The Teacher Hotline

Send us a text Happy Halloween! 🎃 Teachers, have you ever considered writing your own book? A novel, or perhaps a children book? Have you ever had that desire, but just have no idea where to start? Well you came to the right place! Today, I bring in Rahel Tesfaledet, author of Kinza's World Magical Travel Adventures! Besides being a published author, Rahel is also an elementary school teache...

Send us a text Today we have Steve Brown, CEO of Nelson Publishing in to chat with The Teacher Hotline. Steve has been in this role for almost 6 years. His career spans a diverse mix of industry and technology experience from multi-media entertainment, logistics services, automotive, and now to learning solutions. Since joining NELSON in September 2016, Steve has transformed the vision 107 year ol...

Send us a text We are back at school baby! And we got an awesome episode lined up for ya to kick off the school year! Today we have Kelley Pomis , Director of Teacher Coaching and Development at Atlas Prep in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kelley has been a teacher since 2002. She has taught at all levels from  K-12 . As an expert in teacher development and leadership, she has shared her experience o...

Send us a text Holy smokes! Inflation is killing us! Gas is costing us a kidney, buying a bag of milk costs an arm and a leg, and in 5 years, I'll probably be living on the streets with these outrageous bills! Learning how to manage your money is one of the most important life skills. It starts at a young age. In this episode, I talk to Aly Hirji, a business teacher from Agincourt Collegiate...

Send us a text Laptops, cell phones, social media, apps, didn't exists for many of us when we were in school. As teachers, many of us are still learning how to use all this new technology ourselves. As Spiderman Uncle Ben said..." with great power, comes great responsibility" . We need to make sure we educate our students in using all these amazing tools responsibly and for good in...

Send us a text It's summer! The kids are on holidays, and teachers are living their best life! But imagine if your kids did not go back to school....they were home schooled. What would that look like? How would that work?! Would it be pandemic learning all over again? If you're a parent or teacher and interested in home schooling, you might want to check out this episode. Today I chat wi...

Send us a text Teachers, are you excited for retirement?!  After the last two years, I think some of us are considering it a lot sooner than we initially planned! I'm only 10 years into the job, so I'm still a young buck! But it's never too soon to start thinking about retirement. Today I bring in Jim Connolly, a retired elementary school teacher from the Simcoe County District Scho...

Send us a text Unions. Unions. Unions. You love them or you hate them! Teacher's unions have been front and centre in the news over the last few years. Even if you aren't a teacher, you know at the very least they exists. But other than sitting at the bargaining table, what other value does the Ontario Teacher's Federation provide teachers?  So today, I bring in Chris Cowley, the 78...

Send us a text It's exam season everyone! During the pandemic, schools and teachers had to rethink and reimagine how to assess students. Traditional tests and exams were difficult to do online. Now we are out of the assessments, a lot of teachers (including myself) are reverting back to old ways. In this episode, I wanted to explore what are the best way to assess students learning. Today I b...

Send us a text Last season I did an episode interviewing my Associate Teacher, Paul Kralik. I asked him questions about how to give feedback, managing a student teacher, and his overall approach. This term, I am managing my first teacher! I thought the best way to learn is to ask him what he's looking for! We decided to make it into a podcast episode to figure out what he's looking for i...

Send us a text Do any teachers listening teach Advance Placement courses? Has anyone ever taken these courses? I've seen these courses being offered when I was a student at my high school. The school I currently work at also offers these courses...not going to lie...I have no idea what value these courses provide! All I know is they are harder and they are supposed to offer you university cre...

Send us a text Hello! Welcome back to Season 2 of The Teacher Hotline! 🙌 We are back! I can't believe we are doing this again. But believe it baby! On our first episode back, we're coming at ya hot with an awesome episode with Tim Cavey, a Middle School VP at Vancouver Christian School. He is also the host of the #1 EduPodcast in Canada, called Teachers on Fire! On this episode, we talk...

Send us a text Thank you to everyone who has been supporting the Teacher Hotline podcast! It has been an incredible ride over the last several months! This podcast was built out of boredom during the lockdown, and has now turned into something much bigger. The podcast was recently listed as the #6 Teacher Education Podcast in Canada . Thats all because of you!  Thank you too... Colleagues/Teachers...

