ExTeam Renewal Session

e For those of you who are new,
ExTeam stands for Exogam-
ous couple Team. It’s an inter-
cultural intervention team that pro-
vides. workshops for non francophone
parents of CSF school students. The
team consists of four non-francophone
parents living in an inter-cultural family.
Team members are frained by Glen
Taylor, a consultant on inter-cultural
families and author of the I'm with
you and Fusion guides for inter-cultural
families.
Each year, the team meets to share

@e ee ee ee SS SPEER EEE EE EER EE

Jean Kim-Butcher
ea | am pleased to be
one of the four mem-
bers of the ExTeam,
giving workshops to non-
francophone parents. |, too,
am an Anglophone parent
with children in grades 1 and
4 at Ecole Des Voyageurs in
Langley.

My background with the French lan-
guage and culture is rich - from taking
an intensive summer French program in
Quebec, being immersed in French dur-
ing a trip to Tunisia, going to university
in Montreal, teaching English to franco-
phone business people, having good
friendships with two French international
students, living in Canada’s bilingual
capital, and then marrying a man with
French-Belgium roots.

The challenge in our home is
balancing the language and culture
of multiple identities: | am a Korean-
Canadian; my husband also is_ half
Indian; we are part of a church traa-
ition that is Slavic, and the children have
grandparents of different origins (one,
a Scottish immigrant from England and
the other a fiffh-generation Anglo-Can-
adian). My husband and | are lovers of
literature and music from various cultures
(English, Italian, Russian, etc.) which we
also try fo make present in our home.

It is due to good friends and our sup-

experiences from the previous year’s
workshops. This allows the members to
enhance their leadership skills and im-
prove workshop content. This year, the
renewal session took place January
17-19 in Vancouver. For this, the FPFCB
organized a day with Glen Taylor to en-
hance members’ experience and en-
able them to participate fully in a ses-
sion with the entire team.

During the weekend, the ExTeam
obtained a new Leadership Guide pub-
lished by the FPFCB. The guide is based
on Glen Taylor’s latest publication, the

ee

ees eee eee ee ee eee eee oes eeeeee

portive school community
that l, especially, find encour-
agement (and courage!) to
give our children a French
education. More than gift
them with the French lan-
guage fo be competent in
Canadian society as well as
to travel to other countries, |
also wish for them to embrace their cul-
tural and ethnic inheritance.

To be a part of the French school
board is not only an opportunity for
which | am grateful, and privileged to
be in, but also for my younger children
yet fo enter school AND for the genera-
tions to come. Now that is a big vision,
n'est-ce pas ?

Kandis McLaughlin

As the newest member of the
ExTeam, | look forward to work-
ing with the Fédération
des parents francophones de
la C.-B., the schools and, most
importantly, with the parents
who participate in the ExTeam
workshops.

My contribution fo the role
of facilitator is two-fold: | am
a professional educator and
also a devoted parent of a
unique child. With a rich and varied pro-
fessional background, teaching remains
my first love and passion. Teaching is a

Février 2008

Fusion guide. It contains a host of in-
formation and resources to help work-
shop leaders, as well as documents that
can be photocopied for the parents.
The team also reviewed the workshop
adaptation for non francophone par-
ents having one or more children in the
preschool! program.

The discussions were exiremely pro-
ductive and the four leaders left with a
host of new ideas. This bodes well for
upcoming workshops, which will start
very soon, since demand this year has
nearly tripled!

@ere ee eee 8 Fee eS SSH ETHER EERE

challenge, a chance to be a strong role
model, and an opportunity fo promote
a conscious understanding of how we
educate our children, while being mind-
ful of the core values that inspire us to
help build better communities.

My daughter attended Ecole
Beauséjour - a marvelously vibrant
francophone catholic schoo! in Pla-
mondon, Alberta - from kindergarten
to grade six. The teachers and families
that we met demonstrated that franco-
phone schooling embraces them and
expands their participation exponen-
tially out into the community. My goal
from this experience is to take that joie
de vivre and use it to peak the interest
of non-francophone parents, so that
they can be actively and positively in-
volved in their children’s education and
growth.

When we moved to British Columbia,
remaining in the K-12 franco-
phone education system was
of paramount importance to
us. We found the quality and
continuity we sought in Ecole
Victor Brodeur. Each step of
my child’s schooling brings
new challenges. Knowing
that those challenges are
being fully met, | have the
confidence to help others with the initial
decision to place their children within

francophone schools.
PAGE «9?