ATA Magazine

The ATA is You

Spring 2025

A colourful boardgame with a dark ATA Blue background. The words "The ATA is you!" are in bold, rounded text. Illustrated player tokens are scattered around the board.

Feature

A photograph of a bright blue boardgame with a focus on a player token at the start of the game. It is an illustration of D'Souza in his navy blue mechanic suit, holding a wrench and smiling.

Maximum impact 

Volunteering is a contact sport for early-career teacher 

A cropped photograph of the top edge of an instruction manual for a boardgame reveals a flowchart that asks "Are you ready to get involved?" with the options of "Not yet" and "Yes". The title says "Pathways to Involvement"

Pathways to involvement

 An illustrated boardgame player piece of Sandy Johnson stands among a colourful collection of more generic conical player pieces. Sandy is wearing glasses, smiling, and holding up a math game with numbers in a chart..

Sparking someone else’s journey

 Game piece marker of former PEC VP

First step leads to 30-year involvement
An illustrated boardgame player piece sits on a blue background in front of a die. The illustration of Melanie shows her with a blonde bob hairstyle, wearing a green short-sleeved shirt, holding a "I support AB teachers" graphic.

Advocacy and service

 A player piece of Mark Ramsankar sits amongst other boardgame materials. Mark Ramsankar is illustrated holding a red apple and wearing a maple leaf tie. There are tokens with gold stars near him, and the board game has an illustration of Canada's parliament building.

From the mail room to elected office

 A photograph of a bright blue boardgame on a light blue background. In the background, a man's hand pick up playing cards that say "Local volunteer opportunity". In the foreground, a player token is at the start of the boardgame. The player is an illustration of D'Souza in his mechanic outfit, crossing his arms confidently and holding a wrench.

Grassroots volunteers are the engine that drives the teaching profession forward

Outlook

Looking south

Looking Abroad: Leadership in Education

A global perspective

A Red4EdAB branded notebook, coiled pencil case, and mug sit on a wooden table with three bookmarks, three "I support AB teachers" button pins, red ATA branded pen, and two small notepads with "I support AB teachers and ATA branding.

Letters

 ATA president, Jason Schilling standing in a blue suit in front of a blue background.

Tap into the power of giving

 Fortune ball with googly eyes

Then and Now—Thinking it through 50 years

Unsung Hero

An illustration of Valerie McDougall in front of her community, a teepee and a flying raven that symbolically represents her family.

Valerie McDougall

Champion for Indigenous language, culture and identity

Bulletin Board

Blond women in black shirt

Editor’s Notebook | Note de la rédactrice

 Women laying in a hammock reading a book with her doodle dog

Summer reset

 Illustration of a student and phys-ed teacher using technology to enhance athletic skills.

Let's get technical
A colourful sketch illustration of a blurry blue classroom of students. Large dog paw prints travelling from left to right across the illustration reveal a clear and happy collection of students raising their hands in class.

No teachers' pet

 A teacher's hands set on top of a stack of paper with colourful sticky tabs.

Assessing the assessments

 Dark blue page hero image

A return to the art of conversation

In profile

Profile photo of Huma Kashif in front of a local mural in Slave Lake.

Land of opportunity

Pakistani teacher builds a future for herself and her students

Learning Commons

Books on display that are available from the ATA Library

Check it out!

 Portrait shot of a pre-teen girl reading manga.

Kid Lit

 Illustrated flowers

Supporting our newest members as they begin their teaching journey

Teacher to Teacher

Kids hands feeling a woven fabric with many colours and textures

Who's Out There

 In my humble opinion

A breath of fresh air

 Livingroom illustration

The power of place
An assortment of toys that can be bought from the dollarstore: a basketball, heart-shaped sunglasses, a red truck, skipping rope, stuff plushies that are shaped like a squid and banana, and some crayons with several Canadian dollar bills scattered around. The background has a few speech bubbles and a child's handwriting in French.

Un cent for your thoughts

 Illustrative collage of a measuring tape and baby stroller and a bus

A matter of perspective