PDTCA 2022

This workshop was developed with beginning and novice teachers in mind. Participants will review what classroom management is and why it is important, starting with the impact of positive and authentic relationships. From there, participants will move into looking at rules, routines, procedures and strategies. The goal is to help participants create classrooms in which both the students and the teachers can be successful.

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 prendre davantage conscience des dynamiques inhérentes aux interactions interculturelles.

This workshop offers two main enlivening experiences of planning to equip and doing to empower teachers to lead an engaging, entertaining production, whether Drama is your field of specialization or you are new to it.

PLAN: A spreadsheet template is provided for scheduling and planning a drama production and rallying student, parent and community support.

DO: Then we'll explore the magic of theatre when “less is more” by forming teams to make design choices for scenery, sound, lights and costumes, rehearse and run a piece based on a poem that will touch your heart.

Scavenger Hunt: take 3 minutes in your home to collect resources and items in your space that fulfill your production department’s design ideas.

Design Brain Dump:

Silence: Emptying to listen to ideas, fears, anxieties, dreams

Chat to capture

PowerPoint to guide and then offer as a takeaway

In this session I will demonstrate one possible student activity for each of the four units in Science 20. They will each cover several of the curriculum objectives, help students to learn the related concepts, and should be enjoyable. Students will:_x000D_
• Chemical Changes: Use ideas from solutions and redox to participate in a battery competition._x000D_
• Changes In Motion: Use ideas about momentum , energy, and vehicle safety to build a crash cage with limited materials that protects a raw egg in a collision._x000D_
• The Changing Earth: Create a timeline of Earth's history and relate changes in the land and atmosphere to the changes in the biosphere._x000D_
• Changes In Living Systems: Build an ecosystem (living or a model) and compare the adaptations of its organisms to the ecosystem's biotic and abiotic characteristics.

Le milieu de l’éducation a pris un virage marqué vers l’enquête et les occasions d’apprentissage pratique et exploratoire. La tendance aux espaces créateurs s’inscrit dans une volonté de faire vivre ces approches. Cet atelier fournit des renseignements d’ordre général au sujet des espaces créateurs et du mouvement créatif, tout en incitant les enseignants à s’impliquer en y ouvrant leur salle de classe.

Physical activity for students of all ages offers many benefits above and beyond physical health. This workshop will offer practical tips on how to incorporate physical activity into any subject area, featuring Ever Active Schools’ latest resources and videos. We will share ideas for embedding physical activity both inside and outside. Join us in learning how to re-energize your students, break up sedentary time, and create embodied learning experiences.

This poster display created by pre-Service teachers from the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary will provide opportunities for both conference delegates and pre-service teachers to engage in a professional dialogue around current trends and issues in education. This session will be of interest to current professionals, to view examinations on relevant issues that offer an opportunity to re-conceptualize teaching and learning as a collaborative, interdisciplinary practice focusing on real world problems and/or issues that impact students in schools.

How are you today? Good. Do you have any questions? No. What do you notice? Nothing. What do you think about this? It’s cool. Does anyone have any ideas? No.
We have come to a point in our lives when the crown of human creativity, that of collaboration and connection, has been reduced to simple, surface answers that lead to simple, surface answers. A colleague and I spent all of last year exploring how students were not able to dialogue with each other. Not just talk, but engage in meaningful conversations. This was our focus for the year. What we realized we had to focus on was surprising. The goal is to end up in a place we never set out to find. We will never plan our year the same way again.

After 10 years as a PE teacher and 9 years of teaching Math in the blended homeschooling math program (grades 1 to 9), it is time to share some strategies I have been using to improve student retention, engagement, and independent problem solving. In 60 minutes, I will attempt to share my accelerated approach to influence students' thought patterns for three major units: Order of Operations, Integers, and Algebra. If you understand how a Lion hunts a gazelle, you can learn to do algebra. If you have ever been in a line for a roller coaster with 3 people, you know how to multiply integers. Using analogy, simple images and paring down the infinite variations of units to the most fundamental rules, I have had incredible success with students at all skill levels. This all came about when I was tasked with teaching without a textbook or heavy reliance on workbooks. There will be lots of time for conversation as we play. Works in person and virtually. As a bonus I will share student note taking and activities to enhance learning.

STEM Education can save the world and bring hope and excitement to teachers and students alike. STEM involves students participating in cross-disciplinary activities involving (S)cience, (T)echnology, (E)ngineering, and (M)ath along with potential connections to any other subjects. In this pre-recorded session, participants will explore STEM education with an environmental focus and how to get started with the easy to use, inexpensive BBC micro:bit device. Fear not - this session is for absolute beginners and there are multiple optional activities that progress in challenge level. Join me for a hope-filled, hands-on session where you bring this exciting type of learning to your school. What's even better, micro:bits can be signed out from the ATA Library free to all members!

