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What Should Schools Do About Bullying? A Q&A with Lissa Albert

Lissa Albert, M.A., Educational Technology

In the first part of my discussion with researcher and cyberbullying expert Lissa Albert, we discussed what a parent should do if they suspect their child is being bullied. Today, we’ll look at what schools can do. Q1.  What do you believe is the most effective approach for tackling bullying in schools? As an educator, I believe that we must always begin with as much as we can learn about any topic before we make a plan to tackle the … [Read more...]

What Can We Do About Bullying? A Q&A with Lissa Albert

School Climate 2.0 book cover

My last post on bullying sent the traffic to Coffee with Julie soaring. Clearly, I’d hit a nerve. I think that’s because the adults in our communities genuinely want to do something about bullying, but are just not sure what that is. One reader, Chantal, suggested that having access to a social worker or other experienced worker in the realm of bullying would be very helpful. So I reached out to my online community and received a number of … [Read more...]

Saturdays with Stella: The Sizzling Cheese Balls

chick biscuits

I’m going to tell you right of the bat that I’m not exactly the best cook. Don’t get me wrong, I love to make food. So awhile ago I tried to make cheesy chick biscuits. I started by mixing all the ingredients in the bowl and the likes, but after that it all went down hill. I rolled the batter out and it stuck to the wax paper I was using. Then I realized that we didn't have any cookie cutters, so I just said “cookie cutters are like SO … [Read more...]

20 Dollars of Cheer

flowers4

It's March 22nd. The snow is heavier than ever. It's getting me down. We Canadians get really quite desperate for Spring and I think I've hit that desperate phase. So I treated myself to 20 dollars worth of flowers from my local grocery store. They have a variety of blooms that go for 3 for $20. I picked some yellow tulips, pink tulips, and some pretty white flowers that I don't know the name of. I spread the flowers out so that I could … [Read more...]

Canoe Trip in the Northwest Territories: It’s Happening!

I told you how I won a trip, but I also promised to tell you all about our upcoming trip to spectacular Northwest Territories. And you know me, I like to keep my promises! (You know, mostly.) All up, our Northwest Territory adventure will end up being 9 days in total. One day for travel there and one day for travel back via First Air, which is one of the only air carriers with regular connections to 30 northern communities. We'll be flying … [Read more...]

Now It’s Your Chance to Win a Trip! How does Sandals Jamaica Sound to You?

CTS #FeelGoodMovies Contest

Yesterday, I told you I won a trip. So, it's true, people actually win these things!  Today, I was going to tell you all about my trip to Northwest Territories. But since we (in Ottawa) just got a massive dump of snow, I thought you all might want to know about this contest as soon as possible! Remember how much I loved going to Beaches Boscobel in Jamaica? Well, Sandals is the cousin to Beaches. Where Beaches if ultra-family, Sandals is … [Read more...]

Spectacular Northwest Territories: Seeing Stars and Lucky Stars

aurora

Seeing the Aurora Borealis up in Canada's Great North has always been a dream of mine. (And Hubby's ... but his also includes winter camping, whitewater canoeing, and a whole bunch of other adventurous deeds.) So when I received an invitation from MJW Communications to a kick-off event for the Spectacular Northwest Territories Days at Ottawa's Winterlude in February, I immediately accepted. Normally, I go to these travel-writing/blogging events … [Read more...]

Saturdays with Stella*: 10 Awesome Things

book of awesome

Have you read The Book of Awesome? There are two of them now and I've read them both. They're great. So in the theme of "awesome," I present to you my 10 awesome things ... … [Read more...]

It’s Friday, Friends. Let’s Toast to Great Memories.

A loooonnng time back, I was dating a guy who proclaimed one day, "Stompin' Tom is playing this weekend. Let's go." I had no idea who Stompin' Tom was. But off we went to some little hole-in-the-wall bar in downtown Ottawa and we were treated to some of Tom's best songs. I had a fabulous time, and heard Tom perform a couple more times during the time I dated this boy. Now this boyfriend had unique tastes, so I just kind of figured that … [Read more...]

Apres-Ski Green Beaver Boreal Face Cream and My Cosmetics Quest

apres_ski_face_cream_w-box

Sure, snow looks pretty. But that doesn't mean my skin likes it. Dry, winter skin is sort of a fact of life from December through to April in this area of the world. So I was definitely intrigued when I came across a Green Beaver line of lotion called "Apres-ski." I needed some new cream since I'd run out of my other stuff and our family has had a good experience with the Green Beaver Shampoo and Conditioner, so I thought I'd give this line a … [Read more...]

Saturdays with Stella: Dracotopia (Part 3)

Original illustration by Stella.

To catch up, you can read Part 1 and Part 2. The dragon hatchery was the third highest building but not quite the biggest tree house there. It was twelve feet by twelve feet. It was on the east side of the village and the girls were on the west side so it took them another ten minutes to get there. Liz and Vicky were very tired by the time they got there for they had to scale across a series of logs carved into stair cases, swinging ropes, … [Read more...]