I was browsing YouTube for simplified math tutorials one afternoon when I stumbled upon the PBS Kids Math Club—math tutorial videos geared toward teens.

Teaching is a great responsibility. I teach English and believe that the ability to communicate, at a personal and societal level, is what builds strong communities and ensures ownership over one’s future. Thus, it’s important that we teachers spend a lot of time on our craft—deliberating the best ways to teach and make lessons fun, interactive, and relatable to students. Professional development thrives on discipline pedagogy and school departments meet to align goals and assignments and to discuss data assessment.

We don’t have to choose between structure and creativity. The best teaching lives in the in-between, where we follow a script, but we fill it with our stories, our students’ voices, and our classroom rhythms.

I started my teaching career at a public middle school in Toronto about two decades ago. At that time, I was not comfortable being personally out to my students.

After my first week of being in a long-term occasional role, it became very clear to me that learning about being in the classroom is not the same as actually being in the classroom.

Every year, almost every student says, “I suck at writing. I hate it.” I hear this phrase far more than “Hello,” “Thank you,” or even “Can I use the restroom?”

The benefits of play-based learning are huge, and we shouldn’t be depriving our children of it just because they are getting older.

When I reflect on my years working in classrooms with students, I think about how much time it took to access and use essential technology B.G. (before Google). I compare it with what it must have been like for people before electricity and after electricity. B.G.

Your time at school will be essential to your teaching life. From my personal experience, I believe the most important part of your teaching program is to do well in your practicum placement.