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by | May 14, 2024 · 11:03 am

Living and Teaching the First Peoples Principles 

Whether you are new to the profession or a seasoned professional, teachers in BC are called to consider how they might incorporate the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL) into their classrooms and schools.  

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action and the BC curriculum requires teachers to consider and incorporate Indigenous voice, issues, resources and perspectives in our teaching. Jo Chrona provides a background of FPPL and Current Contexts on her blog:

In 2006/2007, The BC Ministry of Education partnered with the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) to create the English 12 First Peoples course. The development of this curriculum included significant input from Indigenous knowledge-keepers and educators from BC….to ensure that the course was able to authentically embody aspects of First Peoples’ values around teaching and learning.  

These voices were previously left out and systemically excluded from the current educational experience. Included in this process of course creation was the development of the FPPL so that First Peoples’ experiences, values, beliefs, and lived realities could be more authentically reflected in the course.  

Since then, the BC Ministry of Education has made an increased commitment to including Indigenous perspectives in education. According to Chrona, the initial integration of First Peoples’ content was first intended to support Indigenous learners “as the province and country continues on the path toward Reconciliation.” Now, more educators “are recognizing that the [FPPL] promote educational practices that are also powerfully effective for non-Indigenous learners…. that is replacing the post-industrial model of education” ; this is teaching that is “more responsive to the contexts and needs of learners, and the explicit inclusion of what are termed ‘Core Competencies’” (Chrona, 2024).

Let’s explore a few opportunities! 

Jo Chrona explains that “an inherent interconnectedness exists between all the principles. While they are described discretely, they operate in concert with each other in a robust and healthy learning environment and education system.” 

Teacher Disposition  

Chrona suggests that incorporating the FPPL has as much to do with an educator’s philosophy and disposition as it has to do with curricular content. Some of us will see our own values already reflected in the FPPL, and others of us will be challenged by them. Look closely at the FPPL and think about where you see them in your own life.  

  • When do you make time for your own elders, grandparents and mentors? How do you use their guidance to understand the world?  
  • How do you develop quality relationships with the people in your life so that you have a strong foundation to withstand conflict and stress? 

Now how do those values help you manage your class culture?   

Connections to Core Competencies  

Poster: https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/cardev/gr9_found/docs/courage_poster.pdf

In order to thrive, all children need the opportunity to be in schools and communities that cultivate belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. We know about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but do you know about Martin Brokenleg’s  Circle of Courage? In “The Science of Raising Courageous Kids,” Brokenleg and Van Bockern explain this model that integrates Native American philosophies of child-rearing, the heritage of early pioneers in education and youth work, and contemporary resilience research. The Circle of Courage is based in four universal growth needs of all children: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. 

Instead of a class discussion, consider incorporating a class circle. Talking/sharing/class circles are also a great way to invite relationality into your classroom. Dr. Carolyn Roberts offers an exploration of this in her blogpost: Circle work: Being together as a relation.  

Context and Perspectives

For teachers exploring the FPPL, “It’s not a set of lesson or unit plans” nor “a detailed list of criteria and specific content to match up with grades and/or subject areas.”  

Consider how you can plan your lessons to: 

Resources

The choices you make as a teacher matter. When you use a celebrity as an example, do you look for Indigenous or BIPOC people? Choosing Indigenous authors and poets and musicians to discuss in class gives everyone an opportunity to look for connections to the FPPL. Consider sharing current examples rather than relying solely on historical references so that you highlight Indigenous brilliance (see Carolyn Roberts’ blog post for a few ideas)

A deep understanding of the FPPL reflected in our disposition will guide the decisions we make about what students should learn and how they experience it.

For more subject specific ideas and resources, see these Sandbox Blogposts:

UBC Booklists: 

The UBC Education Library booklists are available for educators and teacher candidates, offering an abundance of resources ranging from picture books to use in the classroom to lesson-planning guides. The library offers multiple booklists regarding Indigenous culture and history. These booklists cover topics such as residential schools, storytelling resources and literature written by Indigenous authors. 

