Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario is home to approximately 2,000 students. It’s been in the news a lot lately, but not in a good way. A recent CBC story quoted an anonymous teacher who described Saunders as a “tinderbox …
Teachers Must Respect Parental Values
When parents send their children to school, they place a lot of trust in teachers. It’s important that teachers not undermine that trust. Unfortunately, some teachers haven’t learned this lesson. For example, last year a school posted a message on …
We Should not Put too much Emphasis on Technology
Technology has had a huge impact on public education. Classrooms of today look quite different from those of a generation ago. It shows just how quickly technology changes and the extent to which it dominates our children’s lives. However, while …
Teachers need to take charge of their classrooms
Prospective teachers learn a lot about individualized instruction in faculties of education. That’s because teachers are encouraged to personalize learning, for each student, as much as possible. To a certain degree, this makes good sense. An inflexible cookie-cutter approach to …
Handwriting Remains a Useful Skill
“Sign here please.” Anyone who has ever accepted a UPS delivery, signed a permission slip for a school field trip, or filled out a legal document has likely seen this phrase. Although it takes only a few seconds to sign …
It’s Time We Put Students First Rather Than Last
Finally, provincial governments are loosening public health restrictions. Based on what many health officials are saying, there’s a good chance that our country will be largely free of these restrictions by spring. This is happening not a moment too soon, …
Teachers’ Unions Are Undermining Their Own Long-Term Viability
Finally, schools across Canada are starting to reopen. Most provinces had switched to remote learning at the beginning of January to assess the impact of the Omicron variant. But now, thankfully, these remote learning sessions are coming to an end. …
Teachers Should Keep using Textbooks
I learned a lot about Canadian history when I was an elementary school student. However, it had little to do with what happened during class. Rather, I came across an old Canadian history textbook in our school library and started …
Three Simple Things All Teachers Need to Know
It takes at least five years of training to become a teacher. In their university courses, prospective teachers learn a lot about the importance of diversity and the need for self-reflection. However, they learn precious little about effective instruction or …