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Changing the Narrative Starts in the Mud
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· Changing the Narrative Starts in the Mud · Seven years running, I participate in an annual mud run. It spans through the forests of a ski hill and conservation area with obstacles scattered throughout, and mud—so much mud—everywhere. Every mind and body on the 5K course experiences the obstacles…
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Tetris Made Me Do It
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· Tetris Made Me Do It · I grew up in the age of Nintendo. The original NES. I played hours and hours of video games long into the night for most of the late 80s and early 90s. Chef Peter Pepper and I made burgers in Burger Time while escaping enemy…
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When the Learner Takes Charge
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· When the Learner Takes Charge · The first place to start when building a Scratch project for the first time is with the x, y grid backdrop. No matter the age of your coders, the Cartesian grid gives context to everything happening in the project. While the concept of…
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Dare And Do
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· Dare and Do · Dare and do. For so long, I could dare, but not do. The risks were high, the unknown was scary, and uncertainties were plenty. Two months ago, that all changed. Two months ago, I spent my last day in my first-grade classroom. A decision three…
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But…I Just Want Checkmarks
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The last period of almost every day ends the same in our classroom. We have a snack, tidy up, pack up, and gather on the carpet to read a story together. It’s the same scene every afternoon – a dozen or so kids are on the carpet waiting patiently at the rocking chair, a few…
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Digital Citizenship in 2022
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When you Google Digital Citizenship, the results are endless. The number of sites and resources dedicated to what it means to be responsible online are plenty. Two of my favourites happen to be ISTE’s Standards for Students and Common Sense Education. These sites, among many others, offer a wealth of information on creating your…
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The Yellow Sweater
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Twelve years ago, a phone call was transferred through to my classroom. On December 9th, 2009, standing in front my very young students, I learned of my dad’s unexpected passing. No one knew that was what the phone call was going to be. And no one really knew what to…
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What the Data Doesn’t Tell Us
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When we meet young learners for the first time, there are key questions we have. Can they recognize letters and numbers? Can they count? Can they spell their name? We also want to know if they can communicate with peers and if they can express themselves in age-appropriate ways. There…
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Where She’s Meant To Be
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In May of 2019 a simple (and life altering) exchange through DMs led to the writing of my first children’s book. Gracie was officially published on December 12th of that same year. I remember during the entire process, having these ideas about what it was like to be an author of…
