Staying Well at Home

On behalf of the EdCan Board and Advisory Council, we wish our network members across the country continued safety and wellness during this challenging time. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the healthcare professionals and other essential workers who can’t stay home and are keeping the rest of us healthy, safe and well supplied with what we need to get through this. EdCan staff have been fortunate to be able to continue working virtually without missing a beat and have been strategizing how best to leverage our high-quality learning content to support your well-being through this overwhelming experience. 

Your Membership Benefits – Shifting from Well at Work to Well at Home

We know that you’re not only focused on ensuring the safety of your loved ones, but also care a great deal about how your colleagues and students are dealing with this crisis. Many of you are also being asked to deliver distance learning during extremely distracting circumstances. This is a lot for you to deal with. As you may already know, one of EdCan’s core initiatives is Well at Work, which aims to shift mindsets by showcasing research, policy and practice that results in healthier, happier, and more resilient K-12 staff. We’ve temporarily pivoted our focus to Well at Home, because there’s no better time for you to explore our current collection of podcasts, blog posts and magazine articles as well as the latest research resources that we will continue to update to help you focus on your own well-being to maintain your strength for those who need you the most right now. 

Although our Pan-Canadian Summit on K-12 Staff Well-Being is postponed until November 2-4, we remain dedicated to continue providing you with relevant learning opportunities featuring the foremost experts on this topic. As such, we’re excited to announce that we will be hosting a series of free webinars over the next few months with the goal of maintaining momentum on this crucial issue. Our first webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 15th at 1:00 PM (EST) presented by Mindfulness Everyday. Heidi Bornstein and Stephen Chadwick will be in their homes and we will be in ours and hope you will join us for some virtual “me time” to recharge and refocus during this difficult period. They will be presenting a live public webinar and four small group community meet-ups for EdCan members. The second webinar, on Tuesday, April 30th at 1:00 PM (EST), will be hosted by The Behavioural Insights Team. Information detailing registration and other future webinars will be coming soon!

Well at Work Professional Development Discussion Kit

For those of you taking advantage of your PLNs to stay connected, I encourage you to use our newly-released Well at Work Professional Development Discussion Kit, which complements our Winter 2019 edition of Education Canada Magazine and offers group discussion and self-reflection guides that unpack how we can (and why we must) strengthen our social and emotional wellbeing to achieve healthier schools and better learning experiences for students.  

Additional Relevant Magazine Topics to Explore

Beyond the topic of well-being, we just released our latest Education Canada Magazine focus on The Greening of Schools where we take a closer look at environmental education and leadership around greener schools design and practice.

We look forward to releasing a special web-exclusive edition of our May issue focusing on Education and the Skilled Trades to help counter the stigma and articulate the value of skilled trades and how our education system is fostering the skills and knowledge students require to meet the workforce needs of tomorrow. 

Tell Us What You Need

Of course, as you probably know, your EdCan membership provides not only our latest magazine articles, but also grants you unlimited access to our vast archive of evidence-based content to help you explore what the research says on some of the most complex issues facing educators today. If you haven’t already logged into our website using your institutional email address to take full advantage of the high-quality professional learning content that EdCan has to offer, we encourage you to do so. Please follow us on our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram accounts and subscribe to our e-newsletters for the latest updates, and let us know how we can continue to support you and your colleagues. 

Please stay home, stay safe and know that better times are ahead for all of us.

Max Cooke
EdCan CEO
mcooke@edcan.ca
@max_cooke