I am a collaborative family law (collaborative divorce) lawyer. I am also an education consultant & educator. Posts are not legal advice. (Pronouns: he/him)
Separation is never easy, especially when there are children involved.
I am proud that my services include
#CollaborativeDivorce
, which in the right circumstances offers a more peaceful, dignified & respectful way towards a separation agreement.
Contact me for a consultation.
Please be mindful that 2SLGBTQI+ students will see the Canada-wide anti-2SLGBTQI+ protests this week as a sign that their society is increasingly intolerant about who they are.
Show openly (this week especially!) that your school/classroom is a safe & welcoming place for them.
I confirm that I've left the TCDSB.
The TCDSB (Canada's largest Catholic board) is not safe for teachers who intently & openly teach inclusively for 2SLGBTQI+ students & is not a safe place for 2SLGBTQI+ students & staff bc of its deep systemic homophobia & transphobia.
- Paolo
An “opinion” story by True North has false information. Here are some examples:
1. I did not get the boot. I was not removed or am not removed from my classroom or school.
2. I was not asked or was not forced to take down anything from my classroom or school.
1/2
Wow. Welcoming us, inspiring us to have hope & work hard to achieve our dreams, & letting us ask questions were a part of MPP Lecce’s first act as Minister of Education. What a lucky day to tour Queen’s Park.
@tcdsb
@LubinskiTeresa
@TCDSB_JWujek
@stjamesTCDSB
In my first act as Minister of Education, I surprised these students from St. James Catholic School on a tour at Queen’s Park.
I reminded them that with hard work, they can achieve their dreams.
Thanks for the warm welcome!
#ONpoli
Courage is the virtue of the month in
@TCDSB
schools.
In honour of the courage of students/graduates of
@HCDSB
, the background image today in The Rainbow Room will be the 1 used by Nic Hotchkiss in the
@flytheprideflag
account they run, & I'm wearing my "It's OK to be gay!" tie.
2 days ago, I tweeted a “Trans Women are Women” message. Last night I saw that it had 24 quoted retweets. Optimistic about this, I opened each one to see regrettably that they were all negative retweets, many overtly transphobic.
We’ve a lot of work to do in Catholic education.
Today is
#InternationalWomensDay
- As women’s rights (especially trans women) are under attack all over the world, we need strong clear voices that empower
Today I resolve that I will display a 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ or Pride Progress flag (at least 1 on each day of the school year) in a prominent place in my Catholic classroom, The Rainbow Room, such as at the prayer table, so that my 2SLGBTQI+ students know that they are safe & celebrated.
1/2
I'm announcing the upcoming
#PrideInTheTCDSB
website, which will be a website (created on my own time) for Catholic educators (with input from educators) to promote the celebration of Pride Month in Catholic school boards in Ontario.
The website will be launched on June 1, 2022.
The Rainbow Room invites all
@TCDSB
schools & classrooms not to participate this school year in
#BellLetsTalk
. There are better ways to promote mental health awareness than a way that promotes a company that would do what it did to Lisa LaFlamme.
3. I have been in & seen in my school & classroom since April 25.
4. Any absences since April 25 are health-related, not a consequence of or to my attendance at that April 25 YCDSB Catholic board meeting where I was confronted by anti-Pride York Catholic community members.
2/2
A Grade 1 student in The Rainbow Room created a church using Minecraft Education Edition during lunch (from a challenge this morning when we discussed the upcoming TCDSB Advent Mass on Dec. 16 at 10 am).
Drag queen story hour is harmless. Hate isn’t harmless.
That is why I will promote drag queen story hour in my Catholic elementary classroom this school year as I have before.
Yesterday evening I marched in the
#PrideToronto
#TransMarch
proudly as a
@TCDSB
teacher displaying the TCDSB bag I received once for all the volunteer time I put into creating & hosting 21C workshops.
I do not & will never teach my TCDSB students that there are only 2 genders.
I must be transparent with my colleagues at the Toronto Catholic District School Board, as much as I encourage them to be open, not secret, not afraid, about being 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive:
It’s not a safe school board for teachers who are open about being 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive.
It's International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia & Transphobia in The Rainbow Room today.
I wore my special rainbow suspenders.
