The BCTELA October 19th Conference has a stellar line up of presenters and keynote Jeff Wilhelm!!

Once again, the BCTELA student writing contest is open for entries!! Please spread the word to your colleagues!

Selected winners will have their writing published in Voices Visible and will receive a copy. It is an exciting way for B.C. learners to have an authentic experience with writing and being published!

The submission deadline is April 30, 2018.

You must be a BCTELA member to have your students entries qualify. You can join online through this website, or go to the BCTF website and choose BCTELA as a your PSA for only $35 for the year (payment is through BCTF).

Two options for submitting:

1. Paper copy
2. Or go to this URL: http://tinyurl.com/VoicesVisible

Download (PDF, 458KB)

We are getting excited about our upcoming conference in the fall!!

“Inquiry, Identity and Inclusion: Inspiring learners into action”

Keynote Speaker: Jeffrey Wilhelm

If you are interested in presenting, please download the presenter form, fill it out and then email it to to the contact person below.  We know this will be another rich, engaging and inspiring conference and this year it will be back in the lower mainland (Port Moody), an easy skytrain ride to Moody Middle School.

Download (PDF, 174KB)

Deadline to submit program proposals is March 15th, 2018. Email as an attachment to Kate Campbell, katcampbell@sd38.bc.ca.

Can’t wait to see you there!! 🙂

Hundreds of BC Teachers were lucky to hear Ivan Coyote’s keynote address at the recent BCTELA regional conference in October. Some of them also took advantage of Ivan’s workshops over the day. Ivan has also generously supplied us with a great list of resources, below. We are so grateful for their work with BC Teachers.

To start, here’s Ivan’s TEDX Vancouver Talk, We all need a safe place to pee:

Ivan’s descriptions and links:

1. This is a very interesting manifesto that a Jewish reform group put together about how they could support the rights of transgender people in their temple:

Making Our Priorities Clear: The Rights of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People – Union for Reform Judaism

2. This is a very practical guide put together by a union on how to support it’s members throughout transition:

Workers in Transition: A Practical Guide about Gender Transition for Union Representatives – Canadian Labour Congress

3. This is a very comprehensive guide to the issues around implementing and fighting for gender neutral bathrooms:

Toilet Training Companion Guide for Activists and Educators – Sylvia Rivera Law Project

4. The Silvia Rivera Law project has many other valuable resources which you can access here. They are US-based, but a lot of the material is still very relevant:

Resources -Sylvia Rivera Law Project

5. Here is a link to a great guide to trans and gender variant terminology:

Glossary of Terms-Trangender – GLAAD

6. This is a very helpful reference guide put together for journalists and media people when speaking or writing about trans people. Contains great information for everybody.

Media Reference Guide – The 519/Rainbow Health Ontario

7. Here is a link to an article about the singular they pronoun:

How using ‘they’ as a singular pronoun can change the world -Feministing

8. Here is a link to a campus pride index that rates colleges and universities across the US based on criteria about how safe they are for GLBTQ students. I would really like to see us start to frame our discussions about our school districts in a similar fashion, and make working for a safer school a bit of a competition. What an amazing difference re-framing the conversation could make:

Campus Pride Index 

9. And here is another link with a decent comprehensive overview of the main issues re: making campuses safer for trans people. (Canadian based):

Universities for all genders – University Affairs

Feel free to add your favourites in the comments!

Our annual fall conference is coming this week, and what a line-up! You can register at the door, although the online conference registration is open until October 17th, at 11:59 pm. Don’t forget the wine and cheese on Thursday night!

The Fall 2017 issue of English Practice, our peer-reviewed journal, is hot off the presses!

If you are inspired to contribute to English Practice, you can follow this link to the 2018 Call For Articles.

Our Voices Visible writing contest information is ready to go for this school year!

Important documents:

Voices Visible Poster 2017-18 – Put up at your school!

Voices Visible 2017 2018 Writing Contest Entry Form-BCTELA

What a great team working hard for you at your Professional Specialist Association! See you in Kelowna!