World-Building with Rosanna Leo

Part of the ‘Between the Lines’ series of writer interviews.In magical realmsIt is Sunday afternoon. Outside Rosanna Leo’s home (not far from Toronto, Ontario) the leaves have turned. “Just a couple of weeks till the beginning of winter,” she remarks. “It’s long here:...

Book Review: The Marrow Thieves

Cherie Dimaline (2017)Dystopian novel, YA fiction, Indigenous culture, Métis author, climate catastrophe, environment, Canadian author, queer fictionWhen I began a stint teaching middle school full time, I decided it was probably time to start reading young adult (YA)...

Six Course Design Essentials

Success strategies for learnersOver the summer, I took two online courses: they were instructive in unexpected ways.Both were premium-priced ($500+), both were heavily marketed, both were on topics I was keen to learn.By the second session of Course 1, I was wandering...

Book Review: I Shall Not Hate

Izzeldin Abuelaish, 2010Key wordsPalestine, Israel, Gaza, humanism, refugees, apartheid, medicine, conflict resolution, peace, Muslim, Jewish, educationLong before the recent cataclysm in the Middle East, my husband mentioned a book he’d read by a Palestinian doctor...

Reading Aloud to Older Students

We’re never too old for stories…Reading aloud is like breast feeding: everyone agrees it is vital for the very young, but past a certain age it gets side-eye.There is ample research on how reading aloud supports early literacy (Wiseman, 2010; Lennox, 2013,...

Book Review: Connections Over Compliance

Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline, by Lori Desautels, Ph.D. (2020)Key wordsEducation, co-regulation, trauma-informed, relational discipline, student-centered, classroom management, neuroscience, teachingMy intention was to skim Connections Over Compliance again...