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.

Over the past number of years, with the growth of tiered response systems in schools, educational organizations have become proficient at tiering students for intensifying levels of support. When done well, it ensures a systematic approach to supporting a greater number of students and maximizing resources. When not done well, it can lead to higher levels of support becoming overwhelmed and resources stretched thin as more and more students are identified as requiring intensified supports. The great news is there is a better way that comes when you STOP tiering students! This session will provide an explanation of the paradigm shift from tiering students to tiering supports and share considerations when establishing, refining and utilizing a continuum of supports in schools and districts that has long standing impact for teachers and students.

Help your students unlock their full potential with self-regulation strategies designed for the classroom. Based on the research from Dr. Bruce Perry, Dr. Lori Desautels and Dr. Stuart Shanker, find out what the research is showing with practical easy-to-implement techniques that support emotional and cognitive control, boosting student learning and focus. Discover how to engage the brain’s key areas—the limbic system, cortex, and brain stem—to foster emotional stability and resilience. Whether dealing with daily challenges or fostering a calm learning environment, these powerful strategies will transform your classroom into a space where students thrive.

Autism is a brain-based difference that affects communication and behavior regulation. In this session, we’ll explore key insights to foster awareness, understanding, and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) and how they impact everyone in the classroom.
Key Topics:
• Characteristics of Autism: Including real-life, lived experiences.
• Understanding Ableism: How society perceives and treats individuals with developmental disabilities like ASD.
• Executive Functioning: Its effect on day-to-day living, with a focus on classroom challenges.
• What You'll See in the Classroom: Recognizing behaviors and communication patterns that impact teachers and students.
• Coping Strategies: Practical techniques for both school and beyond to help autistic students succeed.
• Resources & Tools: Books, websites, posters, and sensory tools like finger fidgets will be shared, with some items available for display.
• Social Skills Survival: Learn how to teach the "unwritten rules" of social interactions.
Join us to better understand autism and create an inclusive, empathetic learning environment!

This session would be a place for Specialized Program teachers to come together to discuss assessment, ISP goals, behaviour management, and other topics that are brought up by participants. This session has been very valuable in the past as it provided opportunities for collaboration between teachers in different districts who are in similar positions. Here is the document to work from: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18GxAaPXVsB2m6RNmh-4sCe00U8w52mRj2pKb1AWVP8M/edit?usp=sharing

Connecting with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and offering rich experiences in support of TQS 5 can be intimidating, especially for non-Indigenous teachers. While we cannot have first-hand knowledge of the hardships and celebrations of our Indigenous peoples, we are privileged to have the opportunity to impact hearts and minds in the spirit of reconciliation and continue to pursue practical methods of reconcili-ACTION in our classrooms. I’ll share my experience of developing a research project and unit plan for my 30-1 students, and the widely applicable learning, growth, and gold that was generated through our practices of metissage, or collaborative storytelling and narrative weaving. Students can to learn to see themselves and one another in fresh, exciting, vulnerable, and deeply impactful ways as they share their own narrative strands and braid their stories with the stories of others while making choices for their own comfort and safety. The incredible transformation power I witnessed unfold with my class during my research has led me to continue practicing processes reflective of metissage, and has continued to support both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in remarkable and exciting ways. If you struggle with supporting kids as they seek out and navigate peer, friend, classmate, and community connections, implementing practices of metissage (from major to minor approaches) will allow you to hold space and support new depths of inter- and intra-personal understandings with your students and your classroom community as a whole through this beautiful narrative practice.

Have you ever wondered how to respond to your students' comments about food? Most of us grew up hearing foods described as “healthy” or “unhealthy,” but categorizing foods this way can harm our relationship with food and cause stress about eating. So how do we flip the script on this conversation with students?

Join our Registered Dietitians in this interactive session exploring practical examples and strategies of how to have inclusive conversations around all foods with your students. Come and be part of the conversation!

Teachers will leave this session with
- Ready-to-use classroom materials and teaching tools. 
- Strategies to promote inclusive conversations about food and eating in the classroom
- Support from Registered Dietitians including tools which reflect best practices in nutrition education for your students

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.

If you’re tired of trying to find creative ways to answer “But when will I ever use this IRL,” this session is for you! We have been told that the only way to motivate students is through reward-based incentives but the truth is that the key to motivating every single student lies in connecting to what drives each and every one of us: love, meaning and a sense of purpose. No matter who you are or what your teaching style is, this session will equip you with three solid strategies to motivate your students that will require you to do less - not more - in your classroom. You will leave with concrete steps, resources and actions you can take into your classroom immediately on Monday that will transform your students’ relationship with learning. Ready to motivate your students in a way that matters? Let’s do this!

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!

