Warm Wishes for the Holiday Season

Warm Wishes for the Holiday Season

By Paula Sabti

December 9, 2021

2021 Holiday Message from the Dean pro tem

Aanii Bozhoo – greetings everyone,

My name is Jan Hare, and I am Dean pro tem of the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.

I would like to acknowledge that the Faculty is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam and Syilx peoples. These lands and places are steeped in the histories and knowledges of the original peoples.

The Faculty’s activities take place on Indigenous lands throughout British Columbia and beyond. Many of you are conducting your studies and work in different places, near and far, and it is important to acknowledge the traditional owners and caretakers of those lands.

As winter break approaches, it offers us time to reflect on and make meaning of the past year so that we can look to the year ahead with renewed purpose.

The past year has been a challenging one in many ways. As a community and as a province, we endured climate-related challenges, including devastating fires and floods. I’m impressed by the way we navigated a return to campus amid the continuing uncertainties of the pandemic.

Your collective effort, resilience and commitment continues to inspire curiosity, innovation, and compassion in learning, teaching, conducting research, and the work we do on our Okanagan and Vancouver campuses, in field centres across the province, and at sites of engagement across Canada and around the world.

I have been particularly struck by the ways our educational community continues to uphold one another and remain connected through virtual and other means. We have worked together remarkably well given our different roles and responsibilities, perspectives, and experiences of the last 20 months.

I speak to all members of our community, students, staff, instructors and faculty, alumni, and our donors. Over the holidays, I hope you take time to recharge, to be with friends and loved ones, and to participate in activities that bring you meaning.

May we enter the new year stronger and wiser, and continue to lead with kindness.

Warmest wishes for a safe and restful winter break.

Miigwech – thank you

Annual Seasonal Shutdown and Holiday Tips

By Ayla Collins

Before leaving for this holiday season, help save energy and keep valuables safe by taking some simple actions:
 

Seasonal Shutdown Tips from Sustainability

Holiday Tips from Campus Security

  • Switching off electronics
  • Turning off the lights
  • Unplugging small appliances
  • Closing windows and blinds
  • Reporting any air or water leaks
  • Shutting down non-essential lab equipment

  • Closing and locking office and exterior building doors & windows
  • Turning off office lights and electronic equipment
  • Locking away portable equipment, tools, laptops and any external data devices
  • Closing blinds and curtains
  • Locking valuable personal property out of sight or taking it home
  • Ensuring all your data devices are encrypted for security
  • Protecting your building and office keys at all times to prevent risk to your workspace

Preparing for Extreme Winter Weather at UBC

As per the Snow Policy, if UBC is subject to extreme winter weather conditions, the administration may decide to cancel or reschedule classes and/or curtail non-essential services. You are advised to regularly check UBC’s homepage in the event of extreme weather.
 
Building Operations offers ice prevention and snow removal services. Visit Building Operation’s snow plan webpage for see a map that identifies priority roads, sidewalks and pathways when dealing with an ice or snow event.
 
Building Operations’ custodial staff work in concert with the municipal services staff to clear and salt the main access to campus buildings, stairs, and external work areas such as loading docks. Priority is focused on main building and accessible entranceways so please use main entranceways during extreme weather. If you see any areas that require the attention of Building Operations, please contact the Service Centre at 604-822-2173.

Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Faculty of Education

By Ayla Collins

December 9, 2021

Dayna McCracken, Faculty of Education Embedded Counsellor

Dayna McCracken is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who is “embedded” in the Faculty of Education and is specialized in helping Faculty of Education students. Dayna provides workshops and outreach support tailored specifically to the concerns that Faculty of Education students commonly experience. She can also meet students individually to find out more about their particular concerns, working collaboratively to make a wellness plan that is right for them.

Dayna has worked as a Clinical Counsellor in a variety of settings, including non-profit agencies, provincial mental health treatment centres, public mental health clinics and private practice. Her clinical counselling experience spans across a wide range of practice areas, including issues related to anxiety, stress, depression, relationship and attachment issues, trauma, as well as work, school, and life balance. Dayna utilizes evidence-based approaches to assist clients in attaining their counselling goals, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Solution-Focused Therapy and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT).

