Apple for the Teacher
Ontario Education Committee Report
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Pat Turcotte, Chair
Contact information is now being received from the veterans following the letter sent by Diana Taschereau to all Ontario Region Hong Kong veterans. The veterans had been asked to confirm their Contact person in case Ontario Region needs to get in touch with someone who can act as the contact for the veteran. Thirteen of the 30 veterans have responded to Pat Turcotte at this juncture as the letter had requested. Hopefully, the remaining veterans will be in touch before long. Many thanks to Diana for taking on this task.
Cheryl Petherick, a High School History teacher in Courtice, ON has been working at searching out for us possible workshops involving Hong Kong veterans and members of the Education Committee. The object is to promote awareness of the Hong Kong story, and the Ten Lessons so closely tied to that story. Cheryl has contacted 7 Universities and 12 Ontario School Boards in that regard, and we’re hoping to have several workshops before the end of the school year. We thank Cheryl for her efforts in this very important area.
The HKVCA Cross-Canada Essay Contest judges who have agreed to be involved this year include Nancy Hamer Strahl, Cheryl Petherick, Mike Babin, Bernard Turcotte and myself. Since the May 9th deadline for entries is much later than last year’s March 15th, students will have more to time to prepare their material. If you can, wherever you live across the country, encourage teachers to have their students participate in the contest. It will be a great learning situation for them, with the bonus of cash prizes. See the HKVCA Website for details of the contest.
Jim Trick, our Webmaster, and I have been discussing the Teachers’ Zone on the HKVCA Website. He has asked me to work as the Editor, and expand the information available there. I will be in touch with each of the Regional Directors across the country to search out a person in each Region who can keep us informed about HK activities in the schools and/or the communities.
In our own Region, congratulations are in order for the hiring of Sue Beard, an expert in graphic design who has been asked by Mike Babin to work on materials related to presentations about Hong Kong in the schools, in particular multimedia tools, and what are called “Seminars in a box”. The object is to make it possible for interested HKVCA members in every region to participate in increasing the awareness of students and adults in their communities about the Battle of Hong Kong and the contribution and sacrifices made by our Canadian soldiers in the Second World War.
Manitoba Education Committee Report
– Carol Hadley, Chair
In October 2007, the Manitoba Region Education Committee received their new tabletop display for use in schools and other small settings thanks to a generous donation from the Winnipeg Foundation. It debuted at the HKVA Reunion Dinner but was used, the first time, at the Manitoba Teachers Conference that was held at the end of November. Teachers from all over Manitoba viewed our display and received information about our Association. We also held 2 presentations in a classroom format where about 24 teachers were introduced to the 10 Lessons through a PowerPoint session, received a package of information to be used in the classroom and encouraged to have their students do a project for the Ontario Region Essay Contest.
Our Region will be attending the Heritage Days Symposium held at the University of Winnipeg in May where about 500 students, parents and teachers will be viewing all the displays, receiving information about our Association and participating in a scavenger hunt where the students need to answer questions from the displays to win a prize.
We have recently met with Executive members of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural
and Community Centre, Dr J. Du, President and Mr. P. Lee, Vice President, to
discuss areas where we might share information about the Battle of Hong Kong.
They expressed an interest in our VJ Day service and we may be able to set up
our display at their Centre, possibly during Folklorama. In the meantime we look
forward to exploring other ideas with them.