Agenda
└ SMU
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9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
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Welcome & Introduction of Keynote Guest |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 30
Emily McEwan-Fujita
Bradan Press
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A1 • Historical Fiction & Primary Sources as Resources for Teaching Nova Scotia Social Studies |
| This workshop presents and discusses examples of historical fiction and primary source material that can be used as resources for teaching Social Studies 5 and 7. The examples will focus on the Fortress of Louisbourg (relevant to Social Studies 5) and the Gaels of Nova Scotia (relevant to Social Studies 7). Using the ship Hector journey of 1773 as the backdrop to early Gaelic culture, and the return of the French citizens to Fortress of Louisbourg in 1749 as a window on French and Acadian history and culture, author Margaret MacKay will give examples of how she incorporated her research and museum artifacts into her original children’s historical fiction. She will also discuss how to use Nova Scotian primary sources and historical fiction in teaching the social studies outcomes. Margaret MacKay is a retired teacher from Pictou County and the author of two middle-grade novels: IAIN OF NEW SCOTLAND (2021) and LISETTE OF LOUISBOURG (2024), which has been shortlisted for the 2025-26 Hackmatack Award. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 30
Fanny Dagenais-Dion
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A2 • Connecting Students to the Perspectives of Young People Affected by Armed Conflicts |
| The Forced to Fight online interactive resource connects students to multiple perspectives to help them understand what it is like for young people living in situations of armed conflict around the world. Each interactive story invites students to explore the perspectives of children affected by armed conflict and consider difficult choices known as dilemmas. Students take into account the viewpoints of everyone involved to thoroughly examine goals and possible consequences. Many choices are, by necessity, made on impulse. The stories in Forced to Fight and accompanying lessons in the Humanitarian Education Curriculum Guidebook examine an array of humanitarian issues that arise as a result of armed conflict, including the impact of armed conflict on the environment and indigenous communities, refugees and forced migration, child soldiers, and sexual and gender-based violence. With connections to interactive learning points, students learn the basic rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and build an understanding of how IHL aims to protect those who are not or are no longer fighting in armed conflicts. The session concludes connecting themes across a range of humanitarian education high school resources to social studies concepts. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 30
Heather Montgomery, Bank of Canada Museum
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A3 • You are the Economy: Lessons and Activities to Support Economic Thinking |
| At this session the Bank of Canada Museum will walk you through You are the Economy: a set of six new lesson plans filled with activities that take students into the heart of the economic system. In this workshop you’ll learn to think like an economist, build budgets for yourself and others, connect Canadian industries together, explore historical data on immigration and trade, decode economic graphs, take part in an investing simulation, and more. This workshop will provide you some highly interactive activities you can use right away in your social studies, careers, business or economics classes. All resources are free and available in French and English. Participants will receive a full printed version of all materials. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 35
Tavis Bragg
Dr. Nathan Corbett
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A4 • Educator as Architect: Designing Real-World Learning That Heals, Feeds, and Moves |
In this session, Prof.Tavis Bragg, the principal investigator & director of Grow & Go, shares how one rural school became the site of an award-winning transformation: uniting sustainable agriculture, mental health programming, physical activity, and AI-driven research under one vision. Participants will explore how real-world, interdisciplinary learning can become a powerful tool for food security, wellness, and student agency. The session will also dive into how AI is used to track health, behaviour, and community impact, making data not just a reporting tool, but a feedback engine for growth. Educators will leave with a blueprint for launching their own integrated initiatives, including strategies for funding, partnership building, and curriculum alignment.
