ABBOTSFORD
April 30, 2025
Mill Lake Church, 33218 Marshall Rd, Abbotsford, BC V2S 1K5
1:00-1:15
Registration and Student Dropoff
Please come to sign-in and drop off your students for the events!
Please come to sign-in and drop off your students for the events!
1:15-1:35
Worship and Welcome!
Sara Kraushar & Craig Kwiatkowski
Sara Kraushar & Craig Kwiatkowski
1:35-2:35
Keynote: TikTok: It’s Time to Talk About Screen Time and Our Children’s Minds and Brains
Dr Chris Mattatall
The smartphone in your pocket has approximately 10,000 times more computing power than the computers in all of the Apollo rockets that landed astronauts on the moon. Add to that a worldwide connected system of information media generated by algorithms that track your every search, view history and interests, and you begin to realize that the computer we carry with us every day is much more than a phone—it is an influencer and behavioural change machine. But is it safe? In this session, we explore the growing body of research on the effects that screen time, particularly smartphones and social media, is having on this generation of children. We also explore the tremendously vital influence that parents can have to help children navigate this area of their lives.
Dr Chris Mattatall
The smartphone in your pocket has approximately 10,000 times more computing power than the computers in all of the Apollo rockets that landed astronauts on the moon. Add to that a worldwide connected system of information media generated by algorithms that track your every search, view history and interests, and you begin to realize that the computer we carry with us every day is much more than a phone—it is an influencer and behavioural change machine. But is it safe? In this session, we explore the growing body of research on the effects that screen time, particularly smartphones and social media, is having on this generation of children. We also explore the tremendously vital influence that parents can have to help children navigate this area of their lives.
2:35-2:50
Break
Grade 8-12 students will be dismissed to join you in the workshops. K-Grade 7 students will continue with student activities.
2:50-3:35
Workshop 1
Early Acquisition and Intervention of Reading
Dr Chris Mattatall
The human brain learns to speak naturally, through the millions of interactions we have with our children, but reading does not. Reading must be taught. Furthermore, the language areas of your brain—the left hemisphere—must be made to share their neurons in order to learn how to read words. Is this difficult? Can everyone learn to do this? What is required in order for this to happen, and what do we do if children don’t learn to read well early in their school years? This session seeks to answer these important questions and gives thoughtful research-informed guidance to educators and parents on what we can do to help children learn to read.
Dr Chris Mattatall
The human brain learns to speak naturally, through the millions of interactions we have with our children, but reading does not. Reading must be taught. Furthermore, the language areas of your brain—the left hemisphere—must be made to share their neurons in order to learn how to read words. Is this difficult? Can everyone learn to do this? What is required in order for this to happen, and what do we do if children don’t learn to read well early in their school years? This session seeks to answer these important questions and gives thoughtful research-informed guidance to educators and parents on what we can do to help children learn to read.
Creating a Successful Plan for Grad
Innovations Leadership Team
This workshop is designed for parents and students to attend.
3:35-3:40
Transition
3:40-4:25
Workshop 2
Teaching Math to Foundations: K-9 Students
Development of the Teenage Brain
Dr Chris Mattatall
Teenagers present a conundrum: their brains have amazing potential to create and reason and produce wonderful things, but they are not fully developed until about age 25 or so. Research has found that the adult brain (after 25) and the teen brain work differently, so understanding one another is not so easy sometimes. In teen brains, the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making parts of the brain are still developing, and they develop at different rates. Thinking and feeling do not always coincide or work together. Add to this the social and emotional pressures of adolescence, multiple physical changes to their bodies, and changes in their relationships with their peers, siblings and parents, make this time of life interesting and challenging. This session dives into this marvellous and mysterious developing brain.
Dr Chris Mattatall
Teenagers present a conundrum: their brains have amazing potential to create and reason and produce wonderful things, but they are not fully developed until about age 25 or so. Research has found that the adult brain (after 25) and the teen brain work differently, so understanding one another is not so easy sometimes. In teen brains, the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making parts of the brain are still developing, and they develop at different rates. Thinking and feeling do not always coincide or work together. Add to this the social and emotional pressures of adolescence, multiple physical changes to their bodies, and changes in their relationships with their peers, siblings and parents, make this time of life interesting and challenging. This session dives into this marvellous and mysterious developing brain.
This workshop is designed for parents and students to attend.
4:25-4:30
Transition
4:30-4:45
Prizes and Closing
Sara Kraushar & Craig Kwiatkowski
Please return to the main gathering space for prizes and closing, and then pick up your K-Grade 7 students.
Sara Kraushar & Craig Kwiatkowski
Please return to the main gathering space for prizes and closing, and then pick up your K-Grade 7 students.
Speakers
Dr Chris Mattatall

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education University of Lethbridge
Dr Chris Mattatall is the University of Lethbridge Board of Governor’s Teaching Chair (2023-2025). He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in the Faculty of Education.
Dr Mattatall speaks nationally and internationally on topics related to the Science of Learning, how the brain learns and develops, motivation and engagement, and teaching and learning strategies that help to direct student attention, strengthen memory and build self-regulation.
Dr Mattatall also conducts two parent workshops series in communities across Western Canada: What Every Parent Wishes Someone Had Told Them About How Their Child’s Brain Learns, and Tik Tok: It’s Time to Talk About Screen Time and Our Children’s Minds and Brains. His website, goodteaching.ca, is a repository of recommended strategies, practice guides, books, and articles for classroom teachers.
Dr Mattatall has been a teacher, administrator and leader in education for more than 30 years. Chris and his wife, Gloria, have been married for 33 years, have three grown children and one adorable granddaughter named Elliott. They also care for their lovable, playful and mischievous Bernadoodle named Winston.