CATCA 2025

Join us for an enlightening and engaging session on the critical intersection of resilience, prevention, and long-term positive mental health. Uncover the foundational principles of Impact Society's Heroes programs, which use experiential learning to empower youth by equipping them with resilience-building skills and social-emotional competencies. Discover how this easy to implement curriculum is pivotal in fostering lifelong mental well-being, preventing mental health issues before they arise, and creating lasting positive outcomes for young people across Canada. Learn how the Heroes programs are building a resilient future generation, and gain insights into practical strategies for integrating resilience education and social emotional learning into your own practices.

This session will help to enhance our skills and knowledge around supporting disclosures of sexual violence. An overview of the fundamentals of responding to and supporting disclosure of sexual assault and abuse from children, youth and adults. Learn some key messages and legal obligations when it comes to reporting child sexual abuse. The goal is to feel empowered to respond to disclosures that may come from students, youth and adults you work with in a confident and compassionate manner.

Mercedes and Anastasia Korngut are two Albertan teen sisters who started their company, Small Bits of Happiness, three years ago. Their mission is to help individuals of all ages find more happiness in daily life. As two teens, they understand firsthand the difficulties of teenage-hood, including not only the hormonal changes that teens undergo, but the added stressors of war, post-pandemic life, and beyond. Through their podcast, Hack Your Happiness, the two sisters have spoken to countless Olympic Athletes, entrepreneurs, Oscar-winners, Grammy-winning composers, New York Times Bestselling Authors, marine biologists, NASA scientists, NASCAR drivers, CEOs, and beyond. Through their conversations Mercedes and Anastasia have learned critical advice from these iconic individuals, specifically on the topic of happiness and advice to teens and pre-teens. As many pre-teens and teens struggle to take advice from parents and teachers, in this session, Mercedes and Anastasia share top happiness advice from top iconic individuals, as well as their perspective on finding happiness as two teens. Mercedes and Anastasia share how teachers and educators can guide students to building happy habits, and practicing wellness - all from the perspective of a teen, and iconic interviews.

You might not think play therapy interventions are relevant for Junior High, Middle School and High School Counsellors but they are! You will love these relevant, engaging, and insightful activities to use in your office for the easily engaged as well as the disengaged students. Come and learn a few play therapy activities to support students.

If you are new to the Skills world, need help to motivate fellow teachers, or you want to learn more about Skills Canada Alberta (SCA) competitions and exciting programs, this presentation is for you! This interactive presentation is important for CTF and CTS teachers, school administrators, counselors, and general teachers who teach career pathways to junior and senior high school students. Learn about the variety of educational programs that SCA has to offer such as Skills in the Classroom presentations, classroom Try-A-Trade® kits, and the junior high program Skills Exploration Day that encourages the use of empathy through design thinking. If you interact with students who are looking for an exciting career path, work well with their hands, or who want to enhance their future career opportunities, the Regional, Provincial, National, and WorldSkills competitions push students to perform at their highest level while creating projects that align with the Alberta Education CTS curriculum. Educators will also learn about an amazing field trip opportunity where students get to see over 45 trade and technology careers in action and participate in Try-A-Trades.

Join us for an enlightening and interactive one-hour session focused on the transformative role of art therapy in fostering emotional regulation among students and staff. This workshop is designed specifically for teachers and support staff across all educational levels who are keen to explore creative, innovative and practical strategies for enhancing emotional well-being within the school environment.

Participants will have the opportunity for some hands on learning during this lecture.

In the face of adversity, it is common to feel engulfed by stress, anxiety, and overwhelming emotions. Learning to navigate and master these emotional challenges is pivotal in steering clear of decisions that can derail our lives.

Through the experience of losing his hand and almost his life, Levi teaches valuable strategies for approaching decision-making with clarity and intention, fostering a mindset crucial in shifting from being a victim to becoming an achiever and from following others to leading with confidence.

Attendees will leave the event understanding the following:

By mastering the art of managing our thoughts, we have the ability to steer our emotions towards making logical and sound judgments.

How to assess the cost-benefit dynamics: evaluating the trade-offs between our decisions and their ensuing consequences.

The necessity of research to comprehend the full scope of a situation before responding, as every narrative presents multiple sides for consideration.

Encouraging thoughtful reflection on how our decisions impact the lives of those we hold dear, fostering a sense of responsibility and empathy in our choices.

