Edvance Working Groups 2025
Edvance Working Groups bring together educators from Edvance affiliate schools to collaborate, exchange ideas, and support one another in tackling a shared focus or task that matters to their school. Participants will work on their own school’s goals alongside others doing similar work in their own contexts.
Building on the PSN’s commitment to fostering relationships and shared learning, these groups offer both connection and professional growth. Participants will deepen relationships with peers in similar roles and gain valuable insights that strengthen their own and their school’s practices in the working group focus area.
Each group is hosted by a paid facilitator and meets virtually once a month from November through April.
Cost to participate: $100/participant (unless otherwise noted in the descriptions below). Schools will be charged up to a maximum of $500 +HST total across all participating staff.
Questions? Do you have an idea for a group we should add? Reach out to Justin Cook at learning@edvance.ca
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Registration for this year's Edvance Working Groups will close on Friday, November 14th
Working Groups for Educators, Staff, and Administrators
The purpose of this working group is to create a space where leaders can learn and work together to create and implement tools that will support and enhance curriculum mapping and tracking within Christian schools.
Target Audience: K-8 Curriculum Coordinators, Vice Principals, Administrators
Resources: The administrative tools that will be shared were created by Carolyn Bentum, Carla Alblas, and Lisa VanderKuip
Facilitator: Lisa VanderKuip, Student Support Services, Edvance/ VP of Learning, Beacon Christian School
Executive function helps students plan, focus attention, remember instructions, manage tasks, and regulate their behaviour to achieve goals. These skills are essential for managing time, solving problems and adapting to new situations. When students struggle with executive function, their learning and classroom engagement can be affected. However, there are tools and strategies we can teach to our whole class or small groups to support these skills, which in turn fosters a positive classroom experience.
The purpose of this working group is to provide a collaborative space where educators and leaders can learn together, engage in meaningful discussions, deepen their knowledge and implement explicit instruction in executive function skills in the regular and resource classroom.
Target Audience: K-8 classroom teachers, Student Support/Resource teachers
Resource: We will be working through the book: Executive Function Skills in the Classroom: Overcoming Barriers, Building Strategies by Laurie Faith, Carol-Anne Bush and Peg Dawson. All participants will be required to purchase a copy of the book.
Facilitator: Nadine Masengi, Learning Resource Teacher, Trinity Burlington
The purpose of this working group is to help school leaders, communications, and marketing staff define and refine their school’s marketing strategy. Marketing messaging matters! When your school can clearly articulate its story, you strengthen your mission, connect more effectively with those in your community, and attract more right-fit families to your school.
Through a book study, practical self-assessments, and expert-led webinars, participants will leave with tools to sharpen their messaging, apply proven frameworks, and build a marketing plan that supports long-term enrollment goals.
Target Audience: Communication and marketing leads, administrators
Resource: We will study Marketing with Fervor by Mike Farag. Participants will be required to purchase a copy of the book. Each chapter includes reflection questions and practical exercises that will be applied to your school context.
Facilitators: Sarah Burt, Director of Marketing, Edvance & Victoria Kooy, Marketing and Engagement Manager, Edvance
The purpose of this working group is to create a space where everyone in a role in education can learn together, engage in discussions, enhance their knowledge, and implement strategies for mental health and wellbeing in their classroom and beyond.
Target Audience: K-12 Educators, Student Support Workers, and Administrators
Resources: Specific resources around mental health/social emotional learning will be shared throughout the year
Facilitator: Tricia Schinkel, School Counsellor at Calvin Christian School
The purpose of this working group is to help teachers in grades 4-12 integrate AI into their classrooms thoughtfully and deliberately. Schools are on the front lines of a generational change in education, and teachers are preparing students for jobs that might become obsolete or that might not exist yet. This working group is targeted to teachers who already have some familiarity with AI tools and who want to look more deeply into the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI.
Target Audience: 4-12 Educators, Administrators
Facilitator: Rick Guetter, former Edvance affiliate secondary school teacher
The purpose of this working group is to enhance participants' knowledge of the Science of Reading as they begin their journey to implement explicit, systematic literacy instruction.
Target Audience: K-3 educators, Elementary Student Support Services
Resource: We will use the book - 7 Mighty Moves by Lindsay Kemeny to guide our discussions as we learn about the Science of Reading and how best to implement this new knowledge into our different learning settings. All participants will be required to purchase a copy of the book. To make the most of our short times together, it would be beneficial for participants to have the specified chapters read by our meeting times so we can use the time to discuss the material. You will find the chapters brief, practical and informative.
