CATCA 2021

Collaborative team meetings, focusing on the emerging needs of students, are at the heart of a school’s Collaborative Response. But how do we ensure that these team meetings are purposeful, efficient and truly moving towards collective action for students? In this session, Kurtis will break down best practices to consider when engaging in collaborative team meetings, as well as share multiple school samples and artifacts. This session is intended for schools already refining the tenets of Collaborative Response or interested in learning more about the school-wide framework.

This session will offer an overview of our recently developed planning tool, offering guidance in designing suicide prevention and life promotion plans that enhance existing mental health and crisis initiatives already in place, while comprehensively including national and provincial research and best practices. Designed to be used with jurisdictional teams including community partners, Creating Pathways of Hope will guide your working team through a design thinking process to support identification and action planning.

While the target audience for this toolkit is at the system level, school leaders and administrators would benefit from understanding the process as it could be adapted for school level use.

Creating Pathways of Hope was developed through a grant from Alberta Children’s Services.

This session is designed for anyone who is concerned about school closure due to decreased enrollment. During this interactive presentation we will discuss key questions, including: "Who should you engage?", "What makes your school unique?", "How do you brag about your brand?", and others. Declining enrollment is a challenge that both urban and rural schools face. Participants is this session will come away with strategies that can be implemented immediately to help encourage growth in student enrollment.

School staff are increasingly challenged to support individuals with all levels of anxiety and related behaviours. This workshop will provide information about the most common anxiety disorders, examine how these disorders impact people, and provide participants with strategies to help support those affected cope and manage.

For years we’ve studied and praised leaders who “think different” and disruptive innovators who “move fast and break things”. But the world is finally contending with the dark side of disruption!As a startup entrepreneur and a news journalist, Jesse Brown has a unique perspective on the shift taking place in our industries and institutions — the race is on to create workplace cultures where everyone is empowered. Collaboration, compassion, humility, and patience are now taking equal space with dynamism, rule-breaking, and relentlessness.Using personal stories, humour, and real-world examples, Brown leaves audiences with tangible tips on how to stay ahead of the shifting currents and create cultures where everyone is excited to show up for work each day.

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.

This session is designed for anyone interested in learning about the rebranding process and the significance school logos have in contributing towards school culture. During this session, attendees will participate in a sample school logo and rebranding process that can be applied back at their site.
School logos are more than what is displayed on the front of a jersey. Every member of a school should feel a connection to the school’s logo, and know that it is the symbol of the virtues that the school is promoting. As a member of the school community your behavior (in the hallway, on a team, on a fieldtrip, towards a guest speaker, etc) is reflective of the school’s virtues, and the school’s logo is the symbol of those virtues.

It is virtually impossible for a teacher to know how to successfully provide instruction and support for all students in diverse, inclusive contemporary classrooms. Come learn about Collaborative Response, a mindset for educational organizations that values collaborative, action focused responses, data-informed discussions, and timely intervention to ensure all students can experience success. Come learn how school administration and inclusive learning support leadership teams establish school-wide structures to ensure support for every student in our schools and across our districts. Numerous Alberta school and district examples, as well as access to a myriad of resources will be provided.

Cette session offre à chacun l’occasion de réfléchir aux cadres juridiques, à la politique, et aux autres exigences relatives à la croissance professionnelle des enseignants; de se familiariser avec les composantes essentielles et efficaces du plan de croissance; et de découvrir les documents d’appuis et les outils à la disposition des enseignants pour élaborer un plan de croissance professionnelle. Le processus d’évaluation des enseignants et les exigences pour l’obtention du brevet d’enseignement permanent seront également abordés pendant la session.

The profession of teaching comes with a seemingly endless list of demands. This chosen career combined with life itself will naturally bring challenges and stress, but the key is moving forward so that it doesn’t impact other areas of your life.

Allan draws on his personal and professional experiences, leaving you inspired to persevere through your challenges rather than avoid or escape them. Allan encourages you to take an honest look at what lies beneath stress, and provides the tools to heal through a holistic approach. Get ready to be the student by participating in an interactive quiz and various hands-on activities that will strengthen your understanding of stress and wellness.

You will walk away from this session feeling empowered to take back control no matter what surrounds you. When both teachers and students are able to effectively manage their stress, it creates a more conducive environment for learning to take place.

Learner Outcomes:

Create a classroom environment that identifies and combats stress

Understand the relationship that exists between stress and performance

Provide support and expertise with respect to managing students who are experiencing personal challenges

Navigate through various handouts and activities that can be used in both the classroom setting and at home
*THIS SESSION WILL NOT BE RECORDED*

How have we arrived at this moment of reckoning in with race and racism in our schools and what should we do now? This session will include a brief introduction to critical social justice pedagogy and critical race theory which will help teachers and school leaders begin to understand how to engage constructively in anti-racist pedagogy with direct application for their classrooms and schools. Antiracism resources and upcoming events available through the ATA will be shared.

