Tag Archives: indigenouseducation

M4P5: AlbertaEd – Walking Together & Talking Together

Alberta Education created a very comprehensive and interactive guide called Walking Together that provides educators with the necessary resources needed to incorporate FNMI perspectives into the curriculum.

One of my goals in my final project is to create a teacher self-reflection tool to determine which Indigenous perspectives are addressed in a particular lesson. The self-reflection tool would be a circle, similar to the front page of Walking Together, with the perspectives around the outside divided into pie pieces and then specific keywords underneath each perspective, to help guide the teacher in really analyzing their lessons.

I think this resource could also be used as a student activity, perhaps with the student reflecting on how the participation in the activity aligned with Indigenous perspectives. The student version would have student friendly language and offer sentence starter prompts for each perspective/keyword.

However, before introducing this self-reflection tool, students and teachers would both need to have an awareness of Indigenous knowledge and these various perspectives before the tool would be used meaningfully. I plan on creating an interactive multimodal game where these perspectives will be explored as a part of my final project.

M4P4: MathCatcher – Meet Small Number

“Mathematics Through Aboriginal Story Telling”

MathCatchers is an outreach program for educators and learners, encouraging numeracy through storytelling, pictures, and hands-on learning. They created a character named “Small Number” who ‘engage(s) Aboriginal learners in math and science through the use of First Nations imagery and storytelling.’ Through various videos, the opportunity for various discussions about anything from basic counting and pattern recognition to exponential growth and probability permutations and combinations. These videos will serve as a foundational part of my final project, with many Alberta curriculum pieces being tied to various sections of the video. I envision these videos being part of the regular classroom routine, with students constantly being brought back to the story and encouraged to dig deeper into the math and culture embedded within.

“The main character in our animations thus far is a boy called Small Number. He is a bright, playful kid, with the ability to recognize patterns and calculate quickly.”

M4P2: Nurturing the Learning Spirit of First Nation Students

“The Report of the National Panel on First Nation Elementary and Secondary Education for Students on Reserve”

The Assembly of First Nations put out this report, which contains principles for reform as well as recommendations for foundations of a strong Indigenous education system. Within the recommendations and principles is an emphasis and importance of a child first and child-centred education. This child-centred approach will be incorporated into my final project as the foundation and backbone of any material and resources created for use in a classroom.

 “The First Nation child must be placed at the center of the national priority of building an education system.  Improving education attainment, and ensuring that children receive the supports needed to enable them to excel and thrive as learners, while their identity, culture and language as First Nation peoples is strengthened, is essential” (p. 29).

M4P1: Education – Calls to Action

With the focus on creating an Indigenous knowledge-based curriculum/lessons/assessment plan, it is important to acknowledge the work currently in progress in regards to the 94 Calls to Action. There are two Calls to Action in particular that I will be referencing in my final project. CBC News has created an interactive resource (#Beyond94) which measures the progress of the Calls to Action. This resource is something that should be referenced when speaking to teachers about the importance of incorporating Indigenous based knowledge in the classroom.

10: Draft new Aboriginal education legislation – In Progress

  • Most recent update… “In June 2021, the Yukon government announced the creation of a separate school board for First Nations, paving the way for schools geared specifically toward Indigenous students in the territory.”

12 Develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs – In Progress

  • In 2018, a framework for Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care was released, and in February 2021, the government proposed to invest $2.5 billion to support this mandate.

This image is an up to date account of the progress being made in the 94 calls to action. It is concerning to see 20 projects not yet started, the majority of them falling under the “Reconciliation” category. 

M3P4: Mi’kmaq Immersion School

A quote that stood out to me in this video was said by the teacher:

“I don’t know how you expect me to teach young kids their own culture when I don’t even know anything about my own culture.”

