Our district (SD #23) aspires to follow the First Peoples Principles of Learning, and I have the poster cited hanging on my wall. These principles have taken on a deeper meaning to me throughout this course. In particular, ‘learning recognizes the role of indigenous knowledge’ and ‘learning is embedded in memory, history, and story’ are two principles that I feel I am able to address better in my own teaching practice. By exploring indigenous knowledge I have gained a deeper understanding and confidence in using that knowledge in the classroom. Instead of just ‘shoving’ content in to satisfy our curriculum, I am better able to embed learning naturally into my every day lessons. Particularly in math, I am grounding indigenous stories with math, as well as other stories, to make math more relevant and interesting to students. While I have not mastered these two principles, and still have the rest to consider and endeavor to accomplish, it was a great jumping off point for me in my learning journey.
First Nations Education Steering Committee. (2015). First Peoples Principles of Learning Poster [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11×17.pdf