CATCA 2023

Engagement begins with building relationships with and among your students. Doing ‘with’ students instead of doing ‘to’ or ‘for’ also contributes to increased levels of engagement. These are two cornerstones of restorative practice. This session will focus on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. Participants will leave with practical strategies to strengthen relationships and ‘do with’ students. This session is appropriate for all grade levels.

What do I do if…? This session covers a variety of issues on which school leaders seek advice from Teacher Employment Services (TES). We have narrowed it down to 25 top issues that school leaders address in their work. As time allows, there will also be an opportunity to ask supplemental questions regarding any pressing school leadership issues.

Teachers are some of our most important leaders! Based on her research, Brené developed Dare to Lead™ – an empirically based courage-building program, and adapted it for schools. It’s a game-changer for teachers as leaders at all levels. Covering the four teachable, observable, and measurable courage skills sets, Dare to Lead™ in the Classroom (Daring Classrooms™) covers:1. Rumbling with Vulnerability: The foundational skill of courage-building is the willingness and ability to step into the discomfort of being vulnerable. Without this core skill, the other three are impossible to put into practice. Our ability to be daring educators will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability – leaning into risk, uncertainty, and emotional exposure.2. Living Into Our Values: What’s our North Star? What do we stand for? Research participants who demonstrated the most willingness to be vulnerable and brave anchored their behavior to a couple of essential values, not 10 or 15. Our core values give us courage and strength, especially when things are difficult.3. BRAVING Trust: It’s a must-have in our important professional and personal relationships, but trust tends to be a fuzzy concept. Understanding the seven evidence-based elements of BRAVING trust helps us to be specific and exchange feedback in meaningful ways that supports real change and enduring trust. 4. Learning to Rise: To push the reset button and be resilient, we must recognize emotion, look at the facts and truth of what really happened, discover the lessons to be learned, make changes, and go forward with more wisdom than before. Daring educators are self-aware, know how to have hard conversations, hold themselves and others accountable, build trust, lead with empathy and connection, take smart risks that lead to innovation, reset quickly after disappointments and setbacks, and give and receive feedback – especially when it’s tough.Building Brave Spaces for Students. We can’t always ask our students to take off the armor at home, or even on their way to school, because their emotional and physical safety may require self-protection. But what we can do, and what we are ethically called to do, is create a space in our schools and classrooms where all students can walk in and, for that day or hour, take off the crushing weight of their armor, hang it on a rack, and open their heart to truly being seen.We must be guardians of spaces that allow students to breathe, be curious, and to explore the world and be who they are without suffocation. They deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can exhale. And what I know from the research is that we should never underestimate the benefit to a child of having a place to belong—even one—where they can take off their armor. It can and often does change the trajectory of their life.

The landscape of the statutory regulation of teacher conduct has changed in Alberta. How has it changed? What are my professional obligations? What is the new complaint process? This session will provide an overview of the new Code of Professional Conduct for Alberta teachers and related processes.

Why does it matter that women’s voices still account for well less than a third of those who hold power, set agendas and exert influence? And what can educators do about it? When a country's public conversations fail to accurately reflect the experiences and priorities of a big portion of the population, everybody suffers. In this keynote presentation, Shari Graydon marries research, humour and stories to illuminate the causes and consequences of the gender gap, and to inspire educators to speak up to make the world we share more equitable.

While we can maintain our connections with the past, we must always find ways to pull away from it and move towards a healthier and more hopeful future. In this conversation Dr. McRae will explore what we are learning in the field of education through the global pandemic, a current pulse of the profession of teaching in Alberta, and how teachers and school leaders might draw on these experiences to create more hopeful futures for Alberta schools, our students and communities of learning.

This session is designed for participants to explore several authentic recommended Métis educational materials that help to create teachable moments and provide foundational learning opportunities through-out the school year. Building your foundational knowledge about Métis will empower you to select authentic, accurate resources that honour distinct Métis perspectives to weave into your current teaching practice. Together we will explore resources designed by Métis educators that integrate Métis voices into purposeful lessons and engaging activities!

