TEACH Magazine

By Dr. Alexis L. Hamlor I have always loved books, but at a young age I didn’t yet understand that reading does more than merely entertain or inform. Sometimes a book gives language to something you’ve been carrying for years without knowing how to name it. Sometimes it offers recognition before you even realize how badly you need it.

By Vivek Astvansh The first weeks of elementary school can shape how children feel for the rest of the year. Students follow different routines in the summer months; therefore, back-to-school season involves new schedules, health needs, and levels of academic readiness. Teachers can support a strong transition by creating a classroom that is predictable, welcoming, and responsive to each child. Here are six strategies to keep in mind. Begin by rebuilding routines slowly and explicitly.

Sag̱aytg̱awdi: Grounding Assessment in Indigenous Knowledges for Equity and Well-Beingis a practical, Indigenous-centred recalibration of student assessment, equity, and well-being for educators everywhere. It serves as a follow-up to the bestseller Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies, which guides the integration of Indigenous content into North American classrooms.

By Scott Hepburn The first day of school can feel like stepping into a jungle without a map: big on adventure, but full of uncertainty. After weeks of summer vacation, children find themselves navigating new classrooms, teachers, schedules—even new social dynamics. Where parents may see a return to routine, kids can experience back-to-school season as a significant transition full of excitement, curiosity, and plenty of butterflies in their stomachs. That’s where play can make a difference.

By Laura Mooiman I was a four-square kid at recess. Not casually. I ruled the server’s square. I practiced at home in my dusty driveway, slamming the ball against the garage door with a fury my fourth-grade classmates would feel the next day. Recess was where reputations were made—where you proved yourself through skill, toughness, or alliances. I also remember the “mean” yard duty lady who mostly stood in one place and yelled. If something big happened, she’d blow the whistle.

By Natalie Kuldell Science takes a lot of time and many steps to master. Students can understand how a micropipette works and still need practice before they can deliver ten microlitres reliably. They can understand the logic of an experiment and still struggle to understand what happened when the results don’t look the way they expected. And they can memorize a remarkable amount of biology without thinking of that knowledge as something they could use to solve a problem they care about.

Julie’s Chinese grandmother—her poh poh—has a brave adventure to tell. Julie’s grandmother dances with a sword. She swirls and leaps to the sound of Chinese opera music. When she was young, Poh Poh left her home and everything she knew to travel across the ocean to North America—what they knew as Gold Mountain. The one thing she brought was her sword, but she did not use it to fight. She used it to forge a new life for her family.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) has announced the finalists for the following six major awards celebrating Canadian books for young people: Amy Mathers Teen Book Award ($5,000) David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award ($3,500) Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People ($3,000) Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award ($20,000) Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award ($5,000) Sharon Fitzhenry Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction ($10,000) The nominated titles...

By Kelsey McCallum For many young learners, the thought of starting a new school year can be a scary and intimidating prospect—especially if this is their first time. What will it be like? Will they make friends? How will they get there? In the face of so many unknowns, it helps to share books that show school in a positive light and explain to students what it will be like. This makes the whole process seem much less daunting.

By Sara Gross The initial few weeks of kindergarten are an exciting time for both teachers and students. For many children, it marks their first experience with a structured school environment and formal literacy instruction. The beginning of the school year is an ideal time for teachers to establish literacy-rich routines while getting to know where each student is developmentally.