On Remembrance Day, as teachers honour and remember the sacrifices made by Canadian veterans, our discussions often touch on the impacts war has taken on veterans, their families, and civilian victims of conflict. These conversations may lead to deeper reflections on how war and conflict can become things of the past. November is the perfect month to expand upon these conversations by making peace and global education a classroom focus. At the elementary level, teachers can support students in developing strategies that promote peaceful relationships in classrooms and schools. Older students can begin to think about their role as global citizens, by investigating how Canada contributes both to peace and to conflict, and by learning about ways to take a stand for peace. This edition of Seeds of Social justice features resources to bring peace and global education into the classroom. For more resources, visit the BCTF Peace and Global Education web pages.

Veterans’ Week begins on November 5 and ends on Remembrance Day on November 11, with National Aboriginal Veterans Day, falling on November 8. The BCTF Peace and Global Education web pages provide suggestions for strategies to incorporate peace into the Remembrance Day activities in your classroom. BC Multiculturalism Week, on November 12–18, provides an opportunity to go beyond a superficial examination of cultural differences by supporting the development of inclusive attitudes. Resources and lesson plans to address inclusion in your classroom can be found on the BCTF Antiracism web pages. The Multiculturalism Act provides a point of departure for discussion with older students around British Columbia’s multiculturalism policy.

To teach about inclusion, it is important for teachers to develop an understanding of unconscious, or implicit bias. For more information on unconscious bias, ask the members of your local executive about what they learned at the recent fall zone meeting and visit the Implicit Bias section of the Raising Awareness and Delving Deeper pages of the BCTF Equity and Inclusion webpages.

On November 20, National Child Day, celebrate the United Nations Declaration and Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF Canada’s National Child Day webpage provides resources including an event kit to participate in Bring your MP to School Day, National Child Day activity kits and a child-friendly version of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance, on November 20 is dedicated to remembering victims of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. Consider booking the workshop Creating a Gender-Inclusive School Culture for a school-based or district-wide professional development day. The BCTF LGBTQ webpages contain lesson plans, books and videos to support the development of inclusive attitudes towards trans people, including the new BCTF brochure, Starting a GSA in BC Elementary Schools.

November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, kicks off sixteen days of action leading up to the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women on December 6. The resources What can you do? and the back of the Wear White for Women poster on the BCTF Status of Women web pages include classroom activities for the days of action.

The Acts of Transformation, from War Toys to Peace Art teaching resource guide has been recently updated to include links to the revised curriculum, and more current information and resources. The document includes several lesson plans along with resources and background information to help educators teach about peace. Promoting Cultures of Peace for Children is a non-profit organization that provides grants to support fine arts projects for children that promote cultures of peace and non-violence. For more information, visit the War Toys to Peace Art website.

The Peace and Global Education begins with me posters and lesson plans have been recently updated with links to more current resources. Find these and other Peace and Global Education Resources on the Global Education Posters page on the BCTF website.

To request hard copies of posters and booklets, email socialjustice@bctf.ca. Please include the name and number of each item along with your mailing address.

Creating Cultures of Peace In line with the big ideas and core competencies of the revised curriculum, this interactive workshop provides resources for teachers and their students to create peaceful learning communities, and to discuss current global realities. Activities will incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and discuss the effects of war and violence on children and youth. Lesson sequences will be provided and explored surrounding the Palestine-Israel conflict and Olympic Truce, which was recently revived by the International Olympic Committee to emphasize the role sport can play in building a more peaceful world.

Global Education: Bringing Global Education into your classroom (recently revised) Are you looking for new ways to energize how you teach existing units? Introducing a global perspective into your classroom can be challenging, but exciting. Bring your existing ideas, a current unit, or theme to this workshop and let us show you how to integrate, infuse, and deliver it from a global perspective at any grade level. A global education approach activates student interest as it increases personal engagement and involvement in the classroom, the surrounding community, and our world. This workshop is beneficial for K–12.

The TeachBC website contains lesson plans for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Lessons addressing all areas of the curriculum can be found on this site and downloaded for free. More BCTF/CIDA Global classroom Initiative lesson plans have been recently added to TeachBC. The original lesson plans, developed in 2008, were updated with links to more current resources and to correspond to the revised curriculum. Active Citizenship Project Honouring Human Rights and World Fair? have been recently posted to Teach BC and additional lessons will be added over the next few months. We invite you to take a few minutes to explore these and other Peace and Global Education lesson plans on the TeachBC site, and to post some of the social justice lessons you are using in your classroom.

Do you have a story to share about a social justice activity or project that you have carried out in your classroom, local, or community? Is there a social justice issue that you’d like to highlight for BCTF members? Why not write an article for the next edition of the Social Justice Newsletter? We are currently accepting articles of up to 500 words in length. Pictures help to tell your story, but please ensure that you have signed consent for publishing student photos. Please send a brief description of your idea for an article to bryeburn@bctf.ca.

The BCTF Executive Committee passed the following motion at their June 15–17, 2017 meeting: That the BCTF offer solidarity to the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is a grassroots solidarity movement that coordinates action between European, South African and Canadian non-governmental organizations calling for an end to the Israeli-imposed blockade on Gaza. This blockade, which has been in place since 2007, has prevented 1.8 million Palestinians from accessing the outside world and seriously impacted their living conditions, economic viability and social fabric. The goal of the FCC is to advocate for the end of the siege of the Gaza strip by demanding open and safe passage between Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the opening of the Gaza port. This non-partisan organization follows the principles of nonviolent resistance and advocates for the respect of human rights of all people. For more information, visit the websites of the FCC and their partner organization, Canadian Boat to Gaza

Do you have an idea for an activity in your school or classroom that promotes socially responsible teaching in an inclusive, safe, and healthy environment? The Ed May Social Responsibility Fund provides up to $2,000 for teachers to implement projects focused on promoting social justice in areas such as violence prevention, antiracism, antipoverty, gender equity, global education, environmental justice, sexual orientation, gender identity, and peace. For an application form and examples of past Ed May projects, visit the Grants and Funds page on the BCTF Social Justice web pages. The submission deadline is November 22, 2017.

Barb Ryeburn and Todd Patrick Assistant Directors of Social Justice

BC Teachers’ Federation 100-550 West 6th Avenue

Vancouver, BC V5S 4P2 604-871-1850 and 604-871-1821

Toll free: 1-800-663-9163 tpatrick@bctf.ca and bryeburn@bctf.ca

November 2017 Seeds BR:464/mho:tfeu