It is my privilege to have the opportunity to experience pedagogy from another perspective in creating curriculum for the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in the heart of Downtown Vancouver, BC. I’m hoping these three weeks will provide me with the chance to create a meaningful and relevant Education Program for students visiting the Gallery.

It is my intention to plan and write a Program integrating Aboriginal Education in the daily curriculum, as well as to provide pre- and post-visit activities to activate knowledge and reflect on the visit. Being a Teacher Candidate in the French Elementary cohort, I will be able to provide a valuable resource for French Immersion field trips. I will create the Program and English and in French in order to help the Gallery provide French resources with the Programs they provide.

My activities this week

This week I have familiarized myself with the Gallery, the collection, and the expectations of the Program to be written. I have carte blanche for the theme to be explored in the Program, which is both a blessing and a curse: the possibilities are endless. I often go down to the Gallery to explore the collection and make mind maps of themes/ concepts I would like to explore in writing my school program.

In order to prepare myself for the creation of the Program, I have read the existing content created by the Gallery staff and previous CFE students. (I included research on the new B.C. curriculum and integrating Aboriginal Education in our daily practice). I have selected the Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies, and Content to focus on in the creation of the Program for intermediate students visiting the Gallery.

I feel a bit overwhelmed with the task ahead as the possibilities seem endless and it easy to fall into the trap to want to do too much in these few weeks. I should also keep in mind that the Program students will follow while visiting the Gallery is only about an hour. I have to limit my scope and start writing the Program so I can add worksheets and relevant material only.

My plan(s) for next week

Next week, I will be leading a school tour (Storytelling in the Gallery) and I hope that will allow me to see the Gallery and the collection from a new perspective and use that to fine-tune my program during the last week. My goal is to provide teachers with pre-activities that will activate prior knowledge and curiosity before the visit, a relevant, meaningful and engaging Program during the visit, and post-visit activities which will allow students to reflect on the visit and their learning once they’re back in the classroom. There are also some other activities coming up during the last week that sound very exciting, but also a bit intimidating. Since June 21^st is National Aboriginal Day, there will be a Citizenship Ceremony held at the Gallery on that day.

My practicum experience and the pro-D series I have attended during my extended practicum will allow me to design a relevant and engaging unit for the Gallery using the new B.C. curriculum. While organizing a field trip for my practicum class, I kept running into the lack of French resources at the sites, and having to translate them myself. I think having the documents in French might open up possibilities for French Immersion classes to attend the Gallery in larger numbers.

I feel very privileged to have the opportunity not only to write a unit in a period of three weeks rather than in a shorter time as was the case during practicum. I’m looking forward to approaching learning from another perspective and utilizing my skills as a teacher to create an Education Program. It is an immense pleasure to work in such an inspiring environment as the Gallery. However, copyright and respect for the artist may limit my possibilities to post pictures and videos of my experience on my blog.