ECEBC News
2021 ECEBC Conference
Published: March 29th, 2021
Join us online for the 2021 ECEBC Conference on May 15, 2021 Discover our World, Discover the Possibilities.... Standing Strong Together! Registration is now open.
Category:
Online Conference May 15, 2021
Discover our World, Discover the Possibilities.... Standing Strong Together!
Please Note: Registration has closed. We look forward to connecting virtually on the 15th.
ECEBC's annual conference is going virtual this year and keynote speaker Dr. Jody Carrington will kick it off with our keynote presentation. This will be followed by a morning session and an afternoon session where you can select a topic of interest to you. Find out more about the session options below and in the 2021 conference guide. If you have any questions regarding the conference please contact sonia@ecebc.ca.
Keynote Presentation: Overcoming Burnout and Building Resilience
With Dr. Jody Carrington
In the middle of navigating a global pandemic while serious, overdue conversations about systemic oppression abound, the word “burnout” has been used to describe the emotional fatigue that has set into so many organizations. Jody will walk through how to reconnect any time by remembering this: when they’re acknowledged, they will rise. Specific strategies to shift cultures and productivity will be at the forefront of this game-changing talk.
Conference Cancellation PolicyRegistration fees, less a $10 administrative fee, will be refunded if a cancellation request is received in writing by Friday, May 7, 2021. After this date, registration fees are non-refundable. If you have registered for conference but are unable to attend and wish to have someone else attend in your place, you will need to contact sonia@ecebc.ca by Wednesday May 12, 2021 by 4:00 pm to give us time to update workshop attendance lists.
Conference Schedule
Everyone is invited to attend the keynote presentation and then select one workshop
from the morning session and one from the afternoon session.
Morning Session Options:
10:15am to 12:00pm
Presenters: (Pippa Rowcliffe & Joanne Schroder)
In the coming few years, the Ministry of Education will be taking responsibility for child care in British Columbia. The strategic context for this in the Ministry has been laid through the Early Learning Framework. But the real work of connecting and aligning early years and education, two systems with different cultures and histories, will require us all to develop new leadership skills and capabilities. In this workshop, you will learn about the Compassionate Systems Leadership (CSL) approach to change. CSL is based on the belief that we are the system - how we show up to work with others matters - and that we all have a role in leading change. It connects our own personal mastery - present awareness and compassion - with deep interpersonal skills - deep listening and speaking with care and integrity - that allow us to engage in the complex and emergent work of systems thinking toward change. Workshop participants will be exposed to new CSL concepts, learn practical skills that can be used tomorrow in the workplace or at home, and see current examples of how CSL is being used to connect early years and education from here in BC.
Presenters: Nicky Byers, Jen Vanderberg, Lisa Nicholson, Jacqueline Ewonus
A CoP is a group of people who “share a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Etienne Wenger). The idea behind a CoP is that through the process of sharing experiences and knowledge with others, we enable dialogue among members and begin to explore new possibilities and new ways of doing something. The hope for each CoP is that it will offer opportunities for self-reflection, a deepening of the understanding of practice and in doing so support professional and personal development. The presenters will share their journey over the last year and a half as they collaborated, reflected and discussed Ann Pelo’s and Margie Carters book, “From Teaching to Thinking, A Pedagogy for Reimagining Our Work” and reimagining how we think about professional learning has impacted our learning communities. Together we will explore ways in which educators can reimagine professional development and learning in your own community or programs.
Presenters: Adrienne Argent, Sara Ashley, Karen Boley
The British Columbia Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) is the provincial group of pedagogists who support early childhood educators in BC. The ECPN creates spaces for vibrant public conversations about pedagogical projects and processes that matter to early childhood communities in British Columbia. This session will be led by three ECPN pedagogists co-constructing curriculum with educators and children. The focus of this session will be to share their work and how they work alongside educators to respond to the conditions of our times.
