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Paula Waatainen

@sosopolitical.bsky.social

2.3K followers 950 following 290 posts

Socials Studies teacher ed & researcher at Vancouver Island University. EdD Learning Sciences. Designing authentic assessments of competency, civic education, historical thinking, deliberation, and place-based learning. Music fan! BC history nerd!

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Jun 4

I'm happy to introduce a civic education game that is close to my heart, as I'm one of the original designers. Dr. Kirstin Funke-Robinson and I had an assignment to design an educational game in our 2019 doctoral design seminar with Dr. Douglas Clark at the Werklund School @ucalgary.bsky.social 1/

Screen shot of a web page for the educational game Common Ground

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Shana Gadarian @sgadarian.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 1d

It’s that time of the semester when it’s lunchtime and I can’t remember what the opening activity was for the 3 hour class I taught this morning.
I have 24 minutes until I teach the same lesson to another cohort. Any guesses, haha?

Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 6d

Love that koirataivas tag 😆 I should use that too.

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 8d

Enjoy your panel! Sounds very interesting

Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 8d

I spent a few days in Ottawa in July, and my daughter and I had quite a sensory experience walking in Byward Market before the heat and humidity broke for a thunderstorm. As the wind came at us like a blast furnace, we asked, is this what heat sounds like?

Not a Vancouver Island sound.

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 9d

Catch is, you need to organize a seance to watch it.
Ok, I”m in.

Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 13d

Troops to Portland? Illegal and absurd. But the absurdity is the point. Trump policy is to ignore real threats to US security coming from abroad and use the armed forces to pursue imaginary threats from within, thereby creating an atmosphere suitable for personal rule. (1/2)

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 16d

Soon the rainy, shorter days and higher daytime tides will make it hard to get to the dog beach. Until then, I will be lucky to take time off from screens to be here. #Nanaimo

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Generation Squeeze @gensqueeze.bsky.social · 17d

Build Canada Homes is a step in the right direction, but we're here to present a 🧵on why building more homes will never be the silver bullet many Canadians are hoping for. Read on for info and links! (1/11)... #cdnpoli #buildcanadahomes www.gensqueeze.ca/build_canada...

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · 25d

Cool! It’s sure bright

Reposted by Paula Waatainen

WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 25d

This is Finny. He doesn’t go chasing waterfalls. He carefully studies their timing and arrives in advance. 14/10 very impressive (TT: jordancain70)

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Michael Stipe @michaelstipe.bsky.social · Sep 5

Ok its ‘feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site’.

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

BC Teachers' Federation @bctf.bsky.social · Sep 3

"The education system needs to be fully funded. When we do that, we can teach [and] feel respected within that work." BCTF President Carole Gordon discussed the top issues for teachers on CBC News yesterday. Watch the full video here: www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Classroom workload a top issue for B.C. teachers as school year starts

B.C. school teachers returning to classrooms this fall are facing a number of growing challenges, according to the B.C. Teachers' Federation. President Carole Gordon said trying to meet the needs of a...

www.cbc.ca

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Aug 28

Dear people who are saying that the CDC directors who quit yesterday should have “stayed and fought”,

With all due respect, you do not grasp the magnitude of the problem of RFK Jr.

He is asking them to do unethical and immoral things that will actively harm the people of the United States. 1/3

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Stewart Prest @stewartprest.ca · Aug 29

The latest from @acoyne.bsky.social arrives just in time to land on the syllabus of my contemporary threats to democracy course. Was looking for exactly this sort of up-to-the-moment summation of the state of play in the states. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Donald Trump is on the brink of becoming a dictator. Can he be stopped?

As the guardrails of American democracy fall one by one, it is no longer a question of where the President is going, but how fast he will get there

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

SSHRC | CRSH @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca · Aug 27

🌟 We’re excited to share that #SSHRC is now on Bluesky!
Follow us here for the latest on:
🦋 Research funding opportunities
🦋 Announcements and key updates
🦋 Inspiring stories of discovery and impact

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 28

This post = I made sure to catch Jays in 30 tonight. Thanks!

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks for your ongoing involvement in this!

Reposted by Paula Waatainen

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Aug 21

"General sense of doom."

First Faculty Meeting of the Year Bingo

buff.ly

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Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 18

Taking advantage of free access to National Historic Sites this summer. This is the Fisgard Lighthouse at Fort Rodd Hill.

Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 11

Found this 2017 photo from the Malahat. This was a good idea.

Orange road sign demonstrating a zipper merge

Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 11

Cool!

Paula Waatainen @sosopolitical.bsky.social · Aug 11

This was an amazing few minutes of baseball! What a story. Glad to have caught it on tv while it was happening.

J. Kelly Nestruck @nestruck.bsky.social · Aug 11

Couldn't script an ending to a baseball game better than Blue Jays pitcher Mason Fluharty striking out Ohtani and Mookie Betts with the bases loaded to win.
I have no idea why he was in that situation without a screenwriter having a hand in it, but it was a thrill.

Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · Aug 9

Researchers (including some fantastic people at UW) found that chatbots can persuade people on political issues, and that they often do so by shifting the frames of the debate: www.washington.edu/news/2025/08...

With just a few messages, biased AI chatbots swayed people’s political views

University of Washington researchers recruited self-identifying Democrats and Republicans to make political decisions with help from three versions of ChatGPT: a base model, one with liberal bias and....

www.washington.edu

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Reposted by Paula Waatainen

Steve Schwinghamer🇨🇦 @sschwinghamer.bsky.social · Aug 9

Let's integrate AI in schools, they said.

Prompt to chat gpt to draw a map of Nova Scotia with its major cities.

The outline is good. Yarmouth is offshore, a little dot southeast of Barrington. Lunenburg set sail from the south shore, which figures. Truro has apparently moved to Liverpool. New Glasgow is where Halifax ought to be, but Halifax is not in this map. Sydney has moved to Canso. There are no cities away from the eastern Atlantic shoreline of mainland NS.

FLAWLESS.

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