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Cherry blossoms mean Spring is here in the PNW and dare we dream of summer break, summer travel and summer learning? See below for some great opportunities in person and virtually this year.
Photo of Victoria BC by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash
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Learn on the Columbia River this summer
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Follow the Columbia River from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean
Study Canada K-12 has an exciting scholarship opportunity for a special few educators in June 2023. WWU Professor “Tuti” Baker and UW’s Professor Morna Baker are leading a Field Course that will travel along the Columbia River in Canada and the USA, engaging with people whose lives are centered in the Columbia River Basin,with a focus on environmental justice,
Study Canada K-12 is looking for three educators to join the field course, travel the length of the river (June 18-30), and help us create resources for other educators. We will sponsor the registration fee ($750), which includes transportation, lodging, experiential learning, and clock hours/certificate. Participants will meet in Bellingham, WA, and travel through the B.C. Okanogan, the famed Columbia River Gorge, and end in Astoria, OR where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, learning on the river all along the way.
If you are interested in learning more, please check out this flyer and fill out this form so we can send the application. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Diversify Your French Virtual Summer Institute
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Study Canada K-12's other summer offering is the wide world of French…from the comfort of your home. The French language is so much more than the Eiffel Tower and baguettes. Expand your French teaching, curriculum, and worldview with our Virtual Summer Institute. Each Monday in July (July 10/17/24/31) we will explore a dialect, a world region, and an aspect of French with Professors and experts that will make your French classroom a more diverse and welcoming space.
Click here to receive more information and to sign up!
Image by Rachel Weiss, Bunny Studio.
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WWU's Children's Literature Conference
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What a thrill to be back in person at the WWU Children’s Literature Festival this February, marking the debut of our Distinguished Canadian Author/Illustrator presenter. We started with a bang: Sydney Smith, who came from Halifax, NS.
Smith charmed, informed, made live art, and even cartwheeled for Cathcart Elem. AND an auditorium of 500+ educators and students. He shared two sneak peeks: My Baba’s Garden [reviewed below] and Do You Remember? which will come out in the Fall. Not a dry eye in the house!
The bar is very high but if anyone can reach it, it's 2024 Distinguished Canadian Author/Illustrator…Jillian Tamaki.
See you there in February 2024!
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Hockey and Why Canada Matters
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Hockey isn't the only reason Canada Matters - but it's one of them, and both are topics being addressed in events available to you on Zoom!
Hockey Night in Cascadia on April 5th, 2023 from 5-7 pm PDT will have hockey historian Dr. Andrew Holman, Seattle Times reporter Geoff Baker and Seattle Kraken community engagement specialist, Andrew Bloom. Hockey has a long tradition of fostering binational relations between Canada and the United States through diplomacy, media, and economic exchange and Hockey Night in Cascadia will explore the sport as a catalyst for cross-border engagement and a vehicle for political, social, and economic impact.
Register here!
Also available: Why Canada Matters, a WWU Can/Am speaker series featuring six women scholars in Canadian Studies from across Canada. Recordings of events so far include:
How Canada Shaped America, and Why it Matters
Dr. Claire Campbell, Bucknell University
On Blackness and Belonging in North America
Dr. Debra Thompson, McGill University
Locating Slavery
Ph.D. candidate Sarah Chute, University of Toronto
How Vancouver Became a Global City
Frances Bula, University of British Columbia
Coming Soon:
April 14, 10am - Dr. Andrea Geiger, Prof Emerita, Simon Fraser University
May 23, 2pm - Dr. Loleen Berdahl, University of Saskatchewan
All these events are co-sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies,in partnership with the Western Alumni office.
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Our favorite time of the year is here - Canada Reads is back! Five Canadian celebrities champion the one book they think all Canadians should read and over the course of one week - March 27-30th - debate why their book should be chosen as the winner.
The 2023 contenders are:
The debates will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Listen and on CBC Books. The debates will take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET. You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. You can see all the broadcast details here. Some real favorites on this list, we can't wait to see who wins.
And this year there is a special Kids Book version with six books being celebrated (no winners, they are all winners!) for their ability to show kids inclusion, kindness and self-love. Check out the line-up here!
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Exciting new Canadian Children's books for Spring
My Baba's Garden
By Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith
Neal Porter Books for Ages 3-8
The newest book by WWU CLC presenter Sydney Smith, with the same beautiful art. Inspired by memories of his childhood, Jordan Scott’s My Baba’s Garden explores the sights, sounds, and smells experienced by a child spending time with their beloved grandmother (Baba), with special attention to the time they spent helping her tend her garden, searching for worms to keep it healthy.
Poet Jordan Scott and illustrator Sydney Smith’s previous collaboration, I Talk Like a River, which received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award expored a cherished memory shared between a father and son. In their new book, they turn that same wistful appreciation to the bond between a boy and his grandmother. Sydney Smith’s illustrations capture the sensational impressions of a child’s memory with iconic effect.
Returning to the Yakoun River
By Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson and Illustrated by Janine Gibbons
Highwater Press for Ages 5-8
Based on author Sara Florence Davidson’s childhood memories, this illustrated story captures the joy and adventure of a Haida fish camp. Every summer, a Haida girl and her family travel up the Yakoun River on Haida Gwaii, following the salmon. While their father fishes, the girl and her brother spend their time on the land playing and learning from Tsinii (Grandfather).
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I Hope
By Monique Gray Smith, Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
Orca Books for ages 2-5
From the publisher: The hopes we have for the children in our lives are endless. We want our young people to thrive and experience all that life has to offer, but we also feel protective of them. Using simple but powerful statements, Monique Gray Smith delivers a touching message about loving, nurturing and wishing the best for our children. Paired with Gabrielle Grimard's warm and enchanting illustrations, the message in I Hope will resonate with all parents, grandparents and caregivers
The Anti-Racist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes)
Orca Press for Grades 7-12
What if talking about racism was as easy as baking a cake, frying plantains or cooking rice? The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) is a celebration of food, family, activism and resistance in the face of racism. In this anthology featuring stories and recipes from 21 diverse and award-winning North American children's authors, the authors share the role of food in their lives and how it has helped fight discrimination, reclaim culture and celebrate people with different backgrounds. Chopped, seared, marinated and stewed, The Antiracist Kitchen highlights the power of sitting down to share a meal and how that simple act can help bring us all together.
Featuring recipes and stories from S.K. Ali, Bryan Patrick Avery, Ruth Behar, Marty Chan, Ann Yu-Kyung Choi, Hasani Claxton, Natasha Deen, Reyna Grande, Dierdre Havrelock, Jennifer de Leon, Andrea J. Loney, Janice Lynn Mather, Linda Sue Park
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Please share with fellow educators you think may be interested and subscribe here |
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K-12 Study Canada is part of the Title VI federally-funded National Resource Center with the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University and aims to enhance and strengthen a better understanding of the Canada and the Canada-U.S. relationship through teaching and education.
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