Tag Archives: storybooks

M2 P2: The story of the Hummingbird

This story was suggested to me by Shirley in relation to my research question about barriers in nursing education for Indigenous students. I think it really illustrates not only the message of the story (perseverance, that every little bit can help, even if the problem seems insurmountable, even the smallest of us can contribute, no act of kindness is too small), but also how media is used to tell a story that otherwise might not be accessible to anyone outside the community that it’s from. It’s such a beautiful story and I’m grateful to be able to experience it.

https://www.hummingbird.vancouveropera.ca/story

Yahgulanaas, M. N. [mnyhaida]. (2013, April 8). Flight of the hummingbird – Haida manga [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/naj6zZakgEg

Math Catcher Outreach Program and Resources

Module 1, Post 4

This website promotes math and science to elementary and high school students with a focus on story-telling and hands-on activities. The Math Catcher program is based in BC and was inspired over a decade ago to help improve the math completion rates of Indigenous learners. The program offers teacher training workshops, school visits, student summer camps, and instructional activities. There is an excellent collection of video stories that follow the antics of a 5-year-old boy, Small Number, and his mathematically themed adventures – and they have been translated into different Aboriginal languages also. Although the site suggests targeting an audience up to grade 12, the materials it offers are primarily elementary in nature. The Summer Math Camp Program appears to have ended in 2018 – it hosted grade 9 – 11 Aboriginal students in math and science day camps at SFU.

Math Catcher: Mathematics Through Aboriginal Storytellling. (n.d.). Home. http://mathcatcher.irmacs.sfu.ca/

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