Monthly Workshops

OFSHEEA's monthly workshops are excellent ways to connect with other Family Studies teachers on the issues and topics that are most important to our subject area.

Check out the descriptions of some of our workshops below, and click to register.

All workshops are free for OFSHEEA members! There may be a cost for non-members to attend some workshops. Please see the description for each workshop for details.

Upcoming Workshops

Diversity and Culture in Early Childhood Education

Wednesday May 8th, 7:00 PM

Melanie Dixon, RECE , is the Director of Professional Practice at the College of Early Childhood Educators. She is a collaborative leader with varied experience in the early years sector, including licensed child care, child and family resource programs, post-secondary education, government and professional regulation.
In collaboration with colleagues in the learning community, RECEs create equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive environments to support children and families. This presentation will provide an overview of the profession of early childhood education and the responsibilities of Registered Early Childhood Educators related to diversity, equity and inclusion. This workshop will be great for those teaching courses like HPC30 – Raising Healthy Children, HPW3C – Working with Infants and Young Children and HPD4C – Working with School-Aged Children and Adolescents.

The workshop is free for members of OFSHEEA . For non-members the cost is $5 and can be submitted via etransfer at ofsheea@ofsheea.ca

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

Creating a Supportive Food Environment in the Classroom

Wednesday April 17th, 4:00 PM

Our Presenter for this session is Claire Bilik. She is a Registered Dietitian with the Middlesex-London Health Unit on the School Health Team. She works with public health nurses and the school community to create supportive food environments in schools that foster positive relationships with food and body image. Claire obtained her Bachelor of Applied Human Nutrition at the University of Guelph and completed her post-grad dietetic internship with London Health Sciences Centre.
In this workshop, we will:
  • review diet culture and weight bias, and discuss how it shows up in schools;
  • define food neutrality: a new approach for how we talk about food and provide nutrition education;
  • make curriculum connections to food neutrality;
  • review strategies to support students to develop a positive relationship with food; and
  • share relevant resources.

The workshop is free for members of OFSHEEA . For non-members the cost is $5 and can be submitted via etransfer at ofsheea@ofsheea.ca

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

The Chaos-Free Classroom

Tuesday March 26th 2024, 7:00 PM

Kathleen Hilchey is a bullying specialist who works with families, schools and camps to put an end to bullying. She has a Masters Degree in Education, is a Qualified Mediator, and spent a decade teaching in the Ontario school system (many years as a Family Studies teacher!). In this session she will discuss the huge pressures put on teachers, as we are expected to not only teach the curriculum, but also play the role of counsellor, parent, and health-care practitioner. Kathleen will share her top 5  principles to create a caring, supportive, and calm classroom. Participants will leave with concrete tools and actions that they can take immediately to turn their chaotic classroom into a calm one.
You can learn more about Kathleen on her website at https://www.strongandkind.org/

The workshop is free for members of OFSHEEA . For non-members the cost is $5 and can be submitted via etransfer at ofsheea@ofsheea.ca

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

Food Literacy: Thinking Critically About Food & Farming

Wednesday February 15th 2023

Why are there so many kinds of tomatoes to choose from at the grocery store? Where do they all come from? How do we know our food is safe, healthy and/or sustainable? What do all of these labels mean? Why is FOOD so confusing?! As a consumer, weeding through all of the information about how our food is produced and where our food comes from and being able to make confident food decisions can be very frustrating. Students today are bombarded by misinformation and feeling more disconnected from their food than ever before. As educators, we need to help lay a solid foundation of food literacy to help set our students on a more empowered path. In this workshop, AgScape Teacher Ambassador Wendy O’Neil, will explore these issues and share about how AgScape’s programs and resource can help teachers explore this important competency with their students. 

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

Food Literacy: Thinking Critically About Food & Farming

Wednesday February 15th 2023

Why are there so many kinds of tomatoes to choose from at the grocery store? Where do they all come from? How do we know our food is safe, healthy and/or sustainable? What do all of these labels mean? Why is FOOD so confusing?! As a consumer, weeding through all of the information about how our food is produced and where our food comes from and being able to make confident food decisions can be very frustrating. Students today are bombarded by misinformation and feeling more disconnected from their food than ever before. As educators, we need to help lay a solid foundation of food literacy to help set our students on a more empowered path. In this workshop, AgScape Teacher Ambassador Wendy O’Neil, will explore these issues and share about how AgScape’s programs and resource can help teachers explore this important competency with their students. 

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

Infusing Equity into Your Family Studies Classroom

Saturday October 15, 2022, from 9:00AM - 11:30AM

Equity! CRRP! Anti-Oppression Education! Bias! Power and Privilege! These are just some of the current hot topics in the media and in education discourse. This session will explore these important concepts and how they impact our classrooms. Participants will leave with practical and actionable lesson activities to take back to your school, department, and classroom.

The workshop is free for members of OFSHEEA (membership does have its advantages! This is the first of many FREE PD opportunities for our members this coming year). For non-members the cost is $5 and can be submitted via etransfer at ofsheea@ofsheea.ca

Click the button below to register for this excellent workshop!

Board of Directors Info Session

Wednesday October 12th, 7:00PM

There are several positions on our board that are up for election this year, including President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Central East Representative, Central West Representative, and Toronto Representative. We also have a few other vacancies. Come join our board of directors!

We will be hosting a Board of Directors Info Session on Wednesday October 12th at 7:00 in order to share some experiences of being on the board and answer any questions you might have.

Click the button below to register for this info session.

Previous Workshops

Diet Culture: Recognize It! Reject It! Revise the Narrative! Learning and Teaching About Body Acceptance, Weight Bias and Food Neutrality

Monday May 30, 2022, from 4 – 5:30pm

OFSHEEA has been collaborating with experts to create a new resource to help support you as a teacher of family studies address diet culture in your classroom. Over the past two months we released Part One and Two of this resource. On May 30th we will share the third part of the resource focusing on how you can REVISE THE NARRATIVE in your classroom. The focus of this workshop is to give you the resources needed to create engaging lessons that are free of diet culture. Opportunity will be provided for teachers to examine, discuss, and share current lesson ideas and resources for HFN1O/2O and HFA4C/4U (but the work will be applicable to all courses in the discipline).

First Nations, Métis and Inuit Perspectives in Family Studies:
Curriculum Connections

Wednesday May 25, 2022, from 4 – 5:30pm

This is the second (of two) workshops presented by OFSHEEA for the release of our curriculum advisory document. This workshop will focus on ways in which to make curriculum connections more explicit for 9 different family studies courses. For each course, overall and specific expectations that can be met by including First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives in course content will be explored.  Opportunity to engage in discussion with other Family Studies educators will be provided.