July is Disability Pride Month, which leaves me with complicated feelings. I love that it has its own month. I love the overlap which happens at the margins of June and July where we recognize that one can be part of 2SlGBTQIA+ communities and disability communities. Issues of sexuality and gender are too often dismissed … Continue reading No Pride in Accessibility Policing

*this is a bit different from what I usually post about on this blog, but it's all connected in one way or another in the end, right? I have a long history of falling in love, second-guessing my passion, and inevitably circling back to to the same place after a period of denial. As a … Continue reading That Little Tiny Voice

I planned and delivered a lesson with my Grade 11 and 12 university-level students this month that I'm going to share with you in a minute. Before I dive into that, though, an announcement for those who have not yet heard: The Ontario Ministry of Education has opened up their online consultation period for issues … Continue reading How to teach *about* the sex ed curriculum without actually teaching the sex ed curriculum

If you live in Ontario, you have probably heard by now that the provincial government announced a litany of education-related edicts yesterday. Among them was a warning to teachers: “We will not tolerate anybody using our children as pawns for grandstanding and political games. And, make no mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their … Continue reading Musings on what a forced return to an old curriculum means for teachers

Hey, folks. Yep, exactly what we warned everyone about this spring came to pass yesterday afternoon: Ontario's revised Health and Physical Education curriculum has been shelved, and we have been informed we'll be teaching from the one last updated in 1998 (2000 for grades 9-12, but the focus, as always is on the Grade 1-8 … Continue reading So you want to talk to your neighbours about the Health and Physical Education curriculum, but may not know where to start

In 2010, two days after revisions to Ontario's Health and Physical Education curriculum were made available to the public, the documents were pulled from the Ministry of Education website. Now that Doug Ford and his merry band of alarmist regressives have been elected in Ontario, it is just a matter of time before he acts … Continue reading Just in Case.

Netflix dropped Season 2 of Thirteen Reasons Why first thing Friday morning. As a teacher and parent of teens, I consume a lot of cultural artifacts that target this age group to help me understand interests and references (and... well, I have a lifelong love of teen culture, and would likely be consuming it regardless). … Continue reading Eleven Reasons Why Watching “Thirteen Reasons Why” was a Bad Life Choice

[This is a piece I wrote to share this morning with my students before watching the film A Better Man.]  Today is December 6, 2017, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. On this day in 1989, a young man who was so convinced that it was feminism and not his … Continue reading A post for December 6

*content note for sexual harassment, sexual abuse ******** As a parent and teacher of teens, I find myself watching a lot of television targeting that age demographic. (okay, okay, I'd probably watch teen shows even if I weren't a parent and teacher) The most recent teen-targeted show I've been consuming is CW's Riverdale (available in … Continue reading Hot for Teacher

I have a confession to make: a few weeks ago, I watched Fifty Shades of Grey. I never had any intention of consuming this franchise, and not because I was offended by sexual relationships which involve power exchange (because let's be real: it's extraordinarily rare for any sexual engagement with more than one person to … Continue reading Fifty Shades of you want me to talk with my kid about WHAT?!?