Blended Programs & Courses

Libby Voth lives in Abbotsford with her husband and two children.

Originally from the UK, Libby earned her BA from the University of Stirling. Several years later, she took the teacher education course at SFU part time while working as an EA with special needs students. She taught for 6 years in an independent Christian school in Abbotsford before joining the TLA team in 2017. She is passionate about connecting with students and is excited to be part of facilitating their learning and growth.

In her spare time she enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, taking photographs, and drinking chai.

Mylene enjoys working at TLA and is proud of her students learning new things in her Blended Visual Art classes. She graduated with a Bachelors degree from UBC and possesses education from Langara College in Graphic Design. As a working artist, she also enjoys being a member of Art Focus Artists’ Association (AFAA) in Port Coquitlam. She’s displayed her art work in group art shows with AFAA for several years in their fall and spring shows. Mylene served as Secretary on their Executive Committee but is now in charge of designing and creating the society’s new website and print ads for their art shows.

Mylene also enjoys providing art lessons to students out of her home studio and provides after school art programs to elementary to middle school students in the Tri-Cities area through a leading art centre in Coquitlam. She lives in Coquitlam with her husband and son.

When Mylene is not working, she enjoys volunteering at her son’s school by hosting art parties as a fundraiser, attending mass at church, reading, exercising, and spending time with family.

Shelley has always loved anything active and athletics related. She has years of experience playing
a wide variety of sports and volunteering as a coach for various teams and sports camps. She is
excited to be able to share this passion with the students of TLA in the blended PHE program.

Shelley lives in Langley with her husband Paul. She feels blessed to spend the majority of her week at
home managing her active household of five sons and one daughter. She also loves to volunteer for
activities at her church.

Amy Jones lives in Cloverdale with her husband, Marty, and her 3 children, Judah, Myah and Joshua. She and her husband are also foster parents.

Amy graduated from university with her Bachelor of Education in 1998 and specializes in teaching French as a second language. She is currently part of the K-9 Home Program serving families in the Lower Mainland.

Amy loves spending time with her children, going to sporting events, visiting family and friends and working on the odd DIY project. She is very thankful to be a part of the TLA team.

Jaime is a veteran homeschool mom of three beautiful children – Lily, Gabriel, and John – who brings a love of home education to her role as DL teacher.

Having received a Bachelor’s degree in history and music from Trinity Western University, Jaime returned to school later in life to enhance her education skills by attaining a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia.

Jaime loves exploring the innovative educational opportunities that are enabled by blending online learning with homeschooling. In addition to a love of learning, she enjoys reading, music performance, directing her church choir, and the art of homemaking.

Joyce Froese is a high school Math and Science teacher. She has considerable experience teaching Math and Science at all levels, as well as teaching students with various challenges.

She enjoys exploring, creating, growing and learning.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Physics, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia.

It was the joy of helping other students in his computer class in high school that convinced Edward that he might enjoy teaching – enjoying computers was a given.

Edward obtained his BA in History and his BEd in SS-History from UBC, spent time in Japan and New York, then returned to the Lower Mainland with his family.

In his first year at TLA, Edward served as the school’s English and Social Studies Specialist, Grad Coordinator, and Tech Guy. As TLA has grown and others have stepped in to take over some of those roles, Edward has been blessed with the opportunity to focus once again on one of his first loves: helping others utilize computers!

Rita has been a part of the TLA community for over a decade as a homeschooling parent. For the past seventeen years, she has dedicated her life to educating students, from her own three children as well as other children, in a variety of settings. In addition to homeschooling, she worked as an Education Assistant in the Catholic school system and as a volunteer catechist at her parish. Her own passion for learning fueled her desire in nurturing and teaching her own children, with the goal of imparting a life-long love of learning and with the idea that learning can take place anywhere.

Prior to having children, Rita taught university-level students as a Teaching Fellow while pursuing her graduate studies in Economics in the United States. She was excited to come back to TLA, this time as a Blended Teacher, entering a new chapter in her life.

When she’s not busy with all her commitments, Rita enjoys the outdoors with her husband and children, kayaking, hiking, and camping.

Christina was born in Victoria, BC and has lived with her husband and two children in the Metro Vancouver area for over 20 years. She enjoys gardening and taking long walks. At church she has been a bible study teacher, a member of the choir, and a craft leader for the Sunday morning children’s program.

Christina graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelors of Science and taught with the Surrey School District for over 10 years. After that, she chose to be a stay-at-home mom for 8 years before joining TLA in 2013. In her classroom, one can expect to participate in hands-on activities, games, project-based learning, presentations, and discussions.

Suzanne was a high school Social Studies teacher in Richmond before homeschooling her two girls, Mary and Abigail from K-12. She is passionate about Canadian history and encouraging teens to be proud, responsible Canadians. Suzanne has a BA in History from TWU, and studied for a term at Oxford. She is excited to be sharing her love of history and investing in the lives of our TLA teens.

Always on a hunt for great historical moments, Suzanne has spent 24 years dragging her husband Jason around the globe. When trips are not in the cards, they hop in their kayaks in Point Roberts and go for a spin.

Deanna earned a Science degree with a major in Math. Since then, she has enjoyed passing along her love for math to her students. She has been teaching Math and other subjects for over 8 years, and continues to enjoy the challenges it brings. Her goal is to work with students in collaboration with their parents as they tackle the later years of high school mathematics.

In her spare time, she is an avid volleyball and tennis player, and enjoys reading a good book, although spare time is not easy to come by with four children in her home. She thoroughly enjoys the time she gets to spend with them every day.

Jennifer Boessenkool is a high school Math and Science teacher living in Port Moody, BC. She has recently taught in the Calgary School Board in math and science, in addition to being a “city champion” basketball coach.