Culturally responsive education is important in the revitalization of Indigenous cultures. This video explores how a Mi’kmaq school in Manitoba has achieved “total immersion in language, culture, and community.” The school focuses on math and reading skills. The teacher interviewed spoke about how he has come to remember his “why” for teaching and has also been able to learn so much more about himself and his own culture in the process. I chose to include this video because it affirms the importance of cultural immersion and serves as a model for other programs.

This screenshot shows young students learning about the Mi’kmaq sweat lodge and singing the Mi’kmaq ‘Honor Song.”

 

M3P3: Indigenous Storywork Protocols

“Educating Heart, Mind, Body & Spirit”

I came across this site after reading about Dr. Jo-ann Archibald’s Indigenous Storywork framework. It shares various resources for educators but also for the public, and it also highlights and shows respect for the Elders who contributed to the website. The educator resources are not typical lesson plans, but rather they are a set of questions that create a framework Indigenous story telling; Dr. Archibald poses many questions that help guide and prepare educators for various protocols for using Indigenous stories. One important protocol she outlines is to acknowledge the storyteller, and the Indigenous culture from which the storyteller is a member, and then provides some contextual and cultural background for the story. This is a good entry point for me to be able to include Indigenous stories in my own teaching practice.

M4. P1

Jo-Anne Chrona said it best when speaking about the FFPL and what needs to happen first:

“a deep understanding of the FPPL is first necessary, and this understanding can then be used to guide educators’ choices about what is important to learn, and what kinds of learning experiences to create for, and with, learners in the contexts the learners and educators are in. This will vary from place to place, and community of learners to community of learners” (2014).

As I was researching the worldviews, I came across this incredible video resource from Focused Education Resources. You can find the link HERE. Of note for me, was the video below which goes through connectedness and relationships. Through this course I have developed a deep understanding for the importance of these particular principles and how we must “look for ways to relate learning to students’ selves, to their families and communities.”

References

Chrona, J.First peoples principles of learning. Retrieved from https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/

Focused Education Resources. (2021). Retrieved from https://focusedresources.ca/en/supports-tutorialsvideosguides

M3P5: Books to Build On: Indigenous Literature for Learning

This University of Calgary website, in combination with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, offers a  curated list of Indigenous books suitable for all ages (from child to university student). As a bonus, they have also included lesson plans with most of the books. I considered my knowledge of Indigenous books suitable for my class to be well developed, and this resource offered new books to add. In particular, I like that it is not limited to social studies or language arts (where indigenous content is often included), but rather focuses on all the subject areas (including science, math, etc).

M3P2: Location and Minecraft

The importance of location was highlighted in this module, and I was inspired by the Anishinaabe World in Minecraft, a collaborative project between the Louis Reil Foundation and Microsoft, that “honours, celebrates and explores a Manitoba Anishinaabe community” (Minecraft Anishinaabe World, n.d.). It made me wonder if a similar project could be created that reflects the locality of First Nations on whose territories my school resides. To that end, the Cobblestone Collective offered a more in-depth look at Minecraft and the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge through an Elder led three-part session. The sessions focused on local plants, medicines, traditions that guided cultural practice and allowed students to engage in an immersive experience. It was full of relevant information for an educator looking to expand their use of Minecraft to remove the colonizing focus while responding to the cultural knowledge of their students.

Cobblestone Project three part series: https://cobblestonecollective.ca/manito-ahbee-aki-minecraft-education-edition/

References:

Minecraft Anishinaabe World. Louis Riel School Division. (n.d.). https://www.lrsd.net/What-We-Offer/Pages/Minecraft-Anishinaabe-World.aspx.

M2P5: Tua’ll (and then) I used math to tell a story

Tua’ll (and then) I used math to tell a story: Using think alouds to enhance agency and problem solving in an indigenous high school mathematics class

This thesis is an action-research project in a high school math classroom that focuses on student discourse and agency. I am excited that I found such a detailed and extensive account of someone’s journey of incorporating Indigenous culture into an Indigenous high school mathematics class.

Below are some findings, implications, and questions from the report.