Category: General

The School of Education at Trent University has an Indigenous, Environmental and Sustainability Education course for all teacher candidates.  I joined the course as a marker/grader in the fall of 2024 and found myself learning alongside the students, wishing that a course like this had been part of my B.Ed in the 1990s.

In the course syllabus Dr Rachael Nichols writes, “The Ontario curriculum requires that all teachers, in all grades and all subjects, infuse environmental and Indigenous education in their teaching.”

As educators we have the responsibility to prepare ourselves to teach about these issues and one of the easiest and most accessible ways to learn is through film. I’d like to present some of the recommended films for the IESE course with hopes that you will watch them and take time to reflect on their teachings.

Cottagers and Indians

Drew Haydon Taylor is from Curve Lake First Nation near Peterborough. In his CBC documentary, Cottagers and Indians, he shares the perspectives of people using the lake for conflicting reasons.  Manoomin, commonly called wild rice, is grown and harvested on lakes but it negatively impacts the lives of those using the lakes for recreational pursuits. The film demonstrates how complex issues can be. It’s very thought provoking for settlers like me who were taught history through a biased lens.

There’s Something in the Water

This documentary explains the injustices felt by African Canadians and First Nations in Nova Scotia where water has been polluted. The stories are somber and scary but the courageous women who speak for their communities need us to listen.

For Love

This film tells the stories of intergenerational trauma, neglect and abuse caused by residential schools but it also leaves you feeling hopeful for the future. More Indigenous children are learning about their culture and elders are bravely stepping forward to help them.  As an uninvited guest on Turtle Island it is my responsibility to listen to these stories and take action going forward.

I’m grateful that these films were recommended to me and I hope you will find them helpful as well. I’m curious to know if you have any other films or books that would help me learn. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Brenda

In my previous post, I reflected on my lack of experience learning grammar in my formal schooling and how that lack of experience did not absolve me of my responsibility to teach grammar when a curriculum mandated it. In this post, I’ll share the strategies I used to close gaps in my grammar knowledge so I could better support students in developing their knowledge of grammar and some critical insights that I’ve gained from the experience.

While living abroad, my work as an English as a Foreign language teacher involved using a school mandated curriculum to support students in developing their English language skills in the domains of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and all the areas that support becoming proficient in those domains such vocabulary knowledge, pronunciation, and grammar among others. To support students in developing their grammar skills I had to name then explain the grammatical structures found in the English language then model how to use them and finally put scaffolds in place to support students in becoming proficient users of the structures. The only problem was, I didn’t have an explicit knowledge of grammar, so I was unprepared to teach it. I remember feeling foolish telling students their oral and written sentences didn’t sound right but being unable to explain why.

Weeks into my new role and tired of feeling foolish from my lack of grammar knowledge, I committed to studying grammar so I could better teach it. I remember returning home each evening after work to watch videos, consult websites, and read excerpts from books on grammar to build my knowledge and support my lesson preparations for the following day. I began by learning tenses because the students in my classes often had questions related to this area.

From my studies I learned that English like other languages uses tenses found in verbs to communicate the time of an action or actions. The three primary tenses that the emergent and developing English language learners needed to know were the past simple, present simple, and future simple. During my studies I learned that we use the past simple to communicate completed actions. We use the present simple to communicate things happening now, routines or repeated actions, facts or general truths, and it can be used to communicate future events. We use the auxiliary verbs will or going to plus a verb in the infinitive form to communicate future actions or plans. As I began working with students who possessed more advanced English language skills, I studied addition tenses. Some of them included the past continuous, the past perfect, the past perfect continuous, and the past passive. The website englishpage.com became an invaluable resource that supported my learning.

The more I learned about grammar, then applied to practice, the smaller the gap in my grammar knowledge became and the more confident and competent I became in my ability to teach grammar in meaningful ways that impacted student learning. Additionally, studying grammar also led to an improvement in my own written and oral communication skills.

I share this story to remind myself and others of three things. First, an explicit knowledge of grammar is needed to teach it for the simple reason that is I/we cannot teach what we don’t know. Second, when writers possess an explicit knowledge of grammar, they can better construct and communicate their ideas to intended audiences. Also, we as teachers must make explicit connections between grammar knowledge and writing compositions for students to understand the relationship between the two because they may not intuitively make the connection. Third, learning precedes teaching.