WHY HANDBALL you may ask... Well, it is a great invasion game that has the potential to build team work quickly among all skill levels, introduce new motor patterns to challenge your top athletes, and the opportunity to build complex strategy while playing. This is an active session and you will be playing the game (or online I will be demonstrating all of the phases of the progression). In the time we have we will cover a full progression through the skills, accompanying games (like handball dodgeball... so much fun), and the game play progression to supercharge the speed and team work of your class. One of my favourite accelerated scope and sequences I have been using for years. Get to the games and teach from there is the name of this progression. Once you know the 1/10th scan, the fun begins!

Teacher training programs more often than not, focus on providing their participants with a limited array of tools they can use to put together a lesson plan, find appropriate resources, create original tasks or adapt assessments/tasks passed on from one “generation” to another. The practicum is also based on the one-size-fits-all lesson planning and the assumption that all teachers should teach the same way. What these programs do not take into account is how WE learn and, directly connected to this, how WE TEACH.
As they gain experience and become more confident, it is common for new teachers to discover that there are different ways to teach some contentious grammar point, include a speaking component in a reading task or prepare a fun vocabulary enrichment lesson, but for various reasons they prefer to go the beaten path and persevere in using the same teaching techniques whether they work or not.
In this 2-part session, Maria will help you identify your preferred teaching style and so, create lessons using the style that best matches your personality, without lowering or jeopardising the quality of your teaching. The first part will help you identify what your teaching style is and learn more about the different learning styles so that you can make an informed decision about what works for which task. The second part will provide you with the tools to put the “theory into practice”, by creating multi-style lessons that you are comfortable with and will also demonstrate how to collaborate with your peers and colleagues and organise the perfect “multiple-teaching-styles-common-activities”.

While waiting for the release of new Alberta curriculum, teachers can do many things to ensure they are ready to plan, instruct, and assess the new learner outcomes. Teaching and assessing through the lens of concepts is a universal and transferable teacher skill. This pedagogical approach is used to teach and assess any program of studies or common core standards across the globe. Research from internationally recognized thought leaders in Assessment will be referenced throughout the session.

The learning styles idea introduced and proposed by a number of innovative and pioneering educational researchers in the 70s and 80s, caused uproar amongst the hardcore, “whip-on-the-desk” teachers who have been looking for ways to dismiss and disprove it ever since. Also proposed in the 80s, Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences challenged educators, curriculum developers and administrators to reflect on how our students learn, how much information is actually transferred from teachers to learners using classic teaching methods and ultimately, how much is actually retained by the learners after 12 years of formal education. Unfortunately, decades after these innovative teaching methods were first described, teacher training programs around the world continue to promote “one-size-fits-all” lesson planning.

In this two-part session, Maria will introduce you to the Multiple Intelligences (MI) and the Learning Styles (LS) theories through examples and hands-on activities. You will make the connection between the two theories and through self-assessment and self-reflection, you will identify which sets of MI and LS reflect your own learning and teaching preference. The second part of the session, will provide you with the necessary tools to plan for and put together your own lessons using a variety of teaching techniques that will engage your learners as a group, no matter what learning method they prefer.

Lac la Biche, Brosseau, Beaumont, Trochu, and so on. French is well alive in many parts of Alberta. The 2016 census states that nearly 86,000 Albertans have French as their mother tongue and more than 264,000 residents have a knowledge of French and English. Who are they? What is their heritage? How are they still contributing to the cultural enrichment of Alberta? This workshop invites you to learn about Francophones, their history, their struggles, their successes, as well as the issues that affect them. This workshop will allow teachers to better understand the French-speaking points of view, so they will be able to expose their students to the Francophone perspectives. Resources containing educational material will be available to participants.

In this session, participants will see several demonstrations and activities that students can do to learn about the electromagnetic spectrum. These activities are easily done in a classroom and should be of high interest to the students. I will discuss the kinds of questions that make the activities applicable to grade nine Science (Space Explorations), Physics 30, or Science 30 students.

The makerspace movement lends itself to many hands-on approaches. This workshop provides background information about maker spaces and the maker movement. It encourages teachers to get involved and bring “making” into their classrooms.

The assessment of French language skills has a direct impact on teacher recruitment and retention, and on the quality of teaching and learning. The purpose of this project is to identify the French language assessment needs and challenges faced by teachers and administrators in French immersion (FI) and French second language (FSL) programs during recruitment, for ongoing language development, and in the classroom. Based on the results of a survey of teachers in Alberta, and interviews with school administrators, we proceeded to establish a baseline to better understand the situation and challenges related to French assessment and competency. Our ultimate goal is to provide practical and informed suggestions on French assessment that would enable leadership teams to support (a) teachers, (b) students, and (c) curriculum.

Come hear about the fun and engaging activities we have been doing in our language classes that have helped to build our programs and create positive learning environments for language acquisition. You will walk away with some specific strategies and a list of resources you can use to spice up your second language teaching practice. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their best practices with one another during group discussions.

