Physical and Health Education Conference
The 2024 Physical and Health Education in BC Provincial Teachers Conference is hosted by Douglas College in partnership with Physical and Health Education in BC to provide physical and health educators with a meaningful day of professional development. Themed “Making Physical Health Education meaningful for Students,” this year’s conference will feature a variety of workshops that will build your competencies and keep you informed and connected to the field of physical and health education in B.C.
Event details
When
Friday, October 25, 2024 at 8:30am
Where
Douglas College New Westminster campus
700 Royal Avenue
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Contact information
Registration
604 527 5472
Email CE Registration
Sports Institute
604 527 5041
Email Sports Institute
Registration for the 2024 Physical and Health Education Conference is now open.
Schedule & workshops
- Coffee and Registration (8:30–9am)
- Session 1 (9–10am)
- Break (10–10:15am)
- Keynote Speaker Presentation (10:15–10:45am)
- Break (10:45–11am)
- Session 2 (11am–12pm)
- Lunch and AGM (12–1:15pm)
- Session 3 (1:15–2:15pm)
- Closing Ceremony (2:15-2:45pm)
Coffee and Registration (8:30–9am)
Arrive a little early and catch up with friends and colleagues before heading to your first session.
Session 1 (9-10am)
Instructor
Greg Beaudin and Steve Cooke
CRN
31181
Description
Learn to play hockeyball! We are excited to introduce and guide you through the essentials of teaching hockeyball, an incredibly fun and easy-to-learn sport perfect for Physical Education classes. Our workshop is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to introduce hockeyball to your students effortlessly, regardless of their age, skill level or prior experience with sports. During this session, we will cover the fundamental aspects of hockeyball, including basic rules, essential equipment and various teaching techniques. You'll learn how to set up engaging drills and activities that make the game enjoyable for all students. We will also provide practical demonstrations and hands-on practice to ensure you feel confident in teaching hockeyball. Our focus is on making the sport accessible and fun for everyone, emphasizing its adaptability to suit different demographics and skill levels. This introduction will give you insight into why we think hockeyball is a great addition to any curriculum.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Erica Scott, CEO and author, Creating Consent Culture
CRN
31182
Description
We tell kids to just say no, but we don’t explain why they may have a hard time saying no, and then they blame themselves for not having said no. We tell kids to look for an enthusiastic yes, but then we don’t show them what that looks like. Or more importantly, what a lack of enthusiasm looks like. And often they don’t recognize it.
Consent has been added to the curriculum, and true comprehensive sex education includes trauma-sensitive and age-appropriate consent education. But how do we do that well? Let me make it easier for you! In this presentation, I will show you how to teach your students what I call Consent Skills, the skills needed to navigate interactions in a way that works for everyone. These skills include:
Hearing no graciously
Knowing what to do when you’re a maybe
Asking for what you want clearly
Checking in with yourself to notice what you want
Recognizing a lack of enthusiasm in yourself and others
Understanding the freeze response
Knowing you can change your mind
And more
We teach these consent skills through fun and interactive exercises and discussions. Because these are skills that need to be practiced, and then practiced again.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Chad Oatway, New Westminster School District, PHE-BC 2nd Vice-President
CRN
31183
Description
Taking some time each day to warm your kids up with an activity that teaches personal and social responsibility can be vital in building a connected class. Social and emotional learning is integrated through experience; physical play is the most natural way students learn these skills. This session will teach teachers how to structure activities with social, emotional, and physical intentions that create an environment where students feel willing to take risks, rewarded and connected to each other.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
John Byl, Gopher Sports and Omnikin
CRN
31184
Description
Delight in learning 10 warm up games and 12 inclusive variations with some innovative equipment. The warm ups can be done with balloons, regular volleyballs or no equipment. Some of the innovative equipment includes volley rebounders with handles and Sid the Spider that gets tossed over the net using parachutes. Some of these net games can be done without nets and this set of activities does not use racquets. This is an active session so come ready to participate, engage and enjoy.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Ken Zelez, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir High School (Okotoks, Alberta)
CRN
31185
Description
As teachers, coaches and educators, we have a great opportunity to train and teach our athletes to develop and build positive character traits. Teaching character is far more impactful than just learning the X's and O's. Character is part of what shapes us into who we are today. This workshop will take you through tips, tricks and tools on how to intentionally teach and build character within your students and athletes.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Ry Sword Avola, YWCA Metro Vancouver
CRN
31186
Description
Join us to learn from Dating Safe’s supervisor and facilitator, Ry Sword Avola (they/he), as they guide us through YWCA’s teen dating violence prevention curriculum. They will share their knowledge on setting up the program, its key principles, and provide relevant tips and resources to support facilitators and educators in ensuring an accessible and anti-oppressive space for youth of all genders.