 

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Post by Greta Bartsch, Learning Design Manager & Program Manager (Practicum- Secondary), 2024; editing & contribfutions by Yvonne Dawydiak

 

References 

Chrona, J. (2024, April 10) Background of FPPL and Current Contexts. https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/background-and-current-context/ 

Brokenleg, M., Van Bockern, S. (2003). The Science of Raising Courageous Kids.  https://martinbrokenleg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12_1_Brokenleg_Van_Bockern.pdf

 

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by | April 6, 2022 · 12:19 pm

Mind Maps App

section header - what is it?

Mindmaps is a concept mapping app that is open-source, totally free and without advertisements. Moreover, the app allows you to build your concept map in your browser and save it in several formats. This is only one tool for creating mind maps or concept maps. To learn more about high tech, low tech and no tech approaches to mind-mapping, please visit the “Concept Maps for Teaching and Learning” blog post.

section header - why is it relevant

 

 

There are many ways to build concept maps, including apps. Unlike this app, however,  many of them require an account or download of the program, or have restrictions in the free version making them less useful to educators. Concept or Mind-mapping is a powerful teaching, learning and organizational strategy that provides a visual means of understanding or representing ideas.

  1. Go to mindmaps.app
  2. Click in Central idea in the red circle and include the main idea of your concept map
  3. Move the red dot that appeared inside your central idea to create sub-ideas.
  4. Add a sub-idea to the new box that appeared.
  5. Use the Navigator on the right side to visualize the whole design of your concept map.
  6. Change the color and style of your words and arrows using the Inspector on the right of the screen.
  7. Click on an object to move it or change its dimensions.
  8. Save or export your project choosing a format (top-right corner).

Video Demonstration

This video is a demonstration of how to build a conceptual map using the features of the Mind Mapping App:

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), March. 2022.

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by | February 23, 2022 · 1:02 pm

Concept Maps for teaching and learning

What are concept maps?

“A concept map is a type of graphic organizer used to represent knowledge of a topic, forge connections between ideas and create visual representations of one’s understandings. Concept maps begin with a main idea (or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken down into specific topics” (Novak & Canas, 2006).  Visit the Concept Mapping resource post on this blog for a brief overview and links to resources.

Features of concept maps

There are four essential features represented differently in a concept map:

  1. Concepts: are words that try to represent a phenomenon, object, or idea. They may synthesize patterns in events or knowledge produced over time. In concept maps, these are depicted as shapes in the diagram.
  2. Linking words/phrases:  are used to connect two or more concepts and express some kind of relationship between them. They may indicate cause, consequences, conditions. In general, are written using a verb or few words.
  3. Focus concept or question: it is the main goal of a concept map.  It may be a question, an explanation, or a general idea that conducts your thought and organize all ideas around in the concept map. It is highlighted in the concept map, depending on the hierarchy chosen (top, center, etc.).
  4. Hierarchical and structure: it is how you will choose to organize the main concepts and their connections. It can be hierarchical (the main concept in the top), circle (the main concept in the middle), or other shapes appropriated to the idea you want to express.

Read more on  about the ‘concept’ of ‘concept mapping’ in this blog post on the “Inspiration” website and how teachers and their students might use concept maps, mind maps, or outlines to support writing, idea generation, and organization, planning and more. Inspiration is a software commonly found on school district devices.

You can also find a step-by-step construction of a concept map about the solar system in the Lucidchart or in the example below:

When to use concept maps in education?

Concept maps are powerful graphic organizers that can be used in many ways to illustrate and explore connections across ideas. In this sense, concept maps allow students to formulate their understanding in a non-linear way of thinking, showing their process of thinking during understanding a new idea or content.