As educators, we’ve honed the craft of giving feedback to students. Hours upon hours are spent ensuring our feedback is timely, specific, true and presented with students' well-being in mind. But somehow we still find learners who are not accessing and using this feedback to grow.

This interactive session will explore the practices that shift from “a look-back-in-time” with feedback, to a feedforward approach that ensures students understand and activate important details they need to learn.

Participants will leave with fresh strategies for use in face-to-face and online settings, and the resources and skills to activate a feedforward approach to improving student learning.

Lac la Biche, Brosseau, Beaumont, Trochu et j’en passe. Le français est visible et bien vivant en Alberta. Le recensement de 2016 indique que près de 86,000 Albertains déclarent avoir le français comme langue maternelle et plus de 264,000 résidents disent connaître les deux langues officielles. Qui sont ces gens? Comment contribuent-ils à l’enrichissement culturel de l’Alberta? Cet atelier vous invite à en apprendre davantage à leur sujet, à leur histoire, à leurs luttes et leurs succès. Quels enjeux les touchent? L’atelier permettra aux enseignants de mieux comprendre les différents points de vue francophones et leur fournira des outils pour y exposer leurs élèves. Une liste de ressources contenant du matériel didactique utilisable en salle de classe sera accessible aux participants.

In this session I will show several demonstrations from the Junior High topics that pertain to physics (heat, forces, fluids, light and optics, mechanical systems, electricity, and space exploration). The demos are designed to be inexpensive, easy to perform and entertaining. Most importantly – the demos are designed to illustrate physics concepts and should help students develop intuition for and critical thinking of those concepts.

Igniting students creativity create win-win opportunities in classrooms. When students are given the opportunity to apply their learning in the service of creativity and innovation their engagement is increased and their learning deepened. The ability to think creatively is innate in all learners - unlocking that potential requires five keys - opportunity, quality thinking, fluency, flexibility, and time. During this workshop Garfield will bring clarity to the concept of creativity and will provide practical examples, tools and strategies that support the nurturing of one of the key global competencies that has the potential to both enrich and engage students in learning. By framing assessments that invite creative responses and building students capacity to think both critically and creatively teachers can ignite students passion for learning while building their capacity to develop thoughtful and innovative solution to issues and problems facing society. Harnessing the potential offered through teaching for creativity support future-oriented learning helping to ensure that students find school interesting, relevant and rewarding.

This workshop looks at the role the brain plays in successful learning. The facilitator will guide participants by helping them establish an understanding of metacognition and mindfulness, explore conditions that encourage metacognition in the classroom, engage with instructional practices that model metacognition for students and identify mindfulness skills that increase student awareness. The content of this workshop is valuable for teachers and students at all levels.

Cet atelier a été conçu pour les enseignants débutants ou nouveaux dans la profession. Les participants revisiteront le thème de la gestion de classe et son importance, à commencer par l’importance de privilégier des relations positives et authentiques avec les élèves. De là, ils examineront les règles, routines, procédures et stratégies liées à la gestion de classe. L’objectif de cet atelier est d’aider les participants à créer des salles de classe dans lesquelles le travail des élèves et des enseignants pourra porter ses fruits.

Click here for a collection of all session materials!
As teachers, we often create learning materials in the form of slide presentations, handouts, and materials written on whiteboards. In this session, we’ll examine what cognitive science and dual coding theory has shown to be the most effective ways to present and organize these materials. Participants will explore these slide design fundamentals, learn specific practices on how to fix materials that are less effectively designed, and receive numerous free resources for designing the most effective slides.

A “digital native” is someone who has grown up in the “cyber age”, surrounded by a culture that significantly uses and depends on technology. It has been well documented that the most vital years of brain development occur between 0 and 6 years of age. The next time of rapid brain development occurs between the ages of 11 and 13 years, during which the brain is “fundamentally wired for the rest of a person’s life” (Herman, 2012).

A growing proportion of children and adolescents' leisure time is consumed by looking at screens and being connected to the Internet. Of particular concern is the amount of time pre-adolescents (students aged 9-12) spend on cell phones. This usage raises questions about possible adverse health effects such as increased inactivity levels, changing social interactions, increased feelings of anxiety and other negative physical and mental concerns.

This session will share the findings of a comprehensive study that inquired into the cell phone habits of grade 5 students. The data that was collected will be used to inform parents, teachers, school boards, and the general public about a very relevant subject in today’s society.

While cell phone use is a widely reviewed topic, this age group in particular has rarely been studied. We assume that today, more children are owners of cell phones or use cell phones regularly at a younger age than in previous decades. This study provides provides an initial overview of this usage. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to find out how many Grade 5 students own cell phones, what their frequency of use is and the main ways in which they use these devices.

Participants were asked to complete a 30 minute online survey during class time. In total, nearly 300 grade 5 students responded to the survey and provided very informative statistics and comments. This session will highlight many of the key themes that emerged. The results of this study will be informative for all teachers and administrators and may lead to policy changes or at least provide a more accurate picture of grade 5 students cell phone habits and beliefs.