oh-canada:

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia. From their website:

The International Day Against Homophobia, held on May 17 every year, is a rallying event offering an opportunity for people to get together and reach out to one another. Fondation Émergence promotes, mainly on a pan-Canadian level, the International Day Against Homophobia and encourages organisations and individuals to highlight this event in their environment.

To learn about homophobia and how to fight it, click here!

Some teachers followed up on this at our school today. An email was sent out on Monday with ideas, quotes, library books. I know a few who had lessons with their students.

amiteachingyet:

gjmueller:

girlcanteach asks:

When was the last time you cried in class?

Every time I try and read Love You Forever.
Every.
Dang.
Time.

When I read Our Mother’s House by Patricia Polacco

vwalker:

• People who don’t respond to emails promptly
• People who respond to one email, but not the earlier, more important email.
• People who don’t respond to emails period.
• People who don’t do their paperwork.
• When unfinished paperwork becomes my job.
• People who get to do less work because they’ve…

• People who don’t respond to emails promptly
• People who respond to one email, but not the earlier, more important email.
• People who don’t respond to emails period.
• People who don’t do their paperwork.
• When unfinished paperwork becomes my job.
• People who get to do less work because they’ve proved unreliable and so other people stop assigning them things.
• Absent people.
• The fact that being “good” at my job just gets me more work.
• Lack of acknowledgement.
• Hormonal teens.
• Lack of info and plan making.
• Apartment paperwork nonsense.
• New/increasing bills.
• Changing my name on all the things.
• Paperwork.
• Testing.
• Housework.
• This school year.

mixedupdays:

gjmueller:

takenbythesky wonders:

As in, how do I avoid the free-for-all that my coworkers are okay with?

End of the Year Jeopardy! I create categories about the staff, school events we’ve had, major books we’ve read, field trips, and about the students themselves (plus a “challenge” category). It’s so much fun, and I stop the game often so we can share memories or give compliments to each other, etc.

The last couple of years the other grade 6 teacher and I have had a Race to Grade 7 event. We put them in groups of 4, and then they have to complete several events. We start in the Kindergarten yard, and they have to build a sandcastle and make a chalk drawing. Then they move to grade 1 where they have to…. and on. I can’t remember all of the activities, but there was one for each grade. we do it outside, and use the entire space. It’s a lot of fun.

Time

 - to deep clean and organize my house

 - to sit on my deck and read all the fiction and all the teacher books I want

 - to sit

 - to sleep

 - to experiment with new recipes

 - to visit with friends

 - to watch movies

oh-canada:

RIP Tim Bosma of Ancaster, whose remains were found yesterday - ten days after he went missing. Bosma was abducted and murdered by men who had asked for a test drive in a truck he was selling online.

Bosma was 32 years old and leaves behind a wife and young daughter. Those interested in contributing to a trust fund created to support them can make donations at any TD Trust to branch number 2047, account number 6332096 (source).

There has been an arrest in this case but the investigation is long from over - call the Hamilton police at 905-546-2100 if you have any information on the case.

Click here for a timeline of the Tim Bosma case, for those unaware.

edshelf:

Photo by AnandTech

I just tuned into the Google I/O event after a friend mentioned one of their latest announcements, Google Play for Education.

This is awesome.

You are probably not surprised to hear this from a co-founder of a directory of curated tools for educators. I know how…

for reference later

Fun conversation in a grade 4 classroom today. I was on supervision duty during lunch, and projected onto the Smart board was an ad for women’s shoes, showing a high heel pink type thing. The classroom teacher, who is male, made a comment to a male student “yes, those are my favourite, going to buy them after school” . Now I’ve heard from others that this teacher has made some inappropriate anti-gay comments. So I said to the young boy “you know there are some men who like to wear shoes like that, and there are women who don’t like shoes like that. I’m not a big fan of high heels, I like my plain black shoes like the ones I have on now. Isn’t it cool how we can all be different?” 

The young boy and a few of the kids around him joined in the conversation, and agreed that everyone had different tastes, and it really didn’t matter. And then one little guy said “and you know, if those were the only shoes you had, wouldn’t you just be happy you had shoes”? 

I gave him the biggest smile. Then I gave big smile to the teacher who was looking at me like I had three heads. 

It will be interesting to see if this teacher does anything with his class on Friday when we discuss Anti-homophobia Day at my school.

theimprobablefiction:

positivelypersistentteach:

If my fan mail box is working.

Ohhh, me too! I love new tumblr friends. :)

this would be awesome

damagedbeliefs:

stfuconservatives:

norsegays:

astrolope:

People being angry about ~dem gays~ on Target’s Facebook.

I just want to give my two cents on this and tell you a story.

A couple weeks ago, I was hired at Target. I have a job at Target. Not a big deal right?

It is a big deal because i’m a transman. 

It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that it’s hard for me, my brothers, and sisters to get a job. There are legal restraints regarding the job and if you don’t pass, it’s hard to be taken seriously at a job interview.

Right on the application, it asks what your preferred name is. It also asks if there is anything that target should know. I put the fact that I am a transman, expecting not to get a call because usually when you put that down, people will throw out the application. I got TWO interviews.

At the interview, they asked me about it. I told them I am on hormones and they told me that they didn’t care. Not in the sense that they don’t emotionally care, but that it didn’t matter. I was male and that’s all that mattered. They also told me that they give sex same couples benefits in states that do not recognize them as a married couple.

At my job orientation, I was not misgendered once. Even my supervisors who weren’t sure of my gender avoided pronoun use, which I found only happens when you’ve had pronoun training. They gave me a name tag with my preferred name and didn’t ask questions. I felt safe and respected, which is huge for a trans* person.

TLDR: Target is amazing not just for the LGB, but also the T. Shop there for the rest of your life.

Target has had its share of problems, but their willingness to hire LGBT folks has always impressed me. I live in an area with a large LGBT community - all four of the letters well-represented. And the staff at my local Target reflects that. It’s so nice and sadly unexpected to see large companies stepping up like that.

Target <3

Now that Target is in Canada, I will have to check them out.