Create, Collaborate, Innovate Classroom Contest

Win technology for your classroom worth $10,000!

The Create, Collaborate, Innovate contest offers teachers and their students a chance to win $10,000 worth of technology for the classroom by sharing how they think technology will shape careers of tomorrow. To enter, choose a career your class is interested in and film a 45-second video explaining how technology will shape that career in the future. K to 12 teachers across Canada (excluding Quebec) are eligible to enter. Submission deadline date is January 31, 2018. For a teacher’s kit and more information, visit  http://www.compugen.com/classroomcontest.

Skype a Scientist

Provide students with a chance to get to know a "real scientist" with Skype a Scientist!  

Skype a Scientist matches scientists with classrooms around the world for 30 to 60 minute Q&A sessions. Discussions cover the scientist’s expertise, what it’s like to be a scientist, or what students are interested in (e.g., what do scientists do for fun, are GMOs safe, is global warming real, whatever!).  Teachers can even request a type of scientist to tailor discussions to what is being learned in the classroom!  

To learn more, visit https://www.skypeascientist.com/

ADHD Education Survey

To better advocate for students with ADHD, the Centre for ADHD Awareness Canada wants to hear from parents and educators. Parents are requested to complete the ADHD Education Survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/CPNMWJP, and educators can share their Canadian education experiences by writing to advocacy@caddac.ca.

Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence

Do you know an exceptional educator?  Nominations for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence will be accepted until January 12, 2018.

The Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence have honoured exceptional Canadian teachers since 1993 for their remarkable achievements in education and for their commitment to preparing their students for a digital and innovation-based economy. The Teaching Excellence in STEM Awards honour outstanding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics teachers who help develop a culture of innovation among their students.

For nomination information, visit https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/pmate-ppmee.nsf/eng/home

Arcademics Cup Math Competition

Edu-game innovator Arcademics has opened registration for its 7th annual Arcademics Cup, an international multiplication competition for students in grades K to 6, which kicks off at 8 a.m. EST on Feb. 1 and ends at 8 p.m. EST on  Feb. 2, 2018. During the Arcademics Cup, students race against each other to solve math equations in the free multiplayer game Grand Prix Multiplication. The game’s multiplayer function allows students to race in groups of four as they answer basic multiplication problems for numbers one through 12. Teachers must sign up for a free trial of Arcademics Plus to gain access to the competition. While participants progress through the Arcademics Cup, they are rewarded with power-ups and cosmetic items for their racecars, as well as a chance to win prizes, such as pizza parties, iPads and Arcademics Plus subscriptions,  for their class or school. Teachers can register for the 2018 Arcademics Cup until Jan. 31, 2018, at plus.arcademics.com/register. For more information about Arcademics, visit www.arcademics.com.

ExploraVision Science Competition

Looking for a way to boost classroom motivation? Integrate the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition as part of your class or after-school science club. If you've been considering adding more project-based learning in your classroom, think about participating in ExploraVision, the world's largest science K to 12 competition. All it takes is a teacher sponsor to encourage your students to participate and win prizes for their scientific innovations. 

Download free Tips for Teachers PDFs about easy ways to implement PBL programs like ExploraVision

Register online and submit your team's projects by February 8, 2018 to qualify
Read about the similarities between cooking meals and teaching STEM in the classroom

2018 TIFF Kids International Film Festival

The next TIFF Kids International Film Festival will be taking place from March 9th to March 18th, 2018. This festival for children ages 3 to 13 will educate, inspire and entertain children and adults with captivating programming and engaging activations, including exclusive filmmaker Q&As and March break camps. The acclaimed digiPlaySpace will return from February 16th to April 22nd, encouraging kids to explore, get inspired, and learn about the creative potential of technology.   https://www.tiff.net/kids/

WAR Flowers Exhibition

During the First World War, Canadian soldier George Stephen Cantlie plucked flowers from the fields and gardens of war-torn Europe and sent them home to his baby daughter Celia in Montréal. One hundred years later, his touching ritual has provided the inspiration for an innovative multi-sensory experience at the Canadian War Museum. WAR Flowers – A Touring Art Exhibition examines human nature in wartime through artistic representations that combine Cantlie’s letters and pressed flowers with original scents, crystal sculptures and portraits of 10 Canadians directly involved in the First World War. WAR Flowers consists of 10 stations, each showcasing a type of flower picked by Cantlie along with one or more of his letters. The stations represent individual attributes associated with the exhibition’s themes and reflect Melki’s beliefs about war. Each station also highlights a Canadian who embodied these attributes, and features his or her personal experiences of the First World War. The exhibition is rounded out by specially commissioned optical crystal sculptures by Toronto artist Mark Raynes Roberts and scents developed in Magog, Quebec by perfumer Alexandra Bachand. The exhibition is presented until January 7, 2018 in the Canadian War Museum’s Regeneration Hall, after which it will travel to venues in Canada and France. For more information, visit the exhibition website at warflowers.ca.

