On Writing and Mental Health

How not to suffer for artThe holidays can be the best of times and the worst of times. Even those of us privileged to live in peace and comfort can be swept into a nerve-rattling vortex of over-consumption and competitive good cheer.In the spirit of counteracting this...

On the Success / Effort Continuum

Why elbow grease matters in educationFor slightly convoluted reasons (a Kindle subscription was involved) I found myself reading Daniel Kahneman’s doorstop Thinking, Fast and Slow. Among the many (oh so many) fascinating titbits Kahneman doles out is a story about...

Writing from Newsroom to Classroom

Real-world writing strategiesThings students have said to me:‘I asked my teacher how long the essay needed to be and he said, “how long is a piece of string?”‘‘Wait! You can start a sentence with ‘but’?’‘What is the process for answering an essay question?’These...

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...

Success Stories with Anthony Lince

Scholar and educator Anthony Lince shares his writing journeyAnthony Lince, per his online bio, is ‘a Latinx educator and scholar who teaches first-year writing courses at UC San Diego and local community colleges.’From ‘terrified’ writer to writing teacherIn...