Instructor record · alinayang.ca Ontario Certified Teacher Rev. 2026.09

Alina Zixie Yang, B.B.A., M.T., OCT

Ontario Certified Teacher, curriculum designer, and educational strategist.

Instructor Alina Zixie Yang — B.B.A., M.T., OCT
Certification Ontario College of Teachers, member in good standing
Qualifications Intermediate/Senior — mathematics, business studies
Education University of Toronto — B.B.A. (Scarborough) · Master of Teaching (OISE)
Practice Ontario public secondary classroom; multi-campus STEM programs
Languages English · Mandarin · Cantonese · Japanese
Enquiries hello@alinayang.ca

Section 1 — Biography

Who is teaching this

Alina Yang teaches secondary school with the Toronto District School Board and holds certification with the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) in the Intermediate/Senior divisions, with mathematics and business studies as her teachables. She completed her Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Toronto Scarborough and her Master of Teaching at OISE — a combination that shapes how she works: classroom practice grounded in research, delivered with the discipline of a well-run organization.

She has been teaching since 2017, and in more rooms than any one subject would suggest: senior mathematics at a Toronto supplementary school, K–12 mathematics tutoring, grade 8 Mandarin, Cantonese language and culture, and — from March 2020 — coding in CoffeeScript and Python, online, for Caution Tape Robotics. Working across languages and age groups is part of why her planning starts with who is in the room rather than with the content.

As Director of Education at Caution Tape Robotics, Alina is responsible for educational strategy and teacher development. That means setting the standards a lesson has to meet before it reaches a student, building the curriculum that gets it there, and training the instructors who teach it — across robotics, coding, and maker programs serving students from elementary through high school.

Her focus is the part of education that is easy to skip: making sure a program is coherent from one week to the next, that instructors know exactly what they are teaching and why, and that what students walk away with is real skill rather than a finished kit.

Portrait of Alina Yang
Alina Yang, OCT · Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
  • Passionate
  • Enthusiastic
  • Respect
  • Equity
  • Diversity
  • Inclusive

Section 2 — Teaching philosophy

What the practice commits to

Six commitments that decide what a lesson looks like, each followed by an instance of it from her own teaching record.

  1. 01

    Start from what students can already do

    A lesson that ignores prior knowledge either bores the room or loses it. Good planning begins with an honest read of where students actually are — then builds one clear step from there.

  2. 02

    Rigour is a form of respect

    Lowering the bar is not kindness. Students rise to work that is demanding and well scaffolded, and they can tell the difference between a hard task and an unfair one.

  3. 03

    Assessment should teach, not just measure

    Feedback matters more than a grade. Assessment is designed so students know what to do next, and so teachers learn whether the instruction actually landed.

  4. 04

    Language is part of the subject

    Students cannot show what they know in a subject whose language is still forming for them. Terms get spoken, used in a sentence, and checked — and the room talks about itself as "we", never as "you and I".

  5. 05

    Design for the whole room before designing the lesson

    Universal Design for Learning and backward design belong in the same pass: read the expectation, write down who is actually in the room, and only then decide what happens on the day.

  6. 06

    A program is only as good as its instructors

    Curriculum does not teach itself. Investing in teacher development — clear materials, modelling, coaching, feedback — is what makes quality consistent instead of accidental.

Section 3 — Current appointments

Where the work happens now

Post Organization & scope
Secondary Mathematics Teacher Present Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board Classroom teaching in an Ontario public secondary school, working within the Ontario curriculum and its assessment and evaluation policy. Currently teaching MCR3U — Functions, Grade 11, University Preparation.
  • Plans and delivers instruction aligned to Ontario curriculum expectations.
  • Builds the long-range plan for a full semester, day by day, against the school year calendar.
  • Assessment for, as, and of learning — with feedback students can act on.
  • Differentiated support for a wide range of learner profiles in one room.
Director of Education Present · with the organization since 2020 Caution Tape Robotics Owns educational strategy and teacher development across robotics, coding, and maker programs. Joined in March 2020 as an online coding instructor teaching CoffeeScript and Python.
  • Sets the educational standards every lesson and program must meet.
  • Leads curriculum development from scope-and-sequence to lesson materials.
  • Builds and runs instructor training, onboarding, and coaching.
  • Reviews program quality and student outcomes across campuses.

