SEATCA / SWATCA 2022 - Southern Alberta Teachers' Convention

Check-out a brief welcome from ATA President Jason Schilling.

This talk demonstrates how educators can homerun any aspect of their subject areas using scenes from popular cinema.Key insights drawn from both film theory and attention studies will explain how teachers can select, introduce, play, pause, and analyze scenes to enrich and reinforce the ideas and concepts they teach to their students.

The talk goes well beyond the idea of 'meeting students where they live' in popular culture to offer ways of harnessing the audiovisual power of Hollywood to put it in the service of practical, classroom teaching. Examples include scenes for Math, Social, Phys Ed, Language Arts, Science, Health, and CALM. A list of practical resources will be provided on how to find the best scenes and clips.

Our collective and personal well-being has been deeply impacted by recent world events. There is a need for a proactive approach to ensuring our people are well equipped to face the unparalleled stress, unrest, and uncertainty that are becoming more common. To maintain excellence in all areas of one’s life knowing how to stress wisely and recover is key. In this keynote, Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe explores how to use a multi-dimensional approach to wellness that promotes moving theory into committed action through the five principles of stressing wisely, including signature strength activation, emotional regulation, and creative release and recovery. By building awareness and personal accountability, participants will be able to implement personal wellness care systems that are sustainable, realistic, and time efficient. And, by doing so, enhance personal and professional performance and satisfaction.

Check-out Dr. Hanley-Dafoe's website for free resources and guides (and to buy her book!)

Thank you to Morgex Insurance for sponsoring Dr. Hanley-Dafoe's keynote presentation for all teachers' conventions.

Over the past decade, LGBTQ2 youth have become more visible in K-12 schools, gay-straight alliances have increased, and many school districts now have sexual orientation and gender identity policies. Despite this progress, LGBTQ2 youth continue to remain one of the most vulnerable groups of students in our schools. This presentation highlights current research and trends documenting the experiences of LGBTQ2 youth in Canadian schools over the past 10 years and highlights four key areas for intervention. Join Dr. Wells as he discusses just how far we’ve come (not that far), and what we need to do to create safer and more inclusive schools for everyone.

Patricia Makokis is married to Eugene Makokis and mother to adult children Janice and James, and kokum (grandma) to Atayoh Kan Asiniy (Spirit Rock). The Makokis’ reside on the Saddle Lake Cree Nation. Pat has been a classroom teacher, a Vice Principal, a Principal, and the Director of Indigenous Programs in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta. Pat is the Executive Producer of Treaty Talk: Sharing the River of Life, an educational teaching tool about treaties. Pat has taught adults at the bachelor, master and doctorate level for 20 years with expertise in the areas of curriculum development and teacher education. She prides herself on being a servant leader and acknowledges the many Elders she has learned from. Foundational to her work is the positioning of Indigenous Knowledge alongside Western Knowledge and her work in building ally relationships.

This session will share key findings from a series of seven Alberta pandemic rapid research activities conducted by the profession of teaching between Spring 2020 into the Winter 2022. The findings may help think through the ‘next normal’ for Alberta schools and school communities as we move into pandemic recovery.  

Each randomly sampled ATA research study scanned thousands of teachers and principals across the province and remains the only systematic and historical record of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on K-12 education in the province.

This session will provoke some considerations about the future of teaching and learning in Alberta, wellbeing for all those within the school community in the next normal, and what trends will begin to emerge in the months and years ahead in light of the emerging issues (mental health, learning loss), forces (increased diagnostic testing) and accelerating trends (inequities, emerging technologies) identified in the Alberta’s K-12 pandemic pulse research surveys.

Pandemic Pulse Research Reports: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/Issues/COVID-19/2020-School-Re-entry/Pages/Teacher-Pandemic-Pulse-Survey-Results--Fall-2020.aspx  

After revelling in his first laugh in a high school production, Colin planned to become a professional actor. After 4 years of theatre sports, Colin spent 3 years with Second City in Toronto. Then, his career went international, first with his appearances as a regular on the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and afterward on the popular American television program of the same name. Colin spent two seasons as a cast member on popular CBC satirical series This Hour Has 22 Minutes and has been involved in numerous other television shows. Mochrie is a recipient of Canadian Comedy Awards; a Writer’s Guild of Canada award; the “Male Improviser of the Year Award,” from the Chicago Improv Festival; a Gemini Award; and he was the recipient of the Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre and Advocacy from the Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Actra Awards.

