Phi Delta Kappa - University of Alberta Chapter

Welcome to Phi Delta Kappa University of Alberta Chapter

Next Dinner is Monday, Sept. 26, 2016

Phi Delta Kappa invites you to our upcoming dinner meeting:

Curriculum is foundational to children’s future and to the future of our province

Mr. Raja Panwar and Ms. Kim Brockhoff,
Alberta Education
Provincial Curriculum Development

At the Faculty Club $35 per person for members and $40 for non-members
No host bar 5:30 pm Meet and Mingle
Supper 6:00 pm
7:00 pm ... speakers and discussions

Tickets $35.00 member; $40.00 non-member
At the door cash, cheque, or credit card.
Limited seating! RSVP by Sept. 15, 2016 to
dolainekoch@shaw.ca

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - from Dr. Jeff Kuntz

Happy Canada Day! The months have been flying by! For me, May and June were a blur of
award ceremonies, graduations, and convocations. I happily attended six of these
functions, as an instructor and as a parent. And while sometimes these ceremonies dragged
(Grant MacEwan’s convocation lasted three and half hours!), they were excellent opportunities to reflect on and celebrate the importance of Alberta schooling. While there are always those who love to point out the
short comings in Alberta’s educational system (I see you, David Staples!), I was honored to
watch graduates, both young and old, confidently cross the stage. I’ve been able to watch many of these students persevere through their studies, and I know that our schools and teachers have really prepared them
for the next stage in their lives.

Just over a week ago, the PDK executive held its June board meeting to discuss membership,
fees, dinner meeting dates and opportunities for growth. In a recent email we learned that
our international membership numbers have interesting presentations (Thank you Duane and Lorraine!). In a recent email we learned thatour international membership numbers have
significantly declined over the past 20 years. At the local level we have been able to keep
our membership numbers relatively stable but our chapter is aging and younger teachers
either haven’t heard of our organization or don’t place the same value in the kind of face-to-
face networking we are known for. Perhapsit is time for our U of A PDK chapter to more
actively embrace social media (Facebook,Twitter, etc.). We have a Twitter account and it would beeasy enough to set up a Facebook profile; we just need someone who is interested inmaintaining such a page. Are you that person? I know that I’m not; I haven’t updated my own Facebook page in four or five years (It’s a bit of a running joke in our house.). Another membership idea we’d like to try is to have all our members take along at least one guest to each of our dinner meetings. If you know of teachers or education students who might appreciate what our chapter has to offer - please consider taking them along to our next dinner meeting on Monday, September 26th!

For the upcoming year we are trying to secure the Minster of Education, David Eggen, for our first meeting on Monday, September 26th. We’re quite interested in his recent announcement regarding comprehensive curriculum review. As many of you know, the former PC government initiated a review not that long ago that involved various school boards sub-contracted to rewrite significant parts of the programsof study. What has come of this work? Where will it all fit
into this new review? And what will the role of the ATA be in curricula review? (Minister Eggen has said that they will be full partners in the rewrite). I will let you know if and when Minster Eggen agrees to speak to us by sending out a special email and I may even tweet it out!

This year we have decided to pare back our dinner meetings from five a year to four. The January/early February meeting is usually a challenge to get enough interested attendees. So, for the coming year we have set the dates as:

September 26 (Monday),
November 28 (Monday),
February 21 (Tuesday), and
April 19 (Wednesday).

Please put these dates into your electronic and kitchen calendars! It is our plan to continue to examine emerging issues in Alberta’s Educational landscape as we did last year when we looked at leadership, assessment, and the influx of refugee students. This year we would like to host a panel providing various perspectives on how schools, districts and Alberta Education are responding to LGBTQ and transgendered rights. We are also looking at the initiatives
related to creating more sensitivity related to First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities. And of course, we will continue to promote and share recent educational research through our dissertation award and possibly through another research showcase of graduate student work. Of course, the meetings will continue to take shape as we chase down speakers and find the right fit for our needs.

Several other ideas floated out at our board meeting had to do with creating more of a PDK community outside of the four or five dinner meetings we host each year. I’d like to explore the idea of sharing our expertise and experience with young teachers through some kind of mentorship program or even
through a series of workshops. I may be contacting several of you to discuss these ideas and see if we can possibly work with the U of A, King’s, or Concordia to connect education students with practicing or retired teachers. I know that when I was teaching undergraduate courses several years ago, the
students really appreciated hearing about real-life scenarios from teachers who had to make the connections between theory and practice.

I wish all of you a very relaxing summer!

Jeff Kuntz

Stay tuned for more information regarding the upcoming program.
To register: Contact - Dolaine Koch dolainekoch@shaw.ca

Click here for more information on Chapter meeting dates for this year!