Author Archives: Stephanie Carr

Module 2: Post 5 – The Learning Circle

The Learning Circle is a resource full of classroom activities on First Nations in Canada. There are six units in this booklet: storytelling, the seasons, sharing, colours, games, and National Aboriginal Day. All of these units would be an amazing resource to use in my classroom. However, I want to take a closer look at the Storytelling Unit. Throughout this unit, students will get to understand the importance of Indigenous storytelling. During this unit, there is an activity that focuses on a Cree Story about a big fish who ate a granddaughter. Then the teachers will have a discussion with their students about what this story taught them, they will get to role-play the story, students will get to gather items from outside to create their own story. Then the last activity focuses on an Ojibway story called the Lilly Root. Educators can then do what they did with the first story through a variety of activities. There are questions provided for a class discussion.

These stories are exactly what I want to use in my classroom. I love how there are activities that go with each story. I would not just stop at the storytelling unit. I would absolutely complete this entire booklet!

Module 2: Post 4 – Thalit Sqwelqwel Stories of Truth

Thalit Sqwelqwel Stories of Truth has teacher resources from K-12. Since I teach primary students, I wanted to focus on resources suitable for K-3 students . There are four sections: Xwexwa’ls Xwe’Ilsolem precontact, Staleta Skwul Residental Schools, Shxwyayametel Reconciliation, and Shxwi’Aylexw Saliwes Worldviews.

When you click Xwexwa’ls Xwe’Ilsolem precontact there are areas that educators can explore with their classroom. In this section there is the Skwolkwelt Sememlat anchor resources, Kwoles Ye Selyolexwe elder’s corner, and the Lhe’a Kw’e Slilsleqalqel tour. In this area, there is an inquiry question (What are the many ways we can acknowledge the history and knowledge of the land pre-contact and work to share the knowledge with each other?) that educators can pose to their students and open the floor for discussion. Then there are videos of storytelling that can be watched, audios that can be heard, and a visual tour of Lhe’a Kw’e Slilsleqalqel. There are also five digital resources that teachers can use to to learn about different Indigenous cultures.

When you click Staleta Skwul Residental Schools, there are also anchor resources, an elder’s corner, and a tour. Educators can learn and teacher their students about residential schools by starting with an inquiry question (What are the many ways we can acknowledge Mission’s own part in the residential school experience by giving voice to our Elders and members of our community?), using lesson plans that are provided, listening to an elder’s experience at residential schools, and then there is a tour of a residential school.

When you click Shxwyayametel Reconciliation, there are anchor resources and an elder’s corner. The inquiry question in this area is What are authentic ways we can honour the reconciliation process in our hearts, thoughts and deeds? Students can then watch videos of students who participated in acts of Reconciliation at a site of a residential school. There are also lesson plans that teachers can use for Orange Shirt Day for K-12 students. Then in the elder’s corner, an elder discusses how Reconciliation occurs today and how Sq’ewlets are learning about their history, their own people, and their significance to the Sto:lo People.

Finally, when you click Shxwi’Aylexw Saliwes Worldviews, there are anchor resources and the elder’s corner. The inquiry question is How can our exploration of Aboriginal values across the globe promote change and create a positive learning environment for ourselves, our students, our families and our land? Teachers can show their students two videos: one is a documentary of Sto:lo Peoples in the past and present and the Seven Sacred Teachings. In the elder’s corner, elder’s share their stories, knowledge, and advice with youth.

This resource would be a great addition to add to the content I teach students each year.

Module 2: Post 3 – Kindergarten Lessons around Orange Shirt Day

This resource focuses on Orange Shirt Day for students in Kindergarten to grade 6. These lessons are fantastic because they start with a stories that can be read to students to start the lesson. Since I teach Kindergarten, I wanted to focus on those lessons. For the Kindergarten, there are five lessons. In the first lesson, two stories are read, The Sharing Circle by Theresa “Corky” Larsen-Jonasson and You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith. During this lesson, students are introduced to a sharing circle and protocols around it. In the second lesson, the story Good Night Families by Adam Gamble is read to students. Students are then asked to reflect on what matters to them most while sharing their thoughts in a sharing circle. In the third lesson, the story All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon is read. This author is not Indigenous but she is not telling an Indigenous story but rather focusing on the importance of things in your life. Students then draw pictures and discuss all the things that are important to them in their life while participating in a sharing circle. In the fourth lesson, the story My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith is read. Students then share three different things that fill their hearts with happiness while in the sharing circle. Finally, in lesson five, the story That’s Me Loving You by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is read students learn what matters to them and they use a talking stick in the sharing circle.

