Curriculum Context

The truth is that great and forward-thinking schools are going there without your explicit permission. We can always ask forgiveness, but if we wait to ask permission it’ll be the kids who suffer, and it’s for them and for their futures that we make every choice we do in our classrooms and schools and Google Meets.

Hybrid Delivery Creates Educational Equity

Why have I been using my own laptop, stacking containers to make makeshift stands, and taking the risk to broadcast my yoga-pant-clad, masked and sweating self on the internet? Like everything we do in Education, it’s for the kids. There are things one ends up doing as a teacher that, if told in advance that…

Oranges Aren’t Normal

A little speculative fiction… I hope.  The last time I had an orange, I didn’t know it would be the LAST time. I remember that it was a good one, bursting with flavour and juice, ripened to its peak and eaten at the perfect time. It had been the last one in my crisper drawer,…

What to Do With the Time That is Given Us

In his Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R Tolkien wrote, “All we can do is decide what to do with the time that is given us.” That is more true today than it perhaps has ever been in your lifetime – you have grown up having your hours engaged and scheduled and managed for more…

The Raven

Subtitled: The Best Advice I’ve Gotten from My Mom This Year My Mom is like a walking deep-thought-of-the-day calendar. I’m always bugging her to somehow record her wisdom so I can selfishly revisit it, instead of just mulling over the pieces I am able to latch onto as she doles them out. I’m sure there…

Why A Zombie Apocalypse Is Not The Answer

Speech – Viewers of The Walking Dead (30-1 Blog Post 1, Spring 2017)  I’m the first to admit it, I sometimes think about what an apocalypse could accomplish. I don’t mean that I want to see masses of death or destructive harm, but rather, I imagine a way to eliminate some of the institutional expectations that have…

The New Facebook Upgrade

The following is a work of fiction. (Creative Response, Article Form.) Facebook CEO and creator Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the popular social networking site would be releasing an upgrade later this month. Facebook has faced significant backlash in recent months, and has now been accused of being a co-conspirator in what President Trump has…

Dear Student who has not done enough legwork this semester and panicked at the last moment:

This is not your writing. Believe me, I know what you sound like in words put on paper, and this, my dear, is not you. I have read the things you wrote, and have a good idea about how much of your time with me has been spent actually working with and on the things…

Sacrifice is a Heart Tenderizer

I was one of those lucky kids in my childhood, and I know it; the kind who had both parents stay together, and even stay in love; the kind that had grandparents and family that I liked; the kind that grew up almost my whole life long in the same small northern Alberta town. I…

The Persistence of Memory*

*Title shamelessly stolen from and inspired by Dali’s melting clocks. Think of people who have made you angry. Now imagine those same people as children. Imagine their parents, their grandparents, the town they live in, the people they grew up with; imagine the hard things that happened to their families, the clothes they grew up…

Cliffs Await: Be brave, jump now.

I wrote this post in the summer while on a bus somewhere in Asia. I was mentally responding to a somewhat whiny Facebook status update from someone I’ve not seen or spoken to in “real” life for years. I have had the privilege of teaching a lot of Career and Life Management, or CALM 20,…

Where the Truth Comes From: Journalistic Integrity

(Blog post model, 30-1 English personal response piece)  One morning when I was in grade 11, I came down the stairs running late, and noticed that the news was on in the living room. I remember thinking that was weird. My family is not good at being on time. It just added to our already…