Author Archives: mrbrentg

We are 8 months into a pandemic that really has changed how we can teach. Now it hasn’t change how many folks do but it has made some things seem less important. Back in March/April as we were told that we could not impact a student grade in a negative way because “online teaching wasContinue reading “Going Grade-less: An Update”

Daily I see countless posts from my online teacher friends and community talking about the challenges of this year. The fears, the stress, the sadness, the feeling like we are drowning, like we are in the lake and just can’t touch the bottom and keep our heads up. Lately I have been feeling very muchContinue reading “Wiggle your big toe”

In January of last year I did the “One word” deal that so many teachers seem to do. Pick that word that that you are going to have to guide you. In years past I used words like curious and brave, this past year it has been resolve. I also set some goals/dreams. The CovidContinue reading “Well Here We Are”

A few years ago I started my teacher Twitter journey. I was almost immediately accepted by a really nice group of educators. They talked a lot about our need to be kind, how much it mattered (it matters a lot) and how if we just move about the day doing small kind acts we willContinue reading “So Kind it Hurts”

Dusting off this blog after what has been the first month of school. I spent much of the summer trying to learn how to best help my students see the world and through learning more about themselves I have hopes we are getting there. We have spent the month beginning our own identity work. ItContinue reading “Remember who you are”

When the COVID closure first began I think so many of us really didn’t know what our next steps would look like. The inequity had a million spotlights shone directly on it. Many responses began with we need to do something and slowly tapered off to we need to HOPE things will get better. ThoseContinue reading “Time to Dream”

This was said so many times in March and April as we shifted into distance learning. Teaching is hard, planning is hard, actually let me correct that, Good teaching is hard. I can print off piles of worksheets, fined some youtube videos to make kids watch as “instruction” and call it a day but thatContinue reading “Teachers should be paid millions”

Today was a fantastic day of learning as we had some live sessions for IREL and had a chance to have some great conversations with educators. We have been talking about how race impacts us this week spending time working on the internal racial understandings. Today as part of this work Tricia Ebarvia and Dr.Continue reading “When writing unlocks the doors”

As a white male, growing up I was never aware of my privilege. I grew up in a largely white community and attended predominantly white schools. Aside from a few people all my friends were white and now I live again in a largely all white community and aside from the amazing BIPOC folx IContinue reading “Lessons Learned from Clifford an IREL20 Reflection”

It has been a week since IREL20 week one. The material of the course was great. A lot of writing that I was able to revisit from brilliant scholars, course work and reflection that asked me to examine the systemic racism that thrives in our white centred school systems. As the week went on IContinue reading “Reflections on Summer Learning”