I/we must identify gaps in our knowledge then fill those gaps by setting aside time to learn what we don’t know to support implementing our curriculums with fidelity. This third point can be challenging especially when we have so many personal and professional responsibilities demanding our time, energy, and attention. Consider beginning by identifying one area of need in your own professional knowledge emerging from an assessed area of need from your students, then commit to taking intentional steps to reducing the gap in your knowledge in small meaningful ways.

What I find motivating is remembering that my continuous professional learning is what helps to ensure that I remain current and relevant in my professional practice. Further, my ongoing professional learning helps me to honour my commitment to being a lifelong learner which for me involves being open to continuous growth, change, and development. The value and importance of lifelong learning is a message I strive to share in my work with both students and teachers.

In my third and final post in this series, I’ll share insights and critical considerations for teaching grammar using a culturally relevant pedagogical approach.

When I taught grade 6, my favourite subject to teach and co-teach was social studies. The focus on trade in the Geography curriculum was an area that I found particularly intriguing to teach. Topics like current events, fair trade, trade agreements, and Canada’s international relationships are exciting because the world is constantly changing.

The first Trump presidency gave me a good reason to revisit the content I had developed. In the past, the main trade agreement we focused on was the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was renegotiated into the USMCA or CUSMA.

More than a few years have passed since 2018 and in a dramatic start to 2025, so has Canada’s relationship with the United States. The American government’s decision to potentially tariff Canadian goods has become not only an economic decision with significant impacts to both sides of the Canada-US border, but a major shift in Canada’s relationship with its southern neighbour.

Whether or not these decisions are even implemented, the political turmoil that has made headlines in the early weeks of 2025 highlights reminds us of how important it is for kids to have a strong social studies education.

It is important for children to have a critical thinking skillset for the news stories and headlines they are bound to encounter on the internet or in family conversations. Students also benefit from understanding the importance of civic responsibility and the impact of elections. Social studies learning also helps students to build academic vocabulary skills in a meaningful way. Not only are they learning language in a more formal register, they will have increased opportunities to explore the new words they are learning because they will hear the same language being used in the media and family conversations.

Let’s take a closer look at these reasons.

Social Studies Learning Helps Children to think Critically about a Changing World

Quality instruction that teaches kids the fundamentals of inquiry, critical thinking, mapping, land formations, climate zones, colonization, international agreements, and economics – just to name a few social studies topics topics – helps children make sense of world they live in from a broader context.

In today’s world, where news travels quickly through social media channels and misinformation runs rampant, being able to make sense of it all in a balanced, reasonable way is critical. It is all too easy to adopt a perspective without hearing alternative viewpoints, and social studies is one of the best areas of curriculum to make critical thinking come to life.

Social Studies Helps Students to Understand the Importance of Civic Responsibility

Society needs people to take civic responsibility for their communities, whether it is organizing to improve neighbourhoods and regions or taking the role of a leader in different types of organizations. Strong instruction in social studies fosters a passion for civic responsibility in children and a drive to innovate and improve their town, city, province, or country.

Why might it be important to join a residents’ association? What are the reasons people seek political office? What can you do to improve your school community? When we teach children about how society works, we empower children to start improving their communities right away.

Social Studies Supports Academic Language Development

Finally, social studies learning is one of the best subjects for teaching academic language – the words and discourse we don’t use in everyday social language, but in more formal settings like school and work.

One of the biggest challenges I have had as an educator is helping students to communicate in different registers or discourses that are valued in academic settings and in the workplace. Teaching language through subjects like history and geography makes a high impact on learners, especially when they encounter that language in current events that are real and relevant to their families and communities.

Final Thoughts

It doesn’t take long to see how quickly the world can change, especially when we consider the headlines of the recent past. Helping children to think critically the slew of events and perspectives that accompany a major world event is essential to their growth as readers, consumers, and citizens.

Have you wondered how you can make change and learn about ETFO?  Standing committees are a wonderful way to get involved and make a difference.  In ETFO, there are over thirty standing committees to choose from – many of which have openings right now.  

