2020 Year in Review: Teaching Under the Banner of Covid
Dr. Jennifer Kwan put out a call on Twitter for messages we wished to have sent ourselves a year ago. Then she added, And Ryan Imgrund, provider of daily stats…
Marie Snyder
Hedges on American Psychosis
Chris Hedges just put out a short video about American Psychosis, in which he explains, We have blissfully checked out. Most people have no concept of how fragile their environment…
On Cuties, Euphoria, and Promising Young Woman
My social media feed is full of political scandals that I have no ability to affect, so I’ve immersed myself in movies and shows. Bechdel test for the win for…
Ten Climate Change Items That Need Wider Reporting
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. A vaccine is here, hooray! But now let’s actually take a good hard look at climate change mitigation. This is from a…
Unforeseen Custody Issues: Who Could Have Predicted THIS?
I’m generally a worrier. If my kids don’t text back after a few minutes, all sorts of images bombard my brain. Sometimes they don’t text back for hours, and it…
Hannah Arendt in Lego
@EthicsInBricks posted this lovely tribute to Hannah Arendt on Twitter last October, in honour of her date of birth, October 14, 1906, and I want to save it in the…
How Is Hybrid Teaching Going?? It’s Complicated.
We’ve recently been told that next semester, starting in February, will operate the same way as this semester did: running quadmester terms with in-school students attached to each school in…
Mental Illness in Covid Times
For me to stop teaching in a physical classroom, because I don’t feel safe in there, I need a note from my doctor indicating that I have a mental illness…
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
I had a very sick kid here on the night before the last day of the last quadmester. My little one felt shaky and dizzy and came downstairs to get…
On Critical Race Theory
Conservative British MP, Kemi Badenoch, insisted that Critical Race Theory is somehow illegal, so I’m just going to save this rebuttal here: This is a Twitter thread from Kojo Koram…
Michael Sandel’s Tyranny of Merit
I haven’t yet read his newest book, but Michael Sandel is everywhere these days promoting his new book. An excerpt from a Guardian interview: Sandel charts the rise of what…
Imagine If Teachers Made the Decisions that Affect Teachers
So now the government has overruled regulation 274. I wrote about it ages ago, again firmly planted on the government side!! I’m really very, very pro-union, honestly, but some things…
Does Teaching Effectively Legitimize Ford’s Plan?
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…
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…
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…
Oh–What’s a Teacher to Do?
Starting next Friday, secondary students in my board will be forced to be in a room with about 15 other students they might not know, many of whom will take…
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…
On a Radical Vision of Future Earth
I grabbed this book, by meteorologist Eric Holthaus, as soon as it went on sale, excited to check out the new vision of how we can all better live together.…
Hedges – the Last Word on Cancel Culture
Having a mass of people able to “cancel” someone in power can seem like a fantastic form of fluid democracy when it shuts down something harmful in a harmless manner,…
Some Paintings
I got on a painting kick this week. I haven’t picked up a brush in years, but, seeing as I have nowhere else to go, I gave it a whirl.…