A Kid’s Guide to Canada (AKGTCanada) is an unincorporated Canadian association that was first piloted in the winter of 2015 by Cathy Beach, a recently retired elementary teacher. It was first submitted as a National Signature Initiative for Canada 150 under the sponsorship of the Canadian Education Association, CEA. When no word came after a year, and the CEA felt it was too late to pursue a national project, Cathy Beach decided to take on the project with support from teachers across Canada who had already indicated strong support in the project. AKGTCanada established their web presence in March 2016 and began to attract educators from across the country. Supports wanted to take a leadership role in each province and territory and at the national organizing level. The project has attracted over $250,000 of in-kind support from a group of Canadian educational organizations and small businesses, which have built the accomplishments you see today. A Kids' Guide to Canada (AKGTCanada) seeks to “provide an authentic opportunity for all Canadian elementary students to use their voice…, connect elementary teachers and students of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds for the purpose of learning…, foster a culture of mutual understanding, empathy, respect, and collaboration amongst Canada’s youngest citizens…, [and] support Canadian teachers learning to implement new pedagogies for connected learning, and new cultural skills needed for teaching effectively in a global classroom” (Goals page). AKGTCanada is coming January of 2017. It is a teacher-led initiative with a focus on connecting students all around Canada including marginalized, remote, minority language, and indigenous communities. It is the first multilingual interactive guide to Canada where children have the opportunity to show who and what their local communities are and what they represent, all in their native language. It encourages students from all over Canada’s vast and multicultural landscape to investigate, honour, and introduce the land and people of their local school communities. Students are taking the reins in creating peer-to-peer connections with the five million children that live in and around Canada. What’s more, is that this project celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday. What better way to celebrate than to have young Canadian, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Nation students collaborate and help to create a multilingual, engaging, creative, and interactive guide to Canada. Furthermore, this program contributes to a new culture of mutual understanding, empathy, and respect. It is made by children and it is for children. AKGTCanada targets both students in and teachers of Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 classrooms. It is also meant to include the extended family and friends of students and teachers, and the Canadian public at large.
After asking Cathy Beach what she believes some areas for growth are and what future direction she wants AKGTCanada to grow in, she responded with: “to reach every single elementary class in Canada, create other activities to occur online throughout the project to support both educational and social change in Canada, and create activities to continue after the official Kids’ Guide Project is ended June 30th." For any teachers who don't know about it. It is truly a beautiful organization that has the potential to create a bridge between the topographical restrictions for children who live in Canada. As an intern, I have sat in on all of the weekly meetings in which AKGTCanada and all of its ambassadors come together to discuss further growth and make sure that this pilot project is ready to launch. And I must say that I have never seen a group of such honest people. This organization is transparent. There are no bad intentions behind this project. Every teacher in support of this organization is incredible, dedicated, hard working, and BUSY! But even in their busy lives, they still take time out of their day to work on AKGTCanada because it is such a worthwhile organization. I am so lucky to have been placed as an intern for this organization and I ENCOURAGE ALL TEACHERS to take part in this ever-growing organization. Join the connectivity and give your students insight into other children's lives across Canada. Here's How.
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