A standing committee is a space for educators to make their voices heard.  Committees discuss so many different issues, from Indigenous Education to Library to Human Rights, you will be able to find your passion represented in an ETFO Standing Committee.  The role of a standing committee is to:

• To develop policy recommendations for consideration by the Executive and Annual Meeting.
• To develop program recommendations for consideration by the Executive and the Annual Meeting.
• To provide the perspective of the member on Federation initiatives and programs.
• To provide advice on the content, delivery, and design of Federation programs.
• To advise the Executive on matters relating to the work of the committee.
• To liaise when appropriate with other ETFO standing committees.
• To provide advice on issues as requested by the Executive.

Your perspective and experience is valued in this space.  Through advice and recommendations, you can help to shape the direction of our federation. Many of the resolutions put forward at the annual meeting each August come from the hard work of standing committee members who identify issues and ask the delegation for support. It’s a truly grassroots movement with member experience and engagement at the centre. 

Working on a team of four to five individuals from across the province, you will have a chance to discuss with one another and a staff liaison to help guide you through the process. Most committees meet together in person twice per year.  If selected to be part of a standing committee, you will serve a two year term before re-applying for a second term. After serving two consecutive terms, committee members take a minimum of one year break before applying to serve another term.  

While there are a number of different options for standing committees from curriculum to awards there are also some that are identity-based.  To be respectful of authentic lived experiences, these committees require applicants to self-identify.  For example, the Indigenous Education committee requires members to identify as First Nations, Metis, Inuit, in order to provide advice on issues that pertain to Indigenous Education.  

This year there are a number of vacancies on standing committees.  If you are interested in getting more involved with ETFO and letting your voice be heard, simply log in to the ETFO secure site and find the link in the top left hand corner of the screen named Standing Committee 2025-2027 Vacancies and consider submitting your application by March 1st, 2025. 

With the release of the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum (2023) and the addition of more explicit instruction in the language conventions needed to write, I began reflecting on my own educational experiences related to learning language conventions, particularly the one on grammar.

When I reflect on my educational experiences as an elementary student in Alberta and Ontario’s publicly funded school systems, I can recall no moment when I received explicit instruction in grammar. This is not to say that I didn’t receive explicit instruction in grammar from competent teachers, it’s just to say that I cannot recall any. If I speculate, my inability to recall explicitly learning grammar may be for several reasons. Some of those reasons may include sparse grammar lessons, studying grammar in siloed lessons that didn’t help me to understand the direct connection to writing, other areas of language and literacy being prioritized over grammar instruction, or perhaps a combination of these or a list of entirely different reasons altogether. Instead of accepting any of these speculations, I’ll just share what I’ve come to accept which is I don’t know why I can’t remember learning grammar.

What I find interesting is that I can vividly recall receiving explicit instruction in other areas of language and literacy. When I was in kindergarten, I remember reciting the alphabet with my peers and teacher, identifying upper- and lower-case letters, and explicitly learning letter sounds. In grades 1, 4, and 7 I recall learning transcription skills. First print, then cursive, and finally keyboarding. In primary and junior grades, I remember my teachers modelling then instructing me to use my knowledge of phonics to blend letter sounds together to decode unfamiliar words then segment letter sounds apart to encode and spell words. There are other foundational language and literacy skills I can easily recall explicitly learning from skilled teachers however, the absence of grammar from the above examples leads me to wonder if I received explicit instruction in the discipline, shouldn’t I be able to remember it.

Further thinking about my educational experiences as an adult student enrolled in an Ontario teacher preparation program, I recall receiving no training on how to explicitly teach grammar to elementary students. Again, I have no definitive reason to explain why grammar instruction was missing from my pre-service teacher program despite the presence of specific grammar expectations in the 2006 iteration of the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum. However, I can recall explicitly learning instructional approaches to support teaching other expectations found in language curriculum.

From the absence of explicit grammar instruction in my formal schooling experiences, it seemed of minor importance in comparison to other perhaps more major areas of language and literacy learning such as phonics, transcription, and spelling. As I continue to think about these collective schooling experiences, I’ve deduced that I must’ve developed an implicit knowledge of grammar at some point because I applied it throughout my elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education to write.

Yet, what I learned from my experience working overseas in the role of English as a foreign language teacher, is that I need an explicit knowledge of grammar to teach it because I need to able to explain to students how a competent knowledge of grammar supports their writing compositions. I also accepted that my lack of explicit grammar knowledge did not absolve me of my responsibility to teach it when the school curriculum mandated it.

In my next post, I’ll share the approaches I used to close the gaps in my grammar knowledge so I could better teach students the discipline.

