Have a great holiday!

People for Education will be taking a break until the New Year. But we’ll be back with news about guidance counsellors and education funding, Measuring What Matters and more.

We all hope you get time to relax, spend time with family and eat too much.

Best wishes from Jacqui, Dave, Annie, Conrad, Elyse, Megan, Dan, Laurie, Katieand the People for Education board.

Schools welcome refugees

Opportunity for citizenship education

Schools across Ontario are gearing up to welcome newcomer children arriving from Syria and beyond. In some schools, the school community itself has organized to sponsor a refugee family—fundraising, planning and providing support to a family fleeing conflict and persecution.

Students and staff in these schools see sponsorship as not only a chance to help families in need, but also as a learning opportunity for global citizenship. This week, CBC’s the National connected the students at Dewson Street Junior Public School in Toronto, with the family they are helping to come to Canada.

Find out more about how your school can get involved at Schools Welcome Refugees—and check out a great selection of learning resources that will help bring refugee issues to life in any classroom.

Clarification re Ottawa-Carleton DSB French language education

Proposed changes delayed

In last week’s listserv, we failed to make it clear that many parents and teachers have raised concerns about proposed changes to Ottawa-Carleton DSB’s Core French and French Immersion programs.

On November 17th at a board meeting the trustees passed a motion that “the Board conduct further consultation on French instruction in kindergarten and primary Early French Immersion within a time frame for a decision that could be rendered for implementation in September 2017.”

Social media this week

What people are talking about…

Posted on our Facebook page: Fewer young people are voting. Find out how they engage and why in this report from Samara.

Read a short blog on citizenship education by Alan Sears and/or listen to the podcast of his presentation at our conference.

What should we teach our kids? In Bhutan, students practice mindful chocolate eating!

Great blog on measurement: The McNamara Fallacy and the Problem with Numbers in Education.

In this article, Wab Kinew and Annette Trimbee write about why Canada’s universities should mandate Indigenous courses.

This article about the teen brain will be helpful for anyone working with (or living with!) teenagers.

To keep up to date on all the latest social media news, check out our Facebookpage or follow us on twitter: @peoplefored, @anniekidder, @jacquistrachan.