#IDAHOBIT
@Equity_TCDSB
With all the anti-2SLGBTQI+ hate that has been displayed in Ontario, my Gr. 8 students in The Rainbow Room will be told in Week 1 (when we talk about a classroom of no racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.), that are not permitted to say that there are only 2 genders.
1/2
This (a surprise gift from a student who's last virtual learning day is today) is the "official class photo" of The Rainbow Room.
On Monday we will welcome new students to our virtual Grade 1 Catholic classroom where we celebrate the wonders of learning & inclusion.
Yesterday we had a special visitor (during Vocal Music) to The Rainbow Room: Mr. Paolo's daughter, Sarah. Sarah led The Rainbow Room in singing Tomorrow (from the musical Annie).
It was only 2 years ago this week that I posted this message on a hallway outside my Gr. 5-6 classroom, for any K-8 student to see, when our board culture effectively prohibited the discussion of 2SLGBTQ+ issues in elementary schools outside of classroom Family Life Ed.
@nakedpastor
Your last comment is so insightful: “You assume you're in, you're out; you assume they're out, they're in.”
That is so close to what I believe Jesus meant (in terms of social action) by his Luke 948 comment: “The one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.”
We did it! We published our Black History Month website.
Name: Black Lives Matter in The Rainbow Room
Reason: We hope you, like us, will learn about & celebrate Black history in February & all year long.
Audience: Primary TCDSB grades.
This Monday will be Martin Luther King Jr. Day in The Rainbow Room!
Join us in your own online classrooms in reading, writing & other activities inspired by MLK Jr. & focused on making our community a better place today.
January is the month of courage in the
@TCDSB
.
Today marks 2 years since my Mom’s death.
I was proud to be there to help during the last few years to help her & proud to be there day & night for the last few weeks in the hospital, to give her the love that she deserved.
She was proud of me for choosing to be a teacher.
Hi Trustee
@Markus4Ward2
:
I’m not trying to change TCDSB policies or practices by this video. I am just responding to your information they suggests we’d benefit from a delay in DEI training for teachers, when teachers like me have been hurt by the delay.
That is, …
1/2
What are you up to this summer?
I’m spending a lot of quality time with my Dad.
This is us shopping minutes ago at his favourite supermarket, Fortino’s.
There’s no doubt after today’s visit to The Rainbow Room from our Vice Principal that a principal or vice principal, including in a virtual school, is a community helper who cares about students & loves to read.
We ended by singing Feliz Navidad together.
A special thanks to Trustee
@Markus4Ward2
for visiting The Rainbow Room for our special Heritages Celebration today. He's great with students! In sharing his family's story & by answering students' Qs & engaging them, he helped them appreciate even more their own special stories.
The learning resources from
@tvo
are so amazingly helpful & user-friendly.
I integrate
#TVOLearn
links (for example) within my Math units (with reminders to consider using
#TVOMathify
) for my Gr. 7-8 students as additional resources for learning.
Thanks TVO!
If you’re a TCDSB teacher, you’ll notice there’s so little centrally/internally to help us teach inclusively for 2SLGBTQ+ students.
I invite you to follow Ottawa Catholic educators like
@mrjdaher
to consider what can happen at your TCDSB school/classroom in this area.
Vice Principal Odile Figueiredo will be Zooming into The Rainbow Room later this morning as a part of our Grade 1 Community Helpers unit in Social Studies.
These are questions students prepared, collected on our Jamboard.
Dear
@mduarte_HCDSB
:
The correspondence you're receiving from
@CampaignLife
, making it seem like its a choice between Jesus or the Pride flag, is instructive of the negative perception 2SLGBTQ+ students experience.
Flying the Pride flag is the right choice for the
@HCDSB
.
My Religion Table has a cross, a Bible, a
@nakedpastor
image of Jesus, an image of Baby Jesus with Mary (from a protest in Poland), flowers students made for it, & my Champions Award for allyship from
@PFLAGDurham
, just in time for the 1st-ever GSA meeting in a new elem. school.
Dear school administrators:
I see you.
I feel your stress.
I’m sorry that you’ve been placed in this situation, and that the pressure has not let up for the past two years.
You deserve the same love and care that you give to your staff and students.
Breaking News:
Santa Claus visited The Rainbow Room this morning.
The Rainbow Room is a virtual Grade 1 classroom in the
@TCDSB
's
@TCDSB_StAnne
.
Santa joined us from an Area 3 & Ward 3 school to access an authorized TCDSB Zoom account.