Dating Safe aims to provide youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop healthy relationships that are free from violence and abuse. Based on our research, we developed an eight-module program that was delivered over a 4-year period to Grade 8 students, with two additional booster modules offered in Grades 9 and 10, as part of their Physical Health and Education classes. The program was offered in two high schools in Vancouver and Surrey school districts and is currently expanding to new schools in the region to support students of all genders, sexual orientations and identities in developing healthy relationships.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Jasmin Lundy, Teacher Teaching On-Call, School District 43
CRN
31188
Description
This session will offer practical and accessible strategies that teachers can use to help support their well-being. Lesson plans and resources will be provided, should teachers want to utilize these strategies with students in PHE or classroom settings as well. Sample strategies that participants will be invited to try include gratitude, deep breathing and self-compassion.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Riley Wiwchar and Zoe Ferry, 2024 Grey Cup Organization
CRN
31189
Description
Enhance your ability to teach flag football in this dynamic one-hour workshop focusing on physical literacy and sportsmanship. You'll receive an overview of lesson plans and skills training sessions, participate in demonstrations and hands-on practice with new drills and exercises, and get ideas for implementing the program in your school. Participants will also gain access to the PLAYBuilder platform, providing a variety of lesson plans and tools for integrating flag football into their physical education curriculum. The session will conclude with a Q&A segment.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Stephanie Mervyn – Vice President, PHE-BC and Arrow Lakes School District
CRN
31190
Description
If you struggle to find work/life balance and are looking for some strategies or ideas, this is the workshop for you! You will leave the session with some practical tools to support you in your teaching role.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Dr. Kristy Howells, United Kingdom
CRN
31191
Description
This session is intended to share why teachers and practitioners in preschool/kindergartens and elementary school teachers need to know more about motor competency, fine motor skills (including hand movements used to manipulate balls and sticks) and gross motor skills (including locomotion movements, such running and dodging) as well as stability skills to help children stop, start and balance within movements. From an international perspective, movement is a worldwide language and we wish to within this session to share the impact and benefits that children have experienced in the UK, by undertaking the early years diagnostic motor competency screening tool and targeted interventions. We use a novel approach and focus within the screening tool and interventions of enhancing the integration of children’s primitive reflexes as well as increasing children’s self-perception of their motor competency to enhance their engagement in physical activity for life. The session will share the impact of children’s motor competencies development from where they were when the entered school, and then their assessments of their progressions through each stage of the interventions. The session aims to provide valuable insights, to support others globally within the role that school practitioners/teachers in assessing and then developing motor competency through bespoke interventions for the children’s needs.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Tina Parker, District Vice-Principal, Healthy Futures
CRN
31192
Description
This virtual workshop will focus on teaching in the environment where the students have free time (playgrounds and fields) to support the students with skills they can comfortably use during recesses to be more physically active. Teaching fundamental movement skills is essential in building the physical literacy within each learner. Students need to be proficient movers, and this can be re-enforced through training student leaders to run activities for younger students, working with staff and parents to understand the importance of risky play and to support students improved physical engagements in free time activities through access to equipment.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Break (10–10:15am)
Take a moment to get your bearings after the first session and make your way to the keynote presentation.
Keynote Speaker Presentation (10:15–10:45am)
Making PE Meaningful for Students
Bio: Jodi Harding-Kuriger, U of Alberta
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
PE Teacher, Alberta
PHE Canada Research Council
President (past), Health and Physical Education Council of Alberta
Break (10:45–11am)
Feeling inspired to lead in the Physical and Health Education field after the keynote? Make your way to session two for more informative workshops.