This session is all about the F-word that’s likely holding your students back in math: F-E-A-R. If you’re ready to stop talking about bandaid solutions to manage math anxiety in the moment, and start learning how to help students overcome it for good – this session is for YOU! Get ready to learn about the dynamics of fear, understand the exact way it manifests into math anxiety and triggers math trauma in the classroom, and gain impactful strategies you can use RIGHT away to break the cycle of fear, anxiety, and avoidance. This session will totally transform your understanding of math anxiety and empower you to help ALL students build healthier relationships with math!

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.

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.

What do Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Steven King, Michael Jordan....and Albert Einstein have in common? They all faced massive amounts of failure before getting to where they are today! Let's be real. Fear of failure is one of the biggest reasons that so many students have math anxiety. It prevents students from asking questions, speaking up in class, and even supporting their peers. But one thing no one talks about is this: most mathematicians and scientists in real life get paid to fail! ln this workshop we will explore the powerful role of failure in math class and how you can harness it to inspire your students to embrace failure in math class - and in real life!

Autism 101 gives the opportunity to gain a basic overview of autism and neurodiversity. It is an introduction to what autism is and gives information on how autistic individuals may interact with others and the world around them. More specifically, the presentation covers the following topics:
• Overview of Autism
• Characteristics of Autism
• How Sensory Processing Works
• Sensory toolbox
• Language to Use
• Introduction to Visual Supports

Michif is a mixed language, derived mainly from Cree and French. This workshop is an educational approach that allows teachers to integrate Métis languages, knowledge and perspectives into their teaching. This workshop is intended for teachers who wish to develop and apply basic knowledge about First Peoples for the benefit of all students (EQS 5), but who have difficulty navigating the range of resources available. By exploring the web resources of the Michif Awakening Kit, participants will discover the mechanisms of this language, but above all they will see how the use of Michif educational resources can make it possible to achieve a multitude of learning outcomes
in the program (in French, arts, social studies, science, well-being), while working towards reconciliation. Specifically, teachers will explore the various resources available on the website. On the practical side, participants will work to adapt the available resources to their needs, in line with recommended good practices for making authentic and respectful use of the knowledge shared by Elders. Participants will leave the workshop with access to multiple lesson plans and corresponding resources.

Social media is a staple in teenage lives, and many kids have their own cell phones as young as grade 5. This means not only do youth need support learning skills for face-to-face life, but also online life. When it comes to sexual health, social media makes for double duty on skills to stay safe, protect their privacy, make healthy decisions and foster happy relationships. This session will empower teachers to tackle social media and online aspects in their sexual health units such as sexting, sextortion, pornography, gender stereotypes, online dating, privacy, and more! We will cover how these topics relate to curriculum objectives, what youth need to know, and how much detail to provide.
Participants will leave with a pocket full of evidence-based resources to support their unit design, and the confidence to tackle this topic and meet best practice standards.

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/.

This presentation will outline how successful language learning happens throughout a child's development. The structure will be to answer the following questions by outlining the latest research and then providing examples from in-school experience.
1) What is unique about child language learning, and how is it different from animal communication, and AI-based language?
2) When does child language learning begin and what are the critical periods for language learning?
3) Who are the people that an ideal language development community requires?
4) Where are the spaces that language learning occurs most successfully?
5) How can home and school contexts be transformed into language-rich environments?
6) Why is language development so vital to a child's social, academic, and future vocational success?
7) Which changes can be made immediately and which changes take time?
Each of these questions will be answered in a way that attendees can understand the findings, as well as the implications and opportunities for the classroom.

Comprehensive Sexual Health Education (CSHE) has been deemed a human right by the U.N. According to Action Canada, most Canadian youth do not currently receive best practice CSHE. Many teachers receive little to no support in how to implement CSHE effectively. In this interactive online session, teachers will learn what makes sexuality education comprehensive and why it's so important. We will cover creating safe environments, navigating different beliefs and values systems, meeting Alberta curriculum and best practice benchmarks and how to answer student questions.
Teachers will leave with a pocket full of evidence-based resources to support their unit design, and the confidence to tackle this topic and meet best practice standards.

This presentation will outline how successful language learning happens throughout a child's development. The structure will be to answer the following questions by outlining the latest research and then providing examples from in-school experience.
1) What is unique about child language learning, and how is it different from animal communication, and AI-based language?
2) When does child language learning begin and what are the critical periods for language learning?
3) Who are the people that an ideal language development community requires?
4) Where are the spaces that language learning occurs most successfully?
5) How can home and school contexts be transformed into language-rich environments?
6) Why is language development so vital to a child's social, academic, and future vocational success?
7) Which changes can be made immediately and which changes take time?
Each of these questions will be answered in a way that attendees can understand the findings, as well as the implications and opportunities for the classroom.