Category Archives: MODULE 3

Module 3 – Post 5

Stepping Stones – I have shared the Alberta Teachers’ Association Walking Together Project in the first module but did not discuss the Stepping Stones publications that are also available from that project. The Stepping Stones helps to support teachers to learn and understand First Nations, Métis and Inuit Foundational Knowledge competencies. One Stepping Stone publication that I wanted to focus in on is the one on Traditional Plants. This publication would be a great resource to help teachers weave in traditional plants into their place based lessons. The publication discusses different types of plants and their uses and even goes further to discuss smudging. One question that stood out from the publication was: How does understanding traditional plants and uses assist educators to build respectful relationships and create inclusive environments?

Alberta Teachers Association. (January, 2019). Walking Together Project. Stepping Stones: First Nations traditional plants and uses. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/For%20Members/ProfessionalDevelopment/Walking%20Together/PD-WT-16i%20-%209%20First%20Nations%20Traditional%20Plants%20and%20Uses-2019%2001%2028.pdf

Module 3 – Post 4

Within the College of Alberta School Superintendents website (CASS) is a link to Learning from the Land. This website link helps to provide information about the, “importance of learning with the land, led by Indigenous Peoples.” In this section there is a short video discussing the diversity between First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples and their connection to the land and helping students to understand land based learning, history and culture. Beyond the video, you can also find information on topics such as: Connection to the Land, Traditional/Ancestral Territory, Forced Disconnection, First Nations Culturally Significant Sites as well as the Inuit, Metis and Survive and Thrive. At the end of the page there are some powerful questions to reflect on which I found relevant to consider with my project focus or for anyone seeking out further information on land based learning: “What opportunities are available to staff and students within your jurisdiction to engage in learning from the land led by local Indigenous Peoples? How can learning on the land be woven into current practices within your jurisdiction? What are you doing in your district to support land-based learning for staff and students? What funds, policies, and procedures are in place to support learning from the land through an Indigenous context?” If you look further into the CASS website, there are also links to Reconciliation, Treaties and Agreements, Indigenous Education as well Indigenous Language.

CASS. (2020, March, 24). Learning from the land. CASS. [Video].YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMFq1hhNod4

CASS.(n.d). Learning from the Land. CASS: College of Alberta School Superintendents. https://cass.ab.ca/indigenous-education/learning-from-the-land/

Module 3 – Post 3

Hear the land speak, learn Indigenous ways, be embraced by Mother Earth, news article and YouTube video from the University of Calgary is a few years old but still relevant to the topic of Place Based Learning. The article and video both explain how a group of University of Calgary’s Werkland School of Education undergraduate students were invited to explore the sacred land of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. The land is, “A very personal place, a space where, for thousands of years, the Blackfoot people have lived and worked, celebrated and mourned – a place for worshipping and a place that is worshipped.” I found this article very fitting with the past week’s Discussion 9 conversation that brought up Indigenous courses for university students. These students had a great opportunity to learn about the Blackfoot culture and history from Blackfoot Elder Randy Bottle. This experience allowed the students to learn the stories of Elder Bottles’ people, as well as their history and connection to the land. Elder Bottles says, “The land does speak to you, you just have to listen and to be very observant.” The students experienced floating down the river, hiking to the hoodoos, seeing the petroglyphs and learned about the significance of the land to the Blackfoot people. Within the article is a video of some of the students sharing their hands-on learning experience through a sharing circle. One quote really stood out for me, “It’s one thing to read about Indigenous culture in books, but it’s a whole other thing to be in the space and to learn from someone who is as knowledgeable as Elder Bottle.”

Werkland School of Education. (2017, November, 23). Writing on stone sharing circle. Werkland School of Education. [Video].YouTube. https://youtu.be/2KxpaclaMiI

University of Calgary. (2017, Nov. 23). Hear the land speak, learn Indigenous ways, be embraced by Mother Earth. UCalgary News. https://ucalgary.ca/news/hear-land-speak-learn-indigenous-ways-be-embraced-mother-earth

Module 3 – Post 2

Within the Glenbow Museum website, there are links to the Indigenous Exhibitions as well as to a Learning Resource section. Within the Learning Resource section you can find protocols to support teachers in teaching First Nations students as well as access to instructional units and other resources to support lesson planning through the Teacher’s Toolkit. All the units provided have been designed to work with the Blackfoot Virtual Exhibit activities and provide cultural and historical resources, strategies for assessment as well as various activities. When you access the Blackfoot Virtual Exhibit there are three language options: English, French and even Blackfoot. There are also four main sections of focus: How we lived with the buffalo, How we lived with the land, How we lived with our families and How we lived with other people. These are great topics that can be used when teachers are planning their lessons and I can see an extension to fit into Place Based Learning. Beyond that there are also links to Treaties, The Whiskey Trade, Reserves, Residential Schools, Language etc.

The Glenbow Museum. (2021). Niitsitapiisini Teacher Toolkit. Glenbow Museum. https://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/teacher_toolkit/index.html

Module 3 – Post 1

While looking around for resources, I came across the Building Brains Together website. It was a resource that had been previously shared within my school division. The main mission of the Building Brains website is, “to build adult capabilities to improve brain development and executive functions in children through research and education.” The part of the website that drew me to take a closer look was the area on Resources. Under the resource links, you can find Blackfoot Songs as well as Indigenous Games. Each song is shared in a video format and the games are a mixture of video and written instructions on how to play.