More details to follow!
We celebrated
#SpiritDay
today in The Rainbow Room, like they did in many school boards in Ontario, wearing purple & discussing bullying & standing with 2SLGBTQ+ youth, who disproportionately face harassment because of their identities.
A special 🙏 to Trustees
@Markus4Ward2
&
@normsworld
for joining The Rainbow Room today for the 1st part of our Pride Celebration/Parade, which included a beautiful song by Trustee Markus & some local Pride history from Trustee Norm, as students waved their Pride flags.
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The Rainbow Room will be a Gr. 8 class next school year.
Like this school year, Fully Alive will not be taught/used at all.
Re sexual orientation, students will not be taught that same-sex love is a sin, & re gender identity will not be taught that there are only 2 genders.
Search/post
#ChristmasInTheTCDSB
for many examples of TCDSB elementary teachers are making this season a fun & meaningful experience for students in their classrooms.
To those who falsely say that TCDSB elementary teachers aren't celebrating Christmas this year: Bah Humbug!
1/n
On the last day of school, students referred to Minecraft as Kindcraft & were saying that love is the most important thing to be.
That's the kind of year it's been this year in The Rainbow Room. I'm so proud of my students!
🙏 for support from
@TCDSB
admin & resource persons.
I want to
#BeKind
like my Dad.
He’s been a widower for 2 years. In the many times we eat together & he forgets that I ate too, he asks again to share his food w/ me. When he makes espresso & forgets he asked if I wanted a cup, he asks again. I ❤️ him!
#CelebrateDad
@AFLToronto
A student wrote this on a card for me today: “You are very brave.”
Me: Thank you. Why would you say that?
Student: You stand up for the LGBTQ community.
@TCDSB_Peterson
@Equity_TCDSB
“I love the Rainbow Room.”
Online community building as a classroom & as a school is real, not virtual, shown through this spontaneous display by a student minutes after spontaneously asking, “Mr. Paolo, how do you spell rainbow?”
I encourage TCDSB teachers to openly teach inclusively for 2SLGBTQI+ students. It’s the right thing to do.
Yet I share my experience that the TCDSB isn’t safe for teachers to do so. You do so at great risk to yourself. Senior management doesn’t get it & likely won’t support you.
I confirm that I've left the TCDSB.
The TCDSB (Canada's largest Catholic board) is not safe for teachers who intently & openly teach inclusively for 2SLGBTQI+ students & is not a safe place for 2SLGBTQI+ students & staff bc of its deep systemic homophobia & transphobia.
- Paolo
Thank you to MPP
@Sflecce
for welcoming our class today at Queen’s Park. We’re honoured to be the first class he’s welcomed as the new Minister of Education. Thank you for your inspiring words about what we can achieve.
@stjamesTCDSB
@TCDSB_JWujek
@LubinskiTeresa
@TCDSB
Today in The Rainbow Room, we read each page, each letter from A-Z, from
@InnosantoNagara
's book, A Is for Activist. The Gr. 1 students (via Jamboard) wrote their own letter & word, & then they moved on to drawing their page for our book.
#GeorgeFloyd
#BlackLivesMatter
The Power of Online Learning:
At a school during recess where I’m helping out for a few days until my new online class launches this Monday, a Gr 2 student from The Rainbow Room (Gr 1) last year gave me these flowers & said to me:
“You’ll always be the best teacher I ever had.”
Dear
@TCDSB
Colleagues:
We don’t know Jesus’ skin colour. Jesus could have been Black.
What lesson are we teaching our students if overwhelmingly the Jesus we are displaying in our school offices or religion walls/tables is a white Jesus?
#BlackHistoryMonth
#BlackLivesMatter
Following a reading of When I Was Eight & a discussion of residential schools in Canada, & in conjunction with learning about adjectives, students in The Rainbow Room described how schools or classrooms should be for them & for all children.
Inspired by
@GretaThunberg
, Grade 3 students in The Rainbow Room will be participating (online) today with other children around the world to bring attention to the urgency that we must "Stop Climate Change & Save the Earth!"
@MariaVamvalis
#ClimateStrike
Today I told my TCDSB school superintendent that bc of the PTSD-like symptoms I experience from bullying & silence from TCDSB staff, 1) I cannot attend school Masses led by Archdiocese of Toronto priests & 2) I cannot host Archdiocese volunteers such as Rosary volunteers.
