News
Go By Bike Week
Go by Bike Week (formerly Bike to School Week) is May 31st to June 6th, 2021. This week-long event promotes health and environmental conservation by encouraging people to trade their vehicles in for bicycles. Get your school community involved by creating your own school team and tracking your collective kilometres biked. You could win a prize! Find out more.
Mental Health Week is May 3rd to 9th, 2021
It’s the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) 70th Annual Mental Health Week! The focus this year is on encouraging everyone to #GetReal about how you feel. Naming, expressing and dealing with our emotions, the ones we like and the ones we don’t, is important for our mental health. The CMHA website has a toolkit for schools that includes classroom activities and more information about how to acknowledge and label feelings. Find out more.
Articles
Youth Vaping During COVID-19
McCreary Centre Society recently released findings from three surveys they conducted throughout 2020 about youth vaping and COVID-19. Youth researchers who worked on the project felt that the results highlight the need to understand the underlying reasons behind vaping, and that there is often more than one reason a youth might vape. As one stated, "We need to listen to the youth who vape to understand their experiences, because youth who don't vape don't know what it's like, and the same goes for adults." Find out more.
Stories
Coast Tsimshian Academy’s Greenhouse Revitalization Project
Red wriggler worms and a vermicompost are just two things that Coast Tsimshian Academy, in Lax Kw’Alaams, B.C., purchased with their Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grant. While the school was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foods teacher Kayli Koep planted vegetables and shared the harvest with families, staff and students at the school. This inspired an increased interest in the greenhouse from community members and triggered a much larger project to expand the community’s food security by building a second greenhouse. Find out more.
Resources
The SOGI-Inclusive Education Resource Guide
The B.C. K-12 SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Collaborative, which is composed of education partners across the province, recently released a resource guide to help teachers support students of all sexual orientations and gender identities. The SOGI-Inclusive Education Resource Guide outlines best-practices for creating an inclusive school and classroom environment and builds on the BC Ministry of Education SOGI Policy Guide. Find out more.
Announcements
Promoting Outdoor Play in Schools and Communities
Join the UBC Human Early Learning Partnership and outdoor play experts on May 10th, 2021 for a webinar titled “Promoting outdoor play in schools and communities: Moving from risk and barriers to opportunities and facilitators.” Leaders in the field will explore the risks and rewards of outdoor play and highlight the latest research. This will include a discussion about a new online educational tool designed to provide educators with information about the importance of outdoor play as well as strategies for implementation. Find out more.
