Tag Archives: hands on learning

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