We start the 2020-2021 blogging year off with the first of two posts by new BILD member Susan Ballinger. Susan’s research primarily investigates language learning and pedagogy in content-based instructional settings. Specific interests include cross-linguistic and plurilingual pedagogies, language awareness, content and language integration, classroom interaction, peer collaboration, and L2 socialization. Current projects examine immersion teacher education and professional development across Canada, collaboration for cross-linguistic instruction between teachers in a Chinese-English bilingual school, and university course instructors’ awareness of students’ needs for language and academic literacy support.

When Susan wrote this post, Kai was finishing his kindergarten year in June 2020 under lockdown conditions here in Montreal. He has now started Grade One. We look forward to further reports as this very unusual school year progresses…

My six-year-old’s brain is overflowing, bursting, exploding. He has too many thoughts per second and cannot hold them in. They come tumbling out of his mouth whether he is with his family members or alone with his toys. He asks me questions non-stop: “Who do you like better: One Direction or Katy Perry?” “Would you rather go to Florida or Japan?” “Do you prefer Grammy or Obaachan?” In line with the pandemic zeitgeist, I overhear him making his toy dinosaurs exclaim, “There is only bad news these days! What are we gonna do?!” I would worry about that, but the kid is happy, happy, happy. While I hear other parents talking about their little ones getting depressed, bored, and anxious in this time away from school, this guy is thriving. He adores the homeschooling set up and never wants to go back to school.

I mean he really never wants to go back to school.

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