She enjoys spending time with her husband, Derek, and her children Alexienna – born in Sept. 2008, and Levi – born Oct. 2011. She enjoys going for walks with her dog Nash, swimming, hiking, and reading.

Jenn holds a Bachelor of Science in Animal Biology, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. She also spent time living and teaching in the UK.

Ben has taught students of all ages from children to adults both in Canada and overseas. While now an adult himself, Ben prefers to remain a big kid at heart and can be found occasionally reading Star Wars comics at his local library.

In addition to his B.C. teaching certification, Ben has various other credentials including a Master’s Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. However, his favorite one is being a husband and dad to his awesome family.

Charis Hammermeister was homeschooled all through her grade school years, which instilled in her a desire to help other families along their homeschooling journey. Joining the TLA team in 2019 as a Blended teacher allowed her to combine this desire with her love of classroom teaching. She is passionate about educating through inquiry and investigation and about tailoring her instruction to meet the individual needs of each child. Her hope is that each of her students will leave her classroom having developed a lifelong love of learning.

Driven by her passion for mentorship and discipleship, Charis is active in her local church through counselling and women’s Bible studies.

Most of Charis’s free time is spent teaching, coaching, training in, and competing in taekwondo. Her other interests include reading, creative writing, music, visual art, and 20th century Russian history.

Charis holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Maranatha Baptist University and a Master of Arts in Theology-Biblical Counselling from Central Baptist Theological Seminary.

After completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Education, Maureen worked in the Catholic school system for two years before starting her own family. Since then, life has been an exciting and rewarding adventure of learning along with her nine children whom she has home-schooled “since the beginning”. Learning is an adventure that begins with birth and never ends!

Maureen was a member of the TLA community as a parent for many years before joining the K-9 Staff as a Home Teacher in 2013. She feels privileged to assist other families in their own homeschooling journey while still homeschooling her youngest child.

Maureen lives in Burnaby where she is a member of St. Michael’s parish. She finds her Catholic faith central to all aspects of her life. In her spare time Maureen is an avid gardener, loves music, playing board games, sewing, and spending time with her husband and their children.

AmandaEve holds Bachelor degrees in Music and Biblical Scholarship from Rocky Mountain College (Calgary), a Masters of Applied Linguistics from Charles Darwin University (Darwin AUS) and became a BC certified teacher in 2018.

She has taught at Long & McQuade (Abbotsford), Harmony Music School (Calgary), Encore Music Studio (Calgary), Providence College (Otterburne MB), Rocky Mountain College (Calgary), Ziegfeld School of Dance (Winnipeg), Doreen Bissett School of Dance (Winnipeg) and also worked as a Teaching Assistant at CanIL @ Trinity Western University (Langley). She has extensive experience with children’s programming in church and camp settings.

Musically, she has enjoyed performing with various choral and instrumental ensembles across Canada and the USA. She has also been involved in choral composition, arranging, and directing in various contexts.

Her approach to education is to learn through play, topics of interest, exploring the world, and for each child to grow based on their level of ability. She believes strongly in the flexibility home education offers to families and is honoured to be part of helping other families achieve their goals.

She is navigating the diversity of LSS from both sides of the coin because autism is also part of her daily family life.

My teaching adventures include a B.Ed. from UBC and a diploma in Christian Studies from ACTS, in Langley. Most of my teaching experience has been as a Christian-school teacher in Colombia, South America, and in British Columbia. I’ve also been a teacher-support for DL students and a tutor. I’m excited about teaching project-based learning and supporting parents in the Blended 2-Day Program with TLA.

I live in Maple Ridge and enjoy music, gardening, reading, being outdoors, and volunteering at a local animal rescue. And when football season starts, out come the Seattle Seahawks and BC Lions jerseys.

Mary lives in North Delta with her husband Edward and two homeschooled children. Her journey with homeschooling started in 2012 when her oldest, Alice, started Kindergarten. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and having taught Science and French at BC high schools prior to having children, she was excited to start her journey as a teacher parent.

Mary leads the Blended Two-Day K/1 program in Surrey as well as the One-Day Blended K/6 program in Vancouver.

When not teaching or homeschooling, Mary likes trying new recipes, reading books, and having nature walks with her family.

Elizabeth is TLA’s new Blended 4/5 teacher as well as a Home Teacher. Her learning journey into education has been a blend of Christian education, public school education, and online learning.  She has over a decade of experience as a teacher in the private sector as a music teacher teaching both one-on-one and group lessons, which centred around a close partnership with families.  Most recently, she is graduating from UBC with a Bachelor of Education with training in the most current strategies in education for K-12.  Part of her experience of practicum was actually online due to the recent COVID-19 public school adaptations. Elizabeth is passionate about working to make K-12 education work in the best way possible for each child and their family.

Natalie Hoogstra is a new face to TLA and so excited to be teaching the in class portion of Drama to her high school students! With past camp experience and a theatre background in acting and singing as well as backstage work, she cannot wait to teach all her wonderfully gifted students the beauty in following your impulses, failing boldly, having fun, growing in the craft, and working together as an ensemble! When Natalie is not teaching, she can be found at her other job working in reception, or at home snuggled up with her cats, a good book, and a hot cup of tea.

I am a high school Math and science teacher living in Vancouver for the past decade. I taught biology in Europe in middle school for 9 years before coming to Canada. I have a bachelor of sciences from the University of Novi Sad and a bachelor of education from UBC.

I have a husband who is an engineer, two daughters, and a cat. I love reading and doing all sorts of crafts. Since I grew up on a farm I learned to love every living being and had more than one special pet growing up. I am thankful to my parents for providing me with a loving childhood.

I love sciences and my teaching philosophy is that every student can excel if we give them the opportunity to do so. My students can depend on me and turn to me in need.