A Place for Resilience

I teach at the University. Perhaps because my work is with first year Education students, but every semester I find myself thinking deeply about my educational journey. A few years ago, I spent a great deal of time thinking about the children who I have lived alongside who have been affected by a suicide experience. Though I can recall every… (read more)

2013: A Video Story

Toward the end of year I noticed short videos popping up in my Instagram feed. What a great way to share a year in review. I began putting a short video together and then I realized that much of my year was missing. I went back to my photos from 2013. Though I don’t deliberately take a photo a day,… (read more)

Main Idea

This past fall my division implemented class time for Professional Learning Teams, known as Learning Improvement Teams (LITs). I love my team. I love the structured time with my team and I love the process. The focus of our team is for all “teachers [to] work collaboratively, [so that] student learning improves as … specific needs of students at our… (read more)

Listening with Story

I am a storyteller. I love listening to stories. When I was a young girl I’d follow my Dad and my sister on treks as they talked plant botany, Dad pausing every once in a while to turn and change the science into narrative, “Wolf willow has an interesting story.” He’d stand feet planted shoulder-width apart, take off his well-warn… (read more)

Verb? Chatting with Zac

Stories are complex; “They are beautiful” (Lugones, 1987). Recently I was chatting with Zac Chase. During our conversation for #LearningGrounds he asked a few questions. I stammered while I answered some questions, yet others I answered well enough. However, when we were done chatting, I had the feeling that I had sounded like a text book. I don’t like jargon,… (read more)

Indifference to Stories

A couple days ago I asked my online network to push back and wonder along with me about the “insistence in schooling spaces to choose only to listen to the easy, accessible and gentle stories.” None of you replied. Sure. Perhaps it’s because I’ve a rather small blog following, but I don’t think that’s the only reason. I tweeted the… (read more)

Living Alongside

Saturday, I was harsh, and I am seldom harsh. Sometimes I forget to listen to the tensioned stories living alongside me.  Lately, our students and I have been reading non-fiction.  Our main text offers a sad gritty and often shocking look into the dynamics of a family. The kids keep asking if the situations in the story are going to… (read more)

The Importance of Sharing Our Stories

Our stories have great value. I believe if I connect only as voyeur in someone’s life, it is really my stories I fail to hear. Connecting with kids not only changes their lives, it changes mine. ~ December 20, 2011 – The views to my blog soared. That day my blog received its second highest total number of views since… (read more)

Best Gift

On December 23 my daughter and I were downtown, getting coffee. I shared a story of when I attended the University of British Columbia. My daughter was surprised to learn I had attended UBC. I was certain she knew the story, that she had always known the story in the same way the important people in my world know my… (read more)
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