In the Loop – October 8, 2021

October 8, 2021

KEY DISTRICT RESOURCES

HONOURING TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

Aboriginal Education Association PSA Conference – October 22
The Residential Schools Truth and Trauma will take place this year virtually from 8:30-3:30 and registration is now open. https://aea.ourconference.ca/

 

DISTRICT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
To see our full calendar of offerings, visit www.thinklangley.com

Beyond the Classroom – October 12 [Register]
An opportunity to have an inspiring and motivating conversation around a book written by Langley teacher Tim Stephenson. The book is a collection of themes and ideas taken from a long career that has been marked by strategies and activities that have taken Tim’s practice…beyond the classroom.

Welcome to Langley! – October 18 [Register]
New Teacher to Langley? You’re invited to join us for an afternoon of fun, information, snacks, and prizes. We want to welcome you to the district and let you know about the variety of available resources. We will have speakers from Instructional Services and Human Resources to answer all your questions. Sign up by October 14th. Looking forward to meeting you!

Math Place: A New Math Resource for Grade 1-3 Teachers – Date change October 19 [Register]
Math Place is a newly approved Math resource for Grade 1-3 teachers. This September, each school will receive 1 kit per grade of the NUMBER and OPERATIONS set. Join Diane Stang, the author of Scholastic Math Place, as she goes through the kits and shows you how this new resource aligns with the BC curriculum and how you can use it as part of your math instruction. This is a great way to start building number sense in your students right at the beginning of the year.

Create, Invent, Build! – October 19, October 26, and November 2 [Register]
LEGO Mindstorms is a robotics kit that can build understanding of engineering, construction, and programming. In this series of workshops, learn how to link curricular competencies from math, language arts, science, social studies, and more. You will also learn the fundamentals of programming the robots to do certain tasks and use creativity to create solutions to problems.

Intermediate Digital Literacies Lessons – October 25 [Register]
This session will build on ideas you may have tried during Digital Citizenship Week or in the past. Come to this workshop to learn and share what are the Digital Literacies, which Digital Literacy skills to target, how to embed skill develop into existing classroom practice, how to support parents, and where easy to use resources are located.

Capturing Student Learning using Digital Portfolios: Intermediate/Middle Focus – October 27 [Register]
Digital portfolios are excellent ways for students to show their learning and growth over time! As the way we communicate student learning changes and evolves, digital portfolios are proven to make capturing and sharing student achievements easy and fun. This session is focused on having intermediate/middle years students use myBlueprint: All About Me to develop their K-12 learning journey portfolio. Participants should bring a computer as well as a mobile device (iPad etc) with them to the session and be prepared to do hands-on learning.

Katie White | Elementary & Secondary Assessment Professional Development Series
Secondary Educators: October 28, November 4, and November 18 [Register]
Elementary / Middle Educators: November 1, 8, and 15 [Register]
Join Katie White as she explores how to “Soften the Edges” of assessment practice so that teachers and learners benefit. By the end of this three-part series, participants will be able to design more inclusive assessments and be able to apply new assessment strategies to a broader scope of learners. You’ll walk away with practical examples, guidance on things to try now, and ways to support one another in keeping the momentum.

Digital Numeracy Skill Builder – November 23 and 30 [Register]
Finding, evaluating, organizing, creating and communicating information is what math is all about! In this workshop, you will learn how to incorporate digital tools to help students demonstrate their learning in math and numeracy. We will be using different activities and games to illustrate number concepts, patterns, geometry, and number sense. Attendance at both workshops is recommended!

Creating Community with Green Screens (for the Holidays) – November 24 [Register]
Just in time for December activities! Come learn how easy green screens are to use. This hands on workshop will walk you through how to use the green screen kits available for booking from the District Learning Commons.

Provincial Pro-D Day | Friday, October 22

ACT CPR & AED Teacher Training Workshop with NEW Opioids Overdose Response Training enhancement [Register]
The ACT program prepares teachers to deliver the Compression-Only CPR and AED course to students. ACT is now adding the Opioid Overdose Response Training to the existing CPR and AED program already established in Langley schools. This workshop will provide teachers with Level A CPR & AED certification. Taught by CPR agency Instructor Trainers, the content takes into account the teaching expertise of high school teachers and is designed to prepare teachers for delivery of the program in the school environment.

Connecting the Pieces: Pre-K & Kindergarten Conference [Register]
Our annual conference dedicated to professional development for kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators. Our workshop line-up includes local and internationally recognized experts selected to share their innovative and practical ideas for working with young learners. This year’s keynote is Susan Harris MacKay from the Centre for Playful Inquiry.

Get Your Marking Game On, It’s in Your DNA… 9 [Register]
Proficiency Scales, what do they mean to you? Get a better understanding of marking using proficiency scales by grading last year’s DNA9. This year is the first year Grade 9s will be receiving a proficiency mark, no percentages or letter grades will be given. So get a leg up on your marking ability!

NEW Introduction to Argument Driven Inquiry (Science) [Register]
Teach students to use argument to construct, support, and evaluate scientific claims of their own and others. Participants will work through the ADI model as they experience how it enables students to develop literacy and numeracy skills in the context of science.

NEW Occupational First Aid (OFA) Level 1 [Register]
The WorkSafeBC Occupational First Aid Level 1 course is an 8-hour program, including coffee and lunch breaks and is designed to provide life-saving first aid skills to workers in industry. Successful candidates must demonstrate competency in practical skills and achieve 70% or higher on a multiple-choice exam. Certification is valid for three years.

