Changing the Narrative: media, podcasting, storytelling. What’s your story?

When we think about access to media, news, radio, and broadcasting, we often think of white, heteronormative thoughts, ideologies and voices put together to formulate our society's collective voice. This is not representative of marginalized voices; voices who have fought and spoken up about equity, peace, justice, and democracy for centuries. Voices who have fought … Continue reading Changing the Narrative: media, podcasting, storytelling. What’s your story?

Workshop Notes: Telling Our Stories: Immigrant Women’s Resilience

Featured ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ Leave a comment

Parkdale Community and Legal Services hosted a workshop that focuses on the experiences of immigrant women when it comes to their immigration status in Canada, as well as introducing a graphic novel written by immigrant women to support immigrant women when it comes to violence against women. Here are several highlights from the workshop: What … Continue reading Workshop Notes: Telling Our Stories: Immigrant Women’s Resilience

Social Media & Digital Citizenship

Featured ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ Leave a comment

A recent article on The New York Times discussed the "Unspoken Rules Kids Create for Instagram". The article focused on how kids (middle school, and some high school) had unwritten rules on ways they engage on social media. For example, what types of images to post, how often, etc. The one thing that stood out … Continue reading Social Media & Digital Citizenship

Equity in Collaborative Spaces

Featured ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ 1 Comment

We discuss collaboration in different spaces a great deal in and outside of education. We talk about the benefits of collaboration, the importance of it, and how it can look like. But do we ever discuss the downside of collaboration? Do we ever spend enough time to focus on how collaborative spaces can be equitable … Continue reading Equity in Collaborative Spaces

Three lesson ideas for teaching your class about Eid al-Fitr

July 13, 2016July 13, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ 1 Comment

This blog was originally published on The Guardian. While Eid al-Fitr was last week, these activities can work well with another upcoming Eid al-adha to help cultivate a feeling of belonging and safety for Muslim students and students of colour in the classroom. As fasting in the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close, … Continue reading Three lesson ideas for teaching your class about Eid al-Fitr

9 Tips to Support English Language Learners

February 27, 2016February 27, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ 3 Comments

If you are teaching English Language Learners, here are some tips and strategies that you can practice in the classroom to create a safe environment and support the students throughout their learning process: 1. Speak slower, not louder: Students need to process the words separately and form an understanding, for ELL students this requires some … Continue reading 9 Tips to Support English Language Learners

Using Literature to Teach Social Justice

February 23, 2016February 24, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ 1 Comment

I came across a community post a few days ago that was inquiring about ways to teach students about social justice in english class. I feel very passionate about connecting the discussions in my english class to issues that have a social and cultural impact. As a teacher, I think this is how we can … Continue reading Using Literature to Teach Social Justice

The Dilemma of Digital Writing

February 20, 2016February 20, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ Leave a comment

This post was originally published as part of the DigiWriMo blog series. You can check out all the blog posts that were contributed here. I became a digital writer last year. Then I realized that there is more to digital writing than revise, edit and polish. Digital writing is also about digital presence. I figured this … Continue reading The Dilemma of Digital Writing

Debunking the Myths of English Language Learners

February 18, 2016February 18, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ 1 Comment

This post was originally published on Edutopia. Myths in the education system are important to debunk in order to build a better support system for students. The future of education depends on looking at past failures, and not just learning from them to move forward, but to rise upwards. There are several myths in English … Continue reading Debunking the Myths of English Language Learners

Strategies to Help Build Relationships with English Language Learners

February 13, 2016February 13, 2016 ~ Rusul Alrubail ~ Leave a comment

This post was originally published on Edutopia. rap·port a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well. My first day teaching an ELL class, I walked in and was very confident that it was going to be the best class ever. After all, … Continue reading Strategies to Help Build Relationships with English Language Learners