Student absences are not a new issue in education, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have only added to this growing problem.

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.

I avidly recall a second grade class that would excitedly huddle around my rocking chair for story time. Students scrambled around sliding chairs to the carpet where I read heartwarming and sometimes zany tales, they reminded me that story time was counted among the most meaningful and cherished moments of a child’s day. Story time is a child’s portal into endless worlds, kingdoms, and dimensions.

I am a teacher in southern West Virginia, a region defined by stereotypes and hit hard by America’s opioid epidemic.

As soon as I utter the words “writing assignment,” looks of panic appear on my students’ faces. Their hands shoot up like rockets and the questions immediately start.

As an educator in Canada, whose homeland has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples long before me, I have the opportunity and responsibility to teach this history to my students.

Not only do visual arts classes make space in a student’s day for creativity, they can also offer a chance to focus on something bigger.

Do you remember the first time you entered the school library as a child? I do. There were books everywhere.

On paper, the students I was teaching had a solid grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Yet, when it came to speaking, they froze.