Category: Inspirational Activities

One of the most memorable moments during this program was our trip to Barkerville.

At first, I felt very uneasy about staying the night in a place that made me somewhat uncomfortable. However, knowing that I would be surrounded by people that I feel comfortable around made my uncertainty better, and I was able to enjoy the trip with my peers.

Our first stop on the trip was at Blessing’s grave. Here we brainstormed ideas on how we could bring our students here and teach them about the history behind the grave. Specializing in elementary years made it slightly difficult to think about bringing students to a grave site while also ensuring that they stay engaged. My group came up with the idea that the students could get together with partners and create a story of what they thought Blessing’s life was like before he made it to Barkerville. This would practice creative thinking and teach the students about being respectful at a gravesite.

The next stop was gold panning and boy, were my friends and I bad at it. Nothing is more frustrating then trying to pan gold and losing all of it in the river. Although there was a lot of frustration, it was a good team bonding exercise and by the looks on our faces, you could tell we had a blast.

Last but not least, we made it to Barkerville. After setting up our little tent crowd with all tents set up in a circle, we got to participate in a fire circle with our peers. During this, everyone got to share their experiences that occurred during practicum and it was nice to hear that everyone went through some tough times during practicum. I felt like this fire circle brought us together as a cohort and made us a little family.

Overall, the trip to Barkerville was eye-opening, informative, and beyond fun. I would love to have the opportunity to bring my future students to such a knowledge filled place and give them the opportunity to create a connection with their peers like I got to do with mine.

Another day, another practicum…

When I first discovered that I was placed at my old elementary school, I was ecstatic and wanted to start immediately. So technically, that’s what I did… sort of.

Before practicum even started officially, I asked my professor if it would be okay to attend the school for the first couple of weeks so that I could get to know the students and lesson plan based on what I learned about them. Lo and behold, I was given permission to do just that, and I took the opportunity in stride.

During the first couple of weeks, I sat in the classroom and bonded with the students and my coaching teacher. I learned what the students were not comfortable with and what lessons they would love to participate in. This connection that I was able to make with the students helped with my lesson planning and allowed me to make lessons that would keep the students engaged.

After spending the first couple of weeks with the students, practicum finally began. In my first week, I took over the morning activity that required the students to answer three questions quietly and then discuss them as a class. One of the questions that I asked was, “What do you want to know about me?” This way, the students could ask me questions so that they could get to know me as well. What I didn’t foresee happening was a student stumping me with a question. A student’s hand shot up in the air, and they asked me if I had ever been in a bar fight. to tell you that I was stunned by this question was an understatement. I did not know how to appropriately answer the question while also letting the student know that that was not an appropriate question. I successfully redirected the situation, and the first week of practicum went smoothly from then on.

By week two, I had created a solid relationship with the students, and I was flying high. Everything was going smoothly until one day, I dropped the ball… On the first day that I taught the full day, I was told that there would be an assembly in the afternoon and completely dismissed the thought that I should have a backup plan. Well, as it turned out, the assembly was cancelled, and I did not know what to do, I was scrambling. Thanks to my coaching