Assisting our students to pursue their goals is our passion.
All our faculty bring a global perspective to the courses they teach and look for opportunities to integrate experiential education with class work wherever possible. Class Afloat exclusively hires teachers who are driven by a passion to engage young people in activities that allow them to develop their leadership skills and full potential as global citizens. Our teachers lead small classes that are tailored to meet the learning needs of each student.
Learn more about current faculty members by clicking on an image below.
Program Director
David is a creative educator, writer, musician, and lover of all things outdoors and adventurous. His varied career has seen him teach in Bhutan, Kenya, England, Scotland and the DRC where he was a founding Principal of the British International School of Lubumbashi. A passionate advocate for progressive education, he believes that a radical evolution is necessary to better prepare the youth of today for the uncertain challenges of tomorrow. He’s released a few albums, written a few books and encourages everybody to dig deep into their creative side, get out into nature and become agents for positive change. David will also be working as Class Afloat Director of Curriculum Development, helping to design and deliver the experiential, place based curriculum. Along the way he hopes to learn with (and from) the Floaties about how education can best be used to inspire effective and impactful social change.
What’s something you’ve been meaning to try but just haven’t gotten around to it?
The Pacific Crest trail. I walked the Camino de Santiago in my twenties and have done a few other long distance hikes but the big one is always on my mind. Walking for that long through nature changes you. Also, sky-diving and learning to dance properly.
If you could have anyone as a dinner guest – living or deceased, who would you choose?
Is it too corny to say Alexander von Humboldt? What an inspiring legend. But he’d probably bore the pants off everybody because, bright and charismatic as he was, he never stopped talking. So maybe John Muir instead for the deceased and George Monbiot for the living.
What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned to date?
Everything’s in constant motion, always changing, never staying the same (also known as ‘You never step in the same river twice’ or ‘I’d rather be a river than a puddle’).
What book impacted you the most?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It taught me three things:
1) You can make conscious decisions about how you perceive reality
2) Why just read and listen to music when you can write and play
3) Everything’s relative and very few things are ‘right’
Community Wellness Advisor
Dr. Beth Warsof, PhD (she/her) is a licensed developmental psychologist, professional certified coach, and international experiential educator. In her work, Beth co-creates brave, compassionate spaces that empower individuals in their gifts, cultivate connection and community, and bring greater justice and belonging to our world. Beth is honored to return to Class Afloat (Gulden Leeuw, 2017-18) in her role supporting student and community wellness. Beth will work in person during Student and Faculty Orientation as well as remotely throughout the year.
Faculty
Growing up in Rural Ontario, I always felt the need to explore more of the world. After studying Art History at Concordia University in Montreal. I knew I needed to find a career that allowed me to travel and see what the world had to offer. After completing my B.Ed at Queen’s University, I moved to Quito, Ecuador for two years to teach grade 6-10 Design at a bilingual school. After living far away, home called me back to work at a boarding school caring for students from all over the world. That was short lived though as the stories my students told me encouraged me to go abroad again and I found myself in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for 4 years, first teaching art, and then moving into my second passion of assisting students in Student Support ranging from Guidance to Learning Resource. Teaching abroad allows me to pursue many of my passions by helping me find inspiration for my art, eating really amazing food, and seeing new places
What makes you most excited about teaching/working with Class Afloat?
I’ve waited a couple of years to be able to do this, I feel like it’s definitely going to be an adventure of a lifetime. I’m excited for all the places I will get to see and the new experiences I will be able to have with new people and new places. I am excited for the new opportunity and myself and to challenge myself in new ways.
If you could have anyone as a dinner guest – living or deceased, who would you choose?
I love this question and I often ask this to new people. For me, I would choose someone that is close to me that I never got to meet, probably my Grandfather on my mother’s side. He died before I was born but my mom always has the greatest stories about him and how much love he shared for his family. I would like to meet him in person and just get filled in on his life experiences and what he lived through.
What is your best advice for having a great adventure?
Be spontaneous, try not to fill your day with too many things. Leave room for the unexpected.
What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned to date?
Don’t hold on to negative experiences. Do your best to find the positives in your every day and move forward from there. Live in the now and not the then.
