When Bréanne Brunel (B.A. ’20, B.Ed. ’21) was finishing high school and contemplating her next steps in life, it came down to three things: teaching youth, French and snowboarding.

Teaching was a natural fit for Brunel. In fact, you might say that teaching runs in the family, as both of Brunel’s parents are educators. Growing up, she spent a lot of time at the school past regular hours and enjoyed the school environment.

“I always had a love for kids and working with kids, and through my parents I could see the powerful impact that they had on their students,” says Brunel. “And it was that lasting impact teachers can have that ultimately drew me to the profession.”

Originally from a small French-speaking town in Manitoba (population 1,500), Brunel was drawn to UBCO’s small campus and class sizes. The university also offered the programs she needed to achieve her goal of becoming a French teacher. In addition, her family often visited Kelowna for vacations and so she was familiar with the area, and all of the outdoor activities she enjoyed – like snowboarding.

After completing her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in French and Spanish, Brunel began her Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) program in September 2019.  The Okanagan School of Education’s candidate are split into advisory groups based on location of practicum, with the exception of the French cohort.

“We were a lot smaller than some of the other groups and developed a strong bond,” says Brunel. “The cohort felt like a family. We were all different levels of French speakers, some of us were francophone and some hadn’t used their French since their high-school French immersion; but everyone including our Field Advisor, Erika van Oyen was very supportive and encouraging.”

In March 2020, the B.Ed. program transitioned to online courses. Despite the change in delivery, Brunel found joy in her zoom classes.

“I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to talk or hang out in French, so even the zoom check-ins offering the French aspect was a highlight for me,” says Brunel with a laugh.

Brunel completed her B.E.d in December 2020, and is now a full-time French teacher at H.S. Grenda Middle School in Lake Country, B.C., co-teaching grades 6 and 7.

“The students bring so much energy to everything they do,” says Brunel. “I like when my classroom is loud and lively because to me that means they’re talking, sharing their ideas and they’re engaged in the task.”

For some students, learning a new language can seem like a daunting feat or an uninteresting (and maybe boring) task, but Brunel brings in a level of enthusiasm for the language her students can’t resist.

“I’m so proud of being French that when I can share it with other people, it makes me really happy,” says Brunel with a smile. “I want to instill a love for French in my students so we always try to make the language learning aspect fun – like teaching through songs.”

Brunel is currently working on creating unit that the entire school can work on together using French cultural songs. The idea is that then the French immersion and the French as a core subject students can bond through the cultural aspect of music.

“For some of our students, the only time they will practice their French is at school so we want it to be an enjoyable experience,” says Brunel. “I think the more that you can talk and be immersed in the French language, the easier it gets.”

For those interested in pursuing a career in teaching, Brunel encourages new educators to let students be the drivers of their owning learning.

“When I was new to teaching, I felt like I needed to have a plan, follow it and have that structure, whereas now I’m a bit more relaxed, and it’s taken me some time, but I’ve found it to be so much more powerful to let the students guide their own learning. They have all these wonders, and having more flexibility in my teaching allows us to dive deeper in those wonderings, and what actually interests them.”

Today Lindsay Cox, Graduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs Assistant, is celebrating 15 years of working at UBC Okanagan. Many graduate and post-baccalaureate students will be familiar with Lindsay. She is often the first point of contact for prospective and current students – and one of the many people that help make the School a unique experience.

“I assist grad and post-bac students from the time before they even start their application until the time they graduate,” says Lindsay. “As a smaller campus, we are able to really connect with each individual student, and I think students are quite surprised by the level of support they receive and the timely responses to their questions.  They typically wait no longer than a day to hear from me.”

***

Lindsay grew up in a small rural town in northern Alberta. She spent a lot of time in the outdoors, hiking and enjoying nature; but when she had an opportunity to leave Alberta to pursue her post-secondary education – she took it! Family vacations in British Columbia led her to believe from a very young age, that she belonged in B.C.  She chose the ocean and rain over flat plains and cold winters. Lindsay attended the University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., and received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. A degree likely inspired by her dad, Geoff Peruniak, who was a Professor of Psychology at Athabasca University.

After university, Lindsay followed her partner back to the Okanagan where he grew up.  Neither of them had jobs at the time of the move, but a few months later her partner soon obtained a teaching position at his old elementary school. She started a position at a real estate appraisal company, but found that the fit wasn’t quite for her as it lacked human interaction. Luckily, UBCO was having a huge hiring boom and she decided to apply. She started her first job on campus in the Student Recruitment and Advising Office.

“Initially when I was pursuing my BA, I had thought about becoming a counsellor as I wanted to help people and so I thought the Recruitment and Advising Office would be a great opportunity to gain familiarity with the campus and its community,” says Lindsay.

