Traf Voices

List of 1 news stories.

• Beyond the Diploma: Why Learning Never Ends for Trafalgar Educators

  1/30/2026
  Michèle Bouffard & Rachel McCabe
  Version française ci-dessous
  
  For many educators, professional growth happens through workshops and conferences. For many Trafalgar staff members, though, this means taking on the role of student as well as teacher. 
  
  

  Social studies teachers Michèle Bouffard and Rachel McCabe are both experiencing education from both sides of the desk: as continuing education students as well as full-time Trafalgar teachers. 
  
  

  Currently enrolled in a continuing education program that leads to certification as a Montreal tour guide, Mme Bouffard’s return to the classroom is not about collecting credentials for their own sake. Instead, it reflects a long-term vision: enriching her teaching today while learning even more about the city she loves. 
  
  

  “I didn’t go back to school simply because I suddenly felt like going back to school,” Mme Bouffard explained. “Everything the program includes is directly useful to what I already do as a teacher.”
  
  

  Similarly, for Ms. McCabe, professional learning has always started with a question: How can this make learning better for students?
  
  

  That question is what led her to pursue continuing education through the Harvard Graduate School of Education…twice. Her decision grew directly out of classroom experience, curiosity, and a desire to strengthen inquiry-based learning for students navigating increasingly complex academic and global landscapes.
  
  

  “I’m always looking for different tools and strategies,” Ms. McCabe explained. “Not just for content, but for thinking—for how students ask questions, investigate ideas, and take ownership of their learning.”
  
  

  The program that Mme Bouffard is enrolled in is offered exclusively through Québec’s accredited tourism training institution and totals approximately 240 hours of academic and technical instruction. It is designed not as an abstract academic exercise, but as professional preparation rooted firmly in real-world practice. 
  
  

  Mme Bouffard sees the impact of the program has already has had on her teaching. Many of the skills emphasized in tour guiding: storytelling, pacing, clarity, and reading an audience, mirror best practices in the classroom. The difference, she notes, is intentionality.
  
  

  “As teachers, we do a lot of this instinctively,” she says. “But in this program, everything is broken down and taught explicitly. It makes you more aware of why certain strategies work for certain learners.”
  
  

  The content itself has also deepened her classroom practice. Studying Montreal’s history through primary sources, historic images, and site-specific stories has allowed Mme Bouffard to add richer detail and stronger visual imagery to courses she has taught for years.
  
  

  “I’m not changing what I teach so much as adding layers,” she explains. “Sometimes it’s confirming that what I’ve always said is accurate. Other times, it’s giving students a clearer mental picture, another story, another image, that helps the history come alive.”

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  A few years ago, after attending  AP Seminar training in Chicago, Ms.McCabe found herself deeply engaged by the emphasis on inquiry, higher-order thinking, and interdisciplinary research. 
  
  

  “That kind of thinking: questioning, synthesizing, reflecting, is really exciting,” she says. “Especially in social science classrooms, where inquiry is everything.”
  
  

  When information from the Harvard Graduate School of Education arrived in her inbox, it immediately stood out. She enrolled in her first certificate program in April 2021, titled Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique.
  
  

  The experience was compelling enough that she returned for a second program: Questions at the Core: Extending the Question Formulation Technique to Sustain an Inquiry-Based Culture at School. The follow-up course focused not just on using inquiry strategies effectively, but on embedding them across grades, disciplines, and school culture.
  
  

  “It’s not about me giving them better questions,” she says. “It’s about teaching students how to generate and refine their own.”
  
  

  That shift, she believes, is essential preparation for students navigating post-secondary education and an information-saturated world. It also aligns naturally with interdisciplinary learning and collaboration across subject areas.

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  Beyond its immediate professional benefits, Mme Bouffard sees continuing education as a powerful message to students: one that challenges the idea that learning ends with a diploma.
  
  

  “There isn’t just one straight road from school to career to retirement,” she says. “Your interests can change. You can add new passions. You can build something alongside what you already do.” 
  
  

  Both Mme Bouffard and Ms. McCabe’s approaches reflect a broader belief in professional growth as an ongoing process: one driven by curiosity, reflection, and responsiveness to students’ needs rather than formal requirements alone.
  
  

  “I think there's a lot of people that start off their careers in something that they really enjoy and are passionate about. But the thing is, your passions can change over time,” says Mme Bouffard. “Sometimes we think we have to find that one thing, and sometimes we do find that one thing, but there could be more out there, and our interests and hobbies can be interconnected: a sport, a craft,  it could be, I don't know, bird watching! Whatever the case may be, those kinds of things might lead to doors that can open in terms of either schooling or even jobs.”
  
  

  “When learning stays curious,” echoes Ms. McCabe, “it stays meaningful.” 
  
  

  Ms.McCabe was asked about how she hopes her students look at education as a whole. “I feel like their decisions about future goals and learning can be very pragmatic, but I would rather they pursue the things that interest them and that they care about.  That they think less about these boxes to check off and these predetermined pathways,” she continues. “I look at the potential in the classroom. I look at who we've got and who they are and what difference they can make, and I just want them to be the best version of that.  I just hope that they get excited about learning, be curious forever and ask the difficult questions.”
  
  

  It’s a sentiment shared by Mme Bouffard. Her journey back into the classroom underscores a broader truth about education: its value lies not only in where it leads, but in how it shapes the way we see the world.
  
  

  “I think being a good teacher and being a good tour guide come from the same place,” Mme Bouffard says. “It’s about curiosity, pride in your subject, and wanting to help others see what’s worth noticing.”
  
  

  Mme Bouffard and Ms. McCabe’s continued coursework has reaffirmed their belief that education is a living process that requires curiosity and a willingness to sit with uncertainty.
  
  

  “I don’t see this as something I’ve completed,” reflects Ms. McCabe. “It’s something I’m still working toward.”
  
  

  For students watching their teacher be a learner themselves, that message is powerful. Learning does not end with a diploma. It evolves. It deepens. And sometimes, it starts with a single, well-formed question.
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