Teachers can use concept maps to:

  1. Build new knowledge, deepen students’ understanding: designing a concept map provides students and teachers with an opportunity to construct and share their understanding of a topic, theme, concept, area of interest. This Edutopia article provides a good starting point for learning more about the power of concept maps and other strategies to support deeper thinking.
  2. Identify possible misconceptions: during the process of designing a concept map, teachers can understand better the logic used for students to build their knowledge and the origin of misconceptions. Curtis Chandler, a former Kansas teacher of the year shares how concept maps can be used to understand some students’ misconceptions or not use accurate language in a ‘middleweb’ blog post.
  3. Designing lessons: concept maps can even be used by teachers as a format for planning units or lessons of instruction, allowing teachers to visualize the logic used to connect several lessons into a unit plan or make cross-curricular connections.
  4. Assessment: concept maps can help students illustrate the connections between their ideas, concepts, or content in meaningful ways and can be used as formative and summative assessments. The University of Waterloo has some guides about what is important to consider when designing rubrics for assessing concepts maps.
  5. Create study habits: teachers can have students create concept maps summarizing the main ideas of a unit, creating the habit of continuum revision of the knowledge learned.
  6. Encourage collaboration and communication: a mind map might be collaboratively constructed in real time or asynchronously (using appropriate apps) allowing students to negotiate, think critically and communicate their ideas and understandings with others.

How to get started? mindmap

As mentioned, CMaps, concept maps can be analogue or digital. Teachers might consider providing students with a choice in developing their map using high tech or low/no-tech approaches depending on the objectives. If the objective is to widely share the map, then digital may be preferable (of course, students might also take a photo of a map ‘in process’ and one that is ‘completed’ in order to share as part of a portfolio or published work/project).

Some higher-tech options

  • Mindmaps: it is a tool that allows you to create concept maps without the need for an account. It also allows you to save your map in the cloud or download it to your computer.
  • Inspiration or Kidspiration as computer based or iPad apps Highly visual concept mapping software that allows the user to easily insert images from a large media folder. School districts commonly license these applications for use on their devices.
  • Bubbl.us is an online collaborative concept mapping software – each individual with an account can be invited to contribute to a given map being created in the cloud. With a paid educator account, a teacher can invite students using a link to either view or collaborate (students do not need to provide their information or sign up for an account). Paid app with Free trial options for Educator accounts.
  • For schools using ‘Google Classroom’   MindMup or Miro offer collaborative mindmapping (login required)
    • Teachers should always be aware of appropriate permissions in their context/school districts. These might include parental consent, student informed consent or it may not be permitted to have students sign up using gmail or other account information.

No/Low Tech Options

Collaborative or Individual drawing on chart paper or using sticky notes on a whiteboard or a table with a group of students are great options for kinesthetic or non-digital mind mapping. A primary teacher might even have students use kinesthetic, solid objects to create their mind map. Teachers might begin helping students develop their ability to connect ideas by providing a skeleton. This will help scaffold learning and introduce students to different ways to connect ideas.

Freeform Concept maps can be drawn by hand or using some of the available draw applications made for smartphones and tablets!

References:

Novak, J. and Cañas, A (2006): The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct Them (Technical Report IHMC CMap Tools 2006-11). Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Original post YD 2017 adapted by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Feb. 2022.

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by | April 19, 2021 · 4:19 pm

Resources for Indigenizing and Decolonizing Education

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to action and the BC curriculum requires teachers to consider and incorporate Indigenous voice, issues, resources and perspectives in their teaching. Teachers in BC are also reminded that the 9th Professional Standard (link to BCTC Resource with full text) requires educators to authentically engage in decolonizing their practices. The video, Professional Standard 9 – Truth and Reconciliation, Moving Forward Together offers a moving call to action.

Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

The aftermath of the Summer 2020 anti-racism protests sparked an international conversation on the urgency of racial justice for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, a conversation that continues today. As we reflect on how to be anti-racist and how to decolonize our societies, we must discuss the importance of education in achieving this. I believe that highlighting the histories and cultures of marginalized groups in the education system is essential to creating a truly anti-racist society. Finding resources to begin incorporating these ideas into classrooms can be daunting for many.

This post attempts to highlight a handful of Indigenous education-related resources that can help guide teachers in creating anti-racist lessons and activities that highlight the importance of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. It is important to seek authentic, local resources and avoid ‘pan-Indigenous’ perspectives.