Self-Harm continues to be an issue of great concern in schools at all levels; yet people are still reluctant to discuss this topic in schools. More often than not, supports and training are put into place after several incidents have been identified in a school community. This session aims to take a proactive approach, by providing teachers with a plan to educate the students, teachers AND parents in a school community about the nature of self-harm. Participants will look at myths associated with self-harm, empathetic ways to react to disclosures and barriers to students seeking help. The goal? If people are educated about self-harm, they will be able to encourage more positive methods of coping and respond appropriately when faced with a student engaging in this behaviour.

This workshop is an informative and interactive session discussing the place of humour in your classroom. Susan has “lived” humour in her own classroom and has developed actual humour lessons suitable for the grade eight (and up) level. She will discuss how humour works in the classroom and how to solve and resolve problems through humour. This will spill over to the staff room as well! After participating in this workshop, teachers will:
• Be able to discuss humour with their students
• Be able to teach ways humour can be used to retain content • Be confident about teaching a unit about humor to Grade eight (and up) students • Encourage students to bring out their “inner comic” by developing a funny story about themselves.

Many of us became teachers for reasons of the heart. Inspired by passion for our subjects and helping people learn, but as the years go by, many of us lose heart. How can we regain the heart that inspired us from the beginning and in turn give heart to our students? Courage to Teach® provides educators with an opportunity for rest, renewal and re-engagement with their identity and integrity as teachers. This program offers educators a rare opportunity to step back and reflect on the role of the heart and soul in teaching, and gain insight and solidarity in a talking circle with other educators. Just as we experience nature’s cycle of renewal through the seasons, so we experience natural cycles of engagement and withdrawal, love and loss, creativity and despair in our personal lives and work. When we take time to slow down, quiet ourselves and reflect, to renew ourselves, and recall our commitments, important changes can happen within us and around us. As we are renewed, we in turn can contribute to the renewal of our professions, workplaces, communities. The Circles of Trust® approach uses poetry, evocative images, and a facilitated talking circle format to create space for rest and reflection and to foster a sense of hope and wholeness in the midst of the despair and broken heartedness experienced by so many in our world today. Circles of Trust® retreats help us to live more purposeful lives, do more courageous and meaningful work, and bring greater love and wholeness into our schools and classrooms.

This retreat series is grounded in the Circles of Trust® approach as described in Parker Palmer’s book, A Hidden Wholeness. For further information on the Circles of Trust® approach see: https://couragerenewal.org/courage-renewal-approach/

This is not a typical lecture style session, and will be facilitated primarily in a talking circle format. Participation in the talking circle is always by invitation, and never by demand, however please be aware that this experience is centered on opportunities to engage in personal reflection both alone through journaling and contemplation, as well as through sharing with others in pairs and the larger group.

Join an interactive cultural learning experience that will support your understanding of the traditional use and teachings of the Tipi. Join Elder Phillip Campiou, from Treaty 8, as we share in the setting up of a full size tipi. We will share stories of the past and understand how these stories provide insight for us in the present moment. Learn some history of the tipi, both Cree and Blackfoot, and how you can incorporate this learning into your classroom and your daily life.

Hour one workshop explores the science of interpersonal trust (three pillars) and institutional trust (two pillars) and how these are foundational to the health of any organization and then introduces the concept of Academic Trust, the kind of trust that must exist between a teacher and their students for optimum instructional impact to take place in every classroom. A definition, conceptual framework, and model of Academic Trust (six things all teachers control and three significant influences) is introduced and developed, along with an exploration of what is described as the teaching trust distrust dilemma, and the level of authentic instructional complexity that is present in every classroom everywhere, that is largely misunderstood and consequently ignored when it comes to system, school, and classroom change.
Hour two of Creating Academic Trust In the Classroom focuses on the practical support of how to close the achievement gap in every classroom. It examines, in detail, the six practical things every teacher can do in their instructional practice to build academic trust with every student they instruct and then explores the three major influences each teacher can have on supporting the development of creating enough critical mass to positively impact school wide improvement as measured by student achievement. A systematic approach to teacher team capacity building is offered.