After nearly two years of working in the Student Recruitment and Advising Office, Lindsay transitioned into several different positions within the Faculty of Education before settling into her current role as Graduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs Assistant in the Okanagan School of Education (formally the Faculty of Education).  Since starting at the School, Lindsay has worked with six Graduate Program Directors and five Post-Baccalaureate Directors.

“Aside from starting to think maybe it’s me that’s causing the shift in directors,” she says jokingly. “I think the changes in leadership are part of the reason why my position never feels stagnant. Each new director brings different insights and agendas, and as a result, new programs and courses are developed to help improve the student experience.  It’s exciting.  I’m never bored!”

In addition to changes in program directors, Lindsay has witnessed the Okanagan School of Education evolve. She began her career at the School back when Dr. Robert Campbell was Dean in 2009. She was part of the original team that saw the Faculties of Education at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan join to become a single Faculty in 2018. She has also assisted with the creation of many new programs offered by the School such as the Interdisciplinary Studies in Contemporary Education Certificate/Diploma program and most recently, the new Master of Education with coursework only pathway.

“As much as I’ve seen the School change and grow, many of the faculty members here would say the same about me. Since starting at the School, I have gotten married, adopted a Mexican rescue dog with the help of Dr. Binfet, and have had two children,” says Lindsay. “A really special memory I’ll always have is when my Dad taught a course for our Summer Institute in Education back in 2011. As he is no longer with us, I will remember it fondly – carpooling together and working alongside him in a different capacity.”

If anyone is looking for a way to congratulate her on 15 years, Lindsay enjoys wine, Skittles and Big Turk chocolate bars.

The Okanagan School of Education will be closed for winter break starting on Monday, Dec. 27, 2021, and will re-open on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022.

Application Dates and Deadlines

Bachelor of Education

If you are applying for September 2022 admission, the UBC Okanagan application deadline is Jan. 15, 2022. Your supplemental application and references are due January 31. If you are applying to both UBC Vancouver and Okanagan, you must submit your supplemental application and references to each program. Visit the program page for more information.

We also have tips to help guide your application process.

Master of Arts in Education or Master of Education

If you are applying for September 2022 admission, the application deadline is January 31, 2022. For required documents and additional information, visit the program page. To view upcoming courses, visit the Graduate Student Resources page.

The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to share that Meredith Rusk has received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral award.

Rusk was awarded $20,000 for her doctoral research in Indigenous Education. Specifically, her research focused on how breaking down racism, power and privilege through sharing circles and conversations can help to engage and validate Indigenous knowledge systems. Her research was conducted in collaboration with Sewépemc Knowledge Keepers, and local school district teachers.

“The research conversations took place last year, and we’ve already begun having post research discussions on next steps to create a model within our own school system that would continue to work towards validating Indigenous knowledge and also Indigenous voice,” says Rusk. “My hope is that in the future as we continue to learn and grow, we can share that information with others to help guide them through the process.”

She is pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Leyton Schnellert and Dr. Karen Ragoonaden. She is in the final phase of the program, currently writing her dissertation with the goal of summer 2022 as her completion date.

“This SSHRC award is an acknowledgment of the quality and potential contribution of Meredith’s scholarship,” says Dr. Schnellert. “As an Indigenous scholar, her research contributes to an emergent body of research examining how breaking down barriers caused by systemic racism and focusing on building relationships with local Elders from place-based First Nation communities can respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.”

Rusk is Dene from the Fort Nelson First Nation. She has been a K-12 educator for nearly 40 years, within Alberta and British Columbia. She has facilitated and helped plan Aboriginal workshops for the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF). She was a member of the BCTF Aboriginal Advisory for five years and the president of the BCTF Aboriginal Specialist Association for two years. Rusk presently works as the District Indigenous Resource Helping Teacher for the North Okanagan – Shuswap School District.

Congratulations Meredith Rusk!

B.A.R.K. researchers Camille Rousseau, PhD candidate, and Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, associate professor, are conducting a study on canine-assisted public speaking and need participants for a focus group. This study aims to: 1) understand how teachers encourage and support students’ public speaking; and 2) identify strategies to reduce anxiety and bolster speaking competence.

Participants must teach grade 6 and/or 7 students. You will be asked about how you implement and support public speaking in the classroom, including strategies you use to reduce anxiety related to public speaking. Focus groups will take approximately 1 hour in January 2022. Participants will receive a $50 coffeehouse or bookstore gift card as a token of appreciation.

If interested, please contact Camille Rousseau at c.rousseau@ubc.ca with your name, school name and grade you are currently teaching.

