School Team 5 - Round 3: Full Schedule

ECSD Elementary School Teams: Coaching for Excellence
Welcome to the third round of School Teams, where we continue to grow together in our shared commitment to student success. This round’s focus is on Coaching for Excellence, emphasizing how every educator, like even the most elite athletes, benefits from thoughtful guidance and tools to perform at their best. Through this lens, we will dive into our new curriculum subject areas, equipping you with strategies to support optimal teaching and learning.
Explore 16 impactful sessions designed to empower K-6 teachers, instructional leaders, and coaches, including a special kindergarten throughline that establishes the foundations for lifelong success. Together, we’ll foster collaboration, build skills, and set the stage for excellence in every classroom.
Dive into the schedule below to find inspiring sessions, resources, and tools to help you and your team succeed. Let’s empower our educators and students to reach new heights!

arrow_back View All Dates

9:30am MST

Hot To Glow: Light As A Pop of Play LIMITED

Tuesday February 11, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am MST

Session Materials

You have a new Light Panel in your classroom - YAY! Come explore creative ways to use it, along with accompanying resources, to engage students in immersive learning experiences within the new curriculum for months February through May. Learn how translucent 3D shapes, hands-on letter and number building activities, and sand trays promote literacy and numeracy skills. We will also look at English, French, and Spanish math picture books that compliment classroom instruction. This session has been revamped and offers completely different ideas than those offered from the “Light Bright Delight” session earlier in the school year.
One set of resources will be given to each school that has not yet received them.

Speakers

Courtney Cregan

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Courtney is a Kindergarten Programming Consultant with Edmonton Catholic Schools. She's passionate about sharing the joy of play based learning and developmentally appropriate practices. In her spare time, you'll catch her reading a good book with an iced chai.

Kathleen Ruff

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Kathleen Ruff, B.Ed. Kathleen is a Kindergarten Programming Consultant with Edmonton Catholic Schools. She enjoys providing professional development to the teachers of the youngest learners in school divisions, focusing on combining play and curricular programming in one. She is a... Read More →

Tuesday February 11, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am MST
2B

Kindergarten

11:00am MST

Shake It Off: Energizing Classrooms Through Music & Movement LIMITED

Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm MST

Session Materials

It’s time to shake it off and turn your classroom into a space where music and movement take center stage! This session will show you how to embrace your most loved YouTube songs and videos and extend them in meaningful ways to get your students moving and grooving.
Learn how gross motor resources bring these ideas to life in your classroom. Get ready to leave with a playlist of fresh ideas and practical tools to energize your students. This session has been revamped and offers completely different ideas than those offered from the “Move, Groove, and Feel: Kindergarten Expressions” session earlier in the school year.
One set of resources will be given to each school that has not yet received them.

Speakers

Courtney Cregan

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Kathleen Ruff

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Tuesday February 11, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm MST
2B

Kindergarten

1:00pm MST

Robots, Resources, and Ready-to-Use LIMITED

Tuesday February 11, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm MST

Session Materials

Join us for a hands-on, interactive session where we’ll dive into the exciting world of Makey Makey, micro:bit, and Code & Go Mouse Bots—tools readily available in your ECSD Science bins. Discover how these innovative resources can enhance computer science skill progression in the K-6 curriculum while showcasing their cross-curricular potential. Start with quick-start mini-lessons to build confidence using the tools, then collaborate to design engaging, classroom-ready activities with support from Copilot AI. Leave with a practical project, actionable ideas, and the inspiration to empower your students as creative problem-solvers and future-ready coders

Speakers

Nicole Cunningham

Emtech, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Nicole Cunningham is a Consultant with the Emerging Technology team in Learning Services with Edmonton Catholic Schools. She has been an educator with ECSD for 24 years, teaching K-6 students and serving as a technology coach for Early Learning, Inclusive Education and Curriculum... Read More →

Haidee deRoca-Garcia

STEM Consultant, ECSD

Haidee de Roca-Garcia is the STEM Consultant for ECSD. She has taught K-6 for almost 30 years and is passionate about making learning fun and engaging for all learners. She believes curiousity is a superpower and robots are the best! When not learning something new every day, she... Read More →

Joel Kristiansen

Emerging Technology Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Joel is part of the Emerging Technology team at Edmonton Catholic Schools. Joel has worked in ECSD for over a decade, spending most of his time in K-9 schools teaching design, robotics, and collaborating with teachers to integrate makerspaces into their subject area.

Tuesday February 11, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm MST
2B

K-6

2:30pm MST

Connections to Nature with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Literature in Kindergarten LIMITED

Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:30pm - 3:30pm MST

Session Materials

Join us for a cross-curricular extravaganza where we look at texts by Indigenous authors and illustrators that focus on connections to nature. Learn about the connection First Nations, Métis, or Inuit have with nature, by exploring Paul Windsor’s artwork in the books “Good Morning World” and “Goodnight World” and the book “Shape,” part of the First Nations Strong Readers Set. Explore how food connects to daily life through Jennie Eaglespeaker’s book “Please Don’t Hide My Vegetables.” French Immersion teachers will also examine cross-curricular connections between FILAL and other subject areas through the text “Mon Ami Agnès” by Julie Flett.
This PD is a repeat of our Summer Summit 2024 session.

Speakers

Courtney Cregan

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Kathleen Ruff

Kindergarten Programming Consultant, Edmonton Catholic School Division

Tuesday February 11, 2025 2:30pm - 3:30pm MST
2B

Kindergarten

School Team 5 - Round 3