When I told my fifth-grade class that they were old enough to take charge of their own learning, something unexpected happened.

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, they are no longer the students we once knew, while some are unrecognizable.

“May it please the court.” For the past 13 years, I’ve heard middle and high school students utter these words in a simulated moot court competition.

You see, here’s the thing that some of us – teachers and parents alike – don’t really take time to stop and think about: kids’ feelings have value too. And they all have their own needs and wants at any given time.

Students often display a morbid curiosity that I feel I cannot ignore, but can I lean into it? Can I use this fascination in a way that engages students, but also humanizes them?

I have gleaned three wise teachings from King Lear's fool and each one informs my practice in the classroom more and more each day.

The Model UN Club found me in 2013 in the shape of two very keen Grade 9 girls making a pitch to me at lunch about the need for more women in politics.

Getting kids to write in this day and age, where entertainment is merely a swipe away, can be like asking them to eat their vegetables.

It has struck me over the past few years working with senior secondary school students that an ideal approach to guiding them through their academic year is to liken the student group to a sporting team that you are ‘coaching’ through to a successful season. For the past two and a half years, I have served as the Study Centre Supervisor and Academic Tutor [...]