Features

If adult learning is child’s play, then the teachers gathered on this cold Saturday morning in March understand what is meant by the expression “Playing is learning and learning is playing.”

What is a doll? If you were asked that question, visions of cherubic-faced porcelain dolls, G.I. Joe action figures or perhaps even the latest fad – Monster High dolls – would come to mind. What if someone asked you what an “art doll” was?  

For four minutes and 13 seconds, my classroom was silent. Although it was already February, this was the first time in the school year that my Grade 7/8 class had nothing to say. Speechless was a better way to describe it.

By the end of September my frustration with one of my students had risen to the point that I no longer knew what to do or how to get through to her.

Every day, my Grade 2 students come into the classroom with smiles on their faces and a question on their minds: “Whose bucket will I fill today?” The children join me on the carpet as I take the attendance.

There are many ways in which electronic technology may be used in classrooms and school environments to enhance and promote student learning. Some technology is immediately familiar to students, and often includes instant audio and/or video recording features and immediate ability to share and post what has been recorded.

Does the word gamification make you cringe? That’s okay. I get it. It sounds like an annoying made-up word. Like selfie or asap.

What do you do when you can’t find a resource to start important conversations in your classroom? You create one, of course. Peel teacher Greg Maxton (who writes under his married name, Kentris) had become increasingly frustrated with the persistent, intentional and casual homophobia that he saw in his middle school teaching environment.

“Who are we videoconferencing with today, Mrs. Cassell?” These are the first words I hear as my students enter the room. I have been a full-time elementary teacher with the Avon Maitland District School Board for the past nine years, teaching students in the primary and intermediate grades.