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10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 20
Sandra Murray
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A5 • Recognizing and Removing Barriers to Cultivate Creative Connections |
| Drawing on her decade of experience working with NSTU members and their families, Sandra will explore the common challenges teachers encounter that can limit creativity. She will also share strategies—both individual and collaborative—for building an environment where creativity can truly flourish. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 25
Jonathan Fowler
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A6 • The Journal of John Winslow and the 1755 Deportation of the Acadians |
| John Winslow was one of the most significant American military leaders of the generations before George Washington. Winslow’s career carried him to the corners of the Atlantic world, soldiers flocked to his banner, and his exploits were celebrated in song. But instead of creating a country, he destroyed one. Following the successful siege of the French Fort Beauséjour at Chignecto in 1755, Nova Scotia governor Charles Lawrence ordered Winslow to deport Acadian families from their settlements in the middle of the province. Winslow found these instructions both surprising and disturbing, but he followed them, recording his actions in his journal. This illustrated and interactive talk introduces the Winslow's Journal as an artifact and an invaluable primary source for understanding the catastrophe of 1755. We will explore the many archaeological, historical, and personal clues embedded—and sometimes concealed—within its pages. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 30
Gugu Hlongwane
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A7 • Decolonizing the Classroom: Challenges and Triumphs |
| The proposed paper will employ Decolonising the Mind, by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, to explore how intertextuality, as pedagogical strategy in literature, can generate meaningful, cross-cultural dialogue in the classroom. |
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Capacity: 30
Shana McGuire
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A8 • #MeToo Goes to the Movies: A Feminist Revolution in French Cinema |
| From its inception in 2017, the #MeToo movement has been met with significant resistance in France. An important turning point was finally reached in 2023, largely due to the bravery and persistence of women in the French film industry. This workshop will begin by exploring some reasons behind France's failure to hold sexual abusers to account, many of which stem from enduring beliefs central to French culture. We will then highlight examples of women whose powerful personal testimonies reveal a culture of impunity in French cinema, an industry that has long served as a cover for abuse. Workshop participants will discuss issues surrounding (anti)feminism, consent, cancel culture, and paths towards systemic change. |
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
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Break & Tour of Exhibit Hall |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Sandra Murray
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B1 • Recognizing and Removing Barriers to Cultivate Creative Connections |
| Drawing on her decade of experience working with NSTU members and their families, Sandra will explore the common challenges teachers encounter that can limit creativity. She will also share strategies—both individual and collaborative—for building an environment where creativity can truly flourish. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Fanny Dagenais-Dion
|
B2 • Connecting Students to the Perspectives of Young People Affected by Armed Conflicts |
| The Forced to Fight online interactive resource connects students to multiple perspectives to help them understand what it is like for young people living in situations of armed conflict around the world. Each interactive story invites students to explore the perspectives of children affected by armed conflict and consider difficult choices known as dilemmas. Students take into account the viewpoints of everyone involved to thoroughly examine goals and possible consequences. Many choices are, by necessity, made on impulse. The stories in Forced to Fight and accompanying lessons in the Humanitarian Education Curriculum Guidebook examine an array of humanitarian issues that arise as a result of armed conflict, including the impact of armed conflict on the environment and indigenous communities, refugees and forced migration, child soldiers, and sexual and gender-based violence. With connections to interactive learning points, students learn the basic rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and build an understanding of how IHL aims to protect those who are not or are no longer fighting in armed conflicts. The session concludes connecting themes across a range of humanitarian education high school resources to social studies concepts. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Temma Frecker
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B3 • Storypath in the Classroom |
| Using the educational framework of a StoryPath, an extended roleplaying scenario where students become characters, create a community, and then are challenged to use their creativity and resourcefulness to address a 'real world' problem. When I presented the workshop last year, three students who had participated in a StoryPath joined me to lead table discussions and answer any questions about their experience. In the workshop, I would guide teachers through a sped up version of a StoryPath that I have developed (focused on renewable energy) while prompting them to reflect on how they might use this approach in their own classrooms. My goal would be for teachers to see how this framework could be used in a transdisciplinary way, building bridges between multiple subject areas (e.g., Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, etc.). |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 25
Pheilm Martin
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B4 • Picture Books as Practice |