Did you Know? Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death . . . of Teens? That is a horrific statistic and it's heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. It doesn't need to happen! Conversation also includes the following: * family dynamics* belligerent behaviour and what it tells us * what did you do this time vs what happened to you* ACES aren't always winners* The here and now ~ what can we do

There are so many possibilities when you can collaborate with your fellow teachers to plan integrated lessons, units and assessments. This session will focus on integrating curriculum in grades seven to nine and show how effective collaboration and strong relationships are a common byproduct. Often times in division three we find ourselves subject specific and this can isolate us from others and from different and innovative teaching strategies. In the past I have been focused on math and science but when I discovered that working with the humanities teachers I learned so much more about my students and was able to brainstorm many more teaching strategies to help engage kids and strengthen our middle years team. In my experience a strong team in these tough years can make the world of difference. If you are interested in integrating curriculum, project based learning, fostering effective relationships and weaving in indigenous education knowledge and strategies please come learn with me! This session is geared towards middle years teachers, department heads, administrators, and more!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TGli_wWq1wGQG5PKBkxBQKTGuJYANZ_MTsDtoL20xvA/edit?usp=sharing

Are you interested in learning how to communicate the story of your teaching career and showcase your educational, professional, leadership and volunteer experience to pique employers’ interest? In this session, the presenter will share advice on how to edit your resume and write a strong cover letter to improve your chances of getting an interview.

Cet atelier explore le concept de la compétence culturelle grâce auquel vous apprendrez à reconnaitre croyances, attitudes, politiques, structures et pratiques d’enseignement qui permettent aux écoles interculturelles de bien fonctionner. Les participants développeront des capacités qui les amèneront à s’évaluer culturellement et à prendre davantage conscience des dynamiques inhérentes aux interactions interculturelles.

We will be examining definitions of kindness and how “helpers high” (a term coined by Stuart Shanker) can bring us closer together in a classroom, in our communities and in our staff rooms. Led by Laurie of @mrsmacskinders on Instagram, we will be examining definitions of kindness and how “helpers high” can bring us closer together in a classroom, in our communities and in our staff rooms. Infused with strategies and activity ideas surrounding connection to be used in our schools, we will dive into why kindness matters now more than ever. Now, more than ever, kindness is key to connection and relationships with our learners, colleagues and ourselves. Learn strategies and practices to infuse kindness into every day.

Are you a teacher looking to expand on your practices? Are you hoping to bring some hands on activities into your classroom? Come learn about how to incorporate board games into your lessons and tie them to curriculum.

This workshop was developed and is delivered in partnership with an RSW (Registered Social Worker) who has over 10 years of experience in child protection and adoptions work and is Metis. Speaking to our children about the current civil rights movements and the historical and current atrocities in our communities is overwhelming. The difficult reality of humanity is complicated for adults to understand, let alone for our tiny humans. This workshop teaches parents and educators alike how to talk to children in a way that is developmentally appropriate and why we need to talk to children about the core concepts behind systemic discrimination and significant social movements. Specific topics include Black Lives Matter and residential school, and colonialism.

Based on the bestselling book 'Teachers These Days' by Laurie McIntosh and Dr. Jody Carrington, Laurie will hold a discussion and reflection around what we have been taught as a "good"teacher. We will examine in depth the stories and strategies in the book and spend time discussing safe places to land in these trying times. Teachers can expect to leave with strategies especially surrounding lid flips, light ups and emotional regulation of ourselves and our learners. This session is all about the connection. What people will remember most about you, your legacy, will have so much more to do with a felt sense than it ever will with words or numbers. It will remind our teachers that their job is to shine the incredible light that brought them into this profession in the first place. It will remind them that whatever you got on any given day is (more than) enough (something all teachers need to hear right now!)