Send us a text A few weeks ago I asked my guest Alan Chan, what is it like to work at an all boys school? Naturally, that lead me to ask, what is it like to work at an all girls school? So today I got to speak to Sarah Leaper, a middle school teacher at S t. Mildred's-Lightbourn School! I wanted to know: 👧 What are the different all girls school out there in Ontario? 👧 What kind of girls wo...

Send us a text This year I was lucky enough to train a student teacher and have my first experience in being an Associate Teacher. Teaching a student teacher is definitely a lot different than teaching your students! So it made me think, what makes a great Associate Teacher? This week, I brought in my Associate Teacher, Mr. Paul Kralik. Paul trained me back in March of 2012 at Northern Secondary....

Send us a text Ugh! Sometimes, it can be so frustrating to teach students because all they care about is the grade! All of this focus on the grade puts on blinders and they miss the journey. Is it possible to teach students 'how to learn'? How we can we teach students how to be resilient when they face adversity or rejection?  How can teachers package up their lessons in a way that make...

Send us a text With parents-teacher interviews around the corner, I thought it was fitting to do a remix of our pilot episode "What Makes a Great Teacher from a Students Perspective?"  Today I chat with Jennifer and Steve Latimer, proud parents of four children: Abby, Blake, Jack, and Sadie. Abby and Blake both currently attend Western University. Abby is currently in her third year atte...

Send us a text The world is slowly starting to open up. Wouldn't it be nice to travel the world and make some money at the same time? Teaching abroad is a popular option for teachers looking to see the world, experience new culture and make some cash while doing it. If you ever wondered what it was like to teach abroad this is the episode for you! Today I chat with Renee Faubert, a Guidance a...

Send us a text I know this sounds silly....but have you ever thought what it would be like to drive a school bus?! As teachers, we are so focused in the classroom! But we need bus drivers to get the kids to the school safely and on time! Today my guest is Max Ross, a former bus driver for Attridge Bus Company and Appleby College.  Max  is a stand up comedian from Toronto Ontario. Outside of his co...

Send us a text Welcome back to part two of our conversation with Sean! We continue our conversation around the topic of sports psychology and arming coaches with the knowledge and advice to help assist their athletes through this years academic year.  Today I bring back my colleague and office mate Sean Poitras! Sean is a Social Science teacher at Appleby College and coaches the Varsity Boys Hocke...

Send us a text Is choking in sports a real thing? Can athletes burn out? Do athletes face performance anxiety? If you are a coach and you've seen these affect your players, how can we help them? Many coaches do not have training in sports psychology, and find it difficult to help our athletes face their mental challenges. So what can coaches do? Today I bring on my colleague and office mate S...

Send us a text Most of us grew up or have taught in a co-ed school. What would it be like though to teach at a single gendered school? Today I bring in an old friend, Alan Chan, an IB Economics and Math Teacher from Upper Canada College, one of the most prestigious all boys schools in Toronto. Alan has been working at UCC for eight years and outside of the classroom has been the Head Coach of the...

Send us a text It is September! That means future teachers are beginning to think about if they want to start the journey of becoming a teacher! So lets' take a few episodes to review some of the Teacher Education programs available to us in Ontario. Today I bring in two guests: Niki Boytchuk-Hale and Miles Duke. Niki is a concurrent education, entering her third year at Queens University. At...

Send us a text We are back for part two of our conversation with Mr. Fraser Grant, the new Head of School and Deputy Principal of Appleby College.  Mr. Grant has been working at Appleby College for 27 years and counting. Over the years, he served primarily as an Economics Teacher but also served in various leadership roles such as the Senior School Director, Assistant House Director, and was as th...

Send us a text Is an 80% average in 2021 worth the same as an 80% average back in 1990?  I love teaching grade 12's....except when January comes around and university marks starts to get uploaded to universities.  Grades are such a sensitive subject now. Programs are becoming more competitive, expectations are higher, and more students are applying than ever before. As a result, we have seen...