| I am a junior high Social Studies/Visual Arts teacher and a published children’s book author and illustrator. In my classroom, I regularly use children’s literature as a tool to explore Social Studies outcomes. I would like to lead a practical teaching seminar at the conference that focuses on using picture books to teach topics like Indigenous perspectives, geography, migration, empathy, the World Wars, local culture, and active citizenship. This session will feature a list of children’s books, each paired with specific original teaching resources I’ve developed to accompany them. My hope is that these resources provide educators with practical strategies for teaching Social Studies in meaningful and engaging ways. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Sonya Evans
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B5 • From Classroom to Community: Empowering Students Through Service Learning |
| This session explores how service learning can deepen student engagement in social studies by connecting classroom learning to real-world impact. Participants will discover strategies for offering students choice and autonomy in their projects, while fostering responsibility and independence through a gradual release approach. Practical resources—including planning tools, check-in forms, evaluations, reflections, and examples—will be provided to help teachers implement meaningful, student-driven service learning in their own classrooms. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Mary Hale
Emma McClure
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B6 • Let's Go to the SMUVies: The Intersection of Pop Culture, Deep Thinking, and Community Building |
| SMUVies is a collaborative project between a group of SMU Arts Professors and students that engages with pop culture as a way to explore big ideas. Over the last year we’ve presented on a range of topics, from Barbie to horror movies, music videos to reality TV. In this workshop, we will share some of what happens at a SMUVies event, and discuss the great fun and deep learning that has led to important community building. The workshop will provide space for sharing your own experiences with teaching popular culture and brainstorming how the SMUVies model might work in your classroom and school. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Alexa Dodge
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B7 • Responding to Technology-Facilitated Harms among Young People: What are We Getting Wrong & What Do Young People Want? |
| Technology-facilitated harms can range from acts that are often labeled “cyberbullying”, such as rumour spreading on social media, to those that might rise to the level of technology-facilitated violence, such as nonconsensually distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images. When young people are impacted by tech-facilitated harms, we know that many will not feel comfortable seeking help from adults in their lives due to fears of judgemental or disempowering responses. Based on over a decade of research in this area, Dr. Alexa Dodge will explain what we are getting wrong in the ways we talk about and respond to technology-facilitated harms among young people. Based on focus groups with young people across Canada conducted with the DIY: Digital Safety research group, Dr. Dodge will then explain what supports and responses young people say they want. |
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Laura Eastham
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B8 • Bones, Teeth, and Time: Bringing the Fossil Record into the Classroom |
| This talk explores how the fossil record, from the age of dinosaurs to modern mammals, can be used to engage students in big-picture questions about evolution, extinction, and climate change. Drawing on my own research in stable isotope analysis and paleoecology, I’ll share examples of how fossil hard tissues can reveal ancient diets and environments, and how these stories help students connect past ecosystems to today’s rapidly changing world. |
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
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Lunch (Provided—Loyola Conference Hall) |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 25
Kathryn Bremner
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C1 • Incorporating Waste Management into Your Classroom |
| Learn how waste management connects to so many different areas of environmental sustainability. Divert NS Learn how waste management connects to so many different areas of environmental sustainability. Divert NS will highlight a few of their newest educational resources, discussing how waste management is climate action, what we can do to reduce ocean plastics, and how our individual actions & choices related to waste reduction and management can have a huge impact. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Alan Dick
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C2 • Songs in the Social Studies Classroom |
| Using songs in traditional and non traditional ways in the classroom or session focused upon fostering a more engaging classroom. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Robyn Brown
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C3 • Holocaust Education: Resources and Reflection |
| Holocaust Educational Resources and Reflection. Sharing what works in the classroom every day. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 15
Peggy Danson
Davlyn Laing
Jenn Osborne
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C4 • Traditional Place Names in Mi'kma'ki |
| Our presentation is based on the Grade 11 Canadian History curriculum and explores the deep connection between the Mi'kmaq people, their land, and the significance of traditional place names in Mi'kma'ki. It examines how Indigenous place names reflect natural geography, cultural identity, and historical ties to the land. Through discussion, mapping activities, and a short video, participants compare traditional natural borders with modern, man-made ones, gaining insight into how colonialism reshaped the landscape. The lesson encourages critical thinking about language, identity, and sovereignty, highlighting the importance of preserving and respecting Mi'kmaq place names and their meanings. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Ryan Bucci
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C5 • UDL and Project Based Approach |