Resource Collections:

Curriculum Bundles have been assembled by Indigenous educators from around British Columbia, most of whom are students and graduates of the NITEP program.  Each bundle focuses on a particular skill, resource, or place, and connects with BC curriculum.

The UBC based website, https://indigenizinglearning.educ.ubc.ca/  includes well-curated resource links and information about ‘welcomes’ and ‘land acknowledgements’.

Indigenous educators are creating and openly sharing their resource collections:

Subject Specific Resources

At a glance documents representing implicit and explicit connections to each grade level and subject area are part of the Indigenous Education Resources shared by the BC Ministry of Education.  On their main page, you’ll also find videos and a Resource Inventory to help teachers incorporate First Peoples Knowledge and Perspectives.

English First Peoples

  • The FNESC Planning for Instruction, Grades 10-12 document (2018) is meant for English teachers (specifically for the course English First Peoples, but with some great ideas for any English teacher)

Physical Health Education

  • The BC Ministry of Ed has created a document to support incorporating FPPL in planning for PHE k-12. This document makes it quite clear that incorporating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives is implicit in the PHE curriculum across all grade levels (while also being explicit in PHE Outdoor Ed at the senior secondary level)

Cultural Maps:

Native Land is a website that maps out the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples from

Here is a screen capture of a map of the territories of Indigenous groups in North America.

around the world. The main feature of the website is an interactive map that can filter the lands by linguistic groups, territories, and treaties. Another local BC website, The First People’s Map of BC, shares Indigenous language, art and heritage in an interactive format perfect for students seeking to learn more about local language and culture or connect with artists. You can even hear audio clips of native language speakers.

The Indigenous Ed team in SD61, Victoria shares a variety of maps in their Social Studies Resource area for Secondary teachers.

FNESC:

The First Nations Education Steering Committee, or FNESC, is an organization that advocates for the inclusion of Indigenous history and cultures into the curriculum as well as the well-being of Indigenous students in British Columbia. They offer a plethora of resources for teachers to make use of in classrooms, including lesson-planning documents across subject areas.

UBC Booklists:

The UBC Education Library booklists are available for educators and teacher candidates, offering an abundance of resources ranging from picture books to use in the classroom to lesson-planning guides. The library offers multiple booklists regarding Indigenous culture and history. These booklists cover topics such as residential schools, storytelling resources and literature written by Indigenous authors.

Puppets at Xwi7xwa:

In addition to their vast textual resources, the Xwi7xwa Library at UBC has a collection of puppets created by Indigenous artists to help engage students using storytelling. There are a variety of collections that can be borrowed from the library, including the “Grace the Eagle“, “Splash the Orca” and “Streamer the Salmon” collections.

Digital Stories:

Indigenous Storybooks (post en francais – Storybooks Autochtons) is a repository of free openly licensed online stories written by Indigenous peoples in Canada. Inspired by, and utilizing, the open-licensed stories from Little Cree Books, this project aims to make the text, images, and audio of stories available in Indigenous languages as well as English, French, and some of the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada.

Witness Blanket is a unique and striking digital collection. This large-scale work of art carries items and stories, accompanied by the voices of residential school survivors. The site also houses a Teacher’s guide that helps teachers build empathy with their students and develop a human rights culture in their classroom.

Strong Nations:

Strong Nations

Strong Nations is an online store and publishing house that sells authentic Indigenous-created art and literature. They are a BC-based organization, however they offer resources from Indigenous groups from all over Canada. One interesting resource that I found on Strong Nations is the “This Land is our Storybook” series, which is a series written from the perspective of Indigenous children living in the Northwest Territories.

As we navigate conversations surrounding anti-racism and reconciliation, we must continue this discussion in teacher education and in the education system more broadly. You may wish to visit SFU’s “Think before you Appropriate”  resource as you explore and learn. I hope you will explore the resources in this post so that you can begin this work in your own classroom.

 

Guest post by Naomi Hudson, Scarfe Sandbox Project Assistant and Virtual Peer Mentor, Winter 2020; edited by Yvonne Dawydiak, Winter 2022, Fall 2023.

