September 10, 2021
Instructional Services Website: For all your district-vetted resources K-12! Check it out!
- Aboriginal Resources vetted by the District
- District Learning Commons – K-12 Resources to book out! Kits, Lit Circle Sets and more!
- TCS Sites (TCS SS-grade 3, 4-8, Secondary): Key resources are still being placed in these Teams. If you need access to one of these Teams, please email mismith@sd35.bc.ca.
Resource Evaluation
Wondering if a resource is a good fit for your classroom? First check if it is a provincially evaluated resource at Focused Education here. If not, learn about the Langley School District resource evaluation process here For questions or inquiries contact DStokesBennett@sd35.bc.ca or lgunning@sd35.bc.ca
Welcome to NFB Campus – Supported by the District to All Teachers
Welcome back-to-school and welcome to CAMPUS, the National Film Board of Canada’s education streaming service for teachers. CAMPUS is the premiere destination for educators who are seeking 100% Canadian film & media content that supports BC’s diverse K-12 curriculum.
Your CAMPUS subscription includes:
• Access to more than 5800 film and Interactive media productions
• Exclusive access to more than 1000 films and new releases
• Thematic Playlists curated by Canadian educators
• A chaptering tool to create short clips from any NFB production
• The ability to create and share playlists with your students
• Hundreds of Teacher Guides
• Ability to search the NFB catalogue by school subject
• Education Synopsis’ that contextualize select films for the classroom
• Google classroom integration
• MARC records to support libraries
• 100% Canadian content, available in English and French
Your CAMPUS subscription is provided by your school district. Click on Activate My Account and gain access to thousands of Canadian films and teacher resources.
OTHER DISTRICT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES and RESOURCES
Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators: A Book Club
September 13, October 18, November 15, and December 13, 2021, and January 10, February 7, March 28, April 11, May 9, and June 6, 2022 [Register]
Are you looking “ONWARD” to the school year, wondering how you will further “Cultivate” your “Emotional Resiliency,” as an Educator? If participating in creating a safe space (virtually) with like-minded colleagues next school year, through a casual monthly book club, with the goals of building more self-awareness and uplifting and empowering one another, interests you, please join us.
SD35’s Read-Speak-Champion Virtual Author Series with Jael Richardson
Tuesday, September 14 [Register]
Join us for a virtual session with Black-Canadian author & founder of Canada’s Festival of Literary Diversity, Jael Richardson. She’ll be talking and reading from her book Gutter Child, a dystopian novel that portrays a frighteningly realistic world where those from the Gutter trade their lives for a societal debt forced onto them by the privileged Mainland. Whether you are looking for an opportunity to learn, a secondary ELA or SS novel study for students, or just a good read, Gutter Child is for you!
Math Place: A New Math Resource for Grade 1-3 Teachers
September 14, October 5, 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.
NEW Word Works Daily: Beginning Phonological Awareness
September 20 [Register]
Word Works Daily is an oral phonological awareness program for Kindergarten and Grade One students that is district approved. Daily 8-10 minute sessions help you cover the early foundational skills necessary to build a strong literacy foundation. It is engaging and students develop great listening skills.
Story Workshop Book Study Series
September 22, November 3 [Register]
Join a small passionate group of teachers who wish to create or continue their journey with the story workshop model and explore aspects of the Early Learning Framework. In this 3-part series, we will be reading the brand new book Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers by Susan Harris MacKay. Participants will be immersed in the book talk for the first 2 sessions and will also be encouraged to try story workshop in their classrooms. Session 3 will be spaced out from the first 2 sessions to give you opportunity to live that teacher researcher role and come back to share ideas and experiences with other members.
Beyond the Classroom
October 4 [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.
From Phonological Awareness to Reading Building a Strong Foundation
October 4, 18, & 25 [Register]
As teachers, we strive to provide a rich learning environment and a balanced literacy approach to helping all our learners become strong readers, writers and communicators. The BC Early Learning Framework recognizes that children approach learning in different ways to construct knowledge, test theories, explore and express ideas. We want to give all children access points to reading and the tools to success. We have created this 3-part series of workshops on early reading development to help you explore the skills that all students need to be successful in learning how to read. By attending this workshop, you will grow an understanding of how a child learns to read and how writing and vocabulary are an integral part of this process. While learning to talk is natural and innate, reading skills must be taught.
