In this segment of Teacher Real Talk, Farnaz and Nataly (MA, English Literature) talk about storytelling, community, and vulnerability through the lens of Stories of Home, an online anthology that centres personal narratives from learners and educators. They reflect on what it means to ask people to share parts of themselves in a language that may not feel fully theirs, and how vulnerability, trust, and risk shape classroom relationships in ways we don’t always anticipate.

They also touch on moments when community is tested, how those situations can be navigated, and what they reveal about expectations, boundaries, and responsibility.

Looking back on early teaching years, they also discuss how beliefs about ESL teaching can change over time, what practices no longer align with their values, and which pieces of commonly given advice may deserve reconsideration.

ESL= English as a Second Language

EAP= English for Academic Purposes

Stories of Home: https://storiesofhome.ca/#section-Home-dobARMNVJF

Nataly Shaheen has multiple MAs in English Literature and a Bachelor of Education degree. She is an ESL instructor dedicated to building cultural connections between her students and the wider Canadian community. She is also an emerging writer, long-listed for the CBC Non-Fiction Prize in 2020, with her work published in The Malahat Review in 2021. More recently, she co-edited and contributed to Stories of Home, an online anthology highlighting the voices and identities of Sheridan’s ESL community. The project received a 2022 Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities grant, was a finalist for the 2024 Canadian Online Journalism Awards, and led to a collaborative exhibit with the Peel Art Gallery, Museum, and Archives. This work earned her Sheridan’s Dr. Mary Preece SWITCH Award in 2024.

⁠www.learningoffthesyllabus.com⁠

Instagram: @learningoffthesyllabus

Email: ⁠learningoffthesyllabus@gmail.com

⁠Theme music:

Periscope by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/