George Stroumboulopoulos (C.M.) is a multifaceted storyteller, broadcaster, producer, and filmmaker with unparalleled Canadian media experience and one of North America’s most popular and respected broadcasters. He produces and hosts STROMBO on Apple Music’s global radio platform, and is a curator for Apple’s book club, Strombo’s Lit. This dynamic keynote will speak to educators about a variety of topics. It is in the format of a fireside chat so have your questions ready, especially if they are around education!
George Stroumboulopoulos
Dans le cadre de la conférence "Jouer et écrire à partir des livres", Anne-Marie Fortin, consultante en littérature jeunesse et autrice, vous propose une quinzaine de jeux, d'ateliers d'écriture et de situations orales inspirés des livres qui captivent les jeunes. Elle partagera des titres de romans, d’albums, de bandes dessinées et de documentaires qui peuvent servir de déclencheur ou d'inspiration pour créer des jeux ou des ateliers d'écriture passionnants. Grâce à ces exercices d'écriture, les élèves pourront, à l'oral ou à l'écrit, rehausser leurs compétences linguistiques, incluant notamment les interactions orales, le vocabulaire, la phonétique, la compréhension de textes et l'expression écrite.
L'objectif de cette formation pratique : faire plonger les élèves dans l'univers des livres et susciter leur passion... sans même qu'ils sen rendent compte! Prêt à transformer la lecture en une aventure littéraire créative?
Anne-Marie Fortin
Pouce carré
Discover the transformative power of Hip Hop in the classroom with "Bless The Mic," a workshop designed for Grade 4-8 teachers across all subjects. Participants will embark on a journey to learn the art of rap, acquiring valuable skills and insights to share with their students. By learning how to integrate Hip Hop into the curriculum, educators will unlock a world of creativity, self-expression, and inclusivity, developing an environment where students can embrace their unique voices and appreciate the cultural significance of the Hip Hop art form. Prepare to revolutionize your teaching approach and witness the profound impact that Hip Hop can have on both students and educators alike.
Jon Corbin
Hip Hop Headucatorz
Michael Grandsoult
Hip Hop Headucatorz
Are you struggling with children making cruel comments about each other's bodies in your classroom or on the playground? As eating disorders, fat-shaming and children's dissatisfaction with their bodies continue to grow, new research as to how to speak with children about their bodies at school grows alongside it. This educational workshop will provide concrete exercises and picturebooks that teachers can use to begin to help shift conversations in their classrooms from body-shaming to body positivity. I'll be handing out a bunch of picturebooks for teachers to take as well. Come grab free books!
Shoshana Magnet
Are you interested in developing strategies to help meet the diverse needs of your students? Participants will explore how applying universal design for learning, differentiated instruction, and tiered approaches for interventions in the classroom will assist in creating classroom instructional practices that focus on identifying and accommodating the needs of all learners and decrease learning barriers that may exist. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to explore tools and strategies to use in the classroom to meet the needs of their students.
Heather Weber
ETFO POR
In this workshop, participants will assess the barriers and challenges to implementing 2SLGBTQ+ human rights education and identify solutions and strategies to address them. Members will deepen their understanding of relevant policies and legislation and will be provided with tools to leverage this knowledge to support authentic and transformative approaches. Particular attention will be paid to the importance of employing an intersectional approach to 2SLGBTQ+ education, as well as best practices to address concerns of competing human rights.
Matthew Carroll
ETFO POR
Propeller Dance founder Shara Weaver, and founding Dance Company members Bella Bowes and Moni Hoffman will lead an active workshop sharing techniques to engage youth with and without disabilities through dance. These exercises and techniques can be applied in a variety of learning spaces and do not require previous knowledge of dance. This workshop will bring together dance moves, engagement tools, and accessible practice in a fun and informative workshop. Engage, move, and ask questions in this interactive workshop looking at inclusive contemporary dance and how it can be used in your classrooms.