Download Poster

World Kindness Day (Nov. 13) often inspires individuals to ask themselves “how am I kind?” and “what can I do to express kindness or be more kind?”

Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, associate professor, has spent nearly a decade researching how children and adolescents perceive and experience kindness. Since 2012, Dr. Binfet and his research team have interviewed more than 3,000 public school students in the Okanagan Valley between kindergarten and Grade 9 about kindness. Additionally in 2019, Dr. Binfet and Dr. Sally Stewart, associate professor of teaching in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences assessed university aged students self-perceptions of kindness.

These interviews and self-reports have found that the majority of students express kindness by helping others emotionally and physically. Additionally, the acts of kindness could be grouped into three themes:

• Intentional, where you make a plan; for example, building a care package for a friend that is ill.
• Random, where the act is spontaneously performed or reactionary, like holding the door open for someone
• Quiet, where the thoughtful act doesn’t draw attention to the initiator, like leaving positive notes along a street

The research has revealed an alignment in how university and school-aged students define kindness. Across the ages, kindness means performing actions that improve the lives of others, help others, and demonstrate politeness.

His research highlights the importance of nurturing pro-social behaviours in children and adolescents as being kind doesn’t necessarily come easily to all students. There are some who need extra support to understand the concept. To assist in helping children and adolescents cultivate kindness, Dr. Binfet suggests starting by asking yourself, ‘How am I kind? How do I show that I’m thoughtful, courteous or compassionate?’

“Parents, educators and community members can help children and adolescents develop strong social and emotional skills by modeling pro-social behaviour—basically, the type of behaviour they wish to see exhibited by others,” says Dr. Binfet.

Thanks to recent funding from the Central Okanagan Foundation grant, Dr. Binfet and his team will research high-school students’ views of kindness in the Central Okanagan School District. This study will provide the missing piece in understanding how kindness is evident from Kindergarten to university students.

Here are 24 ways to celebrate World Kindness Day that are inspired by responses from K to 9 and university student participants:

1. Greet a neighbour
2. Bake a treat for a friend
3. Pick up litter
4. Help a friend with homework
5. Give a compliment
6. Teach someone a new skill
7. Call a friend
8. Leave change in the vending machine
9. Hold the door open for someone
10. Help out with the household chores
11. Give a pet a belly rub
12. Donate gently used items that you no longer need
13. Write someone a kind note or send a letter
14. Give someone a gift (homemade or purchased)
15. Volunteer with a local organization
16. Run an errand for someone
17. Place positives notes around your community or use sidewalk chalk to leave positive messages
18. Pay for the person in line behind you
19. Cook a meal for someone
20. Donate money to a cause you’re passionate about
21. Show someone appreciation by thanking them
22. Let someone go ahead of you in line
23. Help a neighbour or friend with their yard work
24. Offer a hug to a friend or family member

BC TEAL has a variety of upcoming events as part of their English Additional Language (EAL) Week. These events take place online and are free for all to attend. We would like to highlight two events that have an OSE connection.

Using Indigenous Storytelling to Re-Story Your Classroom

Nov. 23 |   6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Desiree Marshall-Peer, Lecturer

Indigenous Storytelling is a pedagogical stance that has been used for millennia. Each story is layered and contextual. Learning is embedded in memory, history and story. Using story as a basis to approach cross curricular learning allows students to relax into the learning while leaning into the topic at hand. This allows teachers to re-tell the story of their classroom and the learning that is occurring. Together we will use traditional stories to explore learning opportunities across subjects and how they in turn create storied opportunities for our student’s understanding.

Register

Free and Fun Academic Open Education Resources

Nov. 25 |   6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Ronan Scott, MA alumni

Ronan is an English language instructor and materials writer. Ronan recently worked on an OER project where he and others created language learning materials for students on the cusp of attending full-time post-secondary education in Canada. Learn more about this collection of materials:

• Listening and Speaking
• CLB 8
• Technology, Business, and Geography units.

Register

The Centre for Mindful Engagement is pleased to announce that Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, University of Illinois, will be presenting on social-emotional learning.

A NEW KIND OF FITNESS: PROMOTING THE RESILIENCE AND WELL-BEING OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS THROUGH SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING – RECENT RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL STRATEGIES

Thursday, Dec. 2  |  8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  | UNC 200

Due to physical distancing measures and current Interior Health event restrictions, this event is open to Okanagan School of Education students, staff and faculty only. 

Now is the time like no other for us to work together to find ways in which to promote the well-being of both educators and students. Recent innovations in social and emotional learning (SEL) in the past decade have seen an abundance of research documenting the critical role that social and emotional competencies, such as self-regulation, empathy, and self-compassion can play in fostering thriving and mitigating mental health problems. This session will focus on the promotion of social and emotional learning (SEL) to transform the lives of students and educators. The session will provide a guide for understanding how systemic approaches to SEL provide a foundation for developing learning contexts that promote the social and emotional competencies of adults and students to support success and well-being. Implementation and strategies that are successfully being used in schools will be shared, including information on how SEL can be promoted in both educators and students.

