Brothers of Smash
A feature on Mount Royal University’s competitive gaming community, built around a conversation with the club organizer.
Instructional designer & curriculum developer
Learning design for students
and their teachers.
I’m Bigoa. I create language-learning materials, map curricula, and design training that helps teachers put learning plans into practice.
“Bigoa helped to create beautiful, engaging resources that honor the target language and the research into how to accelerate skill development.”
Selected work
01 / Multi-lesson resource
Language, culture and conceptual transfer
Helping grades 3–5 learners recognize concepts, connect ideas and apply their understanding in new situations.
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02 / Teacher training
Preparing teachers for their first class
A teacher onboarding resource with lesson routines, practice tasks and checks for understanding.
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03 / Curriculum planning
A course map for developing English learners
A new-class curriculum map connecting learning goals, course pacing and a repeatable lesson framework.
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04 / Classroom materials
Sweet Fruit
A classroom lesson that uses a familiar food topic to support vocabulary, discussion and reading.
Explore the project01 / Education to Change the World
Back to selected work ↑Language, culture and conceptual transfer
I developed a language-teaching resource around celebrations, cultural cues, relationship cues and meaning cues. Designed for use across multiple lessons, it works within Education to Change the World’s conceptual-transfer approach.
- Audience
- ESL learners in grades 3–5
- My contribution
- Lesson resource development
- Deliverable
- 33-slide lesson resource (PDF)
The learning need
Help learners look beyond individual words and recognize how context, culture and relationships shape communication.
Design choices
A recurring question
The sequence returns to a question about understanding unfamiliar celebrations. Learners can revisit their initial thinking as their understanding develops.
Several ways to explain an idea
Definition, elaboration, examples and illustration give students different ways to express their understanding. Everyday observation tasks carry the concepts beyond the lesson.
Connections supported by evidence
Concept mapping and the final reflection ask learners to connect ideas and support their explanations with examples.
What the work shows
This sample demonstrates a sequence from concept development to connections, transfer and reflection, with success criteria for each stage.
1 / 6
View the full lesson deck (PDF) ↗Shared with permission from Julie Stern. Conceptual-transfer framework and deck credits: Julie Stern / Education to Change the World. Original source attributions are retained.
02 / Jeongsang Language School
Back to selected work ↑Preparing teachers for their first class
I created an onboarding deck for Jeongsang’s Special Classes and Speaking Tree classes. It organizes the information teachers need to prepare lessons, teach different class formats and complete follow-up responsibilities.
- Audience
- Teachers joining JLS
- My contribution
- Onboarding design
- Deliverable
- 22-slide onboarding deck
The learning need
Make school procedures usable at the point of teaching, while distinguishing the routines for different class formats.
Design choices
Organized around the teacher’s work
The opening structure follows preparation, teaching, reporting and safe dismissal. Later slides make the steps concrete.
Practice before the first class
A planning task asks teachers to choose a project, prepare a model and plan how learners will present. A separate scenario checks procedural judgment.
A check for readiness
A knowledge check, answer key and final checklist give teachers a way to review essential expectations.
What the work shows
This sample demonstrates how I combine reference information with practice and checks for understanding in adult learning materials.
1 / 6
View selected slides as PDF ↗Selected slides from the original onboarding deck. Workplace routines are presented as examples of training design.
03 / Jeongsang Language School
Back to selected work ↑A course map for developing English learners
I created a curriculum map for a new Jeongsang class. It describes the target learners, course goals, teaching resources, review points and a 100-minute lesson structure.
- Audience
- Lower-band Challenge Level learners
- My contribution
- Curriculum mapping
- Deliverable
- 12-slide curriculum map
The learning need
Support learners who need a stronger foundation before moving into the English immersion track for their age group.
Design choices
Start with the learner profile
The map identifies the placement group and focuses on vocabulary, simple sentence structure and reading comprehension in an English-only environment.
Make the course sequence visible
A unit roadmap links lesson coverage with review and assessment points so teachers can see the progression across the term.
Connect planning with delivery
The map explains the role of accompanying slides and lays out a lesson sequence that allocates time for vocabulary, reading, practice and review.
What the work shows
This sample demonstrates course planning across learner needs, teaching resources, pacing and assessment checkpoints.
1 / 5
View selected slides as PDF ↗The excerpt retains the original course map and publisher references. Textbook content and materials belong to their respective owners.
04 / Jeongsang Language School
Back to selected work ↑Sweet Fruit
I created a supporting lesson deck for a standard Jeongsang class. Sweet Fruit uses food imagery, discussion prompts and examples to prepare learners for a textbook reading and follow-up practice.
- Audience
- Jeongsang English-language learners
- My contribution
- Lesson material development
- Deliverable
- 23-slide classroom lesson
The learning need
Give learners an accessible route into the reading topic and opportunities to use the target vocabulary in context.
Design choices
An accessible starting point
A tanghulu video and a question about fruit preferences connect the topic with something learners can discuss.
Vocabulary in context
Vocabulary slides pair a word with a visual, a model sentence and a personal-response question. Korean labels provide additional language support.
A clear teaching sequence
The lesson moves through introduction, vocabulary, reading and workbook practice, with prompts that help the teacher move between stages.
What the work shows
This sample demonstrates contextualized vocabulary teaching and structured support for a textbook-based lesson.
1 / 6
View selected slides as PDF ↗Selected original lesson slides. Publisher workbook reproductions are excluded from this excerpt; embedded media and imagery retain their original ownership.
Writing & editorial work
Journalism
Before my work in education, I wrote about music, fashion and local communities. These pieces bring together reporting, clear explanation and an interest in the people behind a story.
The Reflector
Campus life and local culture
Rode to Success
A profile of Calgary rapper and producer Christian Rode and his efforts to establish a solo career.
Hypebeast
Fashion and footwear
Virgil Abloh Wins the 2017 Footwear News Achievement Award For "Shoe of the Year"
Footwear news covering recognition for Virgil Abloh’s collaborative Air Jordan 1 design.
Pressure’s 2018 Spring/Summer Collection Pays Homage to Its Greek Roots
Coverage of a collection that draws on Greek culture and incorporates multilingual graphics.
Calgary Journal
Local reporting and editorial work
How you can become an Uber driver in Calgary
A service-journalism piece examining the steps and costs involved in becoming a rideshare driver at the time of publication.
Alberta Printmakers promoting their art form and unveiling public art project
An arts story about a public printmaking project in downtown Calgary. Credited as the editor responsible for the piece; photography credited to Mason Benning.
Selected work from 2016–2017. Links open the original publications.
About me
Grounded in teaching.
Focused on learning.
My work spans resources for young language learners, curriculum planning and educator development. I bring classroom experience to decisions about what learners need, how content is sequenced and how teachers will use it.
I hold a Master of Education in Second Language Education from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Communication in Journalism from Mount Royal University.
PowerPoint · Google Workspace · Curriculum development · Assessment design · Teacher onboarding
View my resume ↗Instructional Designer
Developing curriculum-aligned lesson materials for grades 3–5 and revising content with educator feedback.
Curriculum Developer
Developing learning resources and designing onboarding and training for a team of 11+ English teachers.
Head Teacher
Built a kindergarten ESL curriculum, developed lesson materials and assessment frameworks, and trained new teachers.
Let’s talk about learning.
I’m interested in remote instructional design, curriculum development and learning-content opportunities.