Shara Weaver
Propellor Dance
Moni Hoffman
Propellor Dance
Bella Bowes
Propellor Dance
This in-person workshop supports educators in understanding how trauma can influence brain development, learning readiness, and classroom behavior. Drawing on current neuroscience and developmental psychology, the session explains how adverse experiences affect attention, emotional regulation, memory, and executive functioning in children and adolescents. Participants will explore how trauma-related responses may appear in classrooms as disengagement, heightened reactivity, anxiety, or inconsistent performance—often reflecting adaptation rather than intent. The workshop emphasizes trauma-informed perspectives that support learning while maintaining appropriate academic expectations. Educators will gain psychologically informed insights into what to notice, how to interpret student behavior, and how classroom structure, predictability, and relationships can support regulation and learning. Strategies discussed focus on feasible, evidence-based classroom supports that reduce re-traumatization and promote engagement within real-world school constraints.
Dr. Connie Dalton, C.Psych
Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (OICBT)
Cet atelier de développement professionnel est conçu pour outiller les enseignants à stimuler la curiosité et l’engagement des élèves grâce à l’apprentissage par l’enquête. On y propose des activités pratiques, dont une exploration « Sacs Surprises », ainsi que des stratégies concrètes pour planifier et enrichir une sortie éducative au Musée des sciences et de la technologie du Canada. Les participants repartiront avec des idées applicables en classe pour rendre les sciences plus vivantes, inclusives et significatives.
Catherine Émond
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Get ready for an electrifying experience with Omnikin—where fast-paced action meets inclusivity and teamwork! This session is dedicated to fostering camaraderie, good sportsmanship, and an active lifestyle among kids.
Discover the joy of introducing accessible and enjoyable sports to children, instilling confidence and a love for physical activity. From Fassen Ball to Kin-Ball to Ultimate Rugby, there's a game tailored for every participant, ensuring everyone can join in while emphasizing fairness and cooperation.
Equipped with Omnikin's vibrant and durable balls, you'll have all you need to kickstart the fun. Learn how to instill responsibility and accountability in competitive scenarios, all while nurturing teamwork and inclusivity. Whether it's finger dribbling, running, dodging, or targeting, Omnikin Sports offers something for every child.
Paolo Zambito
Kin-Ball Canada
This workshop explores the invisible emotional, mental, and logistical load women carry while balancing caregiving responsibilities with career aspirations and leadership goals. Grounded in an intersectional feminist lens, it examines how systemic barriers—such as gendered expectations,racism, capitalism, and the “ideal worker”model—shape women's experiences and often make them feel the need to put dreams on pause. Through reflection, storytelling, and strategy-building, participants will reframe career detours as wisdom, not failure, and learn how to advocate for their goals while honouring family needs. The session emphasizes allyship, and collective support, empowering women to reconnect with their ambitions and move forward together.
Jaclyn Miles
ETFO Greater Essex
A slow, grounding yoga experience designed to calm the nervous system and restore balance. Through gentle movement, breathwork, and simple regulation tools, this workshop helps participants shift out of stress and into a state of ease they can access long after class ends.
Josh Towell
Many OCDSB schools are already using unlearn. posters to spark critical thinking and belonging. But what comes next? This interactive session supports educators in moving from visual engagement to deeper critical thinking, student writing, and meaningful dialogue. Participants will explore strategies for addressing current events and complex conversations in age-appropriate ways while maintaining psychological safety and inclusive classrooms. Through curriculum-linked examples (Language – Oral Communication, Reading, Writing; Social Studies; The Arts), educators will learn how to use unlearn. visuals as inspiration for persuasive, narrative, and reflective writing, media literacy analysis, and inquiry-based discussions. The session models practical discussion protocols that build critical literacy, challenge assumptions, and amplify student voice. Participants will also explore strategies for creating inclusive learning environments where students can show up as their authentic selves and experience a genuine sense of belonging.