| I would like to explore the Grade 7 and 8 Social Studies curriculum and share the UDL and project-based approach I have developed. I was fortunate to join a school piloting the new curriculum and have spent several years creating and refining module-based units for each course. An important part of the session will also focus on potential AI use cases within these courses. I have earned ambassador program roles for both MagicSchool AI and Brisk Teaching based on how I have integrated their tools into my teaching practice. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
James Kwateng-Yeboah
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C6 • Decolonizing Canadian Christianity: African Immigrant Churches and the Reimagining of Belonging |
| Since the 1990s, scholars have increasingly documented the rise of African-initiated churches across Europe and North America. Yet Canada remains underrepresented in this conversation. In 2016, Statistics Canada ranked Africa as the second-largest source continent of recent immigrants—surpassing Europe—yet the religious experiences of African immigrants in Canada remain largely overlooked. This presentation examines the growing presence of African Christian communities in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Drawing on surveys, observations, and interviews, it explores how members navigate overlapping identities as ‘Canadian,’ ‘African,’ and ‘Christian.’ While these communities are expanding, they continue to face marginalization—both socially and within public discourse—compared to Canada’s dominant English Protestant and French Catholic traditions. Despite this, African immigrant churches assert their agency by challenging cultural and religious stereotypes, integrating multiple identities, and offering alternative visions of faith and belonging. This presentation highlights how African Christian immigrants are actively contributing to the decolonization of Canadian Christianity—redefining what it means to be Canadian, African, and Christian in the process. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Jennifer VanderBurgh
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C7 • Margaret Perry's (Newly Available!) Nova Scotia Film Bureau Films (1945-1969) + Teacher's Guides |
| This session provides an introduction to a newly digitized collection of 50 films that were made by Nova Scotia's government filmmaker, Margaret Perry, for the Nova Scotia Film Bureau between 1945–1969. These films that document aspects of everyday life in the region are outward-facing and free to use for classroom teaching on Nova Scotia Archive's website. They are also accompanied by teacher's guides (also available via Nova Scotia Archives) that align the films with aspects of Nova Scotia curriculum. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Soji Cole
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C8 • Dismantling Claustral Apprehension in Classrooms with CDC (Class Discussion Café) |
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Paulo Freire’s vision of education in the manner of “practice of freedom (bell hooks) appears antithetical to some of the practices that teachers adopt in classroom teachings. While the intention of teachers is to make students learn and become responsible future citizens, the proliferation and easy access to internet technologies have completely limited the scope of teaching while expanding the outlets of learning. Thus, in contemporary understanding, learners have personal access to all the information that will enhance their learning, and a teacher’s job is merely to help learners process the information. The consequence of this shift in pedagogical paradigm is that learners are likely to perceive classrooms as a temporary encampment used for hosting a repetition of boring exercises. To mitigate this consciousness, teachers must continually create a classroom learning landscape where the structures of knowledge are not only adaptable and easily absorbable by learners, but they must also employ mechanisms that make knowledge transfer and information processing creative and easy.
This workshop explores CDC (Classroom Discussion Café) as a supportive mechanism for classroom teaching. Having taught at the university level for about fourteen years, and with different universities across two continents, I have developed, remodeled, and constantly redesigned CDC to make it adaptable for every classroom learning environment. The CDC attracts aural, visual, and tactile modes of individual, and group learning system, helping to enhance the value of personal voice and fostering collaborative community thinking among learners. The goal of the workshop is to demonstrate how CDC works with students thereby encouraging teachers to consider the adoption and domestication of the mechanism for their classroom use. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 25
Sonya Evans
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C9 • From Classroom to Community: Empowering Students Through Service Learning |
| This session explores how service learning can deepen student engagement in social studies by connecting classroom learning to real-world impact. Participants will discover strategies for offering students choice and autonomy in their projects, while fostering responsibility and independence through a gradual release approach. Practical resources—including planning tools, check-in forms, evaluations, reflections, and examples—will be provided to help teachers implement meaningful, student-driven service learning in their own classrooms. |
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Capacity: 30
Maria Gomez
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C9 • Teaching in a Time of Global Crises |
| In this short workshop on Teaching in a Time of Global Crises, we will collectively explore what we mean by “crisis”—whether ecological, political, economic, or social—and how these overlapping challenges shape our teaching practices in the classroom. Drawing on my own experiences teaching undergraduates about hate crimes and international criminal justice, I will share some of the tensions I’ve encountered and the practices I’ve incorporated to encourage reflective thinking and relational learning. |
2:45 p.m.
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Annual General Meeting (AGM—Loyola Conference Hall) |
