Instagram story viewer> @queenseduc> Tagged

Queen's Faculty of Education

@queenseduc

2.9K

followers

200

following

A gathering space with room for all to learn, grow, and contribute by building inclusive communities centred on teaching, learning, and research.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Hello lovely people!

I am specially inviting you to the opening of my exhibition titled: Visa Stories on the Wall: A Poetry Exhibition.

Visa Stories on the Wall is a poetry exhibition featuring twelve poems that explore migration, belonging, identity, and resistance. The exhibition brings stories of Nigerian migrant graduate students into a visual and public space, inviting visitors to encounter migration as an experience of searching for home, negotiating identity, and resisting oppression. Rather than reading the poems on a page, visitors are invited to slow down, fix their gaze on the wall, and enter the stories through words, space, and visual form.

The stories captured in this exhibition were entrusted to me and are the lived experiences of six Nigerian doctoral students at a Canadian university.

The Exhibition will open on Tuesday, November 17, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. and continue from Wednesday, November 18 to Friday, November 20, 2026, 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily. You are also welcome to drop by on these days.

Food will be served during the Opening. Please RSVP via this link to attend the Exhibition Opening: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/visa-stories-on-the-wall-a-poetry-exhibition-by-paul-akpomuje-tickets-2003049796863?aff=oddtdtcreator. RSVP starts today and closes on November 9, 2026.

#visastories #migrationstories #poetry #queensuniversity #highereducation

30

2

A look back at an evening celebrating our incredible scholars – From meaningful remarks to engaging conversations, the Scholars Reception brought our community together to recognize the achievements, dedication, and impact of our students.

Congratulations to all of our scholars, and thank you to everyone who joined us in making the evening so memorable!

#QueensU #ScholarsReception #StudentAffairs #QueensCommunity

1k

5

No meal plan, no problem!🍽️ Access the dining hall by simply paying at the door using flex $, debit, or credit. Don’t forget, that staff and faculty get 15% off with a valid Queen’s ID card! 🪪

136

0

We are so excited to take part in tomorrow's @roadtripmusicfest event (Saturday, September 12th). Discover our booth from 10am-5pm on Princess Street near Clergy. Visit us to learn more about our program, create some fun musical colouring sheets, buy some of our awesome swag and find out how to win the grand Sistema Kingston Prize! (Valued at $90). See you at the festival! 🎵 🎉 @downtownkingston @queenseduc

6

0

Humans of Homecoming

“We just laughed and laughed.”

Jim Rose, Artsci’70, Ed’71, and Joan Rose, Artsci’69, Ed’70, first met at a party in Morris Hall nearly 60 years ago.

Their first date — a performance of The Pirates of Penzance at Grant Hall — was, by their own admission, a flop. But a spontaneous game of ping-pong afterward turned the awkward silence into laughter.

That laughter led to daily letters, love, and a 1969 wedding.

“We’ve been in Kingston ever since,” says Jim. “And it all started right here.”

📍 Grant Hall, Welcome and Check-In

Read more stories at the link in our bio.

#QueensUHomecoming Jim Rose, Artsci’70, Ed’71, and Joan Rose, Artsci’69, Ed’70.

40

0

A year ago today, I had the privilege of standing in front of a room filled with new preservice teachers at Queen’s University’s Faculty of Education and sharing a presentation that was deeply personal to me:

“From College to Classroom…and Back to College.”

It was the story of my 25 year journey as a classroom educator and Special Education teacher- from what I was taught about reading instruction as a preservice teacher, to what I implemented in my own classroom, to the questions I eventually began asking when some students continued to struggle.

And ultimately, it was the story of finding my way toward evidence-based literacy instruction.

One of the most important lessons from those 25 years is this:

Teachers can only implement what they have had the opportunity to learn.

That is why I have become increasingly passionate about working with preservice teachers and Faculties of Education. We shouldn’t wait until teachers are standing in front of a classroom- with students already struggling- to introduce them to the science of reading, structured literacy, universal screening, explicit instruction, and evidence-based approaches for preventing reading failure.

We have an opportunity to shift the timeline.

Instead of intervention after students struggle, we can emphasize prevention before intervention.

And instead of expecting teachers to unlearn ineffective practices once they’re already on the job, we can ensure they enter the profession with a strong foundation in the evidence from the beginning.

A year later, that mission feels even more important.

If we want to change student outcomes, teacher knowledge is one of the most powerful places to start.

And there was something pretty special about looking out at a room full of future teachers and knowing just how much potential for change was sitting in those seats. 💚
@queenseduc
#ScienceOfReading #TeacherEducation #PreserviceTeachers #StructuredLiteracy

86

4

Humans of Homecoming

“We missed our 50th because of COVID, so we said, ‘See you in 2025, if we make it!’”

Joe Smillie, Artsci’70, Ed’71 — aptly pronounced “smiley” — travelled from Vermont to celebrate his 55th reunion at Queen’s.

It was only his second #QueensUHomecoming, but he knew exactly what he had missed.

“I just love it, all of it. The parade. Seeing everybody. Queen’s Bands. And the football game, which we better win — we’re playing the Lancers!”

The game didn’t quite go Joe’s way. The rest of the weekend, though? Plenty to smile about.