Dayna strives to provide a warm, caring space where clients can express themselves, work through their challenges and feel heard. It is of great importance to Dayna to work with clients towards their own personal goals and towards changes that they would like to see in their life. It is paramount in her practice that clients always feel safe and comfortable during a counselling session, and that they leave feeling empowered, positive and with greater peace and clarity.

Booking Procedure

To book a counselling session with Dayna, please contact Counselling Services directly at 604.822.3811 and identify yourself a Faculty of Education student. Counselling Services’ front desk staff will be able to guide you through booking directly with Dayna, filling out the intake forms and answering any questions you may have about the process.

If you are faculty or staff and would like to book a consultation with Dayna, please email directly at dayna.mccracken@ubc.ca.

Dayna’s office is located at Ponderosa Commons North.

More about Counselling at UBC

As a UBC student, you are working to achieve your academic goals and make a positive contribution to your world, while coping with challenges that can impact your capacity to learn and thrive. At times, you may feel overwhelmed and need to reach beyond your usual sources support for a new perspective, to help you make changes in your life. At UBC you have a lot of different kinds of supports available for your mental health and wellbeing.

Counsellors are located at various locations on campus: at the main Counselling Services Centre, as well as embedded in several faculties and departments.

UBC Counsellors respect that students have unique personalities, cultures and experiences and they strive to bring a multicultural, anti-oppressive social-justice orientation to the counselling process.

Students often seek counselling for help with decision-making, navigating family and social relationships, major transitions and identity development. Counselling can also help students who are experiencing mental health concerns including depression, anxiety and the impacts of traumatic experiences. Counsellors at UBC also specialize in helping students overcome issues that cause academic distress such as procrastination, exam anxiety, perfectionism and problems with attention and motivation.

The counsellor who is embedded in the Faculty of Education is a member of the Counselling Services team and can help you navigate the full range of services that are available to you. You are also able to connect with UBC Counselling Services Centre for a full range of on-campus supports including Wellness Advising, same-day single-session appointments, brief counselling and group therapy programs.

No matter what issues you want to address, UBC counselling staff will get to know you and find out what kind of support will work best in your particular situation. Sometimes a single session is enough for now, to give you some new tools and new ways of thinking about your problem. Sometimes a group therapy program or a brief course of individual counselling sessions would be most helpful.

Additional Resources for UBC Students

  • Visit Student Health Services to see a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional on campus
  • Check out Health and Wellbeing at UBC to explore a range of resources
  • Get resources for coping with the mental health challenges of COVID-19
  • UBC Student Assistance program offers a free 24/7 counselling and life coaching service, accessible anywhere in the world. The service is offered in multiple languages by phone, video-counselling, and more.
  • At the UBC Wellness Centre you can get tips and resources on stress, studying and navigating university life

Help a Friend

Find information here about how to help if you’re concerned about a friend who is feeling hopeless or thinking of harming themselves.

Crisis Support

If you need crisis support or you’re currently in distress, the following resources are available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week:

Dean’s Community & Alumni Engagement Series | May 3, 2022

By abby blinch

Candid Conversations

Join UBC’s Dean of Education, Dr. Jan Hare, for an online speaker series focusing on important questions and significant priorities that are engaging educators today, including reconciliation and decolonization in classrooms, taking up climate change matters in education, supporting youth mental health, and addressing race and inequality in school systems.

This dynamic series brings together researchers, practitioners, educators, youth, and you – the participants – to discuss how educators and students are making a difference every day, and explore how we, as a community, can support and empower young people to face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Format

Each session will feature three speakers sharing their perspectives on the topic, including a keynote, a K–12 educator, and a student. Participants will have the opportunity to ask the panel questions and also engage in informal small group conversations with peers.

Dates

January 18: Reconciliation & Decolonization in Classrooms

Reconciliation & Decolonization in Classrooms

Date: January 18, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST

Thank you to everyone who attended!

Request the Recorded Session!

Download Denise Augustine's Resources

About the Keynote


Denise Augustine is on a secondment with the Ministry of Education where she serves as the Superintendent of Indigenous Education. Denise is a passionate champion for systemic changes that support Equity for Indigenous learners. She works with the First Nation Education Steering Committee, Ministry of Education staff and school district leaders to support the implementation of the British Columbia Tripartite Education Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. With over 25 years as an educator and a recipient of the Indspire Indigenous Educator Award for leadership, Denise is an active participant in the local, national and global conversations seeking educational equity for Indigenous children and youth.