Sunburst Award for Young Adult Fiction

The 2017 winner of the Sunburst Award for Young Adult Fiction is Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier [Puffin Canada]. The Sunburst Jury commented: Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard (volume two in the Peter Nimble series by Jonathan Auxier) is a surprisingly complex take on age-old themes. Intrepid heroes, vivid villains, and an array of fantasy characters interact in a plot that places the importance of storytelling at its heart. It's a metafictional adventure about the power (and limits) of story that, despite its invocation of well-worn tropes and its echoes of classics of children's fantasy, still manages to be both surprising and gripping (and very funny) in its long, intricately-plotted narrative. It celebrates pure storytelling pleasure and refreshingly avoids any didactic moralizing.


Jonathan Auxier is a Canadian-American writer of young adult literature. His debut novel Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes was an ABA New Voices pick and a BookPage Magazine Best Book of 2011. His novel The Night Gardener won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award, and was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award and the Governor General's Award.

The other shortlisted works for the 2017 Young Adult Award were:

• Lena Coakley, Worlds of Ink and Shadow [HarperCollins]

• Marina Cohen, The Inn Between [Roaring Brook Press]

• Catherine Egan, Julia Vanishes [Doubleday Canada]

• Ian Donald Keeling, The Skids [ChiTeen]

STEAM Horizon Awards

The STEAM Horizon Awards is a prize program for Canadian youth pursuing a post-secondary education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM). Five Canadian students, between 16 to 18 years of age at the time of application, will be awarded $25,000 each to attend a Canadian university or college to study in a STEAM field. Applications are now welcomed with a deadline of January 16, 2018.

Visit the website to find out more about this opportunity.

Canadian Teacher Wins $1,000,000 Global Teacher Prize 2017

Maggie MacDonnell, who teaches at the Ikusik School in Salluit, a remote innuit village in the Canadian Arctic, is the winner of the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2017. Now in its third year, the US $1 million award is the largest prize of its kind, and was set up to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society.

After completing her Masters degree, Maggie MacDonnell sought out opportunities to teach in indigenous communities in Canada, and for the last six years has been a teacher in the Canadian Arctic. There are tremendous gender issues in the Inuit region of Nunavik where teenage pregnancies are common and gender roles often burden young girls with large domestic duties. Also, in areas of high deprivation, isolation and limited resources, some teenagers turn to drinking, smoking, drugs and self-harm as forms of escape and release. There is also a high rate of suicide. Maggie’s approach has been about turning students from “problems” to “solutions.” She has created a life skills program specifically for girls which has seen a 500 per cent improvement in girls’ registration. Maggie has also dramatically improved school attendance by getting her students involved in running a community kitchen, attending suicide prevention training and hiking through national parks to understand environmental stewardship. Maggie also established a fitness centre that has become a hub for youth and adults in the local community. It is relieving stress, helping young people grow stronger physically and mentally and bringing the whole community together in a profound and lasting way. Maggie has also been a temporary foster parent in the community, including to some of her own students.

Further information about the Global Teacher Prize is available here: http://www.globalteacherprize.org. 

To join the conversation online follow #TeachersMatter on: https://twitter.com/TeacherPrize and https://www.facebook.com/teacherprize

#GirlPowered

The Canadian Women’s Foundation and advertising agency Havas have joined forces to help strengthen girls’ confidence through #GirlPowered, a national campaign that empowers girls to challenge limiting stereotypes and sexist messages in advertising by using their voices. This campaign was created on the premise that every day girls are faced with advertising telling them how to think, dress and act. These constant reminders can affect their mental health – girls aged 9 to 13 experience a sharp decline in confidence and higher rates of depression than younger girls. The campaign features a powerful video of several girls creating a #GirlPowered message and having it displayed to their surprise in real-time on a jumbo screen in Yonge-Dundas Square. To ensure that other girls have the same experience, young women across Canada can go to girlpowered.ca and create their own positive #GirlPowered message and share it on social media. Seeing these words amplified to the world demonstrates that each girl’s voice matters.

Accessibility and Inclusive Education

Educators today are faced with the challenge of integrating technology into the classroom and teaching students of all learning styles and abilities, including those with accessibility needs. By providing accessible technology in the classroom, students with a wide-range of learning styles are given equal education opportunities. Find out how seven Canadian teachers have successfully incorporated personalized learning in the classroom at: http://aka.ms/7educators. Microsoft is dedicated to building accessibility into its products and to providing accessibility resources for educators, fostering learning for all. To encourage tech familiarity and adoption, Microsoft has launched a series of free Accessibility Workshops for educators across the country. For more details visit: www.microsoft.ca/accessibilityworkshop. A free educators resource is also available: http://www.microsoft.ca/freeguide.

Awards for Canadian Teachers

A number of national and provincial/territorial awards are given to Canadian teachers each year to recognize their outstanding dedication or innovative contributions to the field of education. For more information see the "Other Teaching Awards" link on the Prime Minister's Awards website.

Canadian School Calendar

The Canadian Education Association prepares a school calendar each year, which is free online, download here. The School Calendar provides all opening and closing dates for primary and secondary schools in every Canadian province and territory.