This interactive session will give participants an opportunity to learn and practice several nervous system regulation and somatic stress management techniques, with a focus on energy psychology and EFT Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique/tapping). Carla will provide valuable psycho-education on nervous system states and stress management, an introduction to acupressure tapping, and an opportunity to experience the relief that tapping can provide. Participants can expect to gain some new somatic (body-based/energy psychology) tools to help manage their own stress, calm nervous system activation/dysregulation and grow their emotional resilience. It also provides a fun and simple body-based practice that they can consider bringing into the classroom to help students with self- and co-regulation (good for the staff room too!) Additional Information: This is an experiential workshop; participants should be prepared for a small amount of body movement. Educators/support staff interested in scientifically proven self-regulation tools for their stress management toolbox (EFT Tapping) that is literally RIGHT at their fingertips; folks interested in polyvagal theory, somatic practices, energy psychology, stress management and nervous system regulation

Two-time Olympian and skip of Canada’s silver medal-winning curling team at the 2010 Winter Olympics will talk about making decisions, both on the ice and off of it, and how doing so effectively can have an enormous impact on your story and journey. “My theme is about choices, and that you do have control over how your life story unfolds.” Everything you become is based on the choices you make and as you write the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold that pen.

Many teachers will say that they value risk in their classrooms. But what does that really mean. Are your students excited to share the WRONG answer, and even more, celebrate when they are wrong? What is the sweet spot for student success when it comes to learning new skills? 30 to 50% failure rate may be the optimal number for student learning. How do we define success when it comes to learning? Join me for a discussion on Failure and how it can push students forward.
This session is designed to help teachers look at their practice from a lens of continual progress. What I found out changed how I approached skill development from literacy, to physical Skills, to learning Algebra! Walk away from this session with some perspective on building skills and continual student growth. If students are getting 80 to 100% correct, they may not be progressing.

THERE WILL BE A POST-CONVENTION VIDEO FOR THIS SESSION UNTIL MAY 30TH.

This session will offer the opportunity to meet with President Schilling in a group setting to discuss matters and issues that are of importance to you and your colleagues. The session will open with a few focus questions from President Schilling followed by an opportunity to have open dialogue on topics generated by the discussion.
COME ENJOY A COFFEE AND MUFFIN DURING THIS TALK.

Award-winning artist, Alexis Marie Chute will share the broad creative and expressive possibilities of portraiture and self-portraiture. Through many examples, discover how portraits can visualize the often inexpressible parts of the human experience, making seen what is frequently unseen. Discover how different art materials and techniques can communicate various mental and emotional states, plus unexpected ways to combine these into complex and emotive portraits. We live in an age where empathy and compassion are needed more than ever. Through an exploration of portraiture and self-portraiture, learn how this artistic genre can grapple with coming of age, identity, mental health, struggle, and triumph.

Use your own energy and confidence to take the chaos of a room full of students to a calm learning environment. Learn how to troubleshoot your classroom management challenges and feel better equipped to handle what may come your way. This is an interactive workshop where we access the collective wisdom in the room and incorporate team-building with our colleagues. You will walk away with a simple action plan to support you in spending more time teaching and learning with your students and less time on behaviour management.

Improvisational theatre is a style of performance art that focuses on inclusivity, support, acceptance, risk-taking, and fun and is driven by trust, spontaneity, and discovery. These various skills are essential for all of life's experiences both on and off the stage. This session will provide a number of interactive games, resources, and activities that teachers can utilize as an icebreaker, a brain break mid-lesson, or to start an improv team/club at their school. There is no performance/drama experience required. All that is required is a positive mindset and the willingness to take risks and embrace failure, just like we ask our students to do.

An ideal workshop for those working within a school community or in the field of mental health. The focus is for the participants to experientially engage in activities that promote social and emotional wellness that they can use within their school community. The goal of the workshop is through active engagement in the activities, participants will increase their personal well-being, while also learning practical strategies to use with their students and/or colleagues immediately.