Teacher Conference

The 5th annual Docs For Schools’ Teacher Conference:

• Friday, February 22, 2019
• 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
• Ryerson University, Rogers Communication Centre, Eaton Theatre (80 Gould Street, Toronto)

Booking

The conference is now full. Please contact [email protected] to join the waiting list.

Cost

• FREE, for teachers grades 7-12
• Must attend for the full day
• Any necessary supply teacher coverage would be covered by your school

Format
There will be a number of speakers throughout the day. The conference does not include workshops and we will all be together in a lecture hall for the full day. The goal of the conference is to offer info and content relevant to today’s world with speakers and topics that will inform and inspire your teaching.

Theme: Visual Literacy in the Age of Fake News

Keynote Speaker: Daniel Dale, Toronto Star, Washington Bureau Chief

Daniel Dale made the Rolling Stone Hot List 2018 with this description:
“Politics Twitter long ago devolved into the Landfill for Bad Takes. But in 2018, the trash-fire fumes have been particularly hard to escape. Cutting sensibly through the morass is mild-mannered Canadian newspaper reporter Daniel Dale (@ddale8), presently the D.C. correspondent for the Toronto Star. Rather than hurl invective at the ever-changing Twitter heap, Dale taps out transcriptions of Donald Trump’s daily absurdity. He allows the president’s words to exist wholly on their own without commentary or judgment. And when not speedily relaying the news of the day, Dale fact-checks the president’s lies in real time, speaking truth to power with nothing but his thumbs. Dale was well-prepared for America’s WWE-style politics: He previously covered the rise and fall of former crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford before heading south to Swampy D.C. for the Trump Show.”

Daniel will be interviewed by former Toronto Star journalist Michelle Sheppard, who is now one of the Friday guest hosts on CBC Radio One, The Current.

Additional Speakers

Mark Kelley, CBC Fifth Estate
Mark will be discussing a recent story on Deepfake and AI-manipulation.

Michelle Shephard, Journalist
An award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker who has covered issues of terrorism and civil rights since the 9/11 attacks. During her two decades at the Toronto Star, she reported from more than 25 countries, including Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and went behind the wire at the U.S. Naval prison in Guantanamo Bay more than two dozen times. Shephard was the co-director and producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary Guantanamo’s Child (2017 Docs For Schools official selection).

Yung Chang, Filmmaker
Yung Chang is the director of Up the Yangtze (2007), China Heavyweight (2012) and The Fruit Hunters (2012). He is currently completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, and in production for a feature documentary about Robert Fisk, the controversial Middle East correspondent, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada. In 2015, Chang was selected to participate in the prestigious Sundance Labs for Eggplant. His latest, Gatekeeper, is on the festival circuit and streaming on Field of Vision, Laura Poitras’ curated online film unit.

Plus sessions discussing related NFB content and upcoming Docs For Schools program content.

The Docs For Schools Teacher Conference is supported by the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University