A bit delayed on sharing my WestCAST conference experience, but better late than never, right? What I thought was just Winnipeg’s dry cold atmosphere affecting my breathing turned out to be a nasty bug, but I’m doing a lot better and am happy to be back to school. Technology has been great for keeping me in contact and up to date with all course work, but when it comes down to it, collaborating in person is my preference. Besides, following the #BCTF2014 hashtag for the BCTF New Teachers’ Conference was no where near as inspiring as I assume attending in person would have been!
Anyways, what an interesting and diverse conference WestCAST was! Besides the eight UBC student teachers in attendance, were also three faculty members from UBC. Upon arrival on Wednesday night there was a poster session by students from various education faculties. The poster session included topics such as banned books in high schools, units of bringing farming into schools, incorporating Aboriginal perspectives, mandatory physical activity, positive future mentoring program (at the elementary level) and much more. Unfortunately us student teachers at UBC missed the deadline to submit proposals to share posters or leads sessions. I’ll definitely be leaving in the Education Students’ Association transition report a note on making timely organization for the 2015 conference so that UBC students can present. The 2015 conference is to be hosted in Saskatchewan.
One thing to note about the conference was the myriad of red-shirted volunteers from the University of Winnipeg. They were everywhere, friendly and immensely helpful. Furthermore, our hosts sure kept us entertained over the course of the conference with a huge diversity of presenters and opportunity to take part! On Wednesday night there was a stringband and Ceili band, and Irish dancers followed up by a Manitoban barn dance, where yes, we were pulled onto the dance floor! Thursday morning the Peaceful Village Drummers had us out of our seats at breakfast, clapping along. A choral group, La Vox from Gordon Bell High School (my mother’s grade 12 school!) sang their own renditions of current popular songs during lunch. On Thursday night their Education Students’ Association hosted a dinner where we were further entertained by an improv group, and then by a DJ that facilitated us dancing the night away.
Both Thursday and Friday mornings we had various EdTalks to open the days. I have to say that for me, they were hit and miss. All the speakers were powerful, eloquent speakers, but I found some of the talks to be incredibly dreary. I realize that when speaking of global issues in developing countries such as poverty and lack of health care and education, or sustainability in general, the reality can be dreary, but as a room of enthusiastic educators, in a conference with the theme “Be the change”, I would have loved some sort of closure on what we can do to address these issues. One EdTalk that I really enjoyed was that by @KevinLamoureux “Those Other Kids…”. His speech on on that “everything in education comes from a perspective” sent me into reflection, and a renewed outlook on assumptions and perspectives, and their implications. Kevin Chief, Minister of Children and Youth Opportunities, as well as an MLA in Winnipeg, also had a powerful speech on “Building Resiliency”. It was inspiring to hear of his interactions with students and on who are “role models”. As educators we need to see others that are role models, and support them in that. For example, Mr. Chief took a high school student into an elementary school with him for a in-class reading, and who were the young students most interested in? Their interest and questions were for the older student he brought in.

Sessions were led by current student teachers, and faculty from various universities. One of the sessions that really resonated with me was titled “ADHD; Disorder or Gift?” by Dean Ken McCluskey. His family’s story had me crying and laughing and questioning our perceptions of all disabilities.

Another session I enjoyed was a report on the “Longitudinal Examination of Pre-Service Teachers Perceptions of Preparedness” at the University of Lethbridge. What interested me the most though, was hearing about different teacher education programs. The variety across Canada is so great. I recommend to anyone considering a program to do their research and talk to students in the respective programs.

Dean David Mandzuk from the University of Manitoba had an interesting presentation on “Myths, Bandwagons, & Moral Panics as ‘Unwarranted Certainties’: Implications for Beginning Teachers”. As a pre-service teacher I do feel overwhelmed by the plethora of resources and ways of doing, the “do this, and whatever you do, don’t do this” warnings, etc. His presentation left me with more confidence on researching for myself whether something potentially falls into one of these categories.

A session on the use of Twitter didn’t really strike me after the presenter didn’t use Twitter herself, or really support its use in the classroom. Sure, it allowed me to think of its limitations and downfalls, but for me Twitter is a huge source of inspiration and support via my PLN.

For two other student blog posts on WestCast2014 check out:

@MmeHibou #WestCAST2014 (Adventures in Winterpeg) 

@ms_wirzba Joy in the classroom – WestCAST Reflections

I opted to spend the weekend after the conference in Winnipeg. I never thought or knew much of you before, but Winnipeg, you are awesome! The history, the culture, the winter, the people are so vibrant and alive. I felt like I was back in high school social studies, but this time the history was real, it wasn’t simply pictures and words in a textbook. Francophone culture was very prominent throughout the city, and celebrated at the Festival du Voyageur. Festival du Voyageur was to me like a combination between Carnaval du Quebec, and the Acadian Village. It was both a celebration of culture with traditional food, music, and activities, and also included a historic fort complete with interpreters. The Forks was an amazing venue where people came together to embrace winter, skating, snowshoeing, playing hockey, and even biking through the snow path alongside the frozen river trail. I spent over three hours skating the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.
On Sunday I attended the Winnipeg Jets outdoor practice. I’ll be completely honest that I’m not an engaged NHL fan, but since I drove through Winnipeg in the summer 2012, the summer after their first season of having a NHL team back, I was captured by the passion of the people for their team. So, when I went out to the outdoor practice, it wasn’t with the intention to see NHL Winnipeg Jets players, but to see NHL Winnipeg Jets fans. They did not disappoint. The temperature was well below -30 but there were over 3000 fans there. I am huge sap for excited people and this event made a mark with me. As I stood there watching the people I couldn’t help but think that they each have a unique story of what having their team back means to them. There were children in their teens that I imagine will always remember that year they got their team back. There were young children who will never know otherwise, but are sitting on the shoulders of parents who are undoubtedly happy to have a team back to share with their child. Oh, and did I mention this practice was the same day Canada took home the gold in hockey? It was just one of those days where you can’t help but feel connected as a Canadian. My visit to Winnipeg was educationally and culturally diverse and I recommend both the WestCAST conference, and the city, to anyone interested in the above!

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