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| Affiliation | Green |
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| Name | Stefan Dixon |
| Address |
Scarborough, Ontario , Canada |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Modifed | Monsieur
Oct 12, 2007 04:02pm |
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| Info | Stefan Dixon lives in Scarborough Southwest with his wife Lilianna and his six-year-old daughter Camille. Being a tricultural family, they celebrate the cultural diversity of our city every day. Stefan has been a teacher of children of all ages, and adults, since 1990. He is a graduate of the University of Ottawa where he earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts, and a Bachelor of Education. While studying, he began teaching at Algonquin College in Ottawa, teaching ESL to new Canadians. Afterwards he taught in Japan for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, and taught in Mexico as well. In 1995, he returned to Canada, settling in Scarborough. He has taught for the T.D.S.B. ever since, taking a 2-year leave to be an administrator in a bilingual school in Oaxaca, Mexico. Stefan is fluent in English, French and Spanish, can read Italian, and still speaks some Japanese from his year there in the early nineties. Stefan’s work as a teacher in Canada and abroad has given him a keen sense of what concerns people, what people feel individuals and governments can and need to do to address problems of quality of life in our society. Teaching in Ottawa and Scarborough has given him a strong appreciation for the richness of our cultural diversity in Canada, something that he feels we must continue to celebrate.
Since 1999, Stefan has taught grades 7 and 8 at Charles Gordon Senior Public School in Scarborough Center. When he first began at this school, what he saw outside in the playground was a desert-like landscape. He undertook to change this to give students a more vibrant area within which to learn and play. He developed a plan for a Habitat Project, and over the years has made several successful funding proposals to TD Canada Trust Friends of the Environment Foundation to plant trees, shrubs and wildflowers, and to create naturalized areas, shaded areas and windbreaks. Together with all of the students, teachers and support staff at the school, former students now in high school or beyond, parents, community members, and students from feeder schools, he has created a vibrant habitat for native trees, shrubs, flowers and wildlife. His school also runs the Green Bin programme with a community partner. The students of the school have written an Eco-Pledge which all students, staff and parents have signed onto, in order to reduce energy use, paper use and waste at their school. With this project, Stefan has demonstrated that with a little bit of planning, a small group of dedicated individuals can facilitate the participation of a large number of people in getting involved in making our planet a better place to live in. As a result of this project, Charles Gordon Senior Public School earned Gold Eco-Schools status this year, and Silver last year. Now, with the T.D.S.B, Stefan has begun a series of workshops to teach other interested teachers, parents and administrators in the board how to achieve the kind of success he has with his environmental initiatives.
Stefan loves to go camping, picnicking and cycling with his family, to read, to go the cinema, and to garden. He plays mandolin in the folk group of his local parish in Scarborough Southwest. Most of the groceries he and his family buy are organic. He cycles or takes public transit to work as much as he can. He feels one of the most pressing issues for developed countries to address is our over consumption, which is at the heart of climate change and habitat destruction. Finally, he is currently researching how biodiversity holds the answers to our poor health and our poor diet.
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