I would definitely use these lessons in my classroom and also use some of the content from the higher grades depending on the students’ understanding of the topics at hand. I would like to make sure that all books are from Indigenous authors, especially since these lessons focused around Orange Shirt Day.

Source: This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

Module 2: Post 2 – Cultural Videos

While exploring more about Carolyn Roberts, I discovered some cultural videos on her website. These cultural videos can provide educators with resources that come straight from different Indigenous communities. It can be hard sometimes to get elders to come into the classroom and speak to the class. However, by having access to local cultures, it can be easy to share it with your students. On this website, you will find stories told from different nations, cedar hat weaving, canoe pulling, etc. There are also videos from Indigenous elders that touch on many topics, such as displacement, carving, the river, cultural knowledge, plants, canoes, fish smoking, hunting, environmental impacts, and cedar harvesting. These videos would allow educators and students to learn straight from different Indigenous cultures, providing an authentic opportunity to be present in your classroom.

Source: https://www.carolynroberts.net/cultural-videos

Module 2: Post 1 – Carolyn Roberts – Reconciliation

In this TED talk, Carolyn Roberts talks about some of the Indigenous history, culture, and how to move forward in Reconciliation.

Roberts discusses the history of her family and how her three sisters and her mom went to residential schools. Her mom is unable to speak any of the languages from where she is from as she was unable to practice her language. Her mother became so shut down that she has never hugged anyone in her life. This made me extremely sad because the residential school robbed her from everything and anything. Even though residential schools are not in session today, Roberts talks about how Indigenous children are still being taken from their families. I did not want to believe it to be true but it is happening TODAY. Indigenous children are being taken from their families and put into the FOSTER CARE system and being placed into non-Indigenous homes. Roberts was put into foster care once she was born. She states that “60% of the children in foster care are Indigenous children” (TED, 2018, 6:52). Wow. Indigenous children are STILL being taken from their families. Roberts also states that “50% of Indigenous people living on reserves live in poverty [and that] 60 reservations across Canada live in boil water advisory, some have been for over 20 years” (TED, 2018, 7:54).

Roberts tells us a story about a coyote searching for his bone needle. An owl comes down to help the coyote. Owl goes in the sky to see if he can find this bone needle but can’t. Owl asks coyote, who was searching near the fire, where he had it last and he points to the bushes which was away from where he was searching. Coyote was searching by the fire because that is the only place that the fire was providing him light to see. Roberts then says, “as Canadians, what we see by the fire are the effects of our colonial system and the effects we see are the alcoholism, the drug abuse, and all that the colonial system has done to our people. We are starting to see a little more language come back but that is the easy thing that we can see by the fire. What’s going to take courage and time is to look over by the bone needle by the bushes there is a thousand piece puzzle that is made up of all that has happened in order to get to where we are today, of what we see the effects of. If I were to go over to this puzzle and take just one piece of the puzzle out. That one small piece would be the residential school system. There are 999 other pieces to this puzzle that we still need to learn about, and that we still need to educate about in order to be able to move forward in Reconciliation” (TED, 2018, 10:30). This made so much sense and it makes me want to discover what else am I unaware of. It is time to get more educated about the other 999 pieces of this puzzle.

Reference

TED. (2018, March 20). Reconciliation in your community [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x0gIYhnCPA

Module 1: Post 5 – Gladys We Never Knew (10 lessons)

While exploring the BCTF website to see what they had on Indigenous Education, I came across Gladys We Never Knew: The Life of a Child in a BC Indian Residential School. This resource consists of ten lesson plans that educators can do with their students. These lessons will allow students to understand the life and story of this one Indigenous student’s life. Students will be able to understand who and why Gladys is important to us, traditional approaches, comparing Gladys’ and our life today, historical relationships, to connect to Gladys’ experience of going away to Residential school, what was faced at school for Gladys and other children, for students to appreciate their school experience from those who went to residential schools, to understand the importance of Dr. P. H. Bryce, to have students recognize when to speak up when something is wrong, to understand the injustices of the Indian Residential School system, and finally to understand the need for Reconciliation. I plan to use this lesson plan package in my classroom.