Recognizing that our errors and misjudgments are inherent in the human experience, vital for personal development when we can learn from them and move forward.

From the outside, it looks like they got in with a bad crowd and are hijacking their academic career to fit in. Threats and punishments do little to pull them up from their free fall and often yield the opposite result: pushing them toward even riskier behaviour.

Believe or not, even the so-called “lazy” kids secretly wish they were doing better in school. The problem is no amount of “shaming” them or their parents is going to get them care about school. So what then?

Parenting coach and teen advocate, Aly Pain talks about what’s going on behind the lack of motivation and why traditional intervention methods don’t work. She discusses how the developing teenaged brain influences their ability to cope with stressors and how focusing on emotional support is the key to success.

Key Take-Aways:

· The Bad Kid/Bad Parent Myth – Aly busts the belief that if you could just get the parents to engage with their student, everything would be fine. The reality is most parents are doing everything they can think of to get their student to perform.
· The Most Common Reasons WHY Good Students Go Bad – Aly shares what troubled teens and their parents tell her is behind the lack of motivation (and what teachers and parents can do about it). Spoiler alert: it’s not what you think.
· How to Support Students and Engage the Parents – Aly discusses concrete strategies to support struggling students in school and how to engage parents to do the same at home.

Joignez-vous à nous pour un atelier interactif et stimulant où vous découvrirez plusieurs stratégies pour soutenir les élèves qui affichent des comportements difficiles. Cette séance cible en particulier les approches qui privilégient la résilience des élèves, ainsi que les stratégies visant à soutenir notre propre résilience lorsque nous réagissons face au comportement difficile de certains élèves. Par le biais d’activités, de discussions et de réflexions, nous explorerons différentes techniques qui peuvent à la fois aider les élèves qui affichent un comportement difficile, et nous aider à veiller à notre propre bienêtre.

This is a "hands on," beginner ASL course geared toward educators with little or no experience in ASL. We will start with the ABC's and take you to asking and answering questions, playing games, numbers, and more. You will have the benefit of two instructors, one Deaf and one Hearing, who together will take you through accurate signing as well as explain clearly the logic behind the signs. You will leave excited to practice and show off your ASL!

Once you know the principles of lasting happiness you can apply these truths to everyday practices and teach them to your students. Discover how you and your students can nurture happiness when overwhelmed by the challenges of school and life. These happiness principles are based on anecdotal experiences and a plethora of positive psychology research. This session will illuminate helpful strategies for nurturing wellness, joy and lasting happiness. Come laugh, decompress, and learn some self-care.

Why is it the “favourite” teachers have the best-behaved classes? Is it the secret candy stash in their desk, their silly mental health breaks, their ability to make a boring subject fun, or something else?

Chances are it’s their boundaries. Those teachers have mastered the ability to command the respect of their students and in doing so, their students understand and adhere to the rules of the classroom.

That doesn’t mean teachers need to tighten their rein. On the contrary, traditional views about power and authority only lead to more rebellion. The trouble is the concept of boundaries has become twisted to mean greater compliance using more controls.

Parenting coach and teen advocate, Aly Pain will share why teachers and parents need to model the respect they want from teens. She discusses the toxic cycle of resentment, retaliation, revenge and resignation that is triggered by teen defiance and how shifting your behaviour is the key to changing theirs.

Key Take-Aways:

· Why Students Don’t Respect You (and How to Change that Dynamic) – Aly explains how teachers lose their students’ respect and what they can do to turn that toxic dynamic around.
· How to Earn Their Respect Without Losing Yours – Aly discusses how teachers don’t have to give up control or become the fun teacher in order to earn their respect.
· The Secret to Winning Over the “Problem” Kids – Aly shares what’s really going in with the problem kids and the simple way to win them over.

This course is geared toward educators with some familiarity with ASL who would like to take it to the next level. After reviewing the basics, we will go deeper into the grammatical and syntactical structure of ASL, directional verbs, locational/spatial organization and narrative organization. Participants will leave this session able to tell a joke or story in ASL.

This session introduces the science of Polyvagal Theory and how the application of this theory relates to our own well being as teachers and its relation to how it will support social and emotional well-being in our students and into our schools. The goal is to understand how our nervous system drives all behaviors and learning.

