Innovations in Lesson Planning Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way for teachers to design lessons that encourage critical thinking and support a diverse classroom environment. The New BC Curriculum In the province of British Columbia, the curriculum is changing. The “ne

Throwback Post Three years ago I was living on the Gold Coast of Australia and reflecting on the differences between life in Canada and life there. Despite Canada and Australia sharing similarities, the differences in language were an area that I noticed the most. Using Australian sla

Learning a New Language… Again When I was in high school and university, I studied Spanish. During my second year, I mixed up courses and didn’t have the right credits to continue with Spanish, and didn’t need more language credits to graduate, so I stopped. One of m

Teaching Idioms, Learning Slang Teaching idioms (a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., raining cats and dogs, see the light ) (from Google) is one of the more difficult lessons to teach in English language tea

If your student is struggling with language learning, how do you know if they have a learning disability? This has been one of my challenges teaching high school EAL. It can be very difficult to determine where a language barrier might actually be a learning disability. I have recentl

Language Learning at the Mosque The Ajyal Center in downtown Vancouver is an Islamic center and mosque. This past fall, I provided child care for children at the Ajyal Center during a Arabic / English language exchange through Language Partners BC . Many of the women participating had

December Traditions from Around the World This year I started working at an international school in Vancouver. In September the Mexican students celebrated Mexican Independence day. At around the same time, students from China celebrated the Harvest Festival. The holiday celebrations

What does social justice teaching look like now? The day after the US election results, I sat in my Social Studies 9 classroom and wrote an email to… myself? my best friend? the future? I just needed to get it down, and I’d like to share it with a wider audience. What am I

High School Today I am a high school teacher, but sometimes I don’t really understand what is going on with high school students. This is High School is a Canadian documentary series following high school students, teachers, and administrators during the school year at a public

How Do We Learn Our First Language? Are people natural language learners, with the ability to use grammar hardwired into our brains? Or do children learn language from their environment, using different types of thinking and categorizing, experimenting and using words to develop gramm