BCCLA President Mike Galliford

President’s Message Spring 2010 Hello again everyone. It’s finally spring! It has felt like a very busy winter with January picking up where December left off, February being consumed by FSAs and the Olympics, and March break scattered in bits and pieces across the province these past weeks, as if blown by Pacific storms. In January, the BCCLA co-facilitated a conference in Kamloops with the Provincial Teachers’ Association PSA. While the BCCLA’s main role was the interactive ‘keynote’ activity, the other sessions were full making for a great day. The hospitality, friendliness and enthusiasm of PITA was wonderful, as was the enthusiasm for teaching and learning shared by the conference participants. The BCCLA also facilitated two ‘Introduction to Cooperative Learning’ workshops with SFU student teachers. The opportunity to work with our pre-service teachers is always inspiring and rejuvenating. We have continued to move forward with our plans for the 2010 October PSA Day. We are pleased to be jointly working with SRCLE (Social Responsibility and Collaborative Learning Environments) who will co-sponsor this event with us. We look forward to sharing with all of you in our next issue more details of this exciting day that will feature Dr. Spencer Kagan. Our connection with the SRCLE group of educators has happened quite naturally and serendipitously. Both BCCLA and SRCLE share common underlying beliefs regarding the importance of working with the whole child in a way that enhances both the internal motivation of the learner and the mindful awareness of the teacher and learner to assist in the development of a sustainable future for ourselves and our students. Connecting with educators to raise awareness in these areas, and assisting teachers with integrating related ideas into classroom practice are central to our PSA goals, and as an executive we feel we are continuing to move forward in this critically important work. If you would like more information on the research highlighting the importance of social emotional learning, the CASEL website is a great place to start. We love to hear from our members, so please do not hesitate to contact us with your stories, questions or frustrations. Remember to ‘go slowly, breathe, and smile’. I thank you for your continued support. Yours in cooperation, Mike

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