Julie grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she spent her summers in Chester learning how to sail. This love for sailing and being outdoors led her to coach 420 sailing and grow her passion for teaching. Julie can usually be found at the Chester Yacht Club in wet foulies with a smile on her face after an evening of Bluenose racing.
After completing her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at Queen’s University, Julie went on to pursue teaching in Cork, Ireland at University College Cork. In Ireland, Julie taught mathematics while assisting to coach rugby, basketball and sailing. It was great craic!
Julie is always looking for her next adventure and is very excited to help her students grow a love for both math and sailing.
I never even dreamed I could have a job where I would get to sail and teach at the same time! I am really excited to get to work together as a team with so many new people and learn from everyone’s different backgrounds and experiences. And of course, seeing the world!
“Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to help you grow”. Whenever I am nervous about moving somewhere or starting a new path, I always remind myself of this quote and how much I will learn by challenging myself.
It’s not a single day, but Chester Race Week hands down!
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.
Melanie studied Food Production Engineering in France before pursuing teaching certification
exams for Biology and Geology. After living and working in several european countries, in Asia, and NorthAmerica, and raising three children, she settled down in Austria where she rides with her husband sharing a passion for the sea, and sailing
Q&A:
I meant to walk the camino frances from the french Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella in Spain, it is a beautiful trail, so far I have not had the opportunity but I am still planning to do it!
I am very excited to join Class Afloat, to share a sailing journey with student, faculty, staff and crew. I love the Biology and Oceans’ curriculum, and it is a fabulous opportunity for experiential
learning too!
Benevolence is key to understanding one another, it is a robust standpoint, a necessity. I have experienced that a path starting with benevolence is highly likely to be rewarding.
Growing up just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia Keigan always had a deep connection with the outdoors and water. During his life he has been pulled in many directions – teacher, theatre maker, outdoor educator, coach, traveler and community builder. He believes in the power the outdoors and non traditional learning spaces hold to truly inspire and educate while more importantly, developing a person’s character; Keigan’s understanding of the power of the natural world and strong community to transform lives really started to take form during his years at Camp Kodiak, working with neurodiverse youth to build social and academic success in Northern Ontario (during his years here he learned to and eventually ran the sailing program, teaching youth and staff to sail Hobies, Picos and Lasers). He continued to seek similar opportunities to educate outside the classroom walls which led him on adventures such as: cycling 2000km around Ontario delivering performances and workshops about the environment with The Otesha Project, teaching in Vietnam and Qatar, leading service learning expeditions in Ecuador, Romania, Myanmar, Canada and Vietnam and leading At-Risk Youth tripping programs. Keigan is excited for the challenges that await as he joins the Class Afloat crew for this year’s sail.
1.What’s something you’ve been meaning to try but just haven’t gotten around to it?
Class Afloat!!! Maybe “gotten around to it” isn’t the proper phrasing but I have known of and been interested in working for Class Afloat for over a decade and every few years it kept coming back into my life – reminding me this opportunity of a lifetime was calling. Everytime it would, I either talked myself out of it or a life commitment made it feel like it would always be a dream. After my time (7 years) in HCMC, Vietnam felt like it was coming to an end and I was looking for my next steps in life, Class Afloat once again came to the forefront of my mind and it felt like it was now or never. So depending when you are reading this the “something I have been meaning to try” may be “something I am currently trying”.
The people I will meet, the community we will build and the shared stories we will create. Qui Nguyen said it best in his play, She Kills Monsters (if you have not seen or read this play, stop what you are doing and check it out, it is incredible in every way) – “But this story remains. And isn’t that essentially all that life is – a collection of stories? This is one of mine…”
Embrace the people you are with – for some this may be the people you have chosen to go on the adventure with, it may be a group of people you have met in a hostel while solo traveling, or it may be the lovely hosts who willingly took you in. The people you meet while traveling are just as, if not more, meaningful than the places you will see. If you find yourself meeting an incredible group of people, be flexible with your plans; the places will always be there but the time we have with people is finite and they will be the core memories you hold.
I’d have to say April 25th because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.
