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SMALL GROUP SESSIONS (Friday morning)
Friday, February 12th, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 10:10 a.m.
Going High: A Spirit Lifting Journey!
Brian Keating has been traveling the wilds of the world for over a quarter of a century, exploring some 50 countries on all 7 continents. His passion for remote travel will be revealed as only Brian can do, with his buoyant method of storytelling. Punctuated throughout with humour and personal anecdotes, he’ll illustrate his presentation with his own live-narrated video segments.
With this, his newest program, he promises a journey into the high mountains of both the Andes of South America and the Himalaya of Asia, exploring the rich landscapes and the specialized life forms that live there. A special highlight will be a visual account of his recent northern India adventure, looking for the elusive snow leopard of the high Himalaya. His winter efforts were richly rewarded. And finally, he’ll return to our own Canadian mountain backyard, reconfirming the value of our collective understanding of the importance of wild spaces. His presentation is designed to inspire and enthuse, offering hope for a better tomorrow.
Speaker: Brian Keating
Room: Palisades
Chairperson: Karie Becker, Fort Vermilion Local
Linking Art with Literature ‘The Sequel’ (Grades K-3)
New and improved! If you enjoyed last year’s session, don’t miss this year! This session will cover 30 or more picture books, with art lessons to complement each title. Learn how to better link your art lessons within your literacy program! Titles will include new and classic literature, with lessons in painting, drawing, sculpture and more. Walk away with a detailed handout full of lesson plans, material lists and literature lists. All lessons and titles are different from last year’s session. This is possibly the most practical session you will attend.
Speaker: Andrea Daly
Room: Robson
Chairperson: TBA, Northland Local
Musicplay K-3
This session is beneficial to classroom teachers as well as music teachers. In this session a variety of classroom tested songs, dances, games and activities for teaching K-3 music will be shared. Denise will include helpful suggestions of ways to use the activities to integrate with curriculum, to use part of daily physical education and low-stress ways to assess. Come prepared to sing, move and have lots of fun. Teachers will receive handout and sample materials in this session.
Speaker: Denis Gagne
Room: Emerald
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
High School Chemistry
This Distributed Learning Branch and seven school jurisdictions collaboratively developed the Biology, Chemistry and Physics courses (Collectively known as BCP) as online resources. They have since been reformatted as printed resources as well. BCP stresses the constructivist philosophy of learning to ensure that students are fully involved in their own learning. This session will introduce the Chemistry/Physics 20 and 30 courses, their organization, content and ways to use them in your day to day teaching.
Speaker: Grant Arnold
Room: Amethyst
Chairperson: John Borges, Fort Vermilion Local
Your Pen$ion Matter$
This session will present a general overview of the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement fund (ATRF) and will include the following topics: the structure of the plan, registration and beneficiary requirements, purchasable pensionable service, pension death benefits and refunds, pension calculations, pension options and steps to retirement.
Speaker: Dana Adams
Room: Morraine
Chairperson: TBA, Northern Lights Local
Educational Accountability in the Next Alberta
This presentation will outline recent effort by the Alberta Teachers` Association and other education partners to develop an approach to accountability which will help ensure that students succeed in Alberta`s second century. Accountability in the new century will need to focus on those aspects of student learning that matter most, aspects such as the capacity to think critically, the ability to be innovative and the skills to function as active and engages citizens in a democratic societies. The introduction of new curricula and the third cycle of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement are just two promising developments. This session will be repeated at 10:40.
Speaker: J-C Couture
Room: Maligne
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Songs for Canada: The Listening Strand (Grades 4-6)
John was recently called a “National Treasure” by OHASSTA after a feature presentation in Toronto. He has worked and presented extensively with Historia, The Canadians History Society. This session will address the transfer of information skills enabling students to take a lead role in the process of student learning. The ability of students to garner relevant and specific details from oral or visual sources and media is critical for classroom success. In this session, establishment of students focus, followed by assessment of listening, transferring, and sharing skills from the use of specific “Canadian interest” media will be presented and discussed. Participants can expect to hear some specific grade-relevant song material developed for both classroom use and general audience enjoyment. John is a nationally renowned songsmith performer whose talents and original “Songs for Canada” have taken him to bookings at festivals on the shores of all three oceans and countless places in-between. www.johnspearn.ca
Speaker: John Spearn
Room: Banff/Jasper
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Journaling as an Assessment for Learning Tool
Take student response journals to a whole new level with these techniques. This session illustrates how extensive exemplars and inspiring student information about using journals can stimulate student comprehension, synthesis and metacognition. Although the examples are from ELA classes this technique is applicable to many subjects.
