 | How do we implement First Nations values and address how they learn into the curriculum we teach? |
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Good afternoon, I have often wondered where I can find a teacher or an organization that can put some of the events or activities we promote in our communities to teach our young people into a curriculum form. Not all students are going to live and have a job in the city. Some will want to live here in the North. But living here can be dangerous if you don’t know how to live off the land and use the abundant resources we have in the North. I know there is great value and more can be done with these events or activities. But I guess the question has always been... how do we use this in our schools for students to learn? How do we implement First Nations values and address how they learn into the curriculum we teach? Some of the curriculum makes no sense to a student who has never been out of this reserve. If you ask them what a mother sheep is called. They wouldn’t know. Because they never seen a sheep. Or if you talk about subways and high rises, they tend to think of food, because they saw it in Sioux Lookout. For example, we have hunting , ice fishing and language camps for our students and young people in our community. Whatever they hunt or fish they go through cleaning, storing and cooking the food to eat with the Elders of the community. I am sure they learn a lot from these activities and no one is taking advantage of the event or activity to incorporate into their classrooms. You can get a lot of science just cutting up fish. In our culture we are not allowed to cut up the frog. The frog is considered a sacred being. Our teaching is intended to expand the mind and each to arrive at their own interpretation of what was taught because we believe we are all unique..hope that is how it is spelled. I have heard some positive comments from the students and most are willing to take part. One time I heard a student say to the teacher.. "Teacher , teacher we didn’t do any work all week, can we do it again." They had so much fun doing all the work of skinning the moose , cutting and cooking up the meat, they forgot they were working. WE need to make learning fun and something a student looks forward to. Another time I heard them say to the teacher, "We are not leaving unless he comes with us", meaning another student who was in a wheel chair. So we let the students figure out how to take the Special Needs Student to go ice fishing in the spring time in April when we still had ice and snow. In a matter of minutes they decided among themselves they would take turns looking after him. So they tied him to a totem sled along with his wheel chair.. of course we helped to make sure the student was safe. This goes to show you students care about other students.. and we should use this to our advantage when we teach them. I have often thought about "How we got educated before there was a school." What did First Nations people use to teach their children in a limited environment, meaning they had no paper or pencil..So what did they use? I think I was fortunate to see some of it.. our school was the Universe or the Space we live in and we learned by action, hands on and imagination.. and learning was for everyone and each person arrived at their own destination.. there was no fear or right and wrong.. it was there for you to learn. Thank you |
 | Re: How do we implement First Nations values and address how they learn into the curriculum we teach? |
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Hello Saul, Thanks for sharing your ideas with us. You have been a community education champion for many years and you bring a wealth of experience when it comes to creating curriculum that really speaks to students who are attending elementary and high school in remote and isolated First Nations schools in Ontario's far north. What you speak of reminds me how important digital education is and can be up north. Urban schools cannot provide the land-based educational experiences which our students desire. I was in Saugeen First Nation this week where the Keewaytinook Internet High School teacher told me a little story. The Chief stopped by the school the other day and recruited a couple of the older boys to dress a moose which he had knocked down. Imagine the teaching moment for those boys! It was more than an opportunity to learn from one of the most skilled hunters in the community. It was an opportunity to spend some time with the Chief and learn about politics, history and culture. Anyone who has dressed a moose knows how hard the work is but also there is lots of talk and lots of sharing. Its not just about hunting. Its about building lasting relationships between the generations. This kind of opportunity only exists for students in Ontario's far north who stay home, live in their first nation communities and learn in a KiHS classroom. Those students who are forced to leave their home communities and pursue a high school diploma in Sioux Lookout, Dryden or Thunder Bay miss out. They can't practise their traditional language as their Elders know it, they can't participate in community gatherings and they can't push their books aside once in a while and help a Chief with a successful hunt. Mark Twain once said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." I'm beginning to understand what he was getting at when he said this. There is a need to create a curriculum that speaks to the needs of the students up north but we when we do so we need to think beyond substituting "subways" for "trap lines" in math problems. We need to equip students with the tools which will provide them with an education to creatively address the challenges that each will face as they assume leadership roles in their families, their communities and their nations in the future. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Saul and starting the dialogue off! Brian Walmark |