Section 4 — Education & certification

Qualifications on file

Credential Granting body & detail Years
Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) Ontario College of Teachers Certified member in good standing. Intermediate/Senior divisions — mathematics and business studies. —
Master of Teaching (M.T.) University of Toronto — Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Research-based teacher education leading to Ontario certification. Intermediate/Senior division, with teachables in mathematics and business studies. 2020 – 2022
Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) University of Toronto Scarborough Specialist in general management. Exchange terms at CUHK (Hong Kong) and NUS (Singapore) on scholarship, and a summer abroad at ICU (Japan). 2012 – 2017

Languages

Mandarin Native
English Proficient
Cantonese Proficient
Japanese Intermediate

Tools

  • Python
  • CoffeeScript
  • Google Workspace for Education
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Final Cut

Section 5 — Practicum

David Suzuki Secondary School

Adapted practicum through the Master of Teaching program: a school portrait case study of David Suzuki S.S., and three mathematics lessons designed and taught against the Ontario curriculum.

Lessons designed and taught

  • Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics — product and quotient rules for exponents (co-taught)
  • Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics — the power of a power rule (lead)
  • Grade 12 mathematics — probability (facilitating)

How they were built

  • Planned with backward design and Universal Design for Learning: from the curriculum expectation to the learner profiles, and only then to the day.
  • Taught as a flipped, inquiry-shaped lesson — breakout groups derived the exponent rules from a problem set on a shared Jamboard before any rule was stated.
  • Every material published to Google Classroom so nothing sat behind a barrier, with homework built digitally in support of the school’s sustainability initiative.
  • Five formative checks inside one lesson: minds-on activity, quick review, breakout observation, a review game, and individual work.
  • Reviewed by twelve Master of Teaching peers from a range of disciplines, with the lesson adapted to their VARK profiles.

Section 6 — Prior teaching

Earlier posts

Before the secondary classroom: mathematics, two languages, and coding, taught to students from kindergarten to grade 12.

From Role Organization
2017 Senior mathematics teacher T.H. Chan Memorial Math School · Toronto A class of 26 students with a wide spread of needs; weekly quizzes, worksheets, and homework packages, plus interim and final reports.
2020 Coding instructor — CoffeeScript and Python Caution Tape Robotics · Markham Online classes designed for participation and discussion, with feedback to students and parents through Google Classroom.
2019 Mathematics tutor, K–12 Fairview Tutoring Academy · North York Individual progress plans for students across grade levels, backgrounds, and readiness, taught concurrently.
2019 Grade 8 Mandarin teacher Mon Sheong Foundation Chinese School · North York Monthly writing, penmanship, speaking, and reading comprehension assessment; parent feedback given in the family’s preferred language.
2019 Cantonese instructor T.H. Chan Memorial Chinese School · Toronto Language taught through activity, with cultural and historical material built into the course and performed at community events.
2015 Study abroad program assistant International Student Centre, University of Toronto Scarborough · Scarborough Workshops, outreach, and peer application support; coordinated 20 volunteers across campus-wide events.

Years indicate when each post began.

Section 7 — Works cited

Reading behind the practice

Where the ideas above come from. A syllabus should say.

  1. Hubert, T. L. (2014). Learners of mathematics: High school students’ perspectives of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy. Journal of African American Studies, 18(3), 324–336.

    On what a teacher’s visible confidence in a student does to that student’s confidence in themselves.

  2. Wachira, P., & Mburu, J. (2019). Culturally responsive mathematics teaching and constructivism: Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms. Multicultural Learning and Teaching, 14(1), 1–8.

    Socio-constructivism as the working strategy for culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy in a mathematics classroom.

  3. Carsley, D., & Heath, N. L. (2018).

    On colouring as a way to settle anxiety — the reason a colouring page opened a grade 7/8 class during the pandemic.

“I believe everyone can shine, and I can’t wait to see your best potentials.”

Alina Yang · Teaching portfolio, welcome page

Alina Yang, OCT

Email Alina Yang