Teachers across the province are preparing and writing their term one report cards.  

While time consuming to write, report card comments are a way to communicate with children and families about the children as learners. I always struggle with how I let them know that I see them as capable and intelligent people, even when their grades are not what they expect.  It’s taken me awhile to find the way that I feel celebrates students as mathematicians and learners in the comment section.  For me, the best way to express my ideas about students is through commenting on the mathematical processes. The front matter of the mathematics curriculum states: 

“The mathematical processes cannot be separated from the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students acquire throughout the year. All students problem solve, communicate, reason, reflect, and so on, as they develop the knowledge, the understanding of mathematical concepts, and the skills required in all the strands in every grade.”

 If you aren’t yet familiar with the processes, they include: 

• problem solving
• reasoning and proving
• reflecting
• connecting
• communicating
• representing
• selecting tools and strategies

To further support my thinking, I opened the Growing Success: The Mathematics Addendum, Grades 1 to 8, 2020 which states: 

“…describe significant strengths demonstrated by the student and identify next steps for improvement; they may also describe growth in learning. When appropriate, teachers may make reference to particular strands in their comments.” 

This was what I wanted!  I wanted my comments to reflect what I knew about students and how I saw them as learners each day.  It shifted what I was looking for in the classroom to being asset-based thinking – what were students doing and learning, their strengths and how could I use that information to build on their experiences in mathematics.

I thought about what I noticed happening in the lessons for the students and came up with ways to express what I thought was important for them to read about themselves.  For example,

*Name* is gaining confidence in their use of representations in mathematics.  They are comfortable using number lines to express understanding of equations and show their work when solving problems.  They were also able to model new thinking when working with fractions this term using pictures and diagrams, such as rectangles and squares divided into equal parts to model parts of a whole.  

For other students, I wanted to highlight their strategies and decided to comment on their participation in sharing ideas in class.  For example, 

During whole class discussions in math class, *name* was an active participant.  They enjoyed sharing their estimation strategies, such as rounding numbers, to provide reasons for their estimations.   For example, when working with larger number expressions, such as 28 x 2, *name* would estimate 60 and justify that 30 x 2 was a close friendly expression to use.

Some students excelled in building connections between strands. I wrote comments that demonstrated how they saw connections in mathematics and not just each strand as a singular stand alone.  An example of these comments are:

*Name* looks for connections between mathematics strands to make sense of new concepts. They recognize the relationship between geometry and measurement, especially when exploring perimeter.  *Name*  used an understanding of the sides of squares and triangles to explain the perimeter as being the distance around an object.  They also extended this understanding to measuring distance around a city block and could explain why metres would be a more accurate unit of measurement than centimetres. 

Of course, all teachers have their own style and flair for report card writing.  You are entitled and encouraged to use your own professional judgement about how to best communicate with families and students about learning.  These examples are not the only way to approach math comments, but the process of thinking about what I wanted to say and looking into the curriculum and Growing Success Addendum helped me to frame my own thinking and understanding about reporting in math. 

I have always enjoyed spending time reading and thinking about teaching – what does the curriculum say and what does it mean? What are some of the theories and strategies I can learn about as an educator? How do these translate to student learning? All of these help to shape my understanding of teaching and learning and what’s best for students. Reading, attending professional learning, and taking those moments to think deeply about what school means to me have given me a lot of information.

But it isn’t always this way. I don’t always have the opportunity or enough time to think as deeply as I’d like. Like most educators, I’m just trying to do my best. There is so much to learn about the curriculum and even more to find out about myself as an educator – what does my ‘teacher voice’ sound like? What do I know about students and learning and teaching? How can I take my new learning and make sense of it in action? It is all so very overwhelming and yet all so necessary.

When I learn about new strategies or information, I try to take the time to digest and consider what that might look like in the classroom. This year as I make sense of new curricula and new research and learning, I’m planning to focus more on what it looks like in practice. I spent last year radically dreaming of all the possibilities of what school could be and have spent so much time reading and learning for myself. The question for me this year is what does this mean at 8:45 am when the doors open and the classroom is set or when my prep is done? What do the conversations sound like? What are the students feeling, saying, and doing in the moment?