Abhi Ahluwalia
unlearn.
This panel brings together educators and a human rights advocate to explore what it means to equip educators in today’s classrooms, where students are navigating complex global events. Panelists will share practical, age-appropriate ways to respond to students’ questions, while balancing curriculum expectations with students’ emotional and social realities.Grounded in a human rights lens, the discussion will address how educators can create spaces of healing and belonging, navigate pushback, and advocate for both their students and themselves. With a focus on moving forward with confidence and care, this conversation offers support and hope for educators engaging in challenging but essential work.
Yolanda B'Dacy
Andrew Campbell
Joel Westheimer
This workshop will explore how to monitor student growth through assessment for learning techniques, such as, using descriptive feedback, effective use of rubrics, and more.
Tracey Tinley
ETFO
Barbara Brockmann
Ottawa Carleton District School Board
Many of our students have learned that math is rote memorizing procedures to get answers. While algorithms are amazing historic achievements, they have been terrible teaching tools because they can trap students in limited, less-sophisticated reasoning. In this keynote, author Pam Harris invites us to reimagine math instruction—avoiding the trap of algorithms and teaching students to reason like mathematicians, getting better results for more students.
Pam Harris
Math is FigureOutAble
Fostering Self-Regulation in Kindergarten: In this interactive workshop,
educators will explore how self-regulation is helpful in understanding children, the power and importance of relationships, and how to foster self-regulation through classroom practice. Educators will deepen their knowledge and consider current research and best practices in the early years. Documenting and Communicating Learning in Kindergarten: In this interactive workshop educators will explore the process of documentation and the ways that documentation supports children’s learning. Educators will deepen their knowledge about a range of practices and strategies for effective communication of learning with parents and children.
Tracy Sims
ETFO
L’IA générative ouvre de puissantes affordances pour les enseignantes et enseignants de langues, tout en soulevant des questions pressantes. Comment intégrer l’IA de manière à renforcer le pouvoir d’agir des enseignants, tout en aidant les apprenants à développer la littératie en IA (Long & Magerko, 2020) nécessaire pour composer avec des risques tels que les biais algorithmiques (Baker & Hawn, 2022) et la surdépendance cognitive (Zhai et al., 2024) ? Cet atelier propose des stratégies concrètes d’intégration des outils d’IA en classe, au service de l’acquisition langagière et d’une littératie critique de l’IA. Les participantes et participants exploreront des séquences pédagogiques fondées sur des cycles structurés, alternant travail avec et sans IA, et accompagné de tâches réflexives sur les forces et les limites de la technologie. En mettant au premier plan les enseignants et les apprenants comme « humains dans la boucle », l’atelier présente l’IA non comme un raccourci, mais comme un exosquelette : un outil puissant que les apprenants doivent apprendre à piloter, avec l’accompagnement de leurs enseignants, pour soutenir leur agentivité et leur développement (Séror, 2025).
Generative AI offers powerful new affordances for language educators, but also pressing questions. How can we integrate AI in ways that empower teachers while helping students develop the AI literacy (Long & Magerko, 2020) needed to navigate risks like algorithmic bias (Baker & Hawn, 2022) and cognitive over-reliance (Zhai et al., 2024)? This workshop offers practical strategies for integrating AI tools in language classrooms to foster both language acquisition and critical AI literacy. Participants will explore pedagogic sequences that engage students in structured cycles of work with and without AI, accompanied by reflexive tasks examining the technology's strengths and limitations. By positioning teachers and learners as essential "humans in the loop," the workshop reframes AI not as a shortcut, but as an exoskeleton, a powerful tool students must learn to pilot under instructor guidance to support agency and growth (Séror, 2025).