*THIS SESSION WILL NOT BE RECORDED*
Current educational approaches focus so heavily on academic performance that many students will enter the global workforce without the life skills needed to navigate an increasingly complex and globally interconnected world. Integrating social emotional learning into our schools is foundational to the success of our young people. When SEL is meaningfully integrated into a broader educational approach, it enhances academic learning and builds the broader success needed for life and career success. A strong social emotional foundation is also key to building positive mental health in students, teachers and families. Join us to hear stories from Alberta educators on how their schools are using the principles of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to empower students with the leadership and life skills they need to thrive and become leaders of their own learning from kindergarten and beyond!

THIS SESSION WILL NOT BE RECORDED.
In September 2019, we noted that we had many students who were dysregulated and it became very clear to our admin team that we did not have a clear process of how to deal with the high levels of discipline and regulation concerns. Working with our own Central Office Team, as well as incorporating learning from a professional development session we attended on EA Allocation Model and Kite Teams presented by Marcie Perdue from Chinook’s Edge School Division, we made the decision that we would explore this model for St. Teresa of Avila School.
During this session, we will share the process we used to develop a Student Support and Student Response model at our school. Steps to developing these two models included:
Identification of students who require support in the areas of cognition, academics and communication as well as social emotional support.
Aligning educational assistant support with the identified student needs
Defining role of the educational assistant, literacy and inclusion support and administration within this model
Professional development for all staff
We hope that by sharing our journey others may learn and develop similar models of support within their school communities.
*THIS SESSION WILL NOT BE RECORDED*

Thanks to an educator – Micheal Loud foot – Sam was taught a lesson that transformed his life. Every educator has the opportunity to do the same within their own classrooms. In this program, Sam shares what Mike did that made him personally invest in his lessons and leadership. Your audience will leave this program remembering exactly why they started teaching years ago.

*THIS SESSION WILL NOT BE RECORDED*

Participates will learn:
What courageous leadership and cultures look like and what happens when courage is absent.
Spoiler alert: Without courage, toxicity thrives.
What gets in the way of us showing up as our whole selves and being brave.
Spoiler alert: It’s not fear.
The four skill sets of courage and how to immediately begin building them and putting them into practice.
Spoiler alert: This includes having tough conversations.

Teachers are some of our most important leaders.

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.

Highlighted Focus Areas
Skill Set #1: Rumbling With Vulnerability
Define your call to courage as a leader
Understand the role of courage and vulnerability in daring leadership
Understand shame and empathy and their role in daring leadership
Recognize armor and articulate how it gets in the way of daring leadership
Understand the behaviors of armored versus daring leadership
Understand how to develop grounded confidence to replace your armor
Skill Set #2: Living Into Our Values
Learn how values operate in our lives and their role in integrity and daring leadership
Identify your core values and operationalize them into observable behaviors
Learn the daring skills that support you in tough conversations
Skill Set #3: Braving Trust
Understand how trust is built and its role in connection and psychological safety
Learn the seven elements of trust and identify observable behaviors for these elements
Skill Set #4: Learning To Rise
Learn the critical role curiosity and emotional literacy play in developing rising skills
Recognize common strategies for offloading emotions and learn more effective behaviors for managing them
Understand how our brain is wired for stories and how the stories we create affect our behavior and ability to effectively lead and interact with others
Learn how to rumble with our stories

Beyond a job, teaching is a calling. This workshop provides a snapshot of well-being science that invites educators and leaders to build and sustain a practice of well-being within that calling. Participants will experience tools that can help create a ripple effect of impact for themselves and their students. Moving beyond self-care strategies and a focus on teacher stress, we will discuss both individual and organizational opportunities to help shift the tide from burning out to burning in.

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Avoid burn-out! Everyone learns more through example, than words. This full day session provides interactive experiences that illuminate the principles of self-compassion and mindfulness, to help teachers truly embrace self-care so they are at their best for their students & families, role-modelling HOW to be in the world, as much as what to do. Teachers learn how to create windows of peace and calm in their day, to be a peaceful influence in their classroom, to keep themselves healthy – mentally, physically and emotionally.

We live in an increasingly fast paced, social media driven society, in which stress can become an issue- at times even fatal. Please join author, podcaster and speaker Mike Pickles in a highly engaging session, in which he explores the Wellness Wheel, offering practical strategies on how to live a more fulfilling, balanced lifestyle.

Specifically, you'll leave Mike’s session feeling informed, inspired and empowered for personal change. In the words of J. Stanford, “Health is a state of body, but wellness is a state of being.” Don't forget that health is wealth.