Speaker: Kendra Terry
Room: 2201/2203
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Tackling the Rising Problem of Eating Disorders in Youth
Eating disorder behaviour is on the rise in our youth. Recent literature cited that up to 20% of students in Canadian school are engaging in eating disorder behaviour. Some of these students will actually have an eating disorder; others are doing things that make them seriously at risk of developing one. Come hear Dianne Drummond, Eating Disorder Promotion & Prevention Specialist with Albert Health Services Edmonton discuss this relatively new phenomenon. Explore what you role might be in turning this tide around, whether it be in promoting the right messages in a healthy school environment, or intervening before someone gets terribly sick. Learn what to say and to do.
Speaker: Dianne Drummond
Room: 2206
Chairperson: TBA, Northland Local
SMALL GROUP SESSIONS – Half Day Workshop
Friday, February 12th, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.
Cyberbullying: An Emerging Threat to the Always-on Generation
Cyberbullying has become a concern with the increasing use of technology by youth. Bill Belsey will address the issue of Cyberbullying and ways to decrease it. Bill Belsey is a father, a multiple award-winning teacher and founder of Bullying.org Canada. He is the creator of www.bulling.org, the world’s most visited and referenced Website about bullying. Mr. Belsey conceived of Canada’s annual National Bullying Awareness Week www.bullyawarenessweek.org and www.bullyingcourse.com, which offers Canada’s first online courses and Webinars about bullying and Cyberbullying for parents and educators. Often is credited with being the first person to introduce the term “Cyberbullying” and created, www.cyberbullying.ca the world’s first Website about this issue. During this session Bill will help educators understand how this issue is affecting our youth and what can be done about it. This session is a half day workshop!
Speaker: Bill Belsey
Room: Logan
Chairperson: TBA, Northern Lights Local
Art of Making Jewellery
Do you want to create something different with your students in art classes? Come and learn how to design and make jewellery that can easily be incorporated into lessons for your students. All participants will create nice jewellery set to take with them for demonstration purposes. With glass, wood and seashell beads, the participants will create a jewellery set including a necklace and earrings. Students enjoy this hands-on activity that can be part of a variety of subject areas. Jewellery making can be a great fundraising activity for schools. This session is only open to 20 participants. Participants will need to pay the instructor $10.00 for the materials.This session is a half day workshop!
Speaker: Nadine Friesen
Room: 2205
Chairperson: TBA, Greater St. Paul Local
Cu Can Recycle Anything!
Come to this half day session and how to “rivet and sweat” copper from recycled copper that has been donated by a local plumbing company. When you leave you will have cut, filed, drilled, polished, soldered and riveted pieces of copper to make a copper wind chime. This project is all inclusive in that it can be adapted for a grade three class or enhanced to the meet the curriculum of Fabrication 10. If you have lots of experience or none at all, come for a morning of fun and learning. This session is a half day workshop!
Speaker: Rob Ward
Room: 2208 & 2210
Chairperson: TBA – Chairperson Needed
SMALL GROUP SESSIONS (Friday morning)
Friday, February 12th, 2010
10:40 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.
Madagascar Magic
Brian Keating’s full time job at the zoo in Calgary is to raise money and to spend it on environmental projects around the world. He’s also a part time Adjunct Assistant Professor of anthropology at the U of C. For 20 years, he’s run the Zoo’s nature based travel program, leading over 60 expeditions to the best wildlife areas on the Planet. For two decades now, Brian has hosted a nature segment that’s feature weekly on local CBC Radio and for some seven years, he hosted a biweekly national nature column on the Discovery Channel that utilized his own wilderness adventure and wildlife filming.