Module 1: Post 4 – 21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act by Bob Joseph

Bob Joseph discusses his book 21 Things You Didn’t Know About the Indian Act in this presentation. This is one presentation that you must watch! It is such an informative presentation that will send you on a transformation. This presentation allowed me to understand what I was unaware of and did not know about the Indian Act. These were the 21 things that some of us probably did not know about the Indian Act. As I summarized these 21 points, I became disgusted and appalled while continuing to shake my head. Here they are:

Women status was denied.
Residential schools were introduced because of the Indian Act.
Reserves were created. Reservations are an American term.
Indigenous people were renamed with simple European names.
Indigenous people were not allowed to leave the reserve without having permission from the Department of Indian Affairs. Individuals would receive a paper pass that would allow them to be absent from their reserve for a certain amount of time.
If any Indigenous person was admitted into university, they would be stripped from their Indigenous status.
Parts of the reserve or an entire reserve were taken away to make railways, roads, or any other public work if it was considered expedient.
The reserve land could be leased to non-Indigenous people if it were going to be used for farming or pasture.
Indigenous people were not allowed to take part or form any political organizations.
No one, including non-Indigenous people, was allowed to solicit funds in regards to Indigenous legal claims without having a licence that came from the Superintendent General.
There was absolutely no alcohol sales for Indigenous people.
There was absolutely no ammunition sales for Indigenous people.
Pool halls were not allowed to let any Indigenous people in
The band council system was put in place.
Indigenous people were not allowed to speak their native language.
Indigenous people were not allowed to practice their religion.
Indigenous people were not allowed to wear their traditional regalia when appearing in an exhibition, show, public dance, or pageant.
Cultural ceremonies and potlatches were claimed illegal.
Indigenous people were not allowed the right to vote.
There was a permit system created to dominate the Indigenous people’s ability to sell any product from farms.
There was only allowed to be one race which was categorized under Aboriginal peoples.

Module 1: Post 3 – Project of Heart

Source: Project of Heart (2015)

Project of Heart shares the hidden history of residential schools. It is important for us as educators to understand and share the truth about residential schools to students so that the healing can start and continue to be recognized. As a student growing up in Vancouver, I did not learn about residential schools until University. That is not OK. This has to and must change.

There is history that is shared, stories from elders describing their experience, and explaining the Project of Heart. This project allowed elders to come into schools to tell their experience of being in residential schools. Students were given wooden tiles to draw what they had learned, paid tribute to those children who had died, and to also honour those survivors. Those tiles were then collected to be used in a large piece of art which became a powerful healing piece. Tsleil-Waututh carver, Derrick George, created a canoe which was where those wooden titles were placed. This piece is called the Project of Heart Commemoration Canoe which can now be found in Alert Bay at the U’mista Cultural Centre. This piece is absolutely beautiful, touching, and powerful. Below is a screenshot from the PDF that is linked to this post.

Source: Project of Heart (2015)

This resource also discusses “heart gardens” for residential school survivors. This is a project that I believe all schools should be doing each year to honour survivors and to let the healing begin and continue on.

MODULE 1: POST 2 – Indigenous Protocols

I came across this Indigenous Protocol guide and thought that it would be useful to share. It is always important to know the proper protocols so that we can learn and share the knowledge and information in a respectable way. In this guide, there is information on how to properly and respectfully show recognition of Indigenous land acknowledgement. Land acknowledgment should be engrained into our minds like how national anthems are. The Indigenous land acknowledgement should be our anthem: one that is learned, repeated, and memorized.

There are also elder protocols where you learn how treat them with respect and know how to meet their needs. We should be showing elders respect like how people show respect to the royal family. Elders are individuals that can teach us more than we know and should be provided with the utmost respect. It is a privilege and honour to be in the presence of an elder.

Finally there are talking stick protocols that teach us how to use this powerful tool used for communication, potlatch protocols on how to attend ceremonies, powwow protocols that need to be respected, and Indigenous cultural tourism protocols to consider when traveling.

Check out the guidebook here: Indigenous Protocol

Module 1: Post 1 – Medicine Wheel Education

Medicine Wheel Education is a great resource that provides educators with storybook titles that can be bought online or in bookstores. All of these books are from Indigenous authors telling their stories. The authors are Phyllis Webstad, David Bouchard, Theresa “Corky” Larsen-Jonasson, Kevin Locke, Kung Jaadee, Trudy Spiller, and Juliana Armstrong. I recently purchased some of these books to add to my classroom collection: Trudy’s Healing Stone, The Hoop Dancer’s Teaching, Phyllis’s Orange Shirt, The Circle of Caring and Sharing, and The Eagle Feather. These books are fantastic for primary students to learn about Indigenous stories in a way that is simplistic for little minds. If you create an account with this website, scroll to the bottom and click “printable activities.” There are activities that teachers can do with their students as an elaboration or continuation for the storybook after reading the book to the class. For only $5/month or $50/year, you can have the books read by the authors, interactive lesson plans, and additional activities that can be used. This is such a small price to pay to support Indigenous authors and the sharing of their stories.

Source: Retrieved from Medicine Wheel Education website