Oct. 25 Pro-D Reflection -- BCSSTA Conference

This past Friday I participated in the BC Social Studies Teachers' Association Pro-D held at UBC. The morning started off with a keynote speech by Chantal Hebert. I had never heard Chantal speak before, but I would happily start seeking out her journalistic segments on CBC. She provided a really engaging and thorough summary and analysis of the current political scene in the Canadian context. One particularly poignant point she made was the distinction between policy and politics. Indeed, politics often stands in the way of policy progression. 

In the morning session, I participated in a workshop on teaching antisemitism and the Holocaust. This workshop was based on the recent BC mandate to teach about the Holocaust in SS10. One thing I was surprised to learn was that roughly 1/3 of North American students think that the Holocaust either didn't happen or is often exaggerated. This was obviously a bit of a solemn workshop, but it provided a good intro to potential approaches and assignments. I do think there were blindspots in the messaging, particularly in the current affairs of antisemitism and Israel. Still, it did get me thinking about the content distribution of my future SS classes.

In the afternoon session, I attended a presentation on enhancing argumentation in the classroom. This was an exceptionally informative and practical session. The speaker recently finished her Master of Social Studies Education at UBC. Her thesis was about organizing courses around the principle of argumentation. She presented her research in a user-friendly way with sequential tips on how to effectively shape units around an essential question, and she provided dozens of resources for our own research and for our students' use. I left feeling inspired to centre argumentation in my future classes as a way to develop essential skills of stating claims and backing them with evidence.