About the Speaker

Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl is the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to her graduate work, Dr. Schonert-Reichl worked as middle school teacher and then as a teacher at an alternative high school for adolescents identified as at risk for high school completion. Known as a renowned expert in the area of social and emotional learning (SEL), Dr. Schonert-Reichl’s research focuses on identification of the processes that foster positive human qualities such as empathy, compassion, altruism, and resiliency in children and adolescents. Her projects in this area include studies examining the effectiveness of classroom-based universal SEL programs including such programs as the Roots of Empathy, MindUp, WE Well-being, and the Kindness in the Classroom Curriculum. Over the last decade she has led the development and implementation of the Middle Years Development Instrument, or MDI, a measure that captures children’s voices regarding their social and emotional well-being, physical health, and resiliency inside and outside of school. Dr. Schonert-Reichl has received several awards for her work, including the Janusz Korczak Medal for Children’s Rights Advocacy, and the Joseph E. Zins Distinguished Scholar Award for outstanding research on social and emotional learning (SEL).

The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to announce a new graduate degree pathway. Prospective graduate students can now pursue a Master of Education (MEd) with coursework only.

“We are excited to expand our graduate program with this new coursework only option,” says Dr. Sabre Cherkowski, director of graduate programs. “This pathway to completing the MEd will offer rich opportunities for learning and professional development.”

Students will plan their courses, with guidance from their assigned supervisor, to build a program that provides broad knowledge at an advanced level to inform their professional and/or applied practice. Graduates will be prepared to contribute as educational leaders in their current roles and may have further employment opportunities in K-12 and post-secondary education, school administration and education consultation, government and policy work, among other careers.

This program is typically completed on a part-time basis over two academic years, including summer sessions, through a combination of campus-based and online coursework. MEd students are required to complete the degree within four years.

The MEd degree with coursework only requires completion of 30 credits:

• 6 credits of core courses: CUST 562 and EDUC 521;
• 24 credits from the Okanagan School of Education’s course offerings

This pathway is suitable for those students who anticipate completing the degree mostly or entirely online.

Applications are now open for a start date of September 2022.

Learn more about the program and admission requirements on our Master’s Degrees page.

We are now inviting colleagues to submit course proposals for our Summer Institute in Education (SIE). Share your research, passion and knowledge with the next generation of educators, education experts and change-makers.

SIE offers unique learning opportunities for educators to strengthen their professional growth by intertwining theoretical and practical pedagogical knowledge. SIE instructors help to instill a commitment to career-long professional knowledge.

We are seeking instructors that will share their enthusiasm for life-long learning and inspire educators at all phases of their career. Instructors will design their course for Bachelor of Education, Graduate and post- baccalaureate students as well as current educators in the field.

Courses are generally three weeks in length starting July 4 and offered in the morning or afternoon, with the exception of Outdoor Education which has the option of running as a one-week intensive. They will be held Monday to Thursday with the exception of the week of August 1, which will be held Tuesday to Friday due to BC Day.

Instructors can apply* to one or more of the following topics:

• Outdoor Education (July 4 to 8, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or (July 4 to 21, 9a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Classroom Leadership (July 4 to 21, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Indigenous Education (July 4 to 21, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• French (July 4 to 21, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Educational Technology (July 4 to 21, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Creating a Thinking Classroom (core competencies) (July 4 to 21, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Literacy (July 4 to 21, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Science (July 4 to 21, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Movement across the Curriculum (July 4 to 21, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Instructional Strategies for All Learners (July 4 to 21, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Numeracy (July 25 to August 11, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Assessment and Design (July 25 to August 11, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• American Sign Language (July 25 to August 11, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) (July 25 to August 11, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Social Emotional Learning (July 25 to August 11, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Teaching English Additional Language (July 25 to August 11, 1 p.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Mental Health Stress Management (July 25 to August 11, 1 p.m. to 12 p.m.)
• Typical and Atypical Development in Infants and Children (July 25 to August 11, 1 p.m. to 12 p.m.)

Interested educators must submit their resume, course title, description, objectives and learning outcomes by Nov. 29. A minimum of a Master-level degree is required.

APPLY

*each course requires a separate application

If you have any questions about the SIE or the application process, please email sie.education@ubc.ca.

Interested in receiving a notification for when we begin accepting instructor applications? Sign-up for our Summer Institute Instructor newsletter.

All courses are subject to change and minimum enrolment.