News

As the 87th Annual Meeting of Council concluded in a precedent-setting virtual format, elections for the Executive of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation were held with a pair of new female councillors elected to fill two vacancies.

Gwen Paul from Prairie Valley School Division will be joined by Laura Skrumeda Sawby from Chinook School Division, which means the 10-member Executive is now comprised equally of male and female educators from throughout the province.

Saskatchewan set the highest-ever single-day increase in COVID-19 positive tests on Monday with 66 new cases, and at least 50 cases are in 41 schools since September 8.

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation President Patrick Maze suggested that these increased numbers confirm what the province’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab has been predicting – as colder weather arrives, it results in people coming indoors more.

Building positive relationships with students and staff is a fundamental principle of the teaching profession, one that is even more important in these challenging pandemic times. Whether you are in a face-to-face school environment or teaching virtually, those who feel supported by caring connections with educators and peers feel a sense of belonging that can lead to a successful school year.

For the past year, we have been immersed in a McDowell research project focused on the experiences of female educational leaders in Saskatchewan.

As two administrators midway through our careers, we have had several common experiences and wonderings that led us to explore this topic more thoroughly. Over six months we interviewed nine current female school and division-based administrators and focused on the following questions:

It would hardly qualify as an anniversary to celebrate, but rather one that only tends to remind one of the lost opportunities in the past two decades.

Yes folks, I’m talking about it is fast approaching 20 years since Dr. Michael Tymchak, then the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, shared the findings of the exhaustive Role of the School Task Force Report which led to the notion of School^PLUS and was envisioned as the ultimate integrated support system.