The previous edition of this blog ran from January through May 2019, spanning a few months in the academic life of one MA cohort in McGill’s Second Language Education program—I was very proud to be their instructor, and encourage readers to look back at what they wrote, as well as to the first, 2016 edition of this blog. Hats off to Alison Crump for bringing it into being back then!
As of early spring 2020, a year after the enjoyable flurry of the Winter 2019 blog posts, our MA cohort, our university, our city—indeed, most of the world—was in lockdown, to an extent that none of us had imagined would be possible, because of the global pandemic that continues as these words are written. A few months later, lockdown has now been lifted and classes are continuing. However, this time (very unusually for McGill) the course is completely online, as I pass the blogging baton to my colleague and old friend Caroline Riches, instructor for Educational Sociolinguistics this term. For her sake and the students’ sake, I am very glad that blogging as a writing genre—not to mention as pedagogy—is an activity that is already completely online and that thrives in that medium. I encourage our readers to follow Caroline and her students this term, and to respond copiously and often!
