APLC Change Maker Conversations in Education

Susan shares some of the lessons and strategies she's used over her time career as a Jr High Art Teacher, Comedian and Author. We discuss her books, writing process and some of the lessons she picked up and shared along the way as well as a couple of other books, The Science of Making Friends and the Gap and the Gain over the course of our conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

Podcast Host Dr. Rick Gilson was joined by APLC Designer of Professional Learning Angela DesBarres and our guest for this episode, Dr. Julia Lindsey.  Our conversation covered strategies to support readers in developing foundational skills in phonics, phonemic awareness, and decoding, building fluency and comprehension, with the goal of fostering a lifelong love of reading.  Julia is a champion of...

As always we start out with sharing some of our recent books read or currently reading followed by Myron taking us through his lived experience as a teacher and evolution to speaking, presenting and writing about assessment in the classroom and how we might improve our practice in support of learning in our classroom. The author of Giving Students a Say, and Grading Smarter not Harder shares his i...

Canadian Author David Robertson visits with us about his new book released on May 13, 2025 entitled: 52 Ways to Reconcile - How to Walk with Indigenous Peoples on the Path to Healing. In the course of our conversation David shares his hopes for the book, specifically that it represents an invitation for people of all ages to consider 51 ways he offers readers to engage in the reconciliation proces...

Change Maker Conversations in Education Hosts visit with Katie Garner, the founder of Secret Stories: Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in mind. Katie shares stories, resources and thoughts on how everyone working with little ones learning how to read for the first time, supporting those who are re-learning how to read following injury or illness, and those learning English as an additional...

Kim Barker-Kay and Jason Bigcharles (Cree Wāpastim or White Horse) joined Dr. Rick Gilson and Charlie Kraig to share a conversation centred on Kim and Jason's work in developing a comprehensive website and series of YouTube videos to support teachers as they work to imbue Indigenous culture-based learning within the Alberta Curriculum. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we visit with Julie Stern, author of Tools for Teaching: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Deep Learning (Elementary and Secondary editions) and Learning that Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World. Julie also has a website well worth visiting for resources and examples. It is at https://www.edtochangetheworld.com. Julie discusses teaching for conceptual understa...

Recorded for the Alberta Summer Literacy Institute the YouTube Version of this visit is available on the APLC YouTube channel. David Robertson shares several of his books, sharing his stories and lived experiences in picture books like On the Trapline and through historical fiction, the residential school experience in books like Sugar Falls and When We Were Alone. The award-winning author of the...

Our last podcast episode of the 2023-2024 school year features Matthew (Matt) Johnson a Michigan area English teacher who has taught grade 6 - 12. Matt has written several books and his most recent book comes out during the summer of 2024 entitled: Good Grammar, Grades 6-12: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students  Don't fall over; it's not a mistake. Joyful and Grammar i...

This Changer Maker Conversations in Education—Literacy Across the Curriculum podcast episode features two outstanding educators, Michelle Bence and Michelle Ramzy. This dynamic duo came together through proximity in work and postgraduate studies, sharing a deep commitment to literacy instruction that has led them to share their understanding of the work with educators. Avid readers(no surprise the...

​​Rebekah O'Dell believes in the power of choice, authenticity, and students' voices in the reading and writing classroom. Travelling the country to work with teachers and students provides constant inspiration as she helps educators do the hard and transformative work of teaching real writing. In public and independent schools, she taught middle and high school students at all levels -from inclus...

When you are blessed with an opportunity to visit with an individual whose career has been dedicated to helping children learn how to read and love reading, the conversation will be a good one. When you add decades of service as a professor at the University of Lethbridge, dedicated in large part to helping pre-service teachers develop the skills to support the instruction of all aspects of litera...

In this episode, Charlie Kraig and Rick Gilson visit with a long-time friend and colleague, Joanne Pitman, who was recently appointed as Chief Superintendent of the Calgary Board of Education or CBE. Jo (as she prefers to be called) shares some thoughts on her most recent read - and re-read, "What We Owe the Future" by William MacAskill and how it has influenced her thinking and work as a system l...

