Learning with TobyBear

Cathie has been an educator for over 30 years, 25 of these in international schools in S.E. Asia. She has taught PYP learners from age 3 to 8. She is passionate about The Early Years (in particular 5-6 year olds) and is an advocate for play. From 2011-2019 Cathie was a kindergarten homeroom teacher at UNIS, Hanoi. Cathie is also a trained PYP workshop leader. She presented at the Vietnam Tech Conference and The Early Years conference in HCMC and recently presented a #toddletalks webinar about the process of planning for PYP Early Years learners. Cathie is currently working from her home in Australia, teaching online and creating educational videos with TobyBear.

Cathie’s teaching style is playful. She teaches with a teddy bear named Toby and he and they have been teaching together for over 30 years. TobyBear helps children feel comfortable learning from mistakes. He loves to sing songs, create rhymes, listen and retell stories, read aloud and talk about characters and major events in a story. In Cathie’s lessons, she encourages students to ask and answer questions and to explain their thinking. She strives to help young learners develop confidence in themselves to speak, read and write and most importantly, to understand and enjoy using the English language to communicate. Ms. Cathie and TobyBear have been a teaching team for over 30 years. He has taught modelled writing lessons, been read to, and gone on sleep overs in every class Ms. Cathie has taught. Although he is just a Teddy bear hand puppet, to all who've met TobyBear, he is very real! TobyBear and Ms. Cathie are now teaching online and have created many educational videos to inspire emergent readers and beginning English language learners. In these videos you will see ways TobyBear helps children develop literacy and numeracy skills, and a growth mindset.

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1985 Sydney C.A.E Institute of Early Childhood studies Dip. Teaching (ECE) 1 1991 NSW Dep. Education Teacher Certificate. 1995 Charles Sturt University Grad. Dip Literacy 2010 Coomera College of Business & Industry Training Cert IV TAA40104 Imagine Education Southport QLD TESOL Cert. Aug 2011- June 2019 United Nations International School Hanoi Vietnam IBPYP-Kindergarten teacher (5-6 yr olds) IBEN Workshop leader ACARA curriculum VTC presenter Grade Level Leader ASA- Jnr coding and robotics Oct 2010- June 2011 Aug 2004-June 2008 International School Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam IB PYP Grade 1 homeroom teacher EE4 ( 4 year olds) Junior school coordinator Jan 2009- Dec 2009 John Paul College Brisbane IB PYP Year 1 Homeroom teacher (6 yr olds)

Cathie sees herself as a life-long learner and is embracing the challenges of technology. She now uses much of her spare time creating educational resources with TobyBear and making global connections with other like-minded educators. Cathie loves to learn about other cultures and make friends from all around the globe.