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by | February 20, 2021 · 8:33 pm

Native Land

Native Land is an online, interactive map that maps out the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples all over the world, specifically in the Americas, Northern Europe and Austronesia. Its “About” page states that it was created in 2015 by a non-Indigenous man named from the Okanagan named Victor Temprano. Right now, Native Land is run by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from around Canada and around the world.

There is incredible diversity amongst Indigenous populations which is sometimes overlooked and can lead to a pan-Indigenous view…  Native Land is a valuable resource that can help expose students to the heterogeneity of Indigenous populations, both nationally and internationally. Teachers might use Native land to recognize the territories on which their own school resides, or when learning about other places in the world so that they incorporate more local voices and resources in their teaching.

  1. Go to native-land.ca
  2. Use the interactive map to view the locations of the ancestral lands of various Indigenous groups from around the world.
    1. There are now two ways to view and search: Classic Map and Constellations.

      Constellations view: search by address and get help from Kōrero

      Native Land also includes an ‘acknowledgement helper’ they call ‘Kōrero’.

    2. Search the lands by address, Territories, Languages and/or Treaties
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by | September 23, 2020 · 7:02 pm

iNaturalist

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A joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, iNaturalist creates an online and global network of naturalists, biologists, and plant-enthusiasts. With the goals to connect people with nature and to create a repertoire of biodiversity data, iNaturalist is a potential entry point for students (and teachers!) into the world of Citizen Science.

Seek by iNaturalist is a tool teachers might consider incorporating in their classrooms, school yard explorations, field trips or home learning opportunities. Seek by iNaturalist utilizes the database of observations from the iNaturalist community and is more geared to students (especially younger students) with a gameified approach to species identification. (No sign up is required to use Seek)

All users need is a mobile device with camera to log observations. With iNaturalist, you can share observations and instantly connect with other community members who are ready to help with species identification or you can record observations offline and upload when you have wifi. With Seek, you can instantly check you ID skills by taking a photo of the plant or insect and compare it to ‘hits’ in the database.

Some cool features of iNaturalist include:

  • Free of charge
  • Android and iOS apps available for mobile devices
  • Cellphone reception and wi-fi coverage are not necessary for iNaturalist observations
  • Powerful search functions that allow users to browse identifications based on broad classifications and specific species
  • Automatic identification suggestions that match an uploaded observation with the 10 most visually similar species
  • Crowdsourcing identification from the iNaturalist community
  • Available in 35+ different languages
  • Protection of privacy (users can choose to share an obscured/general location or no location at all); Important for teachers to help students develop their digital literacy by showing them how to turn off location services.

Why is it Relevant?

Outdoor education has been increasing highlighted in the BC curriculum (Visit the outdoor learning opportunities blog post on our site). iNaturalist encourages students to to take an active role in their learning through exploring nature at their own pace, uploading their observations, and joining an online community of citizen scientists. Given that iNatualist can be installed on individual mobile devices, students have a lot of freedom with the species they choose to observe and can even take iNaturalist into their backyards, neighborhood walks, and hiking trips.

As well, students can develop their digital citizenship skills through using iNaturalist. There are many learning opportunities within the iNaturalist platform, including but not limited to learning how to take an identifiable photo, improving academic research skills, and engaging with the online community in a safe and responsible manner.

Teacher candidates are invited to check out the teacher’s guide on iNaturalist. Specific protocols and tips address how to maximize the educational potential of the platform and how to responsibly share/store class data. At the bottom of the page, you can find an extensive list of exemples and lesson plans detailing how iNaturalist can be used in the classroom.

 

Getting Started

  1. Download the iNaturalist app
  2. Sign up for a iNaturalist account with your email address
  3. To explore local sightings, click on the “explore” icon to access the map
  4. To upload and share your observations, click on the “observe” icon

 

How to make an observation on iNaturalist

Seek by iNaturalist from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

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by | August 13, 2020 · 8:32 pm

Learning about and through Food: podcast resource post

Food is an interdisciplinary concept that intertwines through a wide range of subjects: home economics, science, math, arts, and many more.

