PS News presents reports on recent College activities and a selection of announcements, events and initiatives in the wider education community that may be of interest to our members.
Conferences
SDCO meets in Windsor
The Staff Development Council of Ontario (SDCO) will host its second annual Vision to Practice conference at the Caesars Windsor convention centre, August 30 to September 1. The event will showcase professional learning opportunities available to teachers, staff developers, coaches, support staff, administrators and community members under the banner Dream Dare Do.
Affiliated with the National Staff Development Council, SDCO’s mandate is to ensure that “every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves.
Keynote presenters include: Steven Katz, Director with the research and evaluation firm Aporia Consulting and a faculty member at OISE/UT; Phil Schlechty, Director of the Schlechty Center, which works with American school leaders transforming classrooms, schools and districts from a focus on compliance to a focus on engagement; Sharroky Hollie, Executive Director of the California-based Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning; Anthony Muhammad, US-based school-improvement consultant; entertainer and TV star Red Green; and American TV entertainer Carson Kressley.
The registration deadline is July 30. For information visit sdco.ca.
Forgotten Voices – WWII in Asia
Survivors of World War II atrocities in Asia will gather this fall in Toronto, along with scholars, educators and activists from China, Korea, Japan and North America, to attend a conference at the University of Toronto titled Forgotten Voices, Living History.
According to Flora Chong – one of three conference Chairs, along with former Toronto DSB director Gerry Connelly, OCT, and OISE/UT instructor Margaret Wells, OCT – two unforgivable mysteries remain: Why has the Japanese government never officially apologized for the atrocities and violations of human rights, and why do so few Canadian students know this part of history?
Attendees will address these concerns and share their knowledge and insights in symposiums, lectures and workshops at the October 1–3 event.
“This part of history we captured in the East, but not in the Western world,” says Chong. “It’s not taught in North American schools, and you can barely find it in libraries.”
It is hoped that the conference will draw 500 teachers. An associated youth conference will reach 100 students and reinforce the spirit of inclusion at the heart of Ontario’s curriculum.
Forgotten Voices, Living History is organized by Toronto ALPHA (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia). Sponsors include Canada ALPHA Educational Fund, the Catholic school boards in Toronto and York, the Toronto DSB, OISE/UT, York University’s faculty of education and Facing History and Ourselves.
Forest Hill Collegiate teacher Amy Chan, OCT, took an ALPHA Peace and Reconciliation tour to China and other parts of Asia in 2008. She praises the tour’s design to “make me a better teacher,” and says that the conference will help reach more teachers and increase knowledge and empathy.
The goal, she says, is to awaken students to past social injustices and combine that with the knowledge and awareness they have about current issues in order to act.
“It makes you humbled and inspired to do better with what you have,” Chan says. “If I can’t engage students as citizens, it’s all for naught.”
The cost is $60 for one day (Friday or Saturday), $100 for both, and $50 for the Toronto ALPHA fundraising dinner on Sunday. Sunday is devoted to photo exhibitions, plays and film screenings.
For information visit www.torontoalpha.org or www.alphaeducation.org or call 416-222-5742.
