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No one told me I’d have to raise my own children!
Response to Brenda MacDonald’s Oct 15, 2012 column: Two Cents Worth I’d like to add my two cents worth to Brenda MacDonald’s recent column in the Bedford-Sackville Daily News. In this week’s column,...
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If we can’t direct the winds, we must adjust our sails – The case of Jeffrey...
Chris Jeanguenat, Sailboats in Stormy Seas It’s easy to understand why schools are built with wheelchair ramps – without the ramp, a child in a wheelchair would not be able to access the same...
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Top Ten Tips for Student Teachers
Many (many, many) years ago, I did my student teaching at my old high school with my old high school English teacher. I was even placed in the same room where I passed notes to my friends and tried not...
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Six is not the new sixteen
What’s wrong with you, baby? How come you can’t read yet? How will you ever get a job?! “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Whenever I read doom and gloom stories,...
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A guide or a sage? Spare me the crap. (Part 1)
Michael Zwaagstra, a former high school teacher and self-professed saviour of the education system, recently wrote an opinion piece that appeared in my local paper. He said universities are...
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Why Common Sense Education lacks Common Sense
The student make-up of your average classroom has changed so dramatically over the past few decades that it is barely recognizable. So why are reformists suggesting we go “back to basics”? Why not go...
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CORRECTION: Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher, not a ‘former’ teacher.
In one of my previous blogs, I refered to Manitoba teacher, Michael Zwaagstra as a “former teacher”. He is, in fact, a full-time teacher. My apologies for my sloppy research and reporting. If you would...
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Yoga + Writing = Happy Students who Will Write and Write and Write…
Author: Sheree Fitch I recently published a review of the book Breathe, Stretch, Write in the winter edition of AVISO, a magazine for Nova Scotia teachers. I was paid the princely sum of $75 for my...
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Teachers: Love us or hate us, we’re still going to teach your kids.
A teacher for Prime Minister? What you talkin’ about, Willis?! If Liberal leader Justin Trudeau wins the next federal election in a few years, Canada will have a teacher for Prime Minister. Imagine! A...
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Why We Should Abolish Grade 8
Let the cats and the grade 8′s roam free. I have long proposed that Grade 8 be abolished. Sort of like the 13th floor in a hotel. Just skip over it. It’s bad luck. No one wants to get off on that...
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Ten Important Lessons I Teach That Aren’t Part of the Core Curriculum
Some folks are predicting that live teachers in classrooms will soon be replaced by disembodied voices over the internet. I hope that doesn’t happen. Not because I’m anti-technology or because I want...
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Bearing (or baring) it all in the Huffington Post
Well, there goes my secret identity. Yup. Suburban Princess Teacher, Clark Kent, Jason Collins - we’re all out of the closet now. A few days ago I sent a story into the Huffington Post about the...
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I’m the biggest loser! No, I am! (Relax, people. It’s not a competition.)
I recently told my tale of personal woe in an article that was published on the Huffington Post website. It was scary to bare my soul in a public setting but I thought it might help other teachers to...
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Homework vs. Laundry: One of these things will teach your child...
As an elementary school teacher, I rarely assign homework. Of course I encourage my students to read. I also encourage them to follow the news, eat right, and be kind to their friends and family. But...
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Use your words, ladies. Why we need to stop worrying about being embarrassed.
Today is the day San Diego Mayor Bob Filner starts his two weeks of intensive therapy to help cure what he called the “monster…inside me.” A few weeks ago, the man known as Headlock Bob found himself...
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Cheers, fellow teachers! It’s World Teacher Day! Time to start celebrating, non?
Oct 5 is World Teacher Day! What are you doing to celebrate? I started celebrating today at precisely wine-o’clock. (Cheers, Me!) I’ve been in this profession (off and on) for more than 20 years, so I...
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A Grown-Up Report Card – How many A’s would YOU get?
Imagine, if you will, that it’s a week before Christmas but instead of your head being filled with visions of sugarplums and rum and eggnog, you were pacing the floors worrying about your upcoming...
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How to Solve our Country’s Math “Problem”
The Globe and Mail recently featured a top fold, bold-font headline that screamed: “THE FIGHT TO SOLVE OUR MATH PROBLEM”! I was disappointed to see there was no picture attached to this headline. I was...
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Get scared, then be brave – Why teachers need to step outside their comfort...
Last weekend I went skiing. I always have a romanticized view of what my ski day will look like. I see myself gliding down the hill, smiling as I whoosh by the other skiers. Then lounging in the lodge...
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Newsflash: Girls Are Not Distractions
The school dress code issue has reared its ugly head once again and everyone is acting like this is a brand-new problem. Seriously? Every generation of adults since the beginning of time has felt that...
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