1/2
Compassion is the Virtue of the Month in May in the
@TCDSB
.
Our compassion-related theme song for May in The Rainbow Room is You've Got a Friend in Me.
Today, a student not in my class, outside my window with their class, told me proudly through the window for other students to hear, “Mr. Paolo, I am gay,” & I responded, “That’s great! Congratulations! Thank you for telling me!”
Inclusion matters in a Catholic school!
The Rainbow Room engaged in its 1st class-wide Zorbit’s Math Adventure activity today. Unsurprisingly, students kept asking, “May I share my screen, Mr. Paolo,” & did.
🙏 to the teacher-leaders like Ms. Anne, Ms. Brenda, & Mr. Bart at the TCDSB who supported the Zorbit’s launch.
Please support June formally as the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Even if you do not, we are already planning to celebrate it in The Rainbow Room this year, because it's a good thing, like some classrooms and schools did last year.
@kkathynnguyen
@keithbaybayon
We can splash the word equity all over the place in the TCDSB. Talking about it is better than not, which is an improvement for us.
But let’s have the confidence of SCDSB & other
#OntEd
boards that equity is truly central in strategic planning & that we’re “walking the talk.”
So proud of all of the
@SCDSB_Schools
DEI/MLL coaches who created an incredible resource for our schools on Celebrating Black Excellence in our schools. Equity is a Strategic Priority in our board and we are walking the talk!
#BHMSCDSB
The
@CanPaedSociety
says, regarding gender identity, that "children do best when their parents or caregivers [educators too] show them that they are loved & accepted for who they are."
This is a helpful article for
@TCDSB
families & educators. 🙏 CPS!
Families at my school will see the wonderful news in the December newsletter that their school has a new GSA called
#TheRainbowAngels
.
(I worded the purpose of the GSA directly from the Education Act.)
It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day today in The Rainbow Room.
Today's writing prompt: "I have a dream ..."
Students are writing their dream sentences on a shared Jamboard. We were so into this activity that we all missed the start of morning recess as we kept on writing & talking.
Hope is the theme for the month of December in all Toronto Catholic DSB schools.
These are messages of hope from students in The Rainbow Room shared, transcribed to Jamboard.
The Rainbow Room is a Grade 1 classroom in St. Anne Catholic Academy, School of Virtual Learning.
We in The Rainbow Room are so excited about our (virtual) trip today to Reptilia!
Thank you Ms. Brenda for leading us & guiding us there!
It's Earth Week in the
@TCDSB
!
Thank you to Ottawa Catholic teachers in being an example for Toronto Catholic teachers to follow in being 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive educators.
I hope you have a GREAT day!
@oectaottawa
@TECT951
@tsuOECTA
Last week the TCDSB heard a staff report on the Right to Read. Early intervention is a human right.
The TCDSB has a special early intervention program (5th Block) that is so effective.
I thank God for the
#TCDSB5thBlock
teachers & program. May it be expanded in our schools.
Today the Rainbow Room read Hats of Faith, acknowledging our special Catholic beliefs while noting & respecting religious diversity in Toronto as seen through hats of faith. We gave extra attention to the fact that many of our Muslim family, friends & neighbours wear a hijab.
It’s report card time!
Today I confirmed with Ss the name & pronouns to use 4 them.
Sometimes the pronoun they told me to use in class (eg. they/them) is not the pronoun they asked to use with their family (eg. she/her). I respect Ss’ rights.
@TCDSBdirector
@TCDSB21C
This morning I attended Mass at
@StPatsHamilton
. The land acknowledgment was a special start. Father Tony encouraged listeners to walk the walk, that walking the walk is much more important than talking the talk. Amen.
"How can I show my love for Jesus?" is the Q prompt on p. 125 in the Grade 1
@GIFGIC
textbook.
Using a Holy Week image we created via
@PlayCraftLearn
, these are the students' responses in The Rainbow Room.
I am so proud that students equate love for Jesus as being anti-racist.
Focusing on counting by 5s & 10s to 40 (40 because it's Lent), 1 breakout group in The Rainbow Room today demonstrated their learning via
#MinecraftEducationEdition
.
A student counts by 5s (she uses 8 columns of 5 blocks) & another by 10s, all-the-while explaining to each other.