Hello! My name is Matthew Boomhower and I'm a Canadian educator who has been living and teaching internationally since 2004.

My journey as an educator began with pre-service teaching placements in secondary chemistry and mathematics classrooms in my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. After graduating from Lakehead University with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and my Bachelor of Education in Intermediate/Secondary education, I took up a position retraining injured workers preparing for future post-secondary studies and helping college and university students remediate for post-secondary mathematics and science courses and prepare for the GMAT and GRE. During that time, I spent my weekends on Lake Helen First Nations Reserve providing supplemental education services to elementary school students in need of learning support.

​ In 2004, I fulfilled a life-long dream of teaching and living abroad and moved to Seoul, South Korea. I took up a position as K-8 Program Supervisor and, in addition to teaching kindergarten to middle school-aged students, gained valuable experience in educational leadership, teacher training, teacher interviewing and assessment, conflict management and team building, and curriculum design and review.

In 2012, I accepted a teaching position in central Seoul and was quickly promoted to lead teacher. In this role, I was able to mentor teachers working towards certification and help them to devise and implement personal development plans, as well as redesign the 5th grade learning curriculum and create a textbook as a resource for the grade’s science curriculum. I took on the responsibility of Curriculum Coordinator and began leading a teacher-driven initiative to redesign and improve the curriculum for the entire program as I completed my Master of Education degree at Framingham State University. I was honored to take on Directorship of the program and to implement sustainable professional development PLC frameworks and a bespoke Global Citizenship curriculum for our elementary school students.

In 2017, I was again honored with an opportunity to fill the newly created Head of Innovation and Learning position at a top-ranked international school in Kuala Lumpur where I now work alongside Head of School, Principals, teachers, support and other administrative personnel to influence, motivate and monitor our school's vision to provide educational excellence in a diverse and compassionate personalized learning community.

In 2020, I completed my doctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario. My research focused on the creation of sustainable systems to support international school student well-being. My current research interests are programming for holistic school community well-being, systems thinking in school leadership contexts, and appreciative inquiry-focused organizational change processes.

I'm currently proud to be the Elementary School Principal in the same school and endlessly impressed with how our students, teachers, and community have successfully weathered the pandemic while still maintaining a high quality of learning at the school.

My career as an educator has been a gift that I've never taken for granted. Having the chance to make a positive impact on the lives of students of all ages and to work alongside some of the most talented, motivated, and passionate professionals in any industry provides me with a sense of meaning in my work that makes going to work each day a true joy. It's an honor to be a part of a global community of educators and to do my part to move our field forward to benefit all learners.

Thanks for stopping by,

Matthew Boomhower