I wanted to take a closer look at these resources to see how their songs and games could fit with my project focus of Place Based Learning. The interesting part with the resource links is that the individual that helped to organize the creation and development of the songs and games is Mary Ellen Little Mustache who used to be an Educational Assistant at one of the schools in my school division. One quote stood out to me under the acknowledgement of the Indigenous Games resource and that was, “The Indigenous Games takes all people into account with great consideration to recognize other’s beliefs and practices. There isn’t a right way or wrong way to play the games, just different ways that reflect different societies.” I found it very powerful as a way to build in Indigenous culture into Place Based Learning.

Building Brains Together

Building Brains Together, (n.d.). Blackfoot children’s songs. Building Brains Together. https://www.buildingbrains.ca/blackfoot-songs

Building Brains Together, (n.d.). Indigenous games. Building Brains Together. https://www.buildingbrains.ca/indigenous-games

Indigenous Media, Remix & Revolution (M3P1)

This is a presentation at the Indigenous New Media Symposium (2014) by Jarrett Martineau, an award-winning Indigenous media maker, scholar, artist, and storyteller. He is nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Dene Sųłiné from Frog Lake First Nation in Alberta, and he is currently based in Vancouver.

He opens the presentation with this quote from Louis Riel (Métis)

“My People will sleep for 100 years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.”

In the presentation, Martineau emphasizes the fundamental components of Indigenous New Media. Building community, asserting strength, and taking back control over self-representation. He also discusses how the pervading background of colonialism, and thus how everything Indigenous artists do is political. “Indigenous media, Indigenous cultural production, Indigenous art, and creativity is always a contestation of [colonialism]” [8:15].

Remixing Cycle: Respond/React > Restore > Revision > Represent > Revitalize/Regenerate > Reconstruct > Reimagine > Reclaim > Repeat

Of particular note is his discussion on the power of Remixed media, as a means of “resistance and asserting resurgence” [10:50]. Remix is reflexive, recombinant, and regenerative. One example he shares is Sonny Assu’s Coke Salish (pictured below). The power of Remix is its power to convey more than aesthetics and to invite conversations.

Coke Salish by Sonny Assu

Martineau’s Decolonize Media project is still online at the time of this posting.

Mod 3 P.5

WHAT MATTERS IN INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: Implementing a Vision Committed to Holism, Diversity and Engagement

This resource provides information that broadened my understanding of Indigenous learners. Not only is Indigenous pedagogy and various terminology discussed and defined, but factors that affect Indigenous learners are also shared. These factors are broken into classroom features, teacher communities, schools and climate, and external environment, and as an educator, allowed me to see Indigenous learners from a new perspective.

I know a little bit about the medicine wheel, but what I appreciated about this resource is that it broke down the domains of the medicine wheel and connected it to competencies and skills in schools. It was so interesting to learn about each of the domains with an education perspective in mind. Each of the 4 domains – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual – are discussed at length and connected to competencies and skills. I know that learning is more than just competencies, more than just subjects, but I appreciated reading this perspective of learning. It really showed how important it is that learning takes place in a holistic environment and is more than just the curriculum.

Mod 3 P.4

First Peoples Principles of Learning

Part of my goal for the final assignment is to understand the First People’s Principles of Learning beyond just surface level. This website is a great resource for understanding who developed the principles and what they are about. There is also a deep dive into each of the Principles of Learning, including connecting the principle to other education theories, the implications of the principle for the classroom and the school, and the relevance of the principle to the core competencies.

As an educator, I want to be able to apply the First People’s Principles of Learning in my classroom and I appreciate that this resource give me the theoretical and background knowledge, as well as practical applications on how to do so. Seeing the connections with the curriculum and core competencies is also a valuable way to see the importance of the principles, and how they are connected.

Another great part of this website is the page about authentic resources and appropriation. I am often worried about using stories that I have heard, as they are not mine to tell. I appreciate learning about what resources are appropriate to use and share as a non-Indigenous educator.

Mod 3 P. 3

Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom: Moving Forward

This guidebook, “Indigenous Worldviews and Perspectives” is a powerful resource. The guidebook starts by discussing two central themes that are key to Indigenous education for all learners. Firstly, strengths-based learner-centered practice that involves educators knowing their students – their interests and strengths. And secondly, overcoming racism that involves decolonizing our thinking, which in part can be done though educator modelling. The guidebook also overviews characteristics of Aboriginal worldviews and perspectives and the implications on teaching practice:

Connectedness and Relationship
Awareness and History
Local Focus
Engagement with the Land, Nature, the Outdoors
Emphasis on Identity
Community Involvement: Process and Protocols
The Power of Story
Traditional Teaching
Language and Culture
Experiential Learning
Role of the Teacher

Possible next steps are also included. When looking into Indigenous worldviews and perspectives, why they are important and how to use them in the classroom, this is an excellent resource. One of the most valuable parts of this resources is the quotes from Indigenous peoples who shared their perspectives.