So being a Social Studies teacher I spend a lot of my time thinking, reading and talking about societal issues, with student, colleagues, friends and family.  A curiosity and interest in the why and the what of things is what really what drives me on a professional and personal level.  I am also lucky enough to be surrounded by bright, interesting people who are willing to share their opinions and engage in lively debate.  As a result, for years, I have had the idea of recording  podcasts and sharing some of these conversations for no other reason than to illustrate that people do think, care, discuss and often disagree on real issues about education, society and life in general.  The problem, however, has always been in finding interesting enough topics and the people willing to share their opinions on them in a recording....

 Well, I'd like to introduce you to Erica McLean.  Erica is a colleague I met this year through my new position with Learning Innovations.  The last few weeks Erica and I have been sharing an office a couple times a week and we have been chatting about the Wet'suwet'en / Coastal Gaslink Pipeline dispute.  Erica is from the Gitanmaax reserve that borders the Wet'suwet'en territory so I was keen to her perspective and thoughts on the dispute.  What has resulted has been great conversations and sharing with Erica being willing to sit down with me this morning to share some of her thoughts.

This was both of our first attempt at a podcast type audio recording so it is far from polished but we did it in one take without editing so  I figure that can't be too bad.

Please click on the file below to here Erica and my conversation.
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​Erica McLean Know Why

Here is a link to Erica's Blog Skanii and her post on the Know Why conversation

 A couple months ago I was asked to take a look at some resources on concussions and put together a team to review and compile resources that would be useful for our coaches, students, athletes and educators.  As more and more is being learned about concussions and the long term affects on personality, emotion, memory, and learning it is clear that we need to take steps to ensure all of our stakeholders are concussion literate and have access to the most current, best information available.  

As a result Renzo Berra, RJay Berra, Joseph Jefferies and myself developed the following libguide on Concussion Awareness that includes CATT (Concussion Awareness Training Tool) e-learning courses along with other valuable information and resources.  This information can also be found on this site as part of the Canadian Sports School resources.  It is hoped that this libguide and the information it contains will continue to evolve into a robust educational resource to support ongoing learning around concussion awareness and mental health for student athletes.

Concussion Awareness LibGuide

Monday saw another opportunity for the University of Northern British Columbia Soccer Teams to get out into our local elementary schools and give back to some local kids.  Thanks to Peden Hill for letting us come out and play some lunch time Futsal with the students.  Over the next three weeks players will be going with me out to 5 local schools culminating in a soccer day at UNBC in March.

On Monday I was at a workshop with Jo Chrona from FNESC exploring the BC First Nations Land, Title, and Governance Teacher Resource Guide.   It is a great resource with well laid out lessons and resources.  This guide is available as a free download and is invaluable for anyone exploring land, title and governance in BC with their classes. 

This workshop also got me thinking more about accessing local resources and histories to layer onto some of the lessons.  With a quick visit to the PGDTA Aboriginal Education Resources page I came across the Native Land Territory and Language map.  This is an interactive map that comes with a teacher's guide.  This is a great resource to spend a bit of time with especially if you are teaching social studies.