Place-Based Learning is a core foundation of our curriculum in B.C. Teachers and students across the province are excited to be inquiring about issues and priorities that matter most to our communities with a more ‘local lens’. By helping educators to connect classroom and community through a focus on people, place and planet, this professional development event hopes to inspire more promising practices and transformative learning in our schools and communities.

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The Classrooms to Communities (C2C) 2019 Conference aims to support the practice of place-based learning. The conference goals are to:

1. Model Place-Based Learning through highly interactive, experiential and replicable practices.
2. Share and explore success stories of place-based learning as K-12 teaching and learning that is central to BC’s curriculum.
3. Inspire, support and enhance the evolving work of K-12 teachers and partners in BC schools and communities to integrate promising practices of place-based education.
4. Build greater capacity and collaboration for a BC wide network of place-based education leaders/mentors, including K-12 teachers, schools, school districts, organizations, associations of K-12 teachers and all other interested partners.

Core Values of the Conference:

1. Place-Based: Helping participants discover the value of place and community, wherever they live, teach and learn.          
2. Participant Engagement: Facilitating learner-centred experiences and creating space for dialogue and sharing of experiences and practices.
3. Model Inquiry: Modeling a focus on inquiry through place and community, and exploring Indigenous and other perspectives on inquiry, knowledge and understanding.         
4. Experiential: Immersing participants in place through lived experience.     
5. Walk the Talk: Ensuring the event is inclusive and respectful of all people and sustainable to the greatest extent possible.

Format:

The conference will consist of a variety of place-based workshops, experiences, gatherings, community-based excursions and opportunities for collaboration and dialogue.  You are invited to submit proposals in a format that outlines how your session focus will be highly engaging to participants. See evaluation criteria below. Collaborative, co-delivered offerings that celebrate shared successes and goals related to place-based learning are encouraged. All session hosts/facilitators are expected to register for the conference and should do so within 15 days of acceptance of their proposal.

Conference Venues:

Friday, Oct. 25

Venues on UBC Vancouver Campus, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, including:

• UBC Longhouse (First Nations House of Learning)
• Breakout spaces (indoor and outdoor) around campus
• Robert H Lee Alumni Centre

Saturday, Oct. 26

• Field Experience Venues around the Region

 Audiences:

C2C 2019 will convene both school-based and community-based educators, as well as other community members committed to place-based, community-connected learning in a wide range of settings, including:

• Academics/Researchers
• Administrators and Policy-makers
• Post-Secondary Instructors/Professors
• Community-based Educators
• Educators who work with elementary schools
• Educators who work with high schools
• Early Childhood Educators
• Elementary School Teachers
• Secondary School Teachers
• Teacher Candidates
• Teacher Educators

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