Dystopain book stack + The Shallows Of all the dystopian texts I’ve taught to my grade 11 and grade 12 English classes, none has been so impactful on students as Ray Bradbury’s prescient novella, Fahrenheit 451, with its volatile protagonist, the fireman Montag. I find it to be a good mix of reading length, density (its style is quite poetic and uses imagery in fascinating ways), and real world relevance. It’s more personal than George Orwell’s 1984, which has extended discourses on political...

Vince Cancilla earned his Specialized Honours B.A. in English Literature at York University, and his Masters of Education with...

Did you ever have a teacher who had a mug that was essentially an extension of their arm, an omnipresent fixture in hand or on desk, and seemed to have a life of its own — something classic or kitschy, or perhaps campy, or from some far distant land or time? Every teacher needs to have one of these favourite mugs — not only for the mug itself, but because of the life-and-energy-giving heavenly nectar it contains, much needed fuel for the hard task of teaching. For me, that means either a...