In this episode of our ARPDC Podcast - Literacy Across the Curriculum Series, we visit with Elyse Morin, one of our ARPDC team of Designers of Professional Learning and a seriously intense champion of reading and books in the classroom and at home. Elyse discusses some 15-plus titles for the Francophone or French Immersion classroom with Rick Gilson and Charlie Kraig - the conversation is in Engli...

ARPDC Podcast Series hosts, Charlie Kraig and Rick Gilson roll up their sleeves and share excerpts and thoughts on approximately 15 books for the classroom, professional and personal reading libraries. Along the way, we talk about where and how they might be used, what we have taken away from them for personal and professional growth and offer a couple of online resources to check out.  Learn more...

Our conversation explores the links between identity and literacy, the importance of teachers exploring their own identity and where that can be found in the literacy they create and consume, as well as what we can do to help our students in their exploration of both the individual identity and how literacy can help us better understand those with whom we share our communities and the planet on wh...

Charlie Kraig and Rick Gilson are joined by Trevor Aleo, author, teacher, podcaster, and doctoral candidate, as we discuss and take a deep dive at times in the conversation, the many ways and means by which students of all grades can develop and demonstrate their literacy. Trevor shares several titles, research points and resources that can support your professional learning and practice in the cl...

Dr. Aly Ricke of the University of Florida Literacy Institute joins Dr. Rick Gilson and Charlie Kraig from ARPDC for another conversation focused on literacy, specifically looking at the evolution and development of UFLI's work, how it's growing across Alberta, Canada and the United States and what we might do to better understand and support the work. Aly also shares some of the work on Dyslexia...

In this episode of our podcast series, we visit with Irene Heffel, a long-time literacy coach, instructional lead, current Designer of Professional Learning with our ARPDC team and an instructor at Concordia College in the faculty of Education in Edmonton. Irene has over 35 years of experience at all levels of education and has worked in and with elementary and secondary teachers to implement best...

We sat down with Kari Tanaka of the University of Lethbridge Bookstore as she walked us through several books for educators, students, and families covering titles from preschool/kindergarten through Grade 12 and beyond. Kari once again proves to be a valuable resource for anyone who loves books and is always on the lookout for new additions to their own TBR piles or classroom libraries. She broug...

Having recently completed a significant update to the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortium’s English as an Additional Language Website, we sit down in this podcast episode to engage in a conversation with Stephanie Dodyk, whose post-graduate work focuses on the support of English as an additional language (EAL) learners of all ages. Stephanie shares the personal experiences that, i...

Dr. Lisa Starr, the new Dean of Education at the University of Lethbridge, engages in a conversation with Charlie Kraig and Dr. Rick Gilson, ARPDC Change Maker Conversations in Education hosts, about books (classics and new), Cellphilming, listening, writing, multi-modal approaches to share your learning and ideas and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Filewych, one-time newspaper journalist, turned to teaching, all the while remaining passionate about writing – both her own and all those she teaches. In this episode of the Change Maker Conversations in Education, we continue our Literacy Across the Curriculum conversation with this author, educator, leader and all-around awesome soul. Karen shares several books and thoughts, inviting us t...

The Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortium (ARPDC) has worked with the creators of Camp Re-write, (Matthew Johnson, Rebekah O’Dell, and Angela Stockman) who have partnered to create a pedagogical summer camp, primarily for teachers of English Language Arts and Literature. In support of teachers in Alberta, ARPDC is offering Camp ReWrite - Alberta Campground and in our recent podcast...

Angela Stockman can help us all with our reading skills K-12; however, it is in writing, expressing your thoughts, and ideas, and telling stories across a myriad of modalities that Angela has really lived, breathed and worked with teachers and students for most of her life. Angela believes we all have stories, our stories are important, and there are a myriad of ways we can tell our stories. Her W...