As curriculums move away from an emphasis on content to skills, the time is right to use that move as an opportunity to better serve introverts in school.

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.

The trick to not using all your personal days during the first month of school is to focus on stopping bad behavior before it starts, instead of punishing students after the fact.

As I stood in my empty classroom surrounded by piles of boxes, I couldn’t help but wonder: what was I going to do now?

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 of embraced. Over the years, quite by accident, I have discovered that this precept from days gone by is critical to classroom rules and to learning itself. Relationships are an essential part of learning, especially relationships between teachers and students.

It’s said that there is always a blessing in dark times, and this was it: my chance to share my 1970s childhood with 25 children of 2020.

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

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.

The integration of practical, relevant life skills into the curriculum not only improves engagement, but also increases emotional well-being and real-world readiness.