Reflection:

This week I helped the students run the haunted hallway they had decided to do last week through a democratic process. The students were all highly engaged in the process. Everyone had a role. They all took ownership of their roles. I often heard them saying “I have an idea…” and then make some suggestion about how to play the role better. People often think of youth as disengaged but my experience with the haunted hallway really reinforced that if young people take ownership of a project they will highly engaged in all aspects of the process.

The students worked very hard to make the haunted hallway. They had to spend hours at a time in their roles. Often they had to be in rather uncomfortable positions, for example with a fish tank over their head or in a garbage can.  Not once did I hear anyone complain. They wanted to be there and completely bought into the process of hosting the haunted house.

There were a few bumps along the way. The students made a mess of the bathroom while applying their makeup and didn’t clean it up. This required a class discussion at the end of the day.  The students who made the mess took responsibility for their mistake and apologized. The mess situation seemed like a the typical instance of over-excitement and lack of forethought that often occurs in grade 7’s. The second issue occurred after the grade 6/7 class visited the haunted hallway. The class went too far with their “scares” and made contact with several of their peers. This violated the issues of consent that was discussed at length when the class made the decision to host the haunted house. The class felt bad about what happened and wanted to make things better by inviting the class back again. So they could make it right which showed great maturity on their part. Besides these two minor instances the day went very smoothly.

The class discussion at the end of they day was very enlightening as to why the students took such ownership of the project. About two thirds of the class expressed that their favorite part was making the younger students in the school happy. The students really enjoyed giving back. After listening to Dr. Lieberman talk about how social we really are as human beings, especially pre-teens and teens, the level of engagement and ownership showed by the class made a lot of sense.

Possible Inquiry Questions:

1. How can Indigenous ways of knowing support success in the classroom for Indigenous learners?
2. What is the relationship between the deep-rooted, inter-generational trauma of colonization and the lack of Aboriginal success in Western school systems?
3.  What are the roles of Indigenous peoples and Settlers in decolonizing curriculum?
4. Considering how different Indigenous ways of knowing are from Western ways of knowing, how does reconciliation apply to the classroom?