Laina's ePortfolio

In high school and elementary school I struggled tremendously with math. We learned one way to solve the problem, but it always seemed to be that it did not work to solve it. I would do what I was taught and then these random steps we never learned would have to be used. I always […]

Multilingual students are becoming more common in the classroom. Many students now are becoming able to speak two or more language including English. Questions of how to include both languages and celebrate them have arose. There are many strategies that could be utilized to celebrate all languages spoken in the classroom. A great way to […]

In our curriculum and in our schools, homophobia, transphobia and heteronormativity reign supreme. Topics such as homosexuality, gender dysphoria or anything related to sexuality or gender go undiscussed. Schools have been slammed for this in recent years and change has been requested. The question is: how do we promote and create change? One of the […]

Many teachers and schools believe that if there is no Indigenous presence, Treaty Education is meaningless. This is ignorant and incorrect. As Claire points out, having no Indigenous students actually calls for more thorough Treaty Education. Teaching Treaty Education has many purposes. A large purpose is to inform students of Indigenous cultures, ways of learning […]

When programs are cut from the budget, the arts are usually the first to go. This means schools remove their art programs, music programs, etc in order to save money. This can end up hurting students in the long run, as all creative outlets get removed from the classroom. This also affects the students sense […]

Hip Hop being used in pedagogy is a step forward in progressive education. By catering to students interests and using it in a way to encourage social justice can make a huge difference. Hip hop tackles large issues throughout such as racial inequality, classism and more. Using something such as hip hop in education takes […]

Before this week, my interpretation of citizenship was cut and dry. Citizenship is the place you live and that was that. This week’s readings and lecture opened my eyes to how privileged and basic my understanding was. Citizenship has deep layers that, like many things in Canada, are deeply rooted in oppression. Joel Westheimer explains […]

The articles we read this week focused on who creates government and what is included. In an article written by Ben Levin, he shines light on how much control politics have on curriculum. Government has large control over what gets added and what gets removed from curriculum.  The reading helped me to see how little […]

This week, we read two articles on education and how it looks in the classroom. These articles focused heavily on learning and what it means to be a good students and a good teacher. In the commonsense article, it explained what a good student should be. A good student is a student who will sit […]

Sexual Education has been, for lack of a better term, lacking in curriculum. Inadequate sexual education has been a huge problem in schools for decades. The curriculum does not leave students with a competent understanding of sexual health and safety. The curriculum tiptoes around the important topics and leaves students with as much information as […]