We are delighted to announce our fourth annual teacher symposium, Youth Matters: fostering civic participation!  Following a tradition of stellar professional development, we once again have a strong line-up of speakers and resources for teachers of civics and politics.  The details are:

Date: October 17, 2011

Time: 8:30am to 3:00pm

Location: Toronto City Hall Council Chambers

The flyer is available through our website (civicsnetwork.ca).

Keynote: Councillor Mike Layton

Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina

Before being elected on October 25, 2010 to serve as one of Toronto's youngest Councillors, Mike worked for political change from the other side of the table, as an environmental leader and community organizer. As Deputy Outreach Director for Environmental Defence, one of Canada's leading environmental groups, he championed a variety of successful initiatives including the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, green building standards, water conservation and source water protection.

Son of former NDP Leader and City Councillor Jack Layton, Mike has been active since an early age on a variety of issues and causes including fundraising for the White Ribbon Campaign to end male violence against women, and working with special needs children.

Panel: elections agencies

This session brings together representatives from the three elections agencies – Elections Canada, Elections Ontario and Elections Toronto.  Moderated by Taylor Gunn of Student Vote, the three agencies will speak about the process of elections, and share with you the resources they have been developing for the classroom.  Also, this is your opportunity to let them know what you need to better teach elections in your classroom.

Presentation: student action projects

Engaged citizenship is what it’s all about.  However, how do you effectively bring that into the classroom?  How do you bring it alive and make it real for your students?  Three different sessions (Project Citizen Girl, YPI and Youth Action Network) across the day give you access to organizations and people who have strategies to give you new ideas on how to really get your students engaged in their community and your course.

Workshop: share and discuss

What have you found to be particularly challenging?  What have you done well?  One of the best things about getting together with colleagues is the opportunity to learn from one another.  This session will facilitate sharing of challenges and successes between the various participants.  You’ll get an opportunity to learn from each other and work together to solve common issues.

Workshop: look ma, i’m teaching civics

Teaching an open course is difficult at the best of times. It becomes more difficult when the content is Civics and some of the teachers teaching it are not history or social science teachers. This workshop promises to deliver strategies that have been used successfully in a civics course. Strategies such as the use of current events, editorial cartoons, debates, and simulations will be explored as well as methods that will make your students more active and engaged citizens.

Network: ngo lunch

We’re bringing back our popular NGO lunch this year.  Not only will you be receiving a delicious catered lunch, but representatives from various NGOs will be on hand to chat, network, and share resources for your classroom.

Resources: best of sharing

Shared resources are in many ways the lifeblood of any good professional development, and are vital to our success as

teachers.  The Civics Education Network understands this, therefore part of our program this year includes the sharing of resources among the participants.

To do this, we are asking that each participant submit ahead of time their ‘best of’ resource or lesson that they are willing to share.  All of the collected resources will be put on USB Drives which will be distributed to all teachers attending the symposium.  In this way, we can all share from our collective knowledge and experience. 

Registration

Registration is only $50 for the entire day, $40 for faculty of education students (with proof).  Please register via Eventbrite.  You have the option of either paying there through Eventbrite or paying when you arrive at the symposium.  Resources are to be sent to contact@civicsnetwork.ca.  Please send your resources no later than October 13^th.

CEN is a registered charity and as such relies on donations to continue its work.  We regret that we cannot issue tax receipts for conference fees, however, we will issue them for any donation above $20.  Please consider donating to help us continue our work.

Charity Registration Number: 85696 6056 RR0001