Bios
Nick Smith
Nick Smith graduated from the University of Victoria in 1990, majoring in English. He completed his teaching certificate at Simon Fraser University in 1993, specializing in alternative education and learning disabilities, and taught for the Vancouver School Board from 1993-2006.
In 2005, Nick moved to the Sunshine Coast with his wife and two boys, spent a year teaching at the Sunshine Coast Alternative School, and now teaches full-time in Spider, the online adult education program. In 2007, Nick completed his Master's of Educational Technology through the University of British Columbia. He has a strong interest in open-source software.
Nick has traveled extensively throughout North America, Central America, Europe and Asia. Over the years, he has written about music, environmental issues, food, and education for publications such as The Georgia Straight and Adbusters. Nick now writes exclusively for The Tyee.
Reporting Beat: Education, and the social issues that surround education. Nick may be one of the only teachers in BC who writes about education from the front lines.
Twitter: @mr_nixmith
Stories by Nick Smith
Idea #6: Tech-Savvy Classrooms to Personalize Learning
Use kids' texting, Youtubing ways to their advantage, in classrooms that embrace new media.
'Open Courses, Open Teaching, This Is Dangerous'
A BC teacher reports from the front lines of the open source education movement.
I Volunteered to Coach My Child, Not Be Fingerprinted
Still, I was ready to go. Until I found the new rules don't do much at all to truly protect kids from predators.
End of the Go It Alone Adventure
People used to travel to discover things for themselves. Facebook changed that. Everyone else gets to look in now.
The Day Teachers Dread
How to kill morale: Every year tell your dedicated staff to get ready to be dumped or bumped.
The New School of Google
Why make students memorize facts easily found on the Net? We must change how we teach.
Anatomy of a Murdered High School Course
Why do creative efforts to educate die? Witness the killing of TPC 12.
What's Your Hundred Mile Holiday?
Staying close to home can save cash, energy, sanity. Share with us, please, your favourite local pastime.
In Praise of the Mancation
Every year we fill a coffin with beer and set forth into BC's wilderness.
Time to Reset the School Clock
Every kid is different. Why force each mind to fit the same timetable? Last in a Tyee reader-funded series.
We Can Teach Teachers Better
Pro-D workshops aren't enough. It takes expert mentoring, teamwork and sweat. Fifth in a Tyee reader-funded series.
Learning 2.0
New breed of teacher blends Facebook with textbooks. Fourth in a Tyee reader-funded series.
Small Schools, Next Big Thing
Kids learn better in more focused, familiar settings. Third in a Tyee reader-funded series.
Get Kids out of the Classroom!
Plug them into their community, and they thrive. Second in a Tyee reader-funded series.
In Search of A+ Teaching
One teacher's quest to learn from the best educators he can find. First in a Tyee reader-funded series.
BC's Big Box Education
Why we need better alternatives.
Boy Trouble?
We're cheating all students. Girls may just put up with it better.
The Quiet Revolution in BC Schooling
Officials are downplaying huge changes online learning will bring.
- Appeal court upholds ruling on protection of orca habitat
- Foreign takeover score is 14,218 to two calculates Mel Hurtig, who speaks Saturday
- Abbott blames teachers' union, hints at legislation
- Greens exaggerating fracking fears 'to control you': Santorum
- Prime Minister Harper mixes oil with human rights on visit to China
- Civil jury finds former BC premier Vander Zalm guilty of defamation
- Vancouver theatre runs down curtain on section of BC's outdated liquor laws
- BC Premier Clark to replace throne speech with radio appearance
- 'The Kids Are All Right'
- 'Leave Your Shoes On'
- Glaciers, BC Hydro's Melting 'Batteries'
- Frankie Rose Makes Life Tougher for Journalists
- Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
- Becoming the Ethical Hunter
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- Could SOPA Pervade Canadian Copyright Law?
- Would You Buy a Used Car from These Libs?
- Three Ryan Gosling Pickup Techniques that Don't Work in Real Life
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- Economist Calls Gateway Pipeline an Inflationary 'Threat'
- Bill Rees' Last Lecture
- Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
- Is Canada Ignoring Signs of a Coming Economic Collapse?
- How First Nations Are Gearing Up for Legal Battle Against Gateway
- Harper in China
- Eleven Oily Questions for Every MP
- Remembering Lloyd Dykk's Wit, Generosity and Superb Prose
- BC Child Care Advocates in Geneva to Complain to UN
- BC, You Love You
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- Who Pays Huge Power Bills for Clark's Gas Plants?
- Make It the Canadian Webcasting Corporation
- Harper in China
- When the Prize Is a Chance to Toil on BC's Farms
- Three Ryan Gosling Pickup Techniques that Don't Work in Real Life
- Would You Buy a Used Car from These Libs?
- Foreign Trade Zones Eyed for Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Prince George
- Skating into 2012, More Resolutions
- Scientists unveil bold new definition of addiction
- The most hellish ‘internships’: China sends 100,000 teens to work for a pittance at Foxconn making gadgets for Apple, others
- World Press Photo Contest: Editor’s choice pictures of the day
- Banks come first in a Greek rescue plan
- We’re more unequal than you think
- Cambodia launched restaurants for vultures
- Flavored vodka: sign of the imminent apocalypse?
- With Obama’s new foreclosure deal big banks win again