Tackling CB IEPs [Register]
This workshop is designed for Resource Teachers who would like to receive further support and guidance for writing CB IEPs. Resource Teachers can bring along their Learner Profiles, as well as draft goals/objectives/strategies and work through developing their students’ CB IEPs. Some support for MyEd processes and workflows may also be available – however the purpose of this particular workshop is to engage in collaboration with other Teachers from across the district to ask questions, get feedback and increase comfort level with the new CB IEP philosophy in order to develop CB IEPs that are student-centered and tailored to the students’ individual needs.

Tan Huynh’s Guided Co-planning with Colleagues [Register]
This full-day event is dedicated to giving teachers time to collaborate with their colleagues to support their language learners. Teachers will be guided by Tan in ways to co-plan at various levels such as writing, lessons, and assessments, and then given time to create together. They may choose to work with other ELL teachers, content teachers, and resource teachers to foster rich learning opportunities for their students. At the heart of collaborative professionalism is “leadership from the middle (your peers in your own and other schools).

What You Need to Know About CB IEPs [Register]
In this workshop designed for classroom teachers you will learn about the philosophy of Competency-Based IEPs, the difference between Inclusive IEPs and CB IEPs, and the implications for classroom practice.

To see our full calendar of offerings, visit www.thinklangley.com

 

DISTRICT LEARNING RESOURCES

Everyday Anxiety Strategies for Educators (EASE)
We are excited to announce that Everyday Anxiety Strategies for Educators (EASE) for grades 8–12 is now available!

EASE 8-12 is a self-paced, curriculum aligned, evidence-informed online course, that was developed for grade 8–12 educators as a tangible and practical approach to supporting students’ mental health and building the capacity of grade 8–12 educators.  Classroom resources can be accessed and downloaded at no cost throughout the course or downloaded as a package at the end of the course.  It takes approximately three hours to complete.

B.C. educators can access EASE 8–12 through the Healthy Minds BC website.  They can register for the EASE 8–12 course through the online registration form using their school email address. Once the educator’s registration request has been approved (typically within one business day), they can enrol in any of the EASE courses (EASE K–7 in English or French and EASE 8–12).  Educators who have already completed the EASE K–7 online course can access EASE 8–12 without registering again.  They can just log in to the Healthy Minds BC website with their account details and begin the 8–12 course.

For more information, please contact Gail Markin at gmarkin@sd35.bc.ca

 

EXTERNAL STUDENT/STAFF OPPORTUNITIES and LEARNING RESOURCES

BCTF Teacher Magazine
There is a great article in this edition of Teacher from one of our own!  Congratulations Evelyn de Castro, one of Langley’s Wonderful Speech Language Pathologists.

Let’s Talk Science – more info
Let’s Talk Careers Competition – more info – The Let’s Talk Careers Competition (Grades 6-12) is an opportunity for students and schools across Canada to win prizes while becoming more informed about career and post-secondary options after high school!

Visit the Let’s Talk Science website for information about these upcoming opportunities:

  • NEW – Curious Careers Webinars for Grades 6-8 students – more info
  • NEW – STEM Storytime Butterfly Show for Kindergarten-Grade 4 students – more info
  • Let’s Talk Lunar: Why the Moon? for Grades 9-12 students
  • Big Data Challenge for Grades 9-12 – more info Registration closes October 29
  • NEW – Coffee and a Keynote – Saturday, October 30, 2021 – more info
  • Learning Pathways – more info
  • Fostering Empathetic Design Using the Sustainable Development Goals – Wednesday, October 6 – more info
  • Request a Volunteer Workshop – more info

DRAFT K-12 Student Reporting Policy:
Assistant Deputy Minister Melanie Stewart and her team are looking for your feedback on the Draft K-12 Student Reporting Policy.  She has already been engaging with our Chapter Directors through the Learning Advisory Board but is also looking for your feedback.  The public feedback period for the proposed Draft K-12 Student Reporting Policy is now open. From September 27 through to November 5 please visit this website to rate components of the draft policy and provide written comments. A summary of the proposed policy is also available in French and in English and there is more detailed information in the Policy Development Background & Rationale document. A summary of all feedback received will be published in December 2021. An updated K-12 Student Reporting Policy will then be released in January 2022. Once approved, this policy will come into effect for the 2022/2023 school year.

Simon Fraser University’s Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (SFU-OFFA) presents the FREE workshop series – more info:
From This Point Forward: Supporting Core French learners in 2021-22 – This two-part workshop series (Oct 16 & Feb 19) will provide teachers with practical ideas for assessing and differentiating instruction during the current academic year. The suggested strategies and supports are mindful of the ongoing impact of the pandemic on student learning and are designed to help teachers manage various learning statuses within a single class.

The second session will include a sharing component of ways that teachers have implemented what they learned from the first session and reflect on its impact on their teaching practices.

Masters of Education (MEd) at UBC
We have exciting news – UBC is now accepting applications for our next fully-online Masters of Education (MEd) cohort programs:

Beginning Sept 2022 and open to all teachers K-12, this is a perfect opportunity for collaborative professional development for teachers across the province.

This is for all teachers interested in math and science education. We encourage teachers to apply in school or in district teams. A degree in math or science is NOT required. The program enables teachers to qualify for TQS Category 6 Pay-scale Increment. Application Deadline March 20, 2022.

Live-Streamed Information Sessions.

Instructional Services | #Think35

4875 222 Street, Langley
BC, V3A 3Z7
Phone: 6045347891
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