About the Educator


Laura Tait is Tsimshian from Prince Rupert and her mother is from the village of Lax Kw’Alaams. She was born into the Eagle Clan. She is currently an Assistant Superintendent in the Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. Laura holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Vancouver Island University, a B.Ed. from Malaspina University-College and a B.A. from the University of Victoria. She is involved in a number of district and provincial educational initiatives in Instruction, Assessment and Aboriginal Education and she is passionate about educational reform, especially as it pertains to building inclusion for all.

About the Educator


Emily Magyar is from the Amos family, from the Hesquiaht First Nation. Her children have family from the Nam’gis and Qualicum First Nations. She has been an Indigenous Education Teacher in School District 68 for the past 8 years, and has worked at Nanaimo District Secondary School for the last 6. Emily is passionate about relationship-based education. She first met Kelly Dobos when she came to NDSS in Grade 8, and has worked with her on various flexible plans for academic achievement, as well as for her wellness.

About the Student


Kelly Dobos-Sewid comes from the Mamalilikulla First Nation on Northern Vancouver Island. She has roots in the Sewid and Hunt families. Kelly is a Grade 12 student enrolled at Nanaimo District Secondary School in Nanaimo, B.C. She is passionate about reconciliation in leadership and creating ongoing safe environments in schools for Indigenous students. Kelly will be going on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, at Vancouver Island University this coming September, and she would like to specialize in pediatrics.

February 15: Climate Change in Education & Supporting Youth Mental Health

Climate Change in Education & Supporting Youth Mental Health

Date: February 15, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST
Location: Online via Zoom

Thank you to everyone who attended!

Request the Recorded Session!

Download Speaker Resources

About the Keynote

Ellen Field is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University. Her research interests are in policy and practice of climate change education in the Canadian K-12 system. Dr. Field has a strong background in survey development and implementation, educational tool development and stakeholder engagement. She is engaged with Ministries, school boards, teachers and community members, and co-leads an online community on Climate Change Education in Canada.

Ellen teaches Environmental Education (B.Ed) and Climate Change Education (M.Ed) in the Faculty of Education, and has engaged 800 teachers in professional development workshops in the last several years. Ellen is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education and co-chair of the Canadian Regional Hub of Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE). She is also a mom of a vibrant 5 year old.

About the Educator


Mark Frank is the department head of science at Fraser Academy and a current masters of education student at Lake Head University focusing on climate change education. Mark’s thesis focuses on environmentally conscious youth in BC and their views of what change should look like in regards to climate change education in the province.

Mark has worked internationally in multiple systems from private to public in England, South Korea and Australia. He has held multiple head of department posts and excels in curriculum design that meshes real world experiential learning with forward thinking project based education.

Since moving to BC in 2018 Mark has been heavily involved with climate change organizations working within the province and has established himself as an intermediary between multiple initiatives seeking to bring climate change to BC k-12 education.

About the Student


Hannah Wicki is an 18-year-old climate activist residing on the land of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, colonially known as Vancouver. She organizes and coordinates with multiple community based projects around food and social justice, and with the youth led organization Climate Education Reform BC (CERBC). CERBC is determined to see an educational system that adequately prepares students for the biggest and most defining crisis of our time: the Climate Emergency. Similarly, BC needs an educational reform that centers intersectional and justice-driven learning and that fully addresses how colonial violence is at its root tied to the Climate Crisis. Climate Education Reform BC recognizes how climate change and its disproportionate damages on marginalized and racialized communities must be addressed through widespread education which is why they launched the Reform to Transform campaign to advocate for the creation of this educational system to pave the way for creating our next generation of climate leaders.

About the Student


Chloe Nguyen is a 10th grade student at Windermere Secondary and has a passion for making a positive difference in their community. She has been a climate activist for a couple of years and has volunteered for other social issues as well. She likes to live her life by the motto "Leave it better than when you found it" and that includes the earth we walk on.

May 3: Race & Inequality in School Systems

Race & Inequality in School Systems

Date: May 3, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST
Location: Online via Zoom

Thank you to everyone who attended!

Request the Recorded Session!

