The annual conference of the Fédération des parents francophones opened in a friendly mood on Friday, November 22, at l’école Jules-Verne in Vancouver. Nearly a hundred parents, educators, partners, and guests were present, representing 23 Francophone communities in the province.

The Acting President of the Fédération des parents, Marie-Pierre Lavoie, officially opened the event before introducing the guest speaker, Thierry Karsenti. Mr. Karsenti, a professor in the area of integration of information and communication technologies for the training of teachers at the Université de Montréal, suggested starting with “25 stratégies pour permettre aux parents de favoriser la réussite scolaire de leur enfant avec les technologies, le Web 2.0 et les réseaux sociaux” (25 Strategies to Enable Parents to Promote the Academic Success of Their Children with Technology, Web 2.0, and Social Networks). He unveiled to us, exclusively, this list of strategies which he had just recently expanded. (in French only)

This talk was followed by the presentation of two awards: the Parents’ Association of the Year Award, and the Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education, awarded to the Educator of the Year (see the articles on the subject). Nearly twenty certificates of recognition were also presented on this occasion, to honour volunteer parents who have distinguished themselves in their community.

Lawyers from the law firm Heenan Blaikie, who represent the Fédération des parents and the Conseil scolaire francophone in the trial about the equivalence of Francophone and Anglophone schools, also joined us at this event, and took this opportunity to meet parents from throughout the province. We thank them for their sponsorship of the evening!

In short, it was a very nice conference launch that set the tone for plenty of discussion!