Session 2 (11am–12pm)
Instructor
David Amram, King David High School
CRN
31193
Description
Want to excite your students while teaching communication, critical thinking, teamwork and strategy? Look no further! This workshop will present and teach you three or four different active, inclusive and fun student-centred games that address physical literacy and promote healthy, active living. They will rejuvenate your PHE classes and will have your students exercising, communicating, strategizing and working both individually and collaboratively in both small and large teams. Wall Ball, Nuclear War, Squirrel Tag and possibly Ga-Ga (as seen on the show Bob’s Burgers), and if there is enough time, two quick inclusive warmups called Snake Pit and Buffalo Run will also be introduced. I have presented these Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) style games to many PHE teachers around Canada and I have received very positive feedback on how well the students enjoy the games and find themselves becoming much more active participants in their PHE classes. Wall ball is a striking/fielding type kickball style game; nuclear war is a territorial style “capture the flag like” game; squirrel tag is another invasion type flag football style game, and Ga-Ga is an adapted dodgeball style game where students who are not strong throwers and catchers can have tremendous success. The warmup games enable you to get a large number of kids warmed up at the same time even if you don't have a big teaching space. These games require both offensive and defensive strategy and facilitate communication and critical thinking. If you are interested in learning new games that promote inclusion, seamlessly tie into the new PHE curriculum, and are fun and exciting then this workshop is specially designed for you!
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Tanya Parker, PL3Y Education
CRN
31194
Description
Get your bell bottoms, hair spray, neon spandex and boombox ready – we're going Old Skool with this dance party, featuring music from the 1950s to current day! This workshop will show you how simple and easy teaching dance can be, featuring basic moves and combos purposefully designed to develop jumping, twisting, leaping, hopping cross lateral coordination and other fundamental movement skills, in support of your K–12 Physical Education curriculum. Forget 5-6-7-8 or left foot/right foot choreography – there are only 3 rules in this class: Be positive. Be fun. Be yourself.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Shannon Seid, Brandon Grant and Chris Wakelin (Surrey school teachers and coaches) in collaboration with BC Ultimate
CRN
31195
Description
Want to figure out what this "Ultimate Frisbee" thing is that you keep hearing about? Welcome, first time frisbee players, coaches, future coaches, PHE teachers and anyone else in between! Come join in on this fast-growing sport and learn the basics on how to set up your throw, catch and other fundamental movements to play. This workshop will be centred around teaching students from Grades 3–9 who are first time ultimate players themselves, as well as beginner adult ultimate players. Walk away with a progression of different activities to start implementing the next day with your teams and classes! Come with comfortable clothing and running shoes, as the best way to learn the sport is to try it out.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
John Byl, Gopher Sports and Omnikin
CRN
31196
Description
Delight in learning seven (7) warm up games, nine activity challenges and four inclusive variations for the game of pickleball. Pickleball is fast becoming a popular sport and this workshop will encourage novice and more able participants in developing their skills in an enjoyable manner. This is an active session so come ready to participate and enjoy.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Stefan Lageston (Maple Creek) and Ron Lee (Banting), Coquitlam School District
CRN
31197
Description
This session will provide an outline of a school special event. Since 2007, Maple Creek Middle School has provided several health and wellness conferences to its community. Stefan and Ron will explain how the event is organized. They will outline the steps of conference ideas and themes, community recruitment and connections, conducting an event with over 30 presenters for one day, and the follow up that is needed to continue offering conferences again in the future. Overall, we have found that the event has provided resources to students encouraging methods towards positive physical, mental and emotional health.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Ken Zelez, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir High School (Okotoks, Alberta)
CRN
31198
Description
Non-teaching coaches are becoming a reality in many schools today. Most of these coaches have never coached at all or in an educational setting and it is important to help them understand their roles as a coach and what policies and procedures they must abide by. This workshop will take you through considerations around recruitment, retention and mentoring of non-teaching coaches.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Josh Ogilvie, President PHE-BC and Sooke School District
CRN
31199
Description
Self-assessment can be one of the most powerful ways to engage students in their learning, yet it’s often overlooked or underutilized in PHE classes. Common practices, such as students circling a box on a rubric, giving a high-five to a label that describes their level of understanding, or estimating their daily mark and sharing it with the teacher, involve students but often fall short of deepening learning in meaningful ways.
