Incorporating Aboriginal perspective into the classroom

Today was my first day back in the school since the winter break. I never realized how much I missed the students and being in a classroom until now. During today’s visit, I read a First Nations legend called “How Raven Lost His Beak” to the class during carpet time. It was my first experience trying to incorporate Aboriginal content into a lesson. After being a part of an Aboriginal course at UBC I had a bit of recent knowledge on Aboriginal perspective and principles. However, I was still nervous to read this story out to the class. I never thought it would be an area of difficulty but today, when presented with this story to read, I experienced many emotions all at once. I felt anxious because I wanted to present the story in a way that was exciting to the students. I was also nervous because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t say anything wrong or cross any boundaries due to a lack of education on the topic. Since I was reading the story for my first time with the students, I just had hoped I understood the story myself so I could give feedback and answer the questions appropriately. When looking at the new curriculum, it definately is focusing on incorporating more Aboriginal content into the class. I have learnt that many teachers are still nervous to do so because they don’t know how to incorporate this content in a relevant way. After my experience today, I can see why it brings fear to some teachers. However, I believe that it is so important to bring new perspectives into the classroom and teach students about different cultures. It was such an amazing experience for me because the students were so engaged. Not only did the students love the story and wanted me to tell them another one, they also learned so much more about Aboriginal culture and principles.

Although the story was very interesting for the students there were a few questions that arose. While going through the story, the raven was a comical character who shifted into human form. While reading this paragraph, I looked around the group of students and their faces went blank. They could not comprehend how an animal could somehow become a human being. I had a bit of knowledge on the raven because I had learnt about it not too long ago in my class at UBC. After reflecting on my experience, I realized I didn’t know all of the answers to provide to the students and didn’t have all of the necessary knowledge. This motivates me to learn more so that I can be able to share even more with my students one day. As educators, I realize it’s important to have the knowledge to share with our students but it’s also okay to admit fault and mistakes. Overall, for a first lesson containing Aboriginal content I think it went fairly well. The students loved the story and wanted to listen to another one. They even connected it to their own culture which was fantastic to see. From there I did a quick game of Simon Says which became a great brain break! I incorporated exercise into this game where the students were stretching and jogging in their spot. Overall, it was a fun day where I got to experience trying something new within the classroom. I look forward to incorporating Aboriginal content in the future within this class and learning more.