Teachers have long known that feeling safe and secure in school helps students focus their energy on learning. And the research bears that out: A 2018 study found that when teachers deliberately foster a sense of belonging by greeting each student at the door of the class, they see “significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior.”

This post outlines ideas from teachers for ensuring that every student in the classroom feels like they belong.

Some of the activities included take less than five minutes. They’re divided up among the grades, but many can apply across all of the years from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The following document contains everything you need to get started with Learner Profiles.  Suggested inventories and resoures are included by grade grouping. Section 1 - Getting Started...Read This First (really...read this first!);Secton 2 - Kindergarten to Grade 2 Resources;Section 3 - Grade 3 to 5 Resources;Section 4 - Grade 6 to 9 Resources;Section 5 - Grade 10 to 12 Resources;Section 6 - How to Build a Learner Profile;Section 7 - Now What?

Resources for all things Agriculture!

We want students to:

Know where their food comes from

Recognize the importance of agriculture in our daily lives

Think critically about information they are exposed to

Understand the importance of science and technology in sustainably producing food

Appreciate farmers and their care for the land and animals

Be inspired to consider a career in agriculture

Starting off the year strong by building relationships and trust with parents through an early welcome. This video was created by Jessica Wall and Pam Sawatzky for the 2021-22 Sun West iLearn sessions.A strategy guide for educators is also included. 

Social and emotional skills development is quickly taking center stage alongside cognitive skills, technical skills, and content knowledge in both the classroom and the workforce. Use this path to learn the fundamentals of how technology helps support social emotional learning in the classroom. Creating a strong community begins with mindfulness. It continues by supporting students through the use of social emotional learning techniques. Flipgrid helps engage students in meaningful ways through reflection activities. Lastly, we tie it all together by empowering educators in the hybrid classroom environment.
The course offers an overview of now various Microsoft products can assist teachers in developing social and emotional skills in their students: Minecraft, Teams, Flipgrid, Sway, OneNote, Reflect.

Our classrooms must be meaningful, relevant, and fun.

The Playful Classroom shows readers how to reconnect with students, parents, and your profession. In this mini course, join The Playful Classroom co-author Jed Dearybury as he takes you through some of the best take-aways from the book.

You'll see the research behind the power of play.
You'll see some real-life examples you can use right away.
You'll learn how to continue growing in your ability to create a playful classroom.
This FREE mini course includes an hour of video instruction from Jed himself as well as additional resources and a certificate of completion for ONE HOUR of professional development credit.

The accompanying book can be purchased at: https://theplayfulclassroom.com/

Seesaw is a valuable learning and communication tool to bring the classroom experience into the homes of your students and engage parents as partners in their child’s education. Documentation of learning, through Seesaw, will have an incredible impact on engagement as it showcases evidence and growth of learning in a timely and family-friendly manner. The continuum guide is intended to provide educators with concrete formative assessment examples of the types, and depth, of information that educators can track and share with families. Adapted and developed with permission from Prairie Valley School Division No. 208 and Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division No.119

Please find the required PowerPoint presentation below.  This workshop has been developed as part of the course Parents in Teaching and Learning (ECUR 823) at the University of Saskatchewan with professor Debbie Pushor.This workshop is meant to be personalized.  Select the activities you wish to discuss, and spend as much or as little time on the concepts that speak fully to your school.  As you select activities and where to put your focus think of what needs to be done as a school and as a classroom teacher before school begins, during school, and over the summer.  Pick and choose the activities that best fit your school and your school’s needs.If you have any questions, feedback, or require clarification please feel free to call or email Melissa.lander@sunwestsd.ca. 

This course includes 8 modules & will take approximately 4 hours to complete in its entirety.

Modules include topics such as:
GSD 101
Understanding the Context
Two-Spirit
Policy
Family & Community Engagement
Transgender Youth

"In this e-mail based course, you will explore essential aspects of project-based learning design while also considering strategies for creating accessible and equitable online project-based learning experiences.

This course culminates in you creating an outline and planner to design and facilitate PBL in online spaces and for distance-learning."

This course is free and email based.
It should take teachers 4-10 hours to complete.

Come out ready to get your PBL rolling!

"The How to Teach Us online course was designed to help K-12 teachers integrate student voice into their classrooms. “How To Teach Us” was named as such because, in an effort to showcase strategies to enhance classroom practices around student voice, three separate documentaries were constructed to coincide with the three weekly themes of the course that specifically follow elementary, middle, and high school students.

The three focus areas for the course were: significant learning, day-to-day routines/schedules, and student-centered assessment practices. The course is designed to be completed over a total of 9 hours of work, with three separate assignments that ultimately culminate in a teacher presentation of learning (POL)."

This course is self-paced and delivered via email.
It will take 4 hours+

This video provides a brief introduction to CommonLit's Pre-Assessment, which is available to teachers and students in grades 3-12.

Includes: multiple choice & Reading passages.
Available until November, so be sure to assign it prior to that.
help@commonlit.org if you have questions.

"In this self-paced email-based course you will learn the basics of learning mindsets, and the important role they can play in your own academic environment. Learn what they are, how to properly identify them, and what you can do to integrate them into your teaching, classroom, and school."

Change your mindset, change your life!

Update your skills, learning and understanding and learn about how to use these great resources at your own pace.

This guide has been created to support schools with developing and monitoring personalized goals (PGs) for students.Watch the video "What's New in 2022?" (most recent video) to get started this year. 

This resource has 24 considerations when implementing and demonstrating growth with personalized learning in your school. A checklist for those beginning with personalized learning is provided, as well as how to progress to deeper levels of personalization using the transfer of responsibility within classrooms and schools. PeBL mentors can use this information to guide their work within the school and specific classrooms to help ensure that everyone continues to grow and develop and deepen their level to have students personalize their own learning. 

This interactive resource packed with ideas, tips, templates and more for back to school time.

Including:
*Icebreakers
*First week activities
*Tech tool refreshers
*Back to school read aloud stories
*Games
*Building community
*Templates