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Stirling students win national contest 
Community Press, June 16, 2011
"Diana Boisvert and Bronwen Parr were shocked when they found out a banner they created would be displayed in Ottawa along with six others from across the country. The Stirling Senior School students created the banner as a class project that included an option to enter the National Capital Commission's Raise Your Voices! Student Banner Contest."

Press Release
Winning Designs 
Ottawa Citizen, May 26, 2011
"Serge Laurier hangs winning banners from the National Capital Commission's contest Raise your Voices!"

Press Release
Winners chosen in the NCC's coast-to-coast student banner contest 
National Capital Commission, May 4, 2011
"The National Capital Commission (NCC), in partnership with Classroom Connections, is pleased to announce the winners of this year's cross-Canada student banner contest - with young winners to have their artwork exhibited in the heart of the Capital. The announcement coincides with the celebration of National Youth Week, from May 1 to 7, 2011"

​Press Release 
Brain Science, Adolescence, and Secondary Schools: A Critical Disconnect 
Education Canada, Fall, 2010
"Children learn a whole raft of skills in the first seven or eight years of life by closely imitating their parents and teachers. But for children to grow up as clones at a time of rapid cultural and economic environmental change would be nothing short of disastrous. We now know that children need the struggle of adolescence to put away those childish behaviours."

Press Release 
NCC'S CALL TO CANADIAN YOUTH: "RAISE YOUR VOICES!" 
National Capital Commission, September 30, 2010
"The National Capital Commission (NCC), in partnership with Classroom Connections, is kicking off the second year of an amazing cross-Canada classroom banner contest and public art project."

​Press Release 
Cenovus Changes It Up in Janvier 
Alberta Native News, August 2010 ​
"The first half of a one year pilot project that offers a specialized course to Aboriginal youth and young adults has been completed on the Chipewyan Prairie First Nation (CPFN) at Janvier, Alberta. The program, Change It Up, began on February 8, 2010 with an enrollment of 27 participants, most of whom come from the CPFN and the municipal hamlet of Janiver. It concluded on Wednesday, July 28, when 22 graduating participants received their diplomas and took part in a full graduation ceremony at the Chipewyan Prairie Multiplex."

Press Release 
CANADIAN YOUTH: "RAISE YOUR VOICES!" WITH NATIONAL STUDENT BANNER CONTEST 
The National Capital Commission, September 24, 2009 ​
"Canadas Capital Region - The National Capital Commission (NCC), in partnership with Classroom Connections, has launched a cross-Canada classroom banner contest that calls on youth to share their views in an inspired way - with the chance to have their handiwork exhibited in the heart of the Capital. Designs should represent an issue or topic of importance to Canadian youth. The seven winning banners will be professionally produced by the NCC and flown in Major's Hill Park from May to October 2010."

​Press Release
Overschooled but Undereducated 
The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, January 2009 ​
Looking at current educational policy John Abbott explains the need for transformational change in the education system and a drastic reassessment of outdated thinking. No political system is safe in this brilliant analysis of why the education system is failing, and how we can shake education out of its two-century's-old inertia.

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Overschooled, Undereducated 
Bugle Observer, May 1, 2007 ​
"Community members, concerned parents and District 14 officials met in Woodstock on Thursday to discuss why today's society may be "overschooled and undereducated." With the support of New Brunswick's Department of Education, Superintendent Lisa Gallagher said District 14 will act as a guinea pig for the 21st Century Learning Initiative, and the goal is to develop a strategy to help make a difference in students' lives."

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Interview with EZ Rock, Woodstock 
EZ Rock, Woodstock, April 26, 2007 ​
"It is my privilege today to welcome John Abbott, a well renowned educator from England and President of the 21st Learning Century, also, Heather MacTaggart, Deputy Director of 21st Century Learning Canada. Now John is visiting New Brunswick for the next five days, not just the province really but more specifically School District 14."

Full Audio Interview
Transcript
School board seeks better ways to engage students 
The StarPhoenix, March 10, 2007 ​
"Education should reflect social change and the demands of today's evolving workforce, according to the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an international learning research group. The idea has earned a gold star from the Saskatoon public school board. At a board meeting Tuesday, board members agreed to begin "collegiate renewal," which will look at ways to better equip students with the skills necessary in today's world. "

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Children need to learn more outside class - expert 
The Daily Gleaner, January 23, 2007 ​
"Children should spend less time in the classroom and more time learning from, and interacting with, the community, says the president of the 21st Century Learning Initiative. The 21st Century Learning Initiative's advocates new approaches to learning that draw on a range of insights into the brain, the functioning of society and learning as a community-wide activity."

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Blue-ribbon bunch put their time to good youth 
The National Post, February 18, 2006
"All eyes were on Tom d'Aquino, president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (as well as a lawyer, entrepreneur, author, educator and strategist), as he was recently honoured by Classroom Connections at the Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto."