Jérémie Séror
Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, University of Ottawa
Following the popular format of Manie Musicale, this workshop will take teachers through the process of running an Indigenous Beats Bracket (the other Manie Musicale) in their classrooms and schools. We will do a walk-through of the three-week unit plan, discussing possible classroom lessons, projects, and strategies for engaging students in meaningful discussions about Indigenous artists, languages, and music. We will also look at appropriate use of symbols and language when introducing and running this event. While the Indigenous Beats Bracket (the other Manie Musicale) can be run at any time, a timeframe will be offered up for those schools wishing to collaborate on running the event simultaneously and tabulating results across multiple schools.
Tamara Jones
Meg Fracke
This bilingual workshop, focuses on empowering students to express their authentic voices in writing. The session emphasizes the importance of building a sense of self and confidence, both for educators and students, as foundational to effective writing. Key objectives include understanding self-identity, defining the “Circle of Expectations,” and practicing strategies that reinforce confidence in student writing. The presentation draws on educational research highlighting the value of small wins, high standards, and belonging to boost student engagement and achievement. Practical activities such as affirmations, gratitude letters, and peer feedback are suggested to nurture self-expression. The workshop also encourages teachers to use gentle reminders and public reinforcement—like classroom displays and assemblies—to celebrate students’ growth. The ultimate goal of this workshop is to create a supportive environment where every student feels valued and empowered to write authentically.
Hanieh Khoshkhou
e-Tree Group
Anuka Dey
Alex Derry
George Stroumboulopoulos (C.M.) is a multifaceted storyteller, broadcaster, producer, and filmmaker with unparalleled Canadian media experience and one of North America’s most popular and respected broadcasters. He produces and hosts STROMBO on Apple Music’s global radio platform, and is a curator for Apple’s book club, Strombo’s Lit. This dynamic keynote will speak to educators about a variety of topics. It is in the format of a fireside chat so have your questions ready, especially if they are around education!
George Stroumboulopoulos
For many students, math is intimidating—leading to anxiety, disengagement, and self-doubt. But what if math class could be a place where every student feels confident and capable? This transformative session helps educators rethink how they teach math by focusing on identity, confidence, and a sense of belonging.
Liesl McConchie provides research-backed methods to help students develop strong math skills while fostering a positive self-concept as capable mathematicians.
*Understand the connection between a student’s emotional relationship with math and their academic achievement.
*Learn strategies to reduce math anxiety and create a more inclusive, confidence-boosting math classroom.
*Discover how students form their math identity and how it affects their motivation and achievement.
*Implement engaging, simple strategies to support all students to develop a healthy and positive math identity.
*Cultivate a classroom culture where all students see themselves as capable mathematicians.
Liesl McConchie
TYS Speakers
Are you interested in integrating STEAM into your classroom, but don’t know where to start? Are you looking for ways to make your curriculum more meaningful and relevant for your students? Then this workshop is for YOU!
In this workshop, you will learn about the inquiry process and how to incorporate it into your own curriculum. You will also learn about creating a meaningful inquiry framework that provides opportunities for your students to be change makers in their own community.
and
Are you new to AI? In this session you’ll gain valuable insights into AI's role as your personal teacher assistant, learn basic core concepts, and explore practical applications, to revolutionize your classroom dynamics. Learn how to unlock AI's potential for personalized, engaging, and effective education.
Anu Bahri
Elementary Teacher's Toronto
This workshop will explore how Kindergarten educators can support students’ understanding and development of mathematical concepts and skills through play. We will discuss how conceptual understandings within the Ontario Kindergarten Program document can support educators in making math thinking and learning visible to students through authentic and meaningful experiences and what it means to co-create a “math-rich” environment. The workshop will include a balance of pedagogical considerations, practical ideas and suggestions as we explore and collaboratively share and reflect on practices that will support math learning through play.
