials
- Visual schedules and choice systems
- Multilingual and family-facing literacy resources
- Resources for diverse public audiences
Creating structure that holds
Learners benefit when the systems around them are predictable enough to reduce unnecessary effort.
Visual schedules, documentation, routines, long-range planning, and clear shared resources help create continuity across people, settings, and days—especially when a learner needs more than one adult to support them.
- After-school program planning
- CALT resource development
- Long-range literacy planning
- Classroom documentation and continuity systems
- Project coordination across teams
Writing for action
Words should help someone know what to do next.
In educational settings, a sentence may clarify a task, reduce anxiety, preserve dignity, invite a family into partnership, or help a learner understand what is happening and why.
- Social stories
- Family communication
- Staff-facing guidance
- Assessment and instructional language
Open examples
01Open example →
Literacy
Structured literacy, phonological awareness, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and research translated into practical resources for teachers and families.
- Language comprehension brochure
- Literacy graduate coursework
- Reading and writing centres
02Open example →
Inclusion & regulation
Child-centred supports that treat behaviour as communication and create conditions for safety, agency, and participation.
- Visual schedules
- Choice boards
- Social stories
- Behaviour support plans
03Open example →
Program & resource development
Practical systems developed with teachers, specialists, educational assistants, students, and families.
- BASC resource book
- Long-range planning calendar
- CALT training manual
- Family communications
04Open example →
Learning environments
Classroom and community experiences designed for access, independence, curiosity, and meaningful choice.
- Literacy-rich centres
- Flexible seating
- Community-based experiential learning
- Environmental design
Simple, visible systems keep each learner’s work close at hand and make growth easier to notice over time.
Flexible spaces quietly invite choice, movement, collaboration, and different ways of entering the work.
Concrete, playful materials turn abstract ideas into something learners can see, move, test, and discuss.
05
Evidence of practice
Case studies
What I made, why I made it,
and what I would revise.
Each project began with a real educational need. These case studies show what I tried, what informed my choices, what happened, and what I learned from the work.
Case Study 03 · Spring 2024
Making Early Literacy Research Accessible to Families
Families are essential partners in literacy development, but professional language can create distance instead of confidence. This project translates reading research into clear explanations and practical ways families can support learning at home.
Read case study →
Case Study 01 · 2023–2024
Designing a Literacy-Rich After-School Program
Working in a new school-age care program meant creating enough structure to support learners from Kindergarten to Grade 7 while staying responsive to the children who actually arrived each day.
Read case study →
Case Study 02 · 2023–2025
From Theory to Practice: Planning for the Learners in Front of Me
A graduate planning exercise met the realities of kindergarten practice. Comparing what was planned with what actually happened helped me understand planning as a flexible framework shaped by observation, readiness, relationships, and professional judgment.
Read case study →06
Field notes
Reflections from practice
Observations from practice
that changed what I did next.
Small moments in practice often change what I notice, what I question, and what I try next.
Field Note 010 · New reflection
Structure, Novelty, and the Dignity of Choice
An origami-star exercise became a reflection on uncertainty, accommodations, boundaries, and what educators really mean when we ask a child to make a choice.
Read the field note →Noticing Before InterveningPlanning matters, but plans only help when I keep noticing what is happening for the learner in front of me.+
A hesitation before reading aloud, a change in posture, or a student becoming unusually quiet can all be useful information. Paying attention to those changes helps me adjust the task, offer support sooner, and avoid treating a learner’s response as separate from its context.
The Child Before the BehaviourA child's behaviour is often the loudest thing happening in a classroom. It can be tempting to let it become the only thing we notice.+
Before responding, I try to ask what the behaviour is communicating or helping the student manage. That does not remove expectations. It helps me choose a response that addresses the cause, teaches a workable alternative, and preserves the student’s dignity.
Making Expertise UsableBefore education, I worked in communications. Gradually I realized those years prepared me for one of the most important parts of teaching.+
Research is only useful in a classroom when it can inform a decision, explanation, routine, or resource. My communications background helps me organize complex material and adapt it for students, families, and colleagues without losing the important distinctions.
Working Beside StudentsWorking beside students gave me time to see where a task became confusing, tiring, or inaccessible.+
A task can look perfectly reasonable from adult height and become a small administrative nightmare once you sit beside the person expected to do it. Working alongside students long enough to see the exact point where participation broke down taught me to look closely at instructions, pacing, sensory demands, prior knowledge, and how much independence a task actually required.
Following a Student’s InterestWorms are not on most lesson plans. They remain stubbornly interesting.+
Children notice details adults may pass by: an insect on the path, a change in weather, or an unfamiliar object. When time and context allow, following that interest can create an authentic reason to ask questions, learn vocabulary, read for information, or share an observation. It does not replace the lesson. It gives the lesson a reason.
Modelling UncertaintyStudents should see that not knowing is manageable: we can ask a better question, check a source, and revise our understanding.+
I do not want students to think competent adults know every answer immediately. (‘I know’ is not much of a research strategy.) Naming uncertainty, checking evidence, and correcting a mistake are useful academic habits, and I want to model them without making the lesson about me.
What Others NoticeFeedback from colleagues and families offers another source of evidence about how my work is experienced by other people.+
Recent feedback has described me as patient, encouraging, creative, dependable, and genuinely caring. I include those observations because they speak to professional relationships as well as personal qualities: whether learners feel supported, whether colleagues can rely on me, and whether families experience communication as respectful and useful.
07
Ongoing learning
Research into practice
Research that changes
what I do.
Graduate study matters most to me when it changes practice: when research helps me ask a better question, notice something I had missed, or make a more thoughtful instructional decision.
01 · LLL 508 · Emergent Literacy
Early Literacy Workshop
A family-facing workshop translating the Science of Reading and structured literacy into clear terms and practical home activities. It demonstrates knowledge mobilization, audience awareness, and an ability to make research usable.
- Reading science
- Family engagement
- Knowledge translation
Reflecting on Reading Fluency
A research-informed reflection on accuracy, rate, expression, assessment, and motivation. It shows how evidence is synthesized into balanced instructional decisions rather than reduced to reading speed alone.
- Fluency
- Assessment
- Reflective practice
Language Comprehension for Multilingual Learners
A concise teacher guide connecting explicit instruction with culturally responsive supports, multilingual classroom environments, visual scaffolds, and peer learning. It demonstrates inclusive resource design for working educators.
- Language comprehension
- Multilingual learning
- Inclusive design
Music on Our Minds
A research presentation connecting musical perception with phonological awareness, pronunciation, memory, fluency, and practical additional-language instruction.
- Additional language
- Phonological awareness
- Knowledge translation
Becoming a Literacy Leader
A critical reflection connecting structured literacy, Universal Design for Learning, multi-tiered systems of support, data, and collaborative professional learning. It reflects an emerging interest in how literacy improvement can be supported across classrooms, not only within one.
- Literacy leadership
- UDL & MTSS
- Professional learning
Understanding Neurodivergent Masking
An Ignite-style presentation examining how social, behavioural, and emotional masking can make student needs less visible. It demonstrates advocacy, concise communication, and a strengths-based approach to neurodiversity.
- Neurodiversity
- Student wellbeing
- Advocacy
Left on Read
A professional-learning proposal exploring what helps new learning survive beyond the workshop: teacher need, practical tools, collaboration, time to practise, and meaningful follow-up.
- Teacher leadership
- Knowledge mobilization
- Professional learning