With this, his newest program, he promises a journey into the wilds of Madagascar in search of primitive primates found only on this remote island, “spirits of the forests’, the lemurs.
Last year, Brian spent a month in Madagascar, searching the forest trails both day and night to discover some unique creatures. In addition to 18 species of lemur that he found, he also encountered the bizarre leaf-tailed gecko, outrageously coloured chameleons, and endemic exotic birds. His presentation is designed to inspire and enthuse, offering hope for a better tomorrow.
Speaker: Brian Keating
Room: Palisade
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Teaching Art Using the Masters
Learn how to integrate the works of masters such as Picasso, Warhol, da Vinci and Matisse within your art curriculum. Samples of student art work will be examined. You will walk away with a booklet filled with lesson plans and material lists.
Speaker: Andrea Daly
Room: Robson
Chairperson: TBA, Northland Local
Exploring Cultures through Songs and Games
Children learn music, social skills and about cultures when playing singing games. Play Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish and North American singing games that children really enjoy. Handouts will include the music and game directions for K-6 games. There will be a draw for door prizes.
Speaker: Denise Gagne
Room: Emerald
Chairperson: Lindsay Graham, Fort Vermilion Local
High School Biology
This Distributed Learning Branch and seven school jurisdictions collaboratively developed the Biology, Chemistry and Physics courses (Collectively known as BCP) as online resources. They have since been reformatted as printed resources as well. BCP stresses the constructivist philosophy of learning to ensure that students are fully involved in their own learning. This session will introduce the Biology 20 and 30 courses, their organization, content and ways to use them in your day to day teaching.
Speaker: Grant Arnold
Room: Amethyst
Chairperson: John Borges, Fort Vermilion Local
Beyond Red-Blue-Red-Blue: Orienting Attention in Repeating Patterns
This session is geared for ECS and Grade One teachers. Young children’s reasoning skills can be developed further through a focus on early patterning activities. In this session, we will look closely at tasks related to repeating patterns for ECS and Grade One students. Why are repeating patterns important to mathematical reasoning? What strategies do children use? What should teachers look for as children engage in patterning tasks? How can we move beyond alternating colour patterns?
Speaker: Dr. Lynn McGarvey
Room: Morraine
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Educational Accountability in the Next Alberta
This presentation will outline recent effort by the Alberta Teachers` Association and other education partners to develop an approach to accountability which will help ensure that students succeed in Alberta`s second century. Accountability in the new century will need to focus on those aspects of student learning that matter most, aspects such as the capacity to think critically, the ability to be innovative and the skills to function as active and engages citizens in a democratic societies. The introduction of new curricula and the third cycle of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement are just two promising developments.
Speaker: J-C Couture
Room: Maligne
Chairperson: TBA, Northland Local
Songs for Canada: Honouring Canada’s Past (Grades 7-10)
John was recently called a “National Treasure” by OHASSTA after a feature presentation in Toronto. In this session, participants will explore the musical appeal, lyrical content, and relevance of several specific classroom-friendly project songs, and discuss methods to spike student’s interest in Canadian History. John is co-author of the Alberta authorized grade seven Social Studies textbook/teacher’s resource binder for “Our Canada: Origins People Perspectives” (Thomson Nelson), which contains 6 of his original songs as classroom listening activities and assessments as part of the unique audio CD. John has worked and presented extensively with Historia, The Canadians History Society. John is a nationally renowned songsmith performer whose talents and original “Songs for Canada” have taken him to bookings at festivals on the shores of all three oceans and countless places in-between. www.myspace.com
Speaker: John Spearn
Room: Banff/Jasper
Chairperson: TBA, Aspen View Local
Professional Journaling – Reflections of Your Craft
Someone famous once said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”. The practise of keeping a journal of our practise allows us to not just examine our teaching, but to reflect on our methods, celebrate our successes and learn from our classroom moments. This workshop will inspire you to journal about your teaching adventures and provide you with hands-on techniques to get you started.
Speaker: Kendra Terry
Room: 2201/2203
Chairperson: TBA, Fort Vermilion Local