Michelle McKay
Peel District School Board
Klara Redford
Peel District School Board
Multilingual language learners (MLL) bring rich knowledge and lived experiences into our classrooms. Their multifaceted identities make learning spaces interesting, diverse and impactful. This workshop will help educators think critically about how to build asset based classrooms for MLL as well as support them with intentional strategies. Asset based pedagogical approaches affirm the identities of MLL learners while also leveraging their linguistic, cultural strengths and experiences as valuable resources for learning. This is an intentional way to disrupt and work against common definite oriented narratives. Educators will have the opportunity to engage deeply with these ideas through critical reflection, inclusive strategies, examples and case studies.
Rabia Khokhar
TDSB Teacher, Rabia Teaches: Consulting Company
This presentation focuses on building practical understanding and confidence when supporting autistic students in the classroom. Participants will gain insight into the diverse strengths and needs of autistic learners and learn how small, thoughtful adjustments can create meaningful improvements for all students. The session introduces practical tools and evidence-based strategies to support learning, motivation, and engagement, while encouraging participation and celebrating each student’s unique talents. Educators will also explore effective approaches for supporting student wellbeing, including strategies to help learners manage stress and regulate emotions in classroom settings. By the end of the presentation, participants will leave with actionable ideas they can apply immediately to foster inclusive, supportive, and responsive learning environments.
Cassie Steepe
Sonderly
This is a 90-minute interactive workshop designed to strengthen educators’ confidence and effectiveness when faced with simple to complex decisions. Participants are guided through a self-assessment of their current decision-making style and learn to recognize common factors that contribute to hesitation, overthinking, and indecisiveness. The workshop explores “positions of weakness” that can undermine assertiveness—such as fear of conflict, perfectionism, or work overload. Educators are introduced to a practical framework for assertive decision making that emphasizes clarity, confidence, and timely action. Drawing on evidence-based strategies from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), participants learn tools to manage unhelpful thought patterns, regulate emotional responses, and strengthen decisiveness under pressure. By the end of the session, educators leave with concrete strategies to develop a position of strength and make clear, confident, and assertive decisions in their professional and personal lives.
Dr. Andrew Miki
Mental Fitness
Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) is the evidence-based, trauma-informed, neurodiversity affirming model of care that helps caregivers focus on identifying the problems that are causing concerning behaviors in kids and solving those problems collaboratively and proactively. The model is a departure from approaches emphasizing the use of consequences to modify concerning behaviors. In families, general and special education schools, inpatient psychiatry units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities, the CPS model has a track record of dramatically improving behavior and dramatically reducing or eliminating discipline referrals, detentions, suspensions, restraints, and seclusions. The CPS model is non-punitive, non-exclusionary, trauma-informed, transdiagnostic, and transcultural.
Kim Hopkins, LICSW
Lives in the Balance
This panel brings together educators and a human rights advocate to explore what it means to equip educators in today’s classrooms, where students are navigating complex global events. Panelists will share practical, age-appropriate ways to respond to students’ questions, while balancing curriculum expectations with students’ emotional and social realities.Grounded in a human rights lens, the discussion will address how educators can create spaces of healing and belonging, navigate pushback, and advocate for both their students and themselves. With a focus on moving forward with confidence and care, this conversation offers support and hope for educators engaging in challenging but essential work.
Yolanda B'Dacy
Andrew Campbell
Joel Westheimer
Focus:
-How wellness frameworks often exclude educators of colour
-Moving beyond performative mindfulness
-Collective care vs. individual resilience
Takeaways:
-Language shifts
-More inclusive approaches to staff wellness"
Jas Bhandal
Yoga with Jas
Modern classrooms place continuous demands on attention, emotion, and sensory processing. Over time, this can leave educators feeling overstimulated, depleted, and stuck in a heightened stress response that’s hard to reset during the day.
This practical, science-informed workshop explores how nervous system dysregulation and sensory overload develop in teaching environments, and how mindfulness can interrupt these cycles. Participants gain a clear understanding of how stress shows up in the body, why it escalates, and how to recognize early signs before reactivity takes over.
