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Hi Everybody, My name is Brian Walmark and I will be facilitating both this on-line meeting place and the "live event" Let's Talk: Creating Culturally Appropriate Curriculum with First Nations Schools on November 12th. You are all welcomed to participate in the streaming video on November 12th but if you cannot don't worry we plan to archive the event and make it available through this meeting place site. It has the makings of a great gathering. We have a strong panel which includes Peter Garrow, the Education Director of the Assembly of First Nations, Pamela Burton, a curriculum writer, who is now with Chiefs of Ontario, Darren Lentz, a science teacher with Queen Elizabeth School in Sioux Lookout and Roy Morris, the project manager of the Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre and an educational champion in Ontario's far north with over thirty years of experience. In addition we are welcoming students, teachers, directors or education academics and community educational champions to participate both in this meeting place and on the November 12th gathering. There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss your ideas with the panel during the streaming event. It should be a dynamic discussion. This purpose of this meeting place is to provide a safe place for people to share their ideas and thoughts about creating a culturally appropriate curriculum with First Nations schools. There is an ever growing body of literature about creating curriculum that better addresses the needs of all students, including First Nations students. There are many theories and approaches that challenge the status quo. There are also students, parents, teachers, directors of education who are front line practitioners who struggle to create more meaningful educational classroom experiences who see curriculum as the foundation for any meaningful change to the status quo. There is so much to learn from one another. Too often, there is a gap between theory and practise. This meeting place will provide on-line environment where we can share our knowledge and experience with one another. Now that you know a little more about the purpose of this meeting place, I welcome you to explore the site and introduce yourselves. Who are you? Where are you from? What is your interest in education and in the development of a culturally appropriate curriculum with First Nations schools? We all have a lot to offer and your ideas and comments are welcome. Remember, if you have an idea for a discussion, don't wait for someone to address it. Create your own discussion forum and encourage others to jump in. Who knows where that idea will go? Thanks for participating. I look forward to talking with all of us. See you all in cyberspace! Brian |
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Hi Brian, |
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Hello everyone, my name is Pam Burton. I am looking forward to the discussion next week about Culturally Appropriate curriculum. I hope that I am able to provide some useful information during the time we have together! |
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Hi Brian and everyone Thanks for the invitation to join you in this workshop. I'm Helen Hambly, mom of 8 year old Alex and teacher in the Capacity Development & Extension program at the University of Guelph. Some of the courses I teach are Communication for Social and Environmental Change, Educational Communication and Interpersonal Communication. Encouraging my students to engage in learning with communities is one of my favourite approaches to teaching. I've been collaborating with KORI on areas of community media and broadband in rural and remote areas of Canada and internationally. As a researcher I work alot in participatory research with communities and community media in Africa as well as Ontario. Thanks for inviting me to join this discussion! Here are some of my teaching/project websites for more info: www.communicationprocess.ca/courses
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Hey Brain, Miigwetch for the invite & hello to our growing assemblage! |
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Hello Everyone, My name if Fernando Oliveira. I started my work "in the north" as a high school teacher with KIHS in Poplar Hill and Fort Severn First Nations. Over the last several years, I’ve been working online as a Teacher/eLearning Coordinator/Developer. I have a special interest in working with open-source tools to develop online learning/sharing environment. Here’s some projects that I’m currently involved in…
Looking forward to this event! See you online. Fernando |
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Booshoo. It is a great honour to participate in such a workshop. My name is Linda Johnson, teacher and mentor at one of the many classrooms of Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS). I teach the Media Arts; Business, Information and Communication Technology; and Computer Technology. This is my third year living and teaching in North Caribou First Nation, Weagamow Lake (aka Round Lake), giving me a total of six years teaching experience with KiHS in Northwest Ontario. I have also taught Visual Art and Computer Technology in Tampa, Florida and Kansas City, Kansas, before returning to our wonderful country of Canada. My passion is making art, all shape or form. Using computers, digital cameras, and exploring new technology is definitely one of my many special interests and skills! |
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My name is Pamela Brittain and I am a Curriculum Specialist with the University of Toronto's K - 12 programs. Our programs focus on bringing Science and Engineering knowledge to students from a wide variety of students from many different backgrounds and cultures. One of the areas we work with are students from First Nations and I am looking for ways to increase our awareness and cultural inclusion and sensitivity with our activities in these areas. I am greatly looking forward to gaining knowledge from this workshop. |
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Hi pamela there is a great deal of info out there. A great pedagogy resource book would be Gregory Cayete(Cajete) "Native science". We use to run a traditional indigenous science camp at a school I was at. I recieved funding from Indian and Northern Affairs. I was recentlty apart of the writing team on the new science curriculum and we tried to add indigenous knowledge into all aspect of the curriculum. My specialty is in the area of traditional technology. We build bark canoes, snowshoes, tikanagans, sleds etc. in our traditional technology program. I integrate language, traditional knowledge about harvesting resources (we do a study on the birch) and then of course we celebrate the traditional craft of the bark canoe. I talk about weight ratio capacity for snowshoes, canoes etc. Most of the teaching happens on the land besides the building because it ends up being winter when we build. Actually one of our Canoes is at First Nation house on U of T campus. Allowing students to work on project based learning tasks is much more authentic and it usually ends up giving back to the community. Cheers |