Presenters: Enid Elliot & TBA
Despite the exponential increase in the number of outdoor early childhood education (ECE) programs currently operating in British Columbia (BC), license requirements for ECE programs still hinge on the program owning or renting a facility. Without a facility that meets childcare regulations, outdoor ECE programs do not qualify for a license to practice. In this presentation, we speculate on the exciting possibilities that might open up with a new category of care that includes ECE program operating fully outdoors. We also address some of the salient challenges the current legislation creates as we share our story of advocating that the British Columbia government considers a closer look at this issue and begin a discussion on recognizing ECE outdoors programs as a timely and necessary addition to the BC ECE landscape.
Afternoon Session Options:
1:00pm to 2:30pm
Dr. Bo Sun Kim, Sylvia Kind
The BC Early Learning Framework describes the curriculum as a living inquiry. Curriculum as living inquiry suggests that pedagogical processes are ongoing, lived-living events that do not have predictable outcomes. Curriculum, guided by particular intentions and orientations, cultivates relational situations and spaces of investigation, creation, and composition. Thus, curriculum takes shape as a co-compositional and interactive inquiry process where educators, children, materials, and ideas are in dialogue with worlds and with each other in entangled and intra-active ways. Thus, curriculum becomes a way of investigating, thinking, and being together through inquiry. It also takes shape through careful and detailed documentation and the processes and practices of pedagogical narrations
Presenters: Dr. Laura K. Doan, Karolyn Hendra & Melanie Boucher
This session will give an overview of the innovative Peer-Mentoring Project for Early Childhood Educators in BC, which took place in 17 communities across BC and involved close to 200 early childhood educators and 20 facilitators. Building on previous research with new and experienced educators who participated in peer-mentoring projects in the interior of BC, this project involved a peer-mentoring model within a community of practice. Participants met face to face monthly as a group, connected with their peer-mentor weekly, and participated in an online platform. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you. This workshop will be led by Laura Doan, Karolyn Hendra, and Melanie Boucher. Laura, Karolyn, and Melanie live, work and play on the unceded and ancestral homeland of the T’kemlups Te Secwepemc, within Secwepemcul’ecw.
Presenter: Maureen Caley-Verdonk, CPC, PCC, Inspired Living Coach
In this workshop, you’ll have an opportunity to choose...giving yourself permission to be the mistress of your own voice. Maureen’s commitment to becoming a coach, with a focus on self-care & stress mastery, was borne from her own experience struggling to reconnect with her personal power & align with her authentic voice...in ways that are inspiring, inclusive & invigorating. From corporations to the upper echelons of government, women are regularly interrupted, talked over or misperceived when they speak. Whether due to voice issues or for other reasons, women are interrupted significantly more often than men, according to more than four decades’ worth of research. So, the journey lies with you to shift your expectations & experiment outside your comfort zone to be heard...reclaiming your authentic voice & reconnecting with your personal power. Maureen’s workshop is the beginning of that journey.
Presenters: Kathleen Kummen, Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, Randa Khattar
The British Columbia Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) is the provincial group of pedagogists who support early childhood educators in BC. This session will be led by the directors of the ECPN and address how pedagogists challenge developmentally appropriate practice . Participants will be invited to consider what is possible when we move beyond child development to ask pedagogical questions.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jody Carrington
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Jody Carrington has assessed, treated, educated and empowered some of our most vulnerable and precious souls on the planet. She is a child psychologist by trade, but Jody rarely treats kids. The answer lies, she believes, in the people who hold them. Especially when kids have experienced trauma, that’s when they need big people the most. Some of her favourites include educators, parents, first responders, and foster parents. Jody has shifted the way they think and feel about the holy work that they do.
Before Jody started her own practice and speaking across the country, she worked at the Alberta Children’s Hospital on the inpatient and day treatment units where she held families with some of the difficult stories. They taught her the most important lesson: we are wired to do hard things. We can handle those hard things so much easier when we remember this: we are wired for connection. This all started when Jody received her Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of Alberta. She completed a year-long internship with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during that time, and worked along side families struggling with chronic illness at the Ronald McDonald House. She received her Master’s degree in Psychology at the University of Regina and completed her PhD there as well, before completing her residency in Nova Scotia.
Her first book, Kids These Days: A Game Plan for (Re)Connecting with those we Teach, Lead & Love, came out in 2019 and sold 20,000 copies in just three months. It is now on Amazon’s Best Sellers List.