In this session, we will explore how the essence of self-assessment can be embedded in PHE classes in meaningful and manageable ways. We will examine strategies to use self-assessment to drive learning and engagement in movement skills, concepts, personal fitness and learning habits, as well as how students can use this information for core competency reflections.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Cindy Andrew and Ash Almani, Bunyaad Public Affairs
CRN
31200
Description
Current events, like youth vaping, the opioid crisis and the proliferation of cannabis shops, invite us to revisit our approach to how we are addressing substance use in schools. Stats, facts and scare tactics don’t work, but what does? This interactive workshop will feature evidence-based approaches for helping youth build competencies in the area of substance use. Participants will be introduced to curricular aligned learning activities and culturally appropriate approaches that support de-stigmatizing substance use and building the knowledge and skills young people need to thrive in our world and reduce harm from substance use.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Jasmin Lundy, Teacher Teaching On-Call, Coquitlam School District
CRN
31201
Description
This session will focus on teaching secondary students the basics of nutrition in an inclusive and meaningful way with respect to lived experience. A fun and interactive lesson plan will be provided. Canada's Food Guide will guide the nutrition lesson with a focus on accessible healthy eating, enjoying food, cooking at home and eating meals with others. Factors that influence healthy eating and our assumptions about students’ readiness to engage in nutritional activities, such as socioeconomic status and nutrition knowledge, will be discussed.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Jannika Nyberg, Surrey School District
CRN
31202
Description
In this interactive workshop, teachers will be introduced to practical resources to make inclusive sexual health education relevant to an increasingly digitized world. Scope and sequence by age/development will be explained, along with suggestions for meaningful assessment. This workshop will also highlight how to empower students with safety skills as it relates to sextortion, sexualized cyber bullying and sexting.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Carlie McPhee, The Whole Shebang, Sexual Health Education
CRN
31203
Description
This workshop will empower any teacher to tackle the sexual health unit with confidence and care. Learning to take a direct, trauma-informed and inclusive approach, your student’s curiosity will overtake any silliness, worries or lack of focus. Participants will leave with a solid understanding of a best practice approach, resources for lessons and confidence that they’re supporting all their students’ needs.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Shawnee Harle, ShawneeHarle.com
CRN
31204
Description
How would it feel to have students take risks, try something hard, and be willing to get uncomfortable? For this to happen, we must help them replace the word confidence with courage. Confidence is an emotion based on results. Courage is an action they can choose. In fact, they can choose to be courageous even when they don't feel confident. "Without fear, there can be no courage." This interactive session will equip teachers with tools to help students face their fears and build their courage, to help bring out the best of them in the classroom.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Jana Kapp, Concussion Healing Space
CRN
31205
Description
New research shows that strict rest is no longer best for concussion recovery. We now take an active approach through education and exercise. While rest can lead to increased symptoms and recovery length time, exercise supports the brain in healing and decreases concussion symptoms and recovery lengths. Learn why exercise is now best for recovering from a concussion.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Lunch and AGM (12–1pm)
Enjoy some lunch and connect with your colleagues at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Session 3 (1:15–2:15pm)
Instructor
Gord Sturrock, Douglas College Sports Science
CRN
31206
Description
This session will focus on initiatives that challenge individuals and groups to work cooperatively to plan, problem solve and think creatively while undergoing physical movement. The emphasis of these initiatives is to challenge groups and individuals, begin or enhance team building processes and simply have fun. The session will also include how initiatives can be used to enhance learning environments and increase overall learning through experiential learning and reflection processes. Participants should wear comfortable clothing for this session. Age focus: Middle school and up.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Lisa Manzini, former President PHE-BC and Sea to Sky School District
CRN
31207
Description
This workshop teaches you games and activities that students love as well as class management strategies. Join Lisa Manzini, a passionate K-4 PHE specialist in the Sea to Sky School District (29 years). She will share her share her enthusiasm and experience on creating a safe, inclusive and fun learning environment focusing on building relationships while learning FMS skills. You will participate in games and activities that are creative, innovative and that you can use on Monday. Lisa will share how she weaves self-regulation and interpersonal relationships into PHE classes. She will share how she teaches the health portion of PHE with topics & activities that are fun for learners. We will discuss the Circles of Control, Managing Big Emotions and more. Come, have fun and share your inspiring practices with others if you choose. Be ready to more and connect with colleagues.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Jane Graham, Delta School District
CRN
31208
Description
This session will show you how to incorporate fun soccer activities into your PE class. Games and activities can be tailored to various skill and ability levels, as well as adapted to use for teaching other territorial games such as basketball and hockey. Fun warm-up activities will also be included in the session.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
John Byl, Gopher Sports and Omnikin
CRN
31209
Description
Using large and light balls makes passing and receiving easier, and a little zanier, as participants develop physical literacy skills involving sending, receiving and retaining with at least 20 different activities. The main takeaways are: learning 30 inclusive games, creatively developing physical literacy and experiencing the joy of playing with large light balls.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Ken Zelez, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir High School (Okotoks, Alberta)
CRN
31210
Description
This outstanding workshop will take you through key concepts for building confident, tough-minded and fearless athletes. The six steps you will learn will provide you with the tools and foundation to build your athletes up, support them, as well as help them understand how to be a competitor. You will come away with two to five usable tools that can be incorporated in your program next week.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Josh Ogilvie, President PHE-BC and Sooke School District
CRN
31211
Description
PHE teachers have noticed increasing student apathy and lack of motivation in recent years, highlighting the need for high-quality learning experiences. These experiences are important as they influence one’s desire to be active in life and should be personally meaningful to students. The Meaningful PE framework has helped teachers worldwide create such experiences for students while also shifting their approaches to teaching.