 | Re: How do we implement First Nations values and address how they learn into the curriculum we teach? |
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Thanks for your insights! Unfortunately, in contrast to the school-of-the-universe that Saul mentioned above, teachers are products of the same compartmentalized system that dominates all levels of education. The multitudes of “city-raised” teachers who find themselves in First Nation schools often don’t have any meaningful understanding of Indigenous Knowledge simply because it wasn’t a part of their training or experience. When I went to teachers college, I met people who were taking special certification courses for “Waldorf” and the Catholic school system. These sorts of courses exist because these separate school systems expect their teachers to understand the pedagogy/philosophy that promotes their particular way of knowing and being in the world. I suspect this would turn into a logistical nightmare, but some type of “Indigenous Knowledge” certificate would go a long way in helping teachers prepare for positions in First Nation schools (as well as enrich their teaching experience in the regular school system! Over the last number of years, I’ve corresponded with many teachers working in Ontario First Nations schools. Many are doing interesting and creative things in their classrooms and communities, while many others are stuck, as Brian Walmark wrote, substituting "subways" for "trap lines". In my own (continuing) journey, I've come to rely on 3 general categories that I use to evaluate (in my head anyway) classroom “lessons” in First Nation schools (1=Good, 1+2= Better, 1+2+3=Best): 1. Changing the reference: the “lessons” stay the same but the references change.. as Brian Beaton wrote, substituting "subways" for "trap lines" 2. Changing the focus: “lessons” are built around subjects and ideas that are relevant to the culture and/or community (example: interviewing an elder to construct a historical account of a time-period or an event) 3. Changing the teaching METHOD: “lessons” are delivered through methods that are relevant to Indigenous ways of learning and knowing (hands-on-learning, sacredness of story-telling, involvement of elders, connection to the land, interconnection of all things, etc.) The terminology could use some work, but I hope the distinctness of each category comes across. Looking forward to this workshop. Meegwich, Fernando |
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Hello Saul, To culturally enrich our lands-based and community/school-based classroom experiences we must seriously respect and encourage our students to invest in the work, the challenge of learning both traditional and innovative skill-sets. Results If we are to expect positive results we must find ways of engaging the local community as our primary learning resource, whether it be in the outside (lands/community-based) or the inside classrooms. If we are to maintain our focus and momentum we should share our achievements and our accomplishments with a broader audience from within the local community and beyond. The Teaching Community - A Community of Teachers By doing this we should be able to re-define and re-design our own teaching philosophy toward creating real and lasting partnerships with our students and our community. The Team Approach – First Steps Students, community members and teachers should seek to work as a team to create and maintain a clear vision of the goals and objectives of their culturally enriched curriculum, units, lessons and activities. Students, community members and teachers should seek to work as a team to create goals, objectives and activities which have activity-based hands-on learning activities as their starting point. Students, community members and teachers should seek to work as a team to create and support outside and inside classroom activities that are peer, small group and team based. The classroom concept need not be confined to age groups, rather, the lands-based activities should be made of numerous age groupings to more closely remind the students of a family or community of learners. Students, community members and teachers will be able seek to strengthen and gain acceptance of new activities as a direct result of the student's understanding of the skill-sets and lessons already learned through repetition and practice. On a regular basis the students must be allocated time to reflect, discuss and share their experience(s) of the activities as a critical part of the curriculum, unit, lesson and activity review, development and implementation cycle. The strength of the partnership between the students, the community and the teachers will come to light, over time, through our combined efforts to encourage and reward imagination and creativity in the development and implementation of the curriculum, the units, the lessons and the activities. As well I wouldn't feel complete in this unless I share with you a VERY bold step I've spoken about to a number of our colleagues, including yourself. I'm referring to the idea of putting more emphasis on Arts and Athletics and tying these to the Ontario and Kwayaciiwin curricula. I'm advocating a shift in perspective which focuses more on these areas as a launch-pad for teaching all the subject areas from Math and the other sciences to language and literature. And maybe the most important piece of this “Bold Step” is . . . . HAVE FUN ! ! ! ! |