📍 Grant Hall, Welcome and Check-In

Read more stories at the link in our bio. Joe Smillie, Artsci’70, Ed’71

74

0

The 2026 BEd Faculty Orientation takes place next week, offering new and returning @ubceducation faculty members, instructors and faculty advisors an opportunity to connect and prepare for the upcoming academic year. ⁠
⁠
Featured Presenters and Sessions:⁠
⁠
• Keynote Address: Dr. Lee Airton (@drleeairton), Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education, Queen's University⁠
• Presentation: Dr. Nadena Doharty, Canada Research Chair in Black Experiences in and Through Education (EDST)⁠
• Table Talks: Jessica Eguia (EDID Cohort Coordinator, Elementary & Middle Years), Tania Johal (EDID Cohort Coordinator, Secondary), and Jody Billingsley, Program Manager – Practicum (Secondary), TEO⁠
⁠
Further details and the full schedule at our linkinbio 🔗⁠
⁠
⁠
Note: BEd students do not attend the Faculty Orientation. (This event is only for faculty and instructors.) Please see your Student Orientation schedule for details about your orientation week events. ⁠
⁠

28

0

“Good readers don’t stop every few pages to name the strategy they’re using. They think.” @a_reading_mother

That single idea has the power to change how we teach reading comprehension.

Yesterday, I introduced my preservice teachers to Molly Ness’s article Improving the Quality of Think Alouds, and it completely shifted their thinking. Instead of teaching comprehension as a series of isolated strategies (“make a prediction,” “make a text-to-text connection,” “ask a question”), we explored the power of thinking aloud- making the invisible cognitive processes of proficient readers visible.

When expert readers read, they don’t pause and announce, “Now I’m making a prediction!” They naturally integrate background knowledge, monitor for meaning, infer, question, revise their thinking, visualize, summarize, and connect ideas—all while staying focused on understanding the text.

A high-quality think aloud models that authentic process.

The strategy isn’t the goal.
Meaning is.

When we reduce comprehension instruction to strategy practice, students can become experts at identifying strategies without becoming better at understanding what they read. Think alouds, on the other hand, model what real reading sounds like and show students how skilled readers navigate complex texts.

Watching this click for my preservice teachers yesterday was one of those “lightbulb” moments. It challenged what many of them had experienced in classrooms themselves- and once they saw the difference, it simply made sense.

Sometimes the most powerful thing we can teach isn’t which strategy to use…

It’s how expert readers actually think.

#StructuredLiteracy #ReadingComprehension #ThinkAloud #ScienceOfReading #preserviceteachers @queenseduc @queensconedoweek

115

13

Today we tackled one of my favourite topics with my preservice teachers: spelling instruction. 📝

One of the biggest messages I hope they left with is this:

We shouldn’t expect children to memorize whole words to spell any more than we should expect them to memorize whole words to read.

Just as decoding requires explicit instruction, spelling does too. In fact, spelling is often even harder because it’s a retrieval skill. Students must recall letter patterns, sounds, meanings, and the history of words—not simply recognize them.

Yes, about 50% of English words can be spelled phonetically, but many others require knowledge of morphology, etymology, and meaning. When we teach students why words are spelled the way they are, English suddenly becomes much more logical.

I often say, “You can’t teach what you don’t know.” We tend to believe English spelling is “crazy” until we learn the rules. Once we do, we discover that roughly 97% of English spellings can actually be explained.

That’s why teacher knowledge matters.

Today’s future teachers now know better—so they can do better for the children who will one day sit in their classrooms. ❤️

A very special thank you to Associate Dean, Dr. Holly Ogden for joining us today. It was a true honour to have you in our class and for our preservice teachers to learn alongside you!
#StructuredLiteracy #ScienceOfReading #SpellingMatters #TeacherEducation PreserviceTeachers @queenseduc

25

0

Today, preservice teachers at Queen’s University explored why fluency instruction deserves an intentional place in every literacy block. We discussed the research behind fluent reading and learned six practical, evidence-based strategies they can take straight into their future classrooms, including choral reading, echo reading, and partner reading.

One of my favourite moments was watching everyone pair up to practice Lindsay Kemeny’s Partner Reading routine using the student scripts (in both English AND in French for our future FSL teachers!). Experiencing these routines as learners helps build the confidence to implement them with students.

Fluency doesn’t develop through independent reading alone- it grows through explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice, repeated reading, and timely feedback.

Tomorrow’s teachers deserve to leave teacher education with practical strategies they can use on day one. And every child deserves instruction that helps them become accurate, fluent, and confident readers. @queenseduc

#StructuredLiteracy #ScienceOfReading #ReadingFluency #PreserviceTeachers TeacherEducatio

92

2

College ➡️ Classroom ➡️ College 🎓

One of my favourite parts of teaching Preservice Teachers is making sure they leave with the knowledge I wish I’d learned in teachers college.

Today, we explored Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and an important reality: if we’re only screening for word reading within an MTSS framework, we’re only addressing half of the Simple View of Reading.

Reading comprehension depends on both word recognition and language comprehension.

That means we need to screen for both:
✔️ Risk for decoding difficulties
✔️ Risk for language comprehension difficulties

If we only identify students with decoding challenges, we’re missing another group of learners who are equally at risk for reading failure.

To help bring this to life, I shared a short video from Dr. Tiffany Hogan, where she explains what DLD is, how to recognize students at risk for language difficulties, and practical ways educators can support them in the classroom.

One message stood out above all:

What’s essential for some is good for all.

I wish I’d learned about DLD and evidence-based language supports when I was in teachers college. Imagine how many more students I could have helped from day one!

Here’s hoping the next generation of teachers enters the classroom with both sides of the Simple View of Reading firmly in view. Because every child deserves instruction that supports not only learning to decode…but also understanding language. #Language #DLD #languageimpairment #MTSS @queenseduc

27

1