This session will be highly interactive, focusing on exploring and then applying the features of the Meaningful PE framework to real-world scenarios, including student motivation, to highlight its practical use in B.C. classes.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Vanessa Wiebe, Surrey Schools
CRN
31212
Description
This workshop will focus on how to run a PE program with limited equipment outside of the gym (classroom or outdoor settings). Focus on fundamental movement skills with from K–7.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Dr. Dominique Falls, Douglas College and Nat Gingerich, Douglas College/Mabel League
CRN
31213
Description
In this session, we will guide teachers through accessible strategies they can use to make their PHE spaces more welcoming for Queer students. Drawing on a mix of research, lived experiences and case studies, we'll help teachers gain confidence in implementing these strategies in ways that reflect their local contexts. Although this session focuses on Queer identities and experiences, we are firm believers that Queer inclusion will transform PHE spaces into feel good spaces for students and teachers of all genders.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Manya Edwardson, Health Promotion and Prevention Worker, New Westminster School District
CRN
31214
Description
The rise of e-cigarette/vape use among youth in B.C. are a concern of public health and school districts alike. Providing education on the truths about vaping and its potential consequences are an integral part of prevention. This session provides an overview of what vaping is and why it’s becoming so popular among youth. We discuss the hidden dangers of the vapor cloud, legal restrictions, quitting support and the potential costs of choosing to vape to one’s physical health, brain, the environment and wallet. A comparison of vape use to smoking cigarettes is made to encourage critical thinking on substance use trends, marketing and manipulation of the industry. This presentation was originally created for a middle school audience to empower them in making informed decisions, however, is also applicable to staff and parents interested in increasing their own knowledge to help youth navigate the vaping epidemic.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Nicole Dargent, BCRPA Fitness Program Coordinator
CRN
31215
Description
This workshop will provide you with the tools you need to support your students to become registered BCRPA fitness leaders – the most robust certification in B.C. – offering them part-time employment with public and private fitness facilities or leading to a career in fitness. BCRPA staff will walk you through the performance standards and learning objectives required for students to pass the fitness theory exam and what is required for them to pursue jobs in weight training and/or group fitness. Many of the PHE courses offered in Grades 11 and 12 meet the basic learning outcomes to pass the BCRPA fitness theory exam, the gateway to weight training, personal training, yoga, pilates, aquatic fitness, spin, bootcamp and a host of other group fitness modalities. Find out how to set your students up for success and gain meaningful skills for future employment.
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Carlie McPhee, The Whole Shebang, Sexual Health Education
CRN
31216
Description
This workshop dials in on what students need to know to support their decision making, relationships and healthy sex lives, both face-to-face and online. By using countless online examples, we can highlight the realities of the new world that teenagers are grappling with, as well as honing their inter-personal skills and offline relationships. We are going to talk sextortion, pornography, AI deep fakes, sending nudes, social media stereotypes and trends, online dating, consent in the digital space and more!
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Instructor
Chad Oatway, New Westminster School District, PHE-BC 2nd Vice-President
CRN
31217
Description
When teaching games, it is hard to separate skills from tactics. In reality, the tactical use of skills is the essence of effective gameplay. In Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), discover a fun and popular approach to teaching the individual skills of a game in a tactical context, prompting students to learn how to use those skills. If you want to get your students thinking about using their skills, this workshop is for you!
Ready to register for the whole conference?
Closing Ceremony (2:15-2:45pm)
Join us for the closing remarks, draw prizes and celebrations to wrap up the conference.