About the Keynote


Dr. Bathseba Opini is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, UBC Vancouver. Her areas of research and teaching interests are in critical race and antiracism education pedagogies and practices, anticolonial education and thought, critical disability studies, teacher education, teaching practices and cultural knowledges. Dr. Opini is the recipient of the Murray Elliot Service Award for Outstanding Service to the Teacher Education Program as well as the Faculty of Education Lecturer and Sessional Faculty Teaching Prize. She has taught in the K-12 system locally and globally. Dr. Opini is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. She most recently authoured the local open online course Historical, Systemic and Intersectional Anti-Racism: From Awareness to Action which launched in September, 2021.
 
 

About the Educator


Ravinder Johal was born in London, England and grew up in the Greater Toronto Area. He worked as a classroom teacher, department head, and school-based administrator in Brampton and Mississauga before moving to British Columbia in 2016. Since then, Rav has been a secondary school Principal, District Principal, and is now a Director of Instruction with Learning Services in the Richmond School District.

Rav has a wide range of research interests, and earned his PhD in education at York University focusing on the lived realities of second generation youth in suburban Toronto. His dissertation examined the intersecting notions of racial identity, gender, social class, and religion while analyzing the role of school, family as well as community in the lives of youth. Rav would like to engage in further research in the area of race and sport, particularly the experiences and participation of Sikh Canadian youth in hockey.

About the Student


Diya Gandhi is a Grade 12 student at RC Palmer Secondary School who is involved in various school and community projects. Climate, Health, and Social equity are main themes of the clubs and initiatives she manages like Eco Team and First Responders. She is thankful to be part of an important and relevant discussion of Race and Inequity how the school system can create a more inclusive and diverse space for all.

Master of Education (MEd) – Social Studies Education Online Cohort

By milena constanda

Curriculum, Historical inquiry, & Pedagogy (CHiP)

This program delves into key aspects of social studies curricula with connections to historical thinking, historical consciousness, visual culture, anti-oppressive and anti-racism education, gender studies, moral education, and the history and politics of curriculum.

As educators in diverse contexts, the students in this program are responsible for being and creating active citizens who work for the betterment of humanity. Issues of equity, diversity, and social justice are central to the ChiP cohort and serve as foundational lenses for interrogating social studies curriculum and pedagogy.

Master of Education (MEd) – Media & Technology Studies Education Online Cohort

By milena constanda

Explore the field of applied design and its relationship to learning technology in education

This masters program is ideal for teachers specializing in computer science, ICT, and technology education, as well as more generally teachers within the Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) cluster in BC schools.

Applied learning has become an integral part of all of British Columbia’s curricula. Through the newly designed Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum students are offered several options to develop the ability to design, make, acquire, and apply skills and technologies key for their engagement as citizens of the future.

Master of Education (MEd) – Education for Sustainability In-Person Cohort

By milena constanda

This innovative MEd cohort program explores Education for Sustainability by engaging you in real-world individual and group projects that address sustainability issues in the city of Vancouver.

The pedagogy features an Adaptive Education model, which promotes experiential and place-based learning, art-based environmental education and active citizenship through tactical urbanism. Through collaborative projects you will consult on, experiment with, and co-create solutions that address problems which come to light in the course of working with the City of Vancouver on sustainability priorities.

Master of Education (MEd) – Educational Administration & Leadership In-Person Cohort

By milena constanda

Leadership Through an Inquiry Lens: Building Inclusive Communities

The Surrey School District is excited to host this cohort, the theme of which – Leadership through an Inquiry Lens: Building Inclusive Communities – fits with the district’s vision and priority practices.

Students in this cohort will have an opportunity to reflect and build upon inquiry-focused school planning for the purpose of developing inclusive communities that contribute to the social and emotional learning and wellbeing of students. The program will emphasize the school’s role in fostering inclusion for all students, with an emphasis on reconciliation with, and success for, members of Indigenous communities.

Master of Education (MEd) – Curriculum Studies | Health, Outdoor, & Physical Experiential Education In-Person Cohort

By milena constanda

This cohort will be of interest to health, outdoor and physical educators who work in schools and other sites of learning, including health promotion agencies, community health services, and environmental and recreational organizations.

This MEd cohort is timely, as many educators and professionals move away from instrumental hierarchical approaches in order to engage students and communities in participatory cultures.

Dr. André Mazawi

By Ayla Collins

Department Head

Educational Studies (EDST)
edst.educ.ubc.ca

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