Faculty and Staff
Melanie Guest
Teacher
Melanie Guest is a keen supporter of Experiential Education. She started her career as an educator as a dance instructor in Calgary while still in high school, and continued to both teach and compete in Highland Dance throughout her adult life. Since graduating high school she has continued her education at the University of Calgary attaining both a Bachelor of Kinesiology, majoring in Outdoor Pursuits and minoring in Geography and a Bachelor of Education with a focus on Physical Education and Outdoor Education. While completing her Education degree she took a year to teach and build a physical education curriculum for local secondary schools in East Africa, based out of Kampala Uganda. While there she not only supported in school education but also facilitated a multiday hiking trip up Kilimanjaro for students in Tanzania, and connected her Kampala students with the opportunity to experience the outdoors and connect with their biology lessons with a multiday trip to Mount Elgon. It was through these experiences that Melanie came to find a passion for building classroom programming that incorporates all parts of student education, knowledge of not only the content but also the context of where we live within the program of studies.
Melanie started working as a white water rafting guide in University and soon realized that guiding was an excellent way to bring her love of the local environment and history to a broader audience beyond the classroom. She has worked with groups on tour and in the outdoors organizing trips for people aged 1-95, in groups of 2 to over 600 people. Her career has included working as a rafting, hiking, biking, snow shoe and cross country ski guide, operations manager of a raft company and heliport, teaching first aid from a basic stay at home safety course to advanced wilderness first aid with the Red Cross. She attained her Early Learning Certificate and spent a number of years sharing in the wonder of the world around her with Preschool children all the way to developing local programs that take the curriculum outside and create connections between subjects for Junior and Senior high school students in multiple school boards.
When not in the classroom Melanie can often be found outside in the Rocky Mountains around her home in Canmore. In the winter you can find her telemarking, snowshoeing, tobogganing and cross country skiing. In the summer hiking, backpacking, camping, paddling and cycling with her own children.
Melanie is very excited to share her knowledge of the Alberta Program of Studies, the natural world and the local area with the students and other teachers in the LYNX program at Third Schools. She sees the world as a whole and nature as the perfect classroom. Magic is made when students connect to the world outside.
Melanie started working as a white water rafting guide in University and soon realized that guiding was an excellent way to bring her love of the local environment and history to a broader audience beyond the classroom. She has worked with groups on tour and in the outdoors organizing trips for people aged 1-95, in groups of 2 to over 600 people. Her career has included working as a rafting, hiking, biking, snow shoe and cross country ski guide, operations manager of a raft company and heliport, teaching first aid from a basic stay at home safety course to advanced wilderness first aid with the Red Cross. She attained her Early Learning Certificate and spent a number of years sharing in the wonder of the world around her with Preschool children all the way to developing local programs that take the curriculum outside and create connections between subjects for Junior and Senior high school students in multiple school boards.
When not in the classroom Melanie can often be found outside in the Rocky Mountains around her home in Canmore. In the winter you can find her telemarking, snowshoeing, tobogganing and cross country skiing. In the summer hiking, backpacking, camping, paddling and cycling with her own children.
Melanie is very excited to share her knowledge of the Alberta Program of Studies, the natural world and the local area with the students and other teachers in the LYNX program at Third Schools. She sees the world as a whole and nature as the perfect classroom. Magic is made when students connect to the world outside.