What Doug Ford’s team is doing right now reminds me of Bojack Horseman, from the end of the first season on, when absolutely everybody just starts saying “Hollywoo” after the ‘D’ in the big sign goes missing. It becomes the accepted reality. So many are openly just accepting that kids and
Continue readingTag: Teaching
A Puff of Absurdity: Putting Your Own Mask on First
Teachers are a hardy bunch. We have self-trained ourselves to remain polite and calm in the face of abuse. On my first day of teaching, ever, I wrote Miss Snyder on the board, and a faceless voice from the back of the room said, “Oh good, she’s not married. No
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Substitute Teaching During a Pandemic – Anxiety Double Plus
Is a sub gig worth the health of your family? That main question that has been going through my head as of late, since school has started. I’ve been very lucky to be able to attend schools I know that also happen to have very stringent health protocols. But
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Fogginess of These Times
I had laser surgery over a decade ago and love not wearing glasses, but I’ve started wearing my sunglasses regularly, even on my walk to work just as the sun’s coming up. It makes no sense to have a barrier to our nose and mouth but leave the most defenceless
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Risk Assessment for September
I have two weeks left before going back to school in person. I’ve been writing on social media and sending emails and signing petitions because this plan in Ontario doesn’t feel remotely safe. I’ve even jumped queue and wrote to the upper echelon of my school board in an attempt
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Pandemic School Measures – Example of Pandemic Precautions
I hope the Edmonton Public School Board takes notice – “SS: What health and safety measures are your school district and you taking for the reopening of school? MKS: As of this writing, our district has delayed its start by 2 1/2 weeks for faculty and 4 weeks for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Learning History
I made a little history quiz, just for fun, for people to see how much they know about Canada’s history of horrific treatment of Indigenous Peoples as well as our history of slavery and internment camps. I mixed in facts about America at many points just to give people context. Because
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: In Retrospect: School in the Time of Covid
This video about online learning, “numb” by Liv McNeil, is making the rounds: This has been a difficult time, and the video is cathartic for some. But first a bit about the video structure as a short film: Some things were fantastic, like the sound of kids laughing as she’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Policing: Maintaining Institutions
Victoria’s Secret I’m just kicking around the idea of defunding the police and trying to picture how it all works and how we get from here to there to explore if it’s necessarily the best route. Police take up a huge part of municipal budgets, and seeing cops in riot
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Policing: Checking Up or Checking In
Two things happened recently that have me thinking about the nature of policing of one another beyond blue uniforms. It’s that policing attitude I’m questioning. #1. At an online meeting with an admin of my high school, we were told our marks are due Monday morning, a few days ahead of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Opening Schools in September
The province is asking for our advice – the public‘s – in how to open schools in September. As much as I value democracy, getting advice on a public health issue from random people with the time and energy to respond makes me very nervous. Consulting the public might be a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Teaching Online – a Month in Review
A recent poll of Canadian students aged 10-17 found that, “When it comes to online classes, most say they’re keeping up (75%) but are largely unmotivated (60%) and disliking the arrangement (57%). It stands to reason then, that one of the biggest worries for Canada’s young people includes missing out
Continue readingeaves.ca: Lecturing and Teaching Remotely — My Setup and Approach
I just ran a workshop/facilitate this morning for a number of the Chief Digital Officers from several European capital cities to help them share best practices and shared challenges in their respond to COVID19. I very much enjoyed the session and my set up has me excited about how remote
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Can Public School Teachers Teach from Home?
Last Thursday, after getting a series of emails from the school board and OSSTF about concerns with many students travelling over the March Break and returning with an incubating virus that could infect each school, we suddenly found out from the CBC that we’re shutting down for the two weeks
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Most Schooling Is Training for Stupidity And Conformity
Going against the dominant expectations as a teacher, as Chomsky says, is a dangerously fine line. Those who do, please keep up the great work.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Paul Gorski on Education and Inequity
For the first time in 28 years of teaching, I approve of the new guru being brought to the masses from on high. Immediately, from just the first few seconds of the video we were compelled to watch for some force-fed professional development, I knew this guy was different. The sound was
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Real World Curriculum
Almost two years ago, in July of 2017, I crafted a “Real World” curriculum. It must have rained or been outrageously hot for a few days in a row for me to have put this all down. It was sparked by ongoing conversations with students of two types (the conversations,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Like Rats Jumping a Sinking Ship
My class had a great conversation the other day about discrimination and W.E.B. DuBois’s “double consciousness.” I discussed the theory and solicited for comments, but there were none, as I expected. This kind of thing needs to sit a little and gel before we can really address it. So I
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: More Ford Cuts: Ban Cell Phones, but Mandate Online Courses
From iPolitics: “On top of the change to class sizes, the government is also mandating that all high school students take four of their 30 credits online. This requirement will take effect in the 2020-21 school year. These e-learning classes will average 35 students per class, according to the government.”
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ford’s Cuts to Education
As reported in a CBC article, Ford’s cuts to education, so far, aren’t nearly as bad as anticipated. Could it mean he actually listened to citizens? Or maybe they’ve been hinting at cuts so horrible that now we’re all just relieved and drained of the fight to stop the cuts
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