ShiftED Podcast #100 Every Language Belongs: Erin Quirk on Plurilingual Kids and Quebec Classrooms

ShiftED Podcast #100 Every Language Belongs: Erin Quirk on Plurilingual Kids and Quebec Classrooms

What if the languages your students speak at home are actually your most powerful teaching tool? Erin Quirk, linguist and researcher at the Université de Sherbrooke, joins Chris to unpack what the research tells us about plurilingual children in Quebec's English-language classrooms. From cross-linguistic transfer to family engagement, Erin makes the case that multilingualism isn't a challenge to manage — it's a strength to build on. A must-listen for any educator navigating language in today's diverse classrooms.

ShiftED Podcast #99 • In Conversation with Lisa Green: Outsmarting Distraction in the Age of AI

In this episode of ShiftED, we sit down with Lisa Green, Canadian author of Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology. Together, we explore how smartphones, AI, and the attention economy are reshaping classrooms and challenging traditional ideas about teaching and learning. Lisa shares practical insights on inquiry-based learning, student agency, digital literacy, and why keeping learning deeply human may be the most important task facing educators today. A thoughtful conversation for teachers navigating a rapidly changing world. https://heretolearn.ca/home [https://heretolearn.ca/home]

ShiftED Podcast #98 • In Conversation with Guy Rex Rodgers What We Remember, What We Forget

What does it mean to belong to a place that’s constantly redefining itself? In this episode, Chris Colley sits down with playwright, filmmaker, and author Guy Rodgers for a thoughtful conversation about identity, language, and the often-overlooked story of English-speaking Quebec. From his childhood between Australia and Canada to his deep dive into Quebec’s history, Rodgers shares the experiences that shaped his work—and why understanding our shared past can help us make sense of the present. What We Choose To Remember / To Forget https://www.whatwechoose.ca/ [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whatwechoose.ca/&source=gmail-imap&ust=1782234555000000&usg=AOvVaw2cn151hkoKGgUdWbj7xN1G] Education Project https://www.whatwechoose.ca/education [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whatwechoose.ca/education&source=gmail-imap&ust=1782234555000000&usg=AOvVaw327zDzSkGrrZpoQ2PeZdlL] The Montrealer - Columnist https://themontrealeronline.com/author/guyrexrodgers/ [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://themontrealeronline.com/author/guyrexrodgers/&source=gmail-imap&ust=1782234555000000&usg=AOvVaw2FxpHvLw3QiynXsttbxF9s]

ShiftED Podcast #97 In Conversation with Gina Tesoriero: Get Curious Before You Get Concerned

Gina Tesoriero just finished her PhD — and her research is a reminder that the best way to understand how students use AI is to just... ask them. A special education teacher turned researcher, Gina spent years watching STEM transform engagement for her most overlooked students. That spark sent her into a doctoral program studying how recent high school graduates are using tools like ChatGPT to navigate school, work, and life — including some of her own former seventh-graders, now adults. The findings? One student built herself a custom writing tutor at midnight. Another group used it to spot bias in job listings. And one case study that made Gina uncomfortable ended up teaching her the most important lesson of all: how someone uses AI tells you exactly what's missing in their learning environment. We get into neurodiversity, UDL, co-design, why AI literacy belongs in every classroom (not just the tech teacher's), and what happens when you stop policing the tool and start getting curious about the person using it.

ShiftED Podcast #96 In Conversation with Dr. Danielle "Nell" Thompson: Language Is the Foundation

Language is the foundation. Everything else is built on it. In this episode of the ShiftED Podcast, Chris Colley sits down with Dr. Danielle "Nell" Thompson — literacy leader, coach, and former speech-language pathologist — for a wide-ranging conversation on what really sits at the heart of teaching children to read. Nell traces her thinking back to a moment standing in a museum inside the Arctic Circle, when she realized the Iñupiaq language around her had been oral for thousands of years and only written down within living memory. That single insight reshaped how she sees literacy: as a developmental extension of language itself, not a mechanical skill bolted on top. Along the way, Chris and Nell explore why the post-2000 turn toward the "five pillars" left oral language out of the picture and what it has cost classrooms since. They dig into the difference between consulting and coaching, and why coaching changes who holds the power in a school. They talk about honouring the "Englishes" and language variants children bring with them from home, and about "we're only partially right" as a humble frame for teachers and leaders alike. Nell closes with the paradigm shift she sees coming next: full integration of speaking, listening, reading, and writing across every subject, taught by educators who understand language as the original architecture of the learning brain. "The original architecture of the human brain that we build academic success on is the language architecture." — Dr. Danielle "Nell" Thompson