Blending accessible explanation with hands-on practice, the session equips educators with a simple mindfulness technique they can use immediately, along with brief, realistic strategies for restoring steadiness between classes, during transitions, or after challenging interactions. Attendees leave with tools that support clarity, emotional recovery, and greater resilience throughout the school day, without adding another task to an already full schedule.
Dr. Brian Dower, DC
Lumen Mindfulness
This experiential workshop offers teachers concrete and effective ways to implement art activities into the daily routine so as to encourage co-regulation.
During our time together we will explore what art can offer both students and teachers to reduce stress and increase resiliency. Using simple materials we’ll spend some time in an art making experience that informs our learning and can be brought to the classroom.
No previous art experience is needed; just come with a willingness to play and be curious. Please have several pieces of 8x10 paper as well as simple mark making tools nearby such as coloured pencils, crayons; even a simple pen will do.
Rhonda Miller
This virtual workshop helps educators understand processing speed and working memory as core cognitive processes that significantly influence classroom learning and performance. The session explains how these skills develop, how they differ from intelligence and effort, and how weaknesses may affect reading, writing, math, note-taking, and task completion. Participants will learn to recognize common classroom indicators—such as slow output, difficulty following multi-step instructions, incomplete work, and variable performance—often misattributed to motivation or behavior. The workshop focuses on translating cognitive science into practical classroom considerations, emphasizing ways to reduce cognitive load and support learning without lowering expectations. Strategies discussed are research-informed, classroom-feasible, and applicable across grade levels, offering both universal supports and targeted accommodations for students with learning differences.
Dr. Connie Dalton, C.Psych
Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (OICBT)
Artificial intelligence is here, and it has lots of implications on education. For teachers, it can be an effective tool to save time and apply their humanity where it matters most -- but not without risks. In this session, we'll explore how AI apps like Google Gemini and NotebookLM can be used to support teachers in planning lessons, instruction, and beyond. We'll also discuss some of the implications on students and concerns to be aware of -- and how to respond. This session will provide teachers with some foundational AI literacies to know how to navigate teaching and learning in this AI-integrated world.
Matt Miller
Ditch That Textbook LLC
Anuka Dey
Alex Derry
The Ottawa River and its tributaries are at the heart of our River School education programs. Our experienced environmental educators bring the river to your classroom and – for students who come to our beautiful Learning Lab at the NCC River House – the classroom is the river (from a safe distance, of course)!
River School integrates the scientific research of Ottawa Riverkeeper’s own community-based monitoring programs with Two-Eyed Seeing, environmental and sustainability education, authentic hands-on learning experiences, and a commitment to collaborative action.
Come learn about our engaging workshops designed for Grades 2-12 and offered in both official languages. Wear comfortable shoes, as the workshop includes a walk in nature! PLEASE NOTE: The number of parking space in front of River House (P3) is limited so it is recommended to also use the P4 parking lot which is an 8-minute walk from River House.
Field Trip Registration: https://forms.gle/1HxxQ2CDfBCwNYat8
Maxime Chaumont-Lessard
Ottawa Riverkeeper
Learn everything you ever wanted to know money in one afternoon. Step into the heart of the Canadian economic system with this hands-on guided tour and workshop with the Bank of Canada Museum. You’ll get an exclusive tour of the artifacts from our collection, try out firsthand some of our interactive games and class programs. You’ll leave with practical knowledge and dozens of lesson plans, activities and games you can integrate into your classroom. All free, and in both official languages. Come with your questions, and we’ll bring the cash!
Field Trip Registration: https://forms.gle/1HxxQ2CDfBCwNYat8
Adam Young
Bank of Canada Museum / Musée de la Banque du Canada
Heather Montgomery
Bank of Canada Museum / Musée de la Banque du Canada
OSSTF has generously invited our members to participate in these enriching in-person workshops at Mādahòkì Farm. Click on the link for workshop descriptions and to register!