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Men in Suits rock for a good cause 
The Toronto Star, April 28, 2005
"By day, they are men in suits - Bay Street investment bankers and executives. By night, they are Men in Suits - rock band - making music for a good cause. "Making music that people enjoy is an exhilarating thing. And at the same time, you're supporting a great cause like social justice. What could be better than that?" That's Don Tapscott talking, a business strategist and author, who has written extensively on how technology shapes culture. He also plays keyboard. Men In Suits will take the stage tonight at the Orbit Room on College St. for a sold-out event that will raise about $10,000 for Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit group that develops teaching material to help children learn about social justice, peace and citizenship - subjects that tend to get short-shrift in conventional textbooks."

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“Seeds of Change” Exhibition Shown at High School in Newmarket, ON
Press Release, Summer 2004
"On Wednesday, June 2, Maurice Ford, a high school history teacher and SGI Canada member, organized with his fellow teachers and administration, the showing of the 'Seeds of Change' exhibition and the video 'A Quiet Revolution' for all 1,200 students at Dr. John M. Denison Secondary School in Newmarket, Ontario. The school is also using the Classroom Connections program, 'Cultivating Peace — Taking Action', to which SGI contributed the video 'A Quiet Revolution' and posters from the 'Seeds of Change Exhibition'."

​Press Release
The Seeds of Change Exhibit Opens In Edmonton
New Century, May, 2004
"In addition to very widespread use in Canada, over 100 educational institutions and NGOs in other countries also requested the Cultivating Peace resources, from Afghanistan to the USA, China and India."

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Classroom Connections receives National Peace Education Award
Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace, November, 2003

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Classroom Connections: How a Toronto mother hopes to bring peace to school
Alberta Parent Quarterly, Fall, 2002
"Teachers across the country know the best place to discuss peace and violence is in the classroom. Throughout history we have witnessed examples of education being used to inculcate hatred and violence and we all know the power of education to influence and shape society. Teachers know they can change lives and that education is at the core of social change in our world."

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Group brings peace studies to schools
Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 24 June, 2002
"The Cultivating Peace classroom activities are meant to demonstrate the connection between interpersonal relationships and global relationships among countries and civilizations."

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September 11 - Teachable Moment or Pandora's Box?
TEACH Magazine, June, 2002
"As teachers, we recognize not only the influence these events have on our students, but also the role of education in creating systemic change within a culture."

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Teacher's Aid: Connecting corporations to classrooms for enhanced public education
Laurier Campus, Summer, 2002
"Bringing the needs of educators together with the needs of sponsors was a 'Eureka' kind of thing. 'l bring them together in a way that makes sense for both, and really benefits kids,' she says.
In 1992 MacTaggart founded a non-profit organization, Classroom Connections, to create unique curriculum-based educational resources and distribute them free to schools across Canada."

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Classroom Resources Focus on Immigration
TEACH Magazine, Sept - Oct, 2001
"Reviewing teachers in History, Politics, Law and ESL, have found the materials to be thorough, current, and easy-to-use in single lessons or as a unit. they reported the activities to be engaging and clear and also emphasized the value of the program in developing an inclusive environment for multi-cultural classrooms."

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Making Contact
Food In Canada, Sept, 2001
"What we do not do is start with a corporate objective and somehow drive that through the system. I don't think there's any room for that in education anywhere and I'd agree with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) that commercialization does not belong in the classroom."

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Connecting Through Your Classroom
TEACH Magazine, Sept - Oct, 2000
"Classroom Connections believes that the best education system results when students, parents, educators, and the community work together. We support public education and equal access to learning resources."

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The classroom soft sell
Marketing Magazine, July 24, 2000
"The one moving ahead is Classroom Connections, a non-profit organization that produces in-school videos, instructional materials and at-home supplements for parents. It does have sponsors, such as Royal Bank for materials on money and banking and Ralston Purina for pet care. Yet, as reported in our July 17 issue, the three-year-old program is so well-accepted that this fall it will add 2,200 secondary schools and another 2,500 elementary schools to a current base of 5,000 elementary schools."

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Marketers to connect to classrooms
Marketing Magazine, July 17, 2000
"The classroom. Few marketers have walked in without catching the ire of parents and teachers. Enter Classroom Connections, a Toronto-based free program that will bring corporations into 75% of Canadian classrooms - from Quebec to the Yukon - this fall."

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Program celebrates people's differences
Toronto Star, February, 2000
"Called Celebrating diversity, the program for students in Grades 4 to 8 is a partnership between Classroom Connections, which is a non-profit group providing a variety of resources to schools, the Ontario Special Olympics and corporate sponsor Subway Sandwiches."

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Brand-building in the youth sector: Classroom Connections chalks up school support
Strategy, January 5, 1998
"A new Toronto-based service hopes to give companies the chance to contribute to public education in the province of Ontario, while at the same time building brand awareness in a market that until now has been virtually closed to them - elementary schools."

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Classroom Connections:
The Community Working for the Children
Education Today, Fall, 1997
"A new program from Classroom Connections offers a unique approach to education fund raising that promises great benefits to the school system and, ultimately, to the children themselves."

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