The October 23rd BCTF PSA DAY conferences was preceded by an overwhelming choice of different workshops, courses, and conferences. I found many interesting topics that I really wanted to join, so making choices was difficult. One reason I note the plenitude of choices is I am continuously amazed at the amount of passion and work that goes into improving public education in BC. I feel that there was a massive knowledge cloud that flew around offering me to take in as much as I could. I am so pleased to see the support BCTF and different associations give to improve for our educators’ knowledge and develop new ideas for teaching. Ultimately, I decided to join two workshops hosted by educational associations. I chose the BCATA (British Columbia Art Teachers’ Associations) Visions 2020: Think Tank and the BC Primary Techer Association’s Key Note for Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl.
I started the morning with Dr. Schonert-Reichl. The presentation showed the recent science and research on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and the growing basis of research shows that SEL skills are considered 21st century skills that matter for learning and success particularly in this Covid-19 era. Dr. Schonert-Reichl focussed on the importance of promoting SEL and the well-being of teachers and children in the current climate. SEL is an important tool that supports the new BC curriculum core competencies. For example, Schonert-Reichl emphasized that social-emotional skills have a greater influence over one’s life than does IQ. Also, the concept of hope was emphasized as being core to motivation. Schonert-Reichl said that social-emotional skills are soft skills that can be trained, so young learners can deeply benefit from the development of their empathy, critical and creative thinking, and communication.
Becky Caruthers-Green, and artist and teacher, presented on an innovative empathy project. She created a collaboration between SPCA and rescue dogs and students. In the program, groups of young learners were partnered with rescue dogs. The young learners drew portraits of their new friends as well as wrote journal entries. The same exercise was done with teachers. In both the case of young learners and teachers, the empathy exercise contributed to a decrease in stress. The presentation was followed by a moderated discussion where innovative ideas were shared and questions were answered. I thought the idea of working with community groups like the SPAC and the Humane society was forward thinking. More information on Becky Caruther-Green’s empathy project can be found at <empathypaweject.com>. #empathypawject
In my final session, Helen O’Connor presented “Paper, Artistry, and Creativity.” O’Connor takes her class on hikes where they collect invasive plant species, which they bring back to school outdoor classroom that has fire pit, chop them up, cook them in boiling water and soda ash, mix with plant fibre and abaca, and make paper! O’Connor takes invasive plants and shows the students how to turn them into something useful, or she shows young learners how to see the silver lining of a problem. Working in the Yukon, O’Connor emphasized the importance of the outdoor classroom. As well, she said that she invites a school Aboriginal educator to help with the paper making, identify local plants around school property, as well as to assist with painting with berries and tree bark. In addition to berry juice, O’Connor use outdoor fire pit to make willow charcoal and use the charcoal for outdoor nature printing mark. O’Connor also brewing her own willow tea and make her own willow bark ink in the class, it show to the students why original First Nation art the domain colours are Black and Red, which all the materials can gather outside in nature.
