Author: Daphne McMenemy
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It’s Always Been Done That Way
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Grace Hopper once said, “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, “We’ve always done it this way.’” So many, too many, educators love this phrase. We often claim to continue with outdated practices because it’s what we’ve always known to work. But are these practices effective? Are we…
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Like A Girl
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We were in the middle of a hike yesterday afternoon when one of the little boys on the trail, out of nowhere, screamed a very high-pitched scream. Upon further investigation, he wasn’t hurt, he’d merely seen a bug, was frightened, then screamed. The very next response from his father, upon…
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BYTE 2021
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On May 2, 2019 I sat in a packed auditorium at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I was sitting in the third row of Catherine Zeisner’s keynote, Class of 2030. She took to the stage armed with stories from her personal life, her life at school and…
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Teaching Code: More Questions Than Answers
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This past September, coding became a part of our ministry mandated curriculum for grades one through eight. What I assumed would be a logical continuation of my already established coding program, this year has led me to some pretty big realizations and learning for a variety of reasons. For starters,…
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The Empty Seat at the Table
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The holidays. Ah, the holidays. Shopping lists. To do lists. Not enough time in the day. Not enough days in the week. Then there’s the other part. The sleeping in, the wearing pjs for two weeks, the not knowing what day it is, the too much coffee and no alarm clocks…
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Hold the Frog
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As I do every day, I took my first-grade students outside for our daily outdoor play break. As they do every day, they wait for me to open the door and they run and scream like it’s the first breath of air they’ve gotten in their entire lives. Like every…
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What I Learned in Kindergarten
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My first week in kindergarten was one of the toughest weeks in my teaching career. I had taught grade 1 the prior six years, so I didn’t think the move into kindergarten was going to be a huge jump. Dare I say, I actually thought it was going to be easy. …
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A Year For The Books
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A year for the books. We are about to begin a school year like no other. I am preparing to bring in a whole bunch of little people in need of some kind of structure, routine, and a little bit of “normalcy” (in quotes because do we even know what…
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Let Them Play
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Kindergarten is like babysitting. All they do is play all day. Kindergarten should be cancelled this year. If my kid was in kindergarten, I wouldn’t send them to school. What’s the point? The list of things I’ve heard about Kindergarten could go on for days, but I’ll stop there. My favourites are…