October 19-23, 2020 is Digital Citizen Week. Being an informed digital citizen is more important than ever now with so many more youth accessing digital information through online school. If you have Netflix, it has produced a documentary titled The Social Dilemma in which multiple conversations are had with tech insiders about their products. This is appropriate for senior high students and certainly will raise awareness of how we are manipulated through social media. For younger students, Common Sense Education has put together a variety of resources for digital citizen week. Find it at the following link.

The Ministry of Education manages a website where teachers and counsellors can sign up and take courses for free. Earlier this year they hosted a fantastic webinar about welcoming students back to school this year while dealing with potential pandemic trauma. There are many more webinars and courses available. If you don’t already have an account, take some time to make one and check out this great resource.

Dr. Daphne Holt presents a webinar titled Becoming an Adult in a Pandemic: Tools for Resilience and Prevention of Mental Illness. She offers ground-breaking research in this webinar and highlights methods to help college-age youth cope with the heightened stresses and anxieties they face.

The BC School Counsellors Conference has moved online. We’re excited to offer a full lineup of presenters, some whom are new to BCSCA and some of your favourite presenters returning with a new message. We are also partnered with BCTF and have available some workshops offered through BCTF as well, so there is a huge selection for you. The online format provides you, the conference attendee, the opportunity to visit our exhibitor booths, take part in a scavenger hunt to win prizes, and attend our Townhall on Thursday evening. There are plenty of advantages of attending an online conference – sleep in because you don’t need to commute and find parking (you don’t even need to get dressed up if you don’t want to), eat your favourite foods at home, have full control over what workshops you attend, get the best seat in the house for our keynote speaker and NO LINEUPS at the bathroom. Oh, and what about the price? A mere $100 for BCTF members which includes membership to the BCSCA. If you have never attended in the past, this is the year to see what BCSCA has to offer.

Sign up TODAY because registration closes on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21 at 4:00 pm. There are no last-minute registrations available this year.

Are we in for a second wave of this pandemic? How long with this last? Will we need to go back into quarantine as a society and limit our physical interactions with one another? Nobody can predict the future, but we can prepare for eventualities. Let’s focus on the positive and make the most of our time if we do go back into our homes. Here is a list of fun activities from Victoria News.