Our collective and personal well-being has been deeply impacted by recent world events. There is a need for a proactive approach to ensuring our people are well equipped to face the unparalleled stress, unrest, and uncertainty that are becoming more common. To maintain excellence in all areas of one’s life knowing how to stress wisely and recover is key. In this keynote, Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe explores how to use a multi-dimensional approach to wellness that promotes moving theory into committed action through the five principles of stressing wisely, including signature strength activation, emotional regulation, and creative release and recovery. By building awareness and personal accountability, participants will be able to implement personal wellness care systems that are sustainable, realistic, and time efficient. And, by doing so, enhance personal and professional performance and satisfaction.

Check-out Dr. Hanley-Dafoe's website for free resources and guides (and to buy her book!)

Thank you to Morgex Insurance for sponsoring Dr. Hanley-Dafoe's keynote presentation for all teachers' conventions.

Over the past decade, LGBTQ2 youth have become more visible in K-12 schools, gay-straight alliances have increased, and many school districts now have sexual orientation and gender identity policies. Despite this progress, LGBTQ2 youth continue to remain one of the most vulnerable groups of students in our schools. This presentation highlights current research and trends documenting the experiences of LGBTQ2 youth in Canadian schools over the past 10 years and highlights four key areas for intervention. Join Dr. Wells as he discusses just how far we’ve come (not that far), and what we need to do to create safer and more inclusive schools for everyone.

Patricia Makokis is married to Eugene Makokis and mother to adult children Janice and James, and kokum (grandma) to Atayoh Kan Asiniy (Spirit Rock). The Makokis’ reside on the Saddle Lake Cree Nation. Pat has been a classroom teacher, a Vice Principal, a Principal, and the Director of Indigenous Programs in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta. Pat is the Executive Producer of Treaty Talk: Sharing the River of Life, an educational teaching tool about treaties. Pat has taught adults at the bachelor, master and doctorate level for 20 years with expertise in the areas of curriculum development and teacher education. She prides herself on being a servant leader and acknowledges the many Elders she has learned from. Foundational to her work is the positioning of Indigenous Knowledge alongside Western Knowledge and her work in building ally relationships.

Green Shirt Day (April 7) honours the legacy of Logan Boulet who became an organ donor following the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018. The details of this event inspired more than 100,000 people in Canada to register their decision to become organ donors in the few short weeks that followed. Logan’s family continues to raise awareness and support education initiatives to help even young people learn the facts about the powerful impact of organ donation. Knowledge is key to addressing young people’s concerns about organ donation. It can help them feel empowered to talk about it with their families and equip them to make informed choices in the future. In this session, discover an array of classroom resources with many cross-curricular links (K-12) to help you teach, learn and talk about this vital topic. Plan Green Shirt Day activities in your school and community or incorporate resources into your lesson plan any time of year. This presentation includes the perspectives of a donor family (Logan’s), a transplant recipient, a medical expert, and an advocate for public education and awareness. It also includes an introduction to a global program for K-5 called the Orgamites.

JOIN JANN ARDEN'S CLOSING KEYNOTE BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK:   https://zoom.us/j/93910082755?pwd=SUNwTUtjQzhmY3lrVnZuQ1B5UTBDQT09 

If you get a message that the webinar is full, don’t worry! You can still watch Jann through this livestream link https://vimeo.com/event/1863659/ebcd8bae14.

Jann catapulted onto the music scene in 1993 with her debut album Time for Mercy. A year later, she had her international break-out hit “Insensitive”. Today, she boasts 19 top ten singles, 8 Juno Awards (including “Female Artist of the Year” and “Songwriter of the Year”), a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and is a member of the Order of Canada. Jann is the author of multiple bestselling books including If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging and Feeding My Mother – Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives with Memory Loss. With hilarious guest appearances on Canadian TV and radio programs and her own comedy series on CTV, Jann’s influence continues to grow. Whether she’s singing, writing, or speaking, Jann’s wisdom and wit shine through in everything she does.