Happy Monday!  I trust you enjoyed some down time with family after another 'zoomed out' week. Fortunately, the holiday season will be soon upon us!

You, as leaders and teachers across Canada and beyond (being mindful of your CanAm special issue) have gone beyond what's humanly possible in such a short time frame to sustain, achieve the impossible, and support student learning. While it hasn't always been perfect interfacing with new technologies, you innovated, pivoted and elevated learning to new heights to engage students.

You too are the heroes of education in these most challenging times in our modern history. Thank you!  

I've had the good fortunate of connecting with many of you, and the honour of sharing your stories. Please do keep connecting with us as we need to diverse perspectives and voices to capture best practices and what's working across Canada, U.S. and around the world. 

This past week, I've been to California and back (virtually), participating in ISTE20 (largest global EdTech Conference) where we hosted our 18th CanAm Celebration of Excellence meetup. Checkout this week's many highlights in our Monthly CanAm Report. One of the inspirations this week in keeping with the CanAm theme is that we're shifting, or 'pivoting' to creating the CanAm EdTech Alliance as we are so closely aligned with our much valued neighbours to our south. 

Issue highlights:

1. C21 Canada CEO Academy Leadership Series podcast with Curt Sacher, Superintendent, Chinook's Edge School Division, AB.
2. ISTE20 & CanAm Celebration highlights
3. Featured EdTech Summit Recorded Keynotes from Tom Vander Ark and Katina Papulkus, along with the Final Souvenir Digital Copy of the EdTech Summit Playbook. Receive a Blockchain MindShare EdTech Convergence.Tech credential by reviewing the Summit playbook and sharing 'My three things I plan to do professionally in 2021.' 
4. Melissa Burns, Schools of the Future Spirit Award Winner Podcast will inspire you as she shares her passion for music education, STEM, eSports and sings for us too!
5. Watch for Canada's Top 20 Newsmakers for 2020 next week! Who do you think should make the list? Share your picks! 
6. Share your innovative learning success stories with us from 2020! As a year-end wrap-up we will be compiling successful practices given the year it's been and one to remember.
7. New Future Skills Report: Canada as a Learning Nation  This is especially critical to education and rethinking career pathways for students and the notion of lifelong learning. This past week I chaired our local Erin Mills Connects Learning community meeting. A grassroots stakeholder NFP to support learning in K12 schools in the region. It's clearly evident there are significant skills challenges and lack of understanding between parents, students, teachers and employers when it comes to preparing our future leaders. The pandemic has definitely added more complexities to the situation. I look forward to having more dialogue with experts. Of course C21 Canada is a great resource site for future proofing skills.

We are especially grateful during these challenging times for the valued support of our sponsors, partners and advisory board members, and our team, who inspire excellence in everything we do and help make this report possible. 

Now that winter is upon us, I look forward to getting back on the 'outdoor ice' for some pond hockey and exercise with my sons this week. I know it's most challenging with all the restrictions upon us due to pandemic, however, try and be mindful of getting in some regular exercise to balance off your day. 

Before I wrap-up, I realized this past week we celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the MindShare Workspace where we're redefining the future of work and learning as an incubator/coworking space. Fortunately, we're still open for business (Erin Mills Town Centre Shopping Mall) as people need a safe place to work. We're actually seeing a growth in demand for suburban coworking and very much in growth mode! Drop me note if you'd like to learn more. 

Until next time, stay healthy, stay safe and keep the digital learning curve steep!