Thoughts

Learning that transfers: Designing Curriculum for a changing World. Corwin, 2021

I am beginning my review of Learning that transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World by Julie Stern, Trevor Aleo, Kayla Duncan, Krista Ferraro. What do your learning retrieval practices look like? I am creating infographics to help me recall the salient points? Do you teach retrieval practices to your students?

Orange Shirt Day

September 30th is known as Orange Shirt Day. The day aims to raise awareness of the history of residential schools in Canada and increase understanding. Check out this link for resources to help you bring this awareness to your school. Link

Pride Month

Pride month is in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots. If you are afraid to put books that feature LGBTQIA+ heroes in your class library, imagine how your students feel knowing you are more concerned about perception than them. #LoveIsLove #PrideMonth #Pride #inclusiveesl

Interligne link

Interligne is a first response centre that provides help and information to those concerned with sexual orientation and gender diversity.

National Indigenous History Month

In June, we celebrate National Indigenous History Month to honour the history, heritage and diversity of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Sara Florence Davidson @sarafdavidson is a Haida/Settler teacher educator coming from the unceded Stó:lō Territories. She is the co-Author of Potlatch as Pedagogy who offers great insight into the decolonization of education. And, if you are looking for some interesting listening over the summer, check out this podcast series at AMR.

My focus is on excellence in ESL pedagogy and good teaching practices in general. If we want an educated pedagogical citizenry, we need teachers to have easy access to knowledge. Here, we will look into topics that help you learn about inclusive education in particular, and help you to do the necessary work as an educator. Beginning this week and moving forward for a while, I will use this space to share some inclusive resources I have found helpful.

What can you do?

These last couple of weeks have been riddled with loss, pain, sadness and hope. I posted on Instagram and Facebook in solidarity but it is not enough, so today I take action for change in a different way and call you to action with the question "What will you do for an anti-racist future?"

To guide you, Dena Simmons wrote an article for ascd.org (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), wherein she addresses How to Be an Antiracist Educator. The website also provides access to resources that will continue to help you as you work to dismantle racism on a personal level, in your classrooms and at a structural level.

You might also like to follow her on Instagram for continued inspo @denasimmons

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." -Maya Angelou

Inclusive Education

Perhaps it is because I have had the chance to work with 3 classes of students with Autism for the last three years that inclusive education with respect to neurodiversity is at the forefront of my mind when planning and teaching ESL. I have found that it has made me a better, more aware teacher in all of my classes.

Shelley Moore is an inclusive-education consultant that has profoundly shifted my teaching habits. She offers teachers and parents alike access to video, podcasts, research and professional development activities in a highly curated website. Her bit-sized instruction makes learning about inclusion easy and fun. Check out her video on Bowling, in particular. Click on her image to the left to visit her site.

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