Tan Huynh’s Guided Co-planning with Colleagues
October 22 [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).
Save the date! Connecting the Pieces: Pre-K & Kindergarten Conference
October 22
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.
To see our full calendar of offerings, visit www.thinklangley.com
Mathletics Update – K-8 teachers
Mathletics licenses will be available again this school year for students grade K-8 at a cost share of $5.00 per student. Details regarding teacher/student registration will be sent out next week. Teachers will need to provide their student information (class list, div. # etc.) in order to sign up for Mathletics licenses. Therefore, the program won’t be up and running until classes are solidified. A form will be sent out for teachers to complete when it is time to set up the student licences. No need to indicate your interest at this time.
EXTERNAL STUDENT/STAFF OPPORTUNITIES and LEARNING RESOURCES
Mindfulness App for Youth
The Breathr app was developed for youth by health professionals at BC Children’s Hospital with the help of young people. Download the free App to be guided through easy and fun mindfulness meditations and to learn skills to build a mindfulness practice. While the app was designed for youth it can be used by anyone whether you have one or 15-minutes to spare. Find out more.
New Vaping Toolkit for Secondary Students
Exploring the Cloud is a new toolkit from the British Columbia Lung Association that supports educators to deliver information on the known health risks of vaping to grade 8-10 students. Similar to their popular toolkit for grade 5-7 students, the older grades toolkit includes a PowerPoint presentation, integrated interactive activities, and videos to engage students. Find out more.
Take Your Classroom Outside
Teaching outdoors fosters students’ cognitive, social, and physical development. Further, research has shown outdoor classrooms help decrease sedentary behaviour and encourage students to be more active, improve attention and motivation, and reduce stress levels. With a growing interest in the benefits of teaching outdoors, Jean-Philippe Ayotte-Beaudet of Université de Sherbrooke outlines five tips to help teachers begin their journey. Find out more.
I hope this message finds you well as we begin the new school year! I hope that you are the right person to reach out to in your district. If not, please let me know who I might contact.
Vancouver Symphony – The Music Room
The Music Room brings the VSO right into your schools and classrooms. It features a variety of content ranging from VSO performances, VSO Elementary School Concerts, learning modules, activities, and lesson plans, behind the scenes videos, instrumental workshops, and lots more from our fantastic musicians.
Some exciting topics covered in The Music Room (besides performances and specific music content) include music and outdoor education, roundtable chats with musicians and special guests on topics such as wellness, social-emotional learning, and connecting the mindsets of musicians and athletes, as well as ways that music can be a part of life-long learning.
The Canadian Cancer Society – Sun Sense
The Canadian Cancer Society is pleased to announce the national launch of the SunSense program! With a goal of reducing skin cancer rates in Canada, SunSense supports elementary schools to create a sun safe environment that protects staff and students from harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Schools are provided free resources to assist in implementing a variety of ‘actions’ related to sun safety and earn points for each action that is completed. Based on the points earned, schools will be recognized as a SunSense Certified school. SunSense is available in both French and English. Please register for more information.
Da Vinci Experience
Sensea Immersive, the creators and organizers of the highly-anticipated Da Vinci Experience, has teamed up with Radius Consulting Solutions to offer an exclusive learning curriculum for BC Students, Grades 4 – 12.
The course curriculum offers three stages of learning: pre-experience, at the event, and post-experience. We have attached the updated FAQ and samples of the supporting curriculum modules.
Teachers are currently being offered a 20% discount code to visit and preview the experience before booking in their class. To access the 20% code teachers can send an email by clicking the Educator Contact button at School Program – DaVinci Experience | SENSEA SHOW Canada.
UFV French Teacher Education Course and Pro D Series Launching this Fall!
A new course has been developed – EDUC 483J Designs for Teaching French as a Second Language (FSL). The course starts September 13 and we have several French Immersion teachers from the Fraser Valley and teacher candidates (from our current B.Ed. program) already enrolled. And there is still room for more local teachers to register! This would be an excellent opportunity for French Immersion or Core French teachers (early career, new hires) who are interested in developing their instructional practices and/or their linguistic competencies in French. Tuition fee bursaries available for French teachers who successfully complete the course. The course is offered in French.