Learn Create Inspire
Sharing successes and challenges through teaching while becoming a (hopefully) published author.
Social Justice Symposium: The Stations and Logistics (Ideas to share your own learning!)
The Social Justice Symposium is done and I am exhausted! In this post I run down some of the logistics running a day of sharing learning with the school community. The learning was deep and it represented many different learning opportunities. I am so grateful for my class and all of the people who helped us succeed.
Social Justice Symposium: Social Justice Quilt
The Social Justice Quilt is a collaborative piece of artwork that explores the big learning my class had during our Social Justice Symposium unit. To explore the power of instillations, my class learned about The Witness Blanket created by Carey Newman. I also share my gratitude for a teacher friend who helped me with this unit…and so many others!
Social Justice Symposium: Intersectionality in Literature
Intersectionality is an important topic to explore when talking about social justice. It is complex, but breaking it down and modelling intersectionality can help kids understand our complex world. I modelled intersectionality with two texts: One Plastic Bag and a nonfiction piece about Red Dress Day (May 5th) in Canada before setting the students out to explore the concepts in literature. It was powerful for kids to discover the patterns of oppression.
Social Justice Symposium: Creating and Learning about PSAs
We spent one intense week making TWO PSAs: one visual and one video. The kids learned all about public service announcements and used what they had learned about social justice topics to make PSAs for a student audience. We also made a Kahoot! to test our knowledge after watching and reading all of the PSAs.
Banned Books: Exploring Representation in Literature
Kids literatures is being banned at an alarming rate, which limits access to diversity and #ownvoice authors. This post explores a banned books lesson that I designed for my class. It moves from input to co-creation to transformation in the understanding of book banning with my class. I also reflect on personal experiences in diversity in literature and questions you can ask yourself about literature you have used in your own classroom.
Transgender Awareness Week Resources
It is Transgender Awareness Week. This blog post will provide you with literature that you can use from primary through high school. I have also outlined a lesson I ran today using the book Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall.
Catastrophic Tech Failure AND a Wonderful Day!
When technology fails…PSA Executives solve the problem and still provide powerful professional development. My thoughts on the catastrophic technology failure yesterday and my gratitude for the PSAs.
Hands-On Residential School Truth & Reconciliation Day Lesson
This is a hands-on simulation lesson that explores the intergenerational trauma of residential schools and the impacts on communities left without children. It is designed to support teachers talking to kids about The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Refugee Novels & Graphic Novels
This blog post shares several novels about the refugee experience that intermediate students have connected with.
Komagata Maru Memorial Vandalized: What can we do?
How I am processing the anti-asian vandalism of the Komagata Maru Memorial AND how we can work through incidents like this in our classrooms.
