The iconic image of a student staring out the classroom window daydreaming of anything but the lesson at hand might be a reality that teachers try to avoid. David Lewkowich, a professor of Secondary Education, doesn’t see these moments as a distraction but as an important part of what is happening in the classroom.

“Every student and every teacher, while we are all focusing on a lesson, a topic or a concept, there is still so much else happening in that classroom,” explains Lewkowich.

With an increase in learning online, and youth sharing TikTok dances, one education professor and her colleagues are advocating for more computing and digital literacy in Canadian curriculum.

While the majority of courses are moving online for the Fall 2020 term, one Education professor and his colleagues are taking students back to nature––and sharing the experience in a documentary, available online now.

“Identity is relational, always evolving, always political, and shaped by colonial relations of power,” says Brooke Madden, a Secondary Education and Aboriginal Teacher Education Program professor.

Greta Thunberg is not the only one looking to foster hope and inspire change in the current political and ecological climates. A speaker series organized by a professor and student in the Department of Secondary Education hopes to spark conversation and foster community in a similar vein.

For many, summer is a time for camping, outdoor sports and cold drinks on a warm patio. But for educators, summer isn't always about winding down—it's about catching up on research and writing, travelling to international conferences, and devoting time to exciting projects.

Cathy Adams, a professor in the Department of Secondary Education, has been named the 2018 Vargo Teaching Chair, the first Faculty of Education member to be so named. In the video below, Dr.

University of Alberta secondary education professor Cathy Adams has been awarded the 2018 Vargo Teaching Chair, becoming the first Faculty of Education member to be so honoured since its establishment in 2003.

A trip above the Arctic circle in Scandinavia showed a University of Alberta student that Indigenous people in distant countries have a lot in common and can support each other in preserving their culture and traditions. Kaitlyn Walcheske says she’s drawing on her first international travel experience to find ways to support Indigenous students at home and to help amplify their voices—with the help of a grant from the Peter Lougheed Leadership College (PLLC).

If you want to know what it takes to balance athletic pursuits with academic excellence, Sara Haring would be a good person to ask. The University of Alberta Pandas rugby player and secondary education after-degree student was named an Academic All-Canadian—a designation conferred by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) to varsity athletes who maintain an academic standing of 80 per cent or better—for the fifth time in 2016.