Education

Books for teachers to help make the world a better place

Media Literacy

Google AI Overview and Teaching Critical Thinking

This school year, I decided to teach a unit on online search skills to my grade six class. Using a set of lessons from CTRL-F, we learned about the difference between search engines and social media, how to use search terms to effectively find content online and how algorithms work.

Courage

Books about Book Bans

Over the past few years, worrying trends of book censorship have emerged, with challenges to books in schools and libraries increasing markedly since before the pandemic. This year, the American Library Association indicated that 414 attempts were made to censor library materials from January to August 2024, while 1,128

Environment

Not the End of the World

When I first started teaching about climate change in social studies over ten years ago, my starting point was typically the evidence of climate change. My class would check out resources like NASA's Climate Time Machine to better understand the evidence that demonstrates the climate is changing. I

Media Literacy

Accountable: Supporting students in an online world

Debating whether or not to ban cell phone sidesteps a much more important discussion focused on how schools, communities and government can act to help young people engage respectfully and purposefully in their digital spaces.

Education

Students are not software

Recently I have been hearing more about teaching sprints. For those who are unfamiliar, a teaching sprint is a process where a team of teachers pick a focus, something they would like to work on improving as a team. They spend two to four weeks practicing a strategy or technique

Canadian

The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation

To prepare for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, this year I chose to explore The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61070507-the-witness-blanket?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=36eGyJDCp5&rank=2] , by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson. This

Antiracism

So You Want to Talk About Race

So You Want to Talk About Race [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53249847-so-you-want-to-talk-about-race], written by Ijeoma Oluo, offers knowledge and tools to help people engage in conversations about race. Oluo teaches about racism and pushes people to view it from a systemic lens, defining it as "a prejudice

Education

Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465709-braiding-sweetgrass?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=lMNGySsZw9&rank=1] is a book that weaves together Indigenous teachings and worldviews with scientific knowledge about plants and our natural world. The

Antiracism

New Kid and Not Talking About Race

This year, I was able to teach my identity literature circle [https://teacherbees.ca/identity-literature-circle/] for the first time. Having put together the text sets before going on parental leave, I was excited to finally dive into a unit that explored identity in a variety of ways. As a final

Education

The Skin We're In/Policing Black Lives

Counter-stories are important. Counter-storytelling is defined by Solórzano and Yosso as "a method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told (i.e. those on the margins of society) and a tool for exposing, analyzing, and challenging the majoritarian stories of racial privilege."

Education

Restoring Safe Schools: A Teacher's Perspective

Is it safe to reopen schools? How do I stay safe? How do I keep my students safe? Should I wear a mask? How about my students? What if they refuse to wear one? Are face shields effective? Which masks work best? How do I keep my students two metres

Education

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

When I write about books under the Education [https://teacherbees.ca/tag/education/] tag on my blog, I aim to recommend books I think teachers should read. Often I think these books give useful insights when it comes to teaching for social justice or sustainability. Today's recommendation has

Education

Repeating the Mistakes of Underground to Canada: Examining my own Biases

While I was in middle school, I only read one novel with Black characters for language arts class: Underground to Canada. This novel told the story of four Black people escaping from slavery using the Underground Railroad. In retrospect, it seems odd that a book written by a white author

Indigenous

Indigenous Writes

Indigneous Writes [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30181589-indigenous-writes?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=fAdqK9QRDb&rank=1] by Chelsea Vowel is a guide to First Nations, Métis and Inuit issues in Canada. The book provides a dialogue about the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers

Environment

The Failings of Climate Change Fiction

Young adult and middle grade fiction are useful tools for teaching about tough issues. Problems like the refugee crisis [https://teacherbees.ca/refugee-books-for-middle-years/] or poverty are difficult and stories are important to help us better understand these issues and to give them a human face. Unfortunately, there has been scant

Education

How to Be an Antiracist

How to Be an Antiracist [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40265832-how-to-be-an-antiracist], by Ibram X. Kendi, is an essential book for people who want to better understand how racism is embedded in our society and how we can work more proactively to be antiracists. Part memoir, part guide, Ibram X.

Environment

Drawdown - Climate Crisis Solutions and the Classroom

As I write this blog entry, it is the early hours of the morning in Winnipeg and the Climate Strike is underway on the other side of the world. Early reports suggest the turn out is amazing, and I am keenly looking forward to participating in the strike here at

Environment

Don't Panic: Big Solutions to the Climate Crisis

Today's blog post is about the climate crisis and I'd like to preface everything by saying Don't Panic. It is easy to get overwhelmed, but solutions do exist that can help us address this crisis. That being said, let's dig deeper and

Education

White Fragility and the Canadian Classroom

Four months ago, I finished reading White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43708708-white-fragility], by Robin DiAngelo. Appreciating this excellent book, I opened a tab to create a blog post and immediately got stuck. The subtitle

Education

Teaching with the World on Fire

Warnings about climate change have been around for years, but increasingly it feels like a problem no longer in the remote future. Living in Manitoba, climate change has been a problem we see distantly on the news. Hurricanes increase in frequency and severity, glaciers shrink, and coral reefs slowly turn

Indigenous

Path to Reconciliation

A few weeks ago I attended the Manitoba Adolescent Literacy Summit and listened to author David Alexander Robertson's keynote entitled the Path to Reconciliation. It was a highlight of the conference, as his speech challenged me to look at reconciliation in my own classroom with a more critical

Education

Open Letter to the Manitoba Education Review Commission

Dear Commissioners of the Manitoba Education Review, This week, I attended the first Education Review Workshop at the Caboto Centre in Winnipeg. I began the workshop feeling energized. I was in a room full of teachers, parents and community members who had given their time to focus on the future

Education

What Kind of Citizen?

A key purpose of education is to prepare students to be good citizens. Few people would argue with this statement, but what does it mean to be a good citizen? What kind of citizenship are we talking about? When I was completing my post-baccalaureate degree in Education for Sustainability, I

Education

Being the Change

Being the Change [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38496804-being-the-change?from_search=true] , by Sara K. Ahmed, is a book in dire need of a new subtitle. Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension sounds like a book that teaches basic social skills. At first glance, I figured it was

Indigenous

Seven Fallen Feathers and Systemic Racism in Schools

This week I finished reading Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City [https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1487002262/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=330641&creativeASIN=1487002262&linkCode=as2&tag=ebees-20&linkId=5ef4fb94a45083fe9d60b87bf8b111b0] , by Tanya