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.

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.

In a school made up of just 10% African American students, after the bell rang, more than half of the students still in the halls were African American. This made me wonder if Black kids are allowed to roam the halls all over America’s urban landscape.

Can unicycles serve an important educational purpose? Are there good pedagogical reasons for learning to ride them?

When I first learned about The Mentoree, it immediately resonated with me. I was eager to connect with someone who had relevant experiences and could help answer the many questions I had.

It is my job to motivate and mold my students, to keep them engaged, to build reading and writing confidence in all who enter my virtual classroom.

Often, we forget our students come to class each day with a lot more on their minds than academics. Despite this, my students willingly express gratitude each morning.

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.

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.