Facilitators: Doreen Breukelman, Trenton Christian School & Jacquie DeRaaf, Trinity Christian School
The purpose of this working group is to introduce Restorative Justice in Education (RJ or RJE) to participants, and to support the implementation of Restorative Practices (RP), leading to an increase in respect, dignity, and mutual concern among students and teachers, impacting their learning and the world beyond the classroom. Distinctively Christian perspectives and worldview undergird an approach that comes from multiple traditions, including Christian influences. Educators are encouraged to sign up with a peer from their school or a colleague with whom they can closely connect while implementing restorative practices in their classrooms.
Target Audience: K-12 educators, administrators
Resource: Participants are required to purchase The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education by Katherine Evans and Dorothy Vaandering (LBRJE below) and The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools by Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and Judy H. Mullet (LBRDS below). The October 2010 Issue of the Christian Educator’s Journal will be referenced throughout.
Facilitator: Kevin Huinink, Executive Director of Cairn Christian School
Have you ever wondered how to systematically and explicitly teach writing? The Writing Revolution (Hochman & Wexler) offers a clear instructional method called the Hochman Method®. This approach can be applied across all grade levels and subject areas. Rather than serving as a separate curriculum, The Writing Revolution integrates seamlessly into existing curricula, providing strategies and activities that complement content instruction.
The purpose of this working group is to create a collaborative space where educators can learn together, engage in discussions, deepen their understanding, and implement explicit writing instruction in the classroom.
Target Audience: K-12 educators, administrators
Resource: We will be working with the book: The Writing Revolution 2.0 by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler. All participants will be required to purchase a copy of the book. (If you have a copy of The Writing Revolution, purchasing The Writing Revolution 2.0 is optional)
Facilitator: Lisa VanderKuip, Student Support Services Coordinator, Edvance
The purpose of this working group is to provide a collaborative space for educators who are actively using or who wish to deepen their understanding of the Hochman Method® (as outlined in The Writing Revolution by Hochman & Wexler). Each session, participants will review a key component of the method, explore templates and classroom examples, engage in discussion and reflection, and have structured time to develop content-specific materials. While we will follow this general overview, each session will also provide space to ask questions, revisit any of the strategies, and receive support on any aspect of the Hochman Method, recognizing that teachers may wish to create something different than the scheduled focus.
Target Audience: K–12 educators who are familiar with the Hochman Method®, have read The Writing Revolution by Hochman & Wexler, and are currently implementing it, or who are interested in doing so.
Facilitator: Lisa VanderKuip, Student Support Services Coordinator, Edvance
The purpose of this working group is to create a space for those in a mental health professional role at school:
● To troubleshoot specific concerns and clinical or ethical needs
● To share resources
● To follow best practices and to meet requirements of governing bodies/colleges of registration for peer supervision (SW/CRPO)
● To provide a sense of community and connection
● To provide personal support/stress
Target Audience: For those with paid contracts within the schools doing a clinical mental health role (Social Work, Psychotherapist, School Counsellor, etc.)
Facilitator: Tricia Schinkel
Working Groups for Teaching for Transformation (TfT) Schools
NOTE: This Working Group has already started and registration is closed for 2025-26
This working group is specifically designed for current TfT schools that have hired new staff. The TfT 101 Onboarding Working Group will create a space where recently hired teachers can be fully onboarded and equipped for successful implementation of TfT so that they can join your school’s TfT journey.
As a year-long cohort, this working group will develop a thorough understanding of the TfT framework, learn and begin to use the core practices of TfT, develop and deepen their FLEx understanding and design, and receive some focused coaching and support as they begin their journey toward implementing TfT alongside
with the rest of your team.
Cost: $500/participant
Cohort Leader: Justin Cook, Director of Learning, Edvance
NOTE: This Working Group begins October 31, 2025 at the Edvance Annual Gathering
The 201 Classroom Design Working Groups bring together teachers in specific roles to support and collaborate with each other in their ongoing TfT implementation. These teachers have already completed the first-year implementation journey supported by Edvance, and now want to collaborate with teachers in their similar role to deepen their practice of TfT.
Cost: $100/participant
Working Group Leaders:
Stacy Kok, SK Teacher at Cairn Christian School
Jill Walters, Gr. 6 Teacher at Cairn Christian School
NOTE: This Working Group has already started and registration is closed for 2025-26
This working group is specifically designed for current TfT schools that want to deepen their own internal staff support in implementing TfT. The TfT Instructional Leaders Working Group will create a space where instructional leaders (principals, VPs, instructional leads) can receive ongoing TfT resources and support from Edvance and collaborate with each other as leaders in their own plans and resources, so that they can sustain and deepen their own school’s TfT journey.
This working group will develop a thorough understanding of coaching within the TfT framework, attend a coaching intensive conference hosted by CACE, and interact as a group to receive resources, collaborate on identifying staff learning priorities, and problem-solve challenging situations together.
Cost: $100/participant + attendance at the CACE TfT Coaching Intensive ($299 USD per person)
Cohort Leader: Justin Cook, Director of Learning at Edvance