I’m going to spend more time learning about students, about these people I’m so lucky to share space with every day. I want to engage in more conversation, get curious about them, learn what they like, their fears, their identities and learn what they need to feel like they belong and are safe at school. I’m planning to cultivate the joy of learning and a space that builds their confidence as learners. I’m going to focus on becoming radically kid-centred.

Cornelius Minor explores the idea of being “Radically Pro-Kid” throughout his work in examining and reflecting on the education system. As he entered into conversations and interviews about his book “We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest To Be Who Our Students Need Us To Be”, he shares:

I always say that it is my role as a teacher to initially create opportunities for children and to eventually teach them how to create opportunities for themselves.

I always say when people ask me what my politics are: I am radically pro-kid. That definitely means that I am walking into every arena that attempts to abridge opportunities for kids and I’m attempting to disrupt those things.

This makes so much sense to me. Learning curriculum for myself, learning about myself as an educator, learning about what I believe in…. All of this is important, but not more important than learning about students – their experiences, who they are, and helping them to discover who they can and want to be. Being radically pro-kid means thinking bigger about the children’s experiences, being present for family to partner and build spaces where they belong. It means unpacking and examining my own biases and classroom rules – even when it’s an uncomfortable truth. It means being willing to change, to adapt, to centre student experiences, to provide opportunities, and to dismantle barriers that I didn’t know existed.

It still leaves me wondering what this looks like, in practice, at 8:45am. I wonder how this shift will change the climate of the classroom and how it will change me, too. I trust it’s going to take some time, but I believe it’s going to be better for all of us.

In my early years as a classroom teacher, I often experienced what I call the post-holiday sprint. The post-holiday sprint is returning to work after a relaxing winter break only to realize that I am behind in my long-range plans. With this realization comes the feeling that I need to burst into a metaphorical sprint to catch up to where I believe I need to be, prior to reporting on student achievement in early February. While I enjoy running in my leisure time and find sprints, at times can be a fun exercise to measure my physical fitness, I find metaphorical sprints stressful when they are unplanned, unexpected, and I feel compelled to participate.

Yet with more knowledge and experience from my years of service as a classroom teacher comes an array of skills and strategies to respond to unplanned and unexpected situations such as the post-holiday sprint. Below I’ll share four tips that I use to pace myself during the post-holiday sprint to minimize stress and avoid burn-out.

1. Start writing report cards early and begin with learning skill comments

Learning skill comments consume a significant amount of space in the elementary report card and for me they are the most labour intensive part of the reporting process. To craft individualized comments that I believe best captures how students have demonstrated their learning skills, I need lots of time. Therefore, to pace myself, upon returning to work in January, I write 3 learning skill comments either before or after the instructional day with the goal of completing the comments for all student within two weeks. I then exchange my comments with a colleague to read and review to limit the probability that my comments will need mass revisions when I submit them to my principal or vice-principal for review. Once my learning skill comments are complete, I take the same approach with subject comments. From years of experience, I’ve found that a slow steady pace to writing report cards alleviates much of the report card induced stress.

2. Use a backwards design planning approach to catch up on long range plans

To ensure my lessons are more focused and I better use my instructional time, I apply a backwards design approach to program planning. I begin by reviewing the curriculum expectations I have yet to explicitly teach found in my long-range plans. I then think of ways that students could potentially demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the concepts, skills, or strategies through rich tasks. Finally, I estimate the approximate number of lessons, activities, and work periods needed for students to potentially acquire the concept, skill or strategy. Of course, I ensure that I include time to reteach or review lessons as needed to support positively impacting student learning.

3. Plan for planning times

At the end or prior to the start of the instructional day, I define how I want to use my planning time to ensure I use the time effectively to complete essential tasks. When I started planning for my planning times, I was pleasantly surprised by how much work I could complete within 40 minutes. Even if I was able to only complete one or two items on my to do list within a given planning time, it still helped me to experience a sense of accomplishment and reduced feelings of stress associated with being behind in my program.

4. Know when to slow down and stop

There are some evenings and weekends when I opt to fully detach from work so I can enjoy time with loved ones or just rest free from the guilt that I should continue working. I think too often dedicated teachers forget that it’s okay for us to sometimes fully detach from work after the instructional day to rest and relax so that we can be more mentally and physically prepared to teach and support our students. Therefore, there are some days that I leave work promptly after the instructional day, take no work home with me, and enjoy an evening doing something that makes me happy.