How to Teach Like a Fool
One of my most influential teaching mentors is a secondary character from a sixteenth century Shakespearean play. I was introduced to the “wise fool” from King Lear in my last ...
Opinion: Classroom Perspectives
Little School, Big Heart
It began on a lovely spring afternoon in 2015, when a Grade 7 student came up to me during recess: Student: “Do you know Rick Mercer?” Me: “Yup.” Student: “Do you know about ...
Eight Tips for the New Techy Teacher
Two years ago, my principal rolled an iPad cart into my classroom. I'd been challenged to design and implement a 1:1 iPad program that would enhance the highly structured ...
Relationships as a Teaching Tool
I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that rules without relationships lead to rebellion. Yet today, relationships with students seem to be feared instead ...
Change Your Classroom With Gratitude
Sandra lives in a rooming house and arrived from Honduras last year. She is grateful for clean drinking water. Jasper has chronic arguments with his older brother, yet he is ...
The Trials and Tribulations of Substitute Teaching
It’s 8:25 AM and there are no notes left in the classroom. I scramble around the room and a few papers fall from the desk to the floor. I can hear the students chattering in ...
PBS Math Club Builds Confidence for ESL Students
While tutoring non-native English speakers, instructors are not only faced with the challenge of differentiating instruction for multiple subjects and learning levels, but we ...
Creating a Paperless Classroom
Like many of my students, I too use digital devices in my daily personal life, but the enormous piles of notes and paper combined with the constant fighting with the students ...
Teaching With Google Drive
In today’s world we experience so much technology that it has become a mainstay in our lives. Often our students know more about the digital age than we do, and are eager to ...
Drugs and the Classroom: A Teacher’s Strategy
This past year, in a small Midwest community, we lost a student to a drug overdose. We have lost many more to drug addiction, and although we haven’t attended their funerals, ...