In Episode 5 of our recently launched Thinking outside the Sandbox podcast, Dr. Kerry Renwick, Dr. Susan Gerofsky, and Dr. Lorrie Miller share their ideas and experiences with respect to food and the development of interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Below are a few resources that might be used to support each of the main points discussed in this episode:

1. Home Economics and Interdisciplinarity

Dr. Kerry Renwick shares how the concept of food could be intertwined with biology, chemistry, as well as issues of race and class.

The topic of food could be used as an entry point to discuss many topics and disciplines. Various interdisciplinary food-related activities and lesson plans are available at Teach BC:

  • Our Animal Neighbours; this unit identifies how animals were and continue to be relied upon and an important part of the lives of First Peoples; furs and skins for clothing and shelter, meat for food, bone, and antler for tools and weapons, etc.
  • Forced from home; this unit explores refugees’ experience with finding food
  • Mock Advertisement: Sustainable Community Lesson Plan; introduces marketing and advertising tactics aimed at children and youth, including those involving food and supplements.

Other resources are available at Teach BC that teach about food in relation to other cultures and geographic regions.

2. Learning from and in School Gardens

Dr. Susan Gerofsky spoke of her experience of the UBC Orchard Gardens where teachers could experiment with teaching outdoors. Check the UBC Orchard garden blog for more ideas on teaching, learning, and growing in the outdoor classroom.

  • Growing your own food helps you eat fresh fruits and vegetables, helps you choose which fertilizers and pesticides come in contact with your food, and control when to harvest your food, thus having more nutrients in your garden-grown vegetables, as highlighted in this Harvard Health Letter.
  • Engage your students with gardening their food in the school garden, or in one of the nearby community gardens.
  • Encourage your students to learn about gardening through the various activities and lesson plans provided by Kids Gardening.
  • Another interesting interdisciplinary idea in relation to gardens would be to encourage students to share their inspirations and reflections through writing poems. Explore this learning experience with the garden as a co-teacher where teacher candidates wrote their poems from the garden.

3. Food Literacy

Dr. Kerry Renwick elaborated on “food literacy” highlighting topics as food choice and responsibility when buying food, as well as seasonality and harvesting options/decisions.

Food literacy is knowledge, attitudes, and skills about food. This includes understanding the connections between food, health, and wellbeing; knowing how to select nutritious foods; and understanding what constitutes a healthy diet, as explained by Healthy Schools BC.

4. Engaging with Aboriginal Knowledge and Understanding

Dr. Kerry Renwick spoke of the importance of incorporating Aboriginal ways of learning about food specifically on sustainable ways of dealing with food.

FNESC  (First Nations Education Steering Committee) provides various resources that highlight food in relation to First Nations Knowledge.

    • Science: Traditional Aboriginal cultures used natural resources for transportation, shelter, and food gathering.
    • Social Studies: Aboriginal peoples developed distinct foods, medicines, and clothing.
  • For Grades 5-9, there is a teacher resource guide titled  “Science First Peoples”, which highlights First Peoples’ connection to the land for food. Examples include:
    • Science grade 5: How does Traditional Knowledge about body systems help First Peoples prepare and store food for the winter?
    • Science grade 6: How does Traditional Knowledge about life cycles help First Peoples harvest food in their territories?
    • Science grade 7: How did/do First Peoples use their knowledge of organisms’ survival needs- including food-to modify the environment for harvesting? (e.g. clam gardens, controlled burning, herring roe harvesting ), as well as other resources and activities.

5. Creative ways for sustainable engagement with food consumption

Dr. Lorrie Miller spoke of creative ways to make use of food scraps, one of which is food dyes.

  • More ideas on creating natural dyes from food waste could be found here.
  • Review these tips on how to compost kitchen scraps.
  • Check this teacher’s guide by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority & Source Reduction and Recycling Board, San Leandro, California, for activities on how to bring compost into the classroom as a valuable teaching tool.
  • Inspiration on ways of growing vegetables from kitchen food scraps is available in this blogpost by the UBC Orchard Garden.

Guest Post: Nashwa Khedr, EDCP graduate student, project assistant 2020

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