Publications
"My teeth say a lot about me - and my family's life during the Great Depression"
Personal Essay (Print & Digital)
First Person
2024, CBC News
Personal Essay,
"Grandma! Grandma! Take your teeth out!" My siblings and I would beg to see this trick every time we visited my Grandma Rachel. She'd oblige us, and we'd watch her mouth cave in and her set of false teeth slide out, quick as a flash. I'd feel equally weak-kneed and impressed as she'd slurp her dentures back in.
"Dangerous Language Arts: Supporting Risk-Taking, Curiosity, and Critical Thinking"
Academic Research Paper (Digital)
Antistasis: An Open Educational Journal
2024, University of New Brunswick Press
Personal Essay,
It is only when we feel safe that we can take risks. This paradox presents both challenge and opportunity: how can we hold space in our classrooms for challenging topics and examining multiple views, while offering our students a high level of interactive behavior? ...
"Unconventional Funding Pathways
Through Post-Secondary"
Article (Print & Digital)
The Meliorist
2019, University of Lethbridge Press
Personal Essay,
My post-secondary pathway has been unconventional. I began in the world of work as an 18-year-old tradesperson, not an academic, and I am currently enrolled simultaneously in a Master of Education degree and a Graphic Design and Interactive Media Diploma. Although my journey has been non-traditional, there are even more roads not taken; had I known some of these existed, I may have been even more empowered to travel differently. I share my journey in the hopes that you will feel empowered to craft and map your own best-fit educational road, on or off the beaten track.
"How to Raise an Adventurer"
Personal Essay
Mom Knows Best
2019 Chicken Soup for the Soul
Personal Essay,
When I was six years old, my mom let me walk all the way to the corner store by myself. It was an adventurous, independent move I'd been begging for, and when she handed me two dollars and let me take the leap from supervised activities to independence, it was exhilarating. What I didn't know at the time was...
"20 Questions with Liz Harrison"
Interview (Print & Digital)
Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune
2019
Personal Essay,
7. What’s your most embarrassing moment? A: Farting in yoga used to be my secret fear and shame, but I’ve gotten over it. It happens.
Updated August 2024 All materials copywrighted by & property of Liz Harrison
Fighting the Gorilla: Blog
"Life is like fighting a gorilla: you don't stop when you get tired, you stop when the gorilla gets tired."
A quote from an unknown source, but still as true for me as the day I began blogging. Back in 2016, all the cool teachers were blogging with their students, and I jumped in. I began writing for my students and myself as I traveled South East Asia, and while I haven't blogged with a class for some time, now and then I return to share a thought in my most-preferred form, writing. I've been experimenting with video and imagery, and I challenge myself to communicate in each modality (text, visual, audio/ aural, spatial, gestural communication modes), move between these, and combine them, writing is my long-time love.
Enjoy, and I'd love to hear from you and deepen my understanding and the conversations they reflect!
