Mentor Text: Leading Us To Revelation: On Rita Dove by Jericho Brown Techniques: Background – I’ve had a subscription to POETRY Magazine for a few years now. And I almost never finish an issue. Issues travel with me in my school bag. Issues are lugged to dance and swim practices in my satchel. Issues can usually […]
Mentor Text: Elegies for Lost Voices – four poems by Scott Nolan. Techniques: Background – Maybe this is because I spent time last night listening to Gordon Lightfoot in the wake of his passing. Maybe it’s because I need to prep a lesson plan for next week in my Lit class where we’re writing about music […]
Mentor Text: excerpt from Stay True by Hua Hsu Techniques: Background – The week in which I’m writing this is one of those weeks we have as teachers, where we’re overwhelmed with obligations and expectations. A couple of weeks ago, when I felt like I had a bit more breathing room, I was reading Hua […]
Mentor Text: Fairy-tale Logic by A.E. Stallings Techniques: Background – In my Grade 9 class right now, we’re working on our essays discussing scary stories. We do a little short film study, allowing us to practice analysis skills, and give us some fun ground to cover in an early essay this semester, learning the ropes of […]
Mentor Text: The Greatest Nature Essay Ever by Brian Doyle Techniques: Background – Almost exactly a year ago, I threw a tweet out into the void about my desire to find more joyful texts to put in front of my students. The heavy stuff is so very rich, but finding things that express joy, and that […]
Mentor Text: Top Down by Scott Nolan Techniques: Background – For the last few years, second semester has held a nice treat for me as an English teacher, my Lit class. There’s something special about teaching the course that students have chosen to be in. It’s a Grade 11 & 12 split, which means we split […]
Photo by Zac Ong on Unsplash During the last couple of years of teaching, making mini-zines has been a highlight. An 8-page zine has been a go-to method for helping students shrink a narrative down to accessible compactness. As my students plot environmental stories culminating in a call to action, the details associated with specific […]
Mentor Text: The Empty Sentiment of The Last of Us by Jackson McHenry Techniques: Background – As a insomniac geek teacher who loves stories in pretty much any form, the combination of streaming services and the internet is a gift. There’s lots of stories to immerse myself in, and there’s lots of commentary on those stories. […]
Mentor Text: The Night Attendant at the Gas Station by Michael Penny Techniques: Background – I’m going to pass along what may seem like a somewhat pithy piece of teaching advice. Zero inbox is your friend. Since school resumed after the holidays, I delete or file everything almost instantly. (professionally and personally) It also means that […]
Mentor Text: Pause and Reflect by Melissa Martin Techniques: Background – Fellow teachers. Do you, like me, find yourself wondering how it’s possible that this school year, of the last few “unprecedented” years, seems to be the hardest? Those of us who haven’t engaged in the “quiet quitting,” or have left the classroom more noisily are […]
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