ADHD is not what you’ve been told: an inability to pay attention and sit still. The common misconception is if the student would only try harder, do the work, and focus like they do on video games, they could overcome their academic struggles.

This only serves to reinforce the belief that ADHD is purposeful defiance, failure to comply with your requests, or meet basic standards. This causes the ADHD student to lose confidence in their own abilities, triggering a lifetime of underachievement and struggle.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for managing ADHD. Supporting ADHD students starts with understanding how the ADHD brain processes information (yes, they’re all unique) and helping them tap into their strengths.

Parenting coach and teen advocate, Aly Pain, herself an ADHD adult and parent to an ADHD child, will talk about what it’s like to be able to excel at one thing and be utterly stumped by another, and how understanding her own brain has helped her unlock her own potential.

Key Take-Aways:

· What Having ADHD Feels Like in a School Environment – Aly shares how ADHD brains process information and how that leads to frustration in structured environments like school.
· How to Help Your ADHD Students Succeed in a Neuro-Normal World – Aly talks about why the typical “try harder” advice isn’t helpful and actually does more harm than good. She shares how teachers can play a key role in their success in a neuro-normal world.
· The Key to Creating Effective Adaptions that Work – Aly explains how to identify the unique ADHD characteristics and match them to effective adaptations.

How can we integrate the goals and activities of education, while understanding the ways people’s stories (traumas)impact their learning and behaviours? We become “Trauma Informed.” Learn the 5 key principles of Trauma Informed Schools and how to create safe spaces for learning and growing. This Session will help us to become aware of the dynamics of trauma, shift perspectives in how best to support these dynamics, and identify ways to respond with compassion to students and/ or colleagues in crisis.

Have you ever ignored that little voice, or gut feeling, that tells you to grab an item on your way out the door, then wished you’d listened, because, “Darn! That would’ve been handy to have right now!” That inner guidance was your intuition. Intuition is like a muscle – exercising it makes it stronger. The practical exercises presented in this session build the ability to trust intuition to assess children’s situations, or best course of action, bring greater ease into life and the classroom.

Our mission is to raise awareness and empower communities to combat exploitation in all its forms, particularly human trafficking. Our presentations aim to dispel myths about online safety and highlight the alarming rise in reported exploitation cases, especially among vulnerable populations like youth and marginalized groups. Understanding exploitation is vital, as it can lead to human trafficking, with many individuals manipulated online. By educating attendees on recognizing grooming signs and identifying at-risk individuals, we empower proactive intervention. Our engaging sessions feature videos, scenarios, role-playing, and interactive tools to enhance learning.

Working with children and teens who demonstrate challenging behaviours can be difficult, stressful and complex. Collaborative Problem Solving® (CPS) is a compassionate, evidence-based, trauma-informed approach that provides a philosophy and tools to address challenging behaviour. This approach is used in schools across North America and has been demonstrated to build skills and relationships with students while reducing teacher burnout.

This is an introduction to CPS. This session helps educators reflect on their understanding of challenging behaviour and effective and ineffective interventions to address these behaviours. Participants will learn about how the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach describes why people demonstrate challenging behaviour and how CPS can address these behaviours. This session will help educators decide if CPS would be an effective approach to include in their practice and provide the information and resources to learn more.

If you would like more information about CPS prior to the session, please visit https://thinkkids.org/.

Mercedes and Anastasia Korngut are two Albertan teen sisters who started their company, Small Bits of Happiness, three years ago. Their mission is to help individuals of all ages find more happiness in daily life. As two teens, they understand firsthand the difficulties of teenage-hood, including not only the hormonal changes that teens undergo, but the added stressors of war, post-pandemic life, and beyond. Through their podcast, Hack Your Happiness, the two sisters have spoken to countless Olympic Athletes, entrepreneurs, Oscar-winners, Grammy-winning composers, New York Times Bestselling Authors, marine biologists, NASA scientists, NASCAR drivers, CEOs, and beyond. Through their conversations Mercedes and Anastasia have learned critical advice from these iconic individuals, specifically on the topic of happiness and advice to teens and pre-teens. As many pre-teens and teens struggle to take advice from parents and teachers, in this session, Mercedes and Anastasia share top happiness advice from top iconic individuals, as well as their perspective on finding happiness as two teens. Mercedes and Anastasia share how teachers and educators can guide students to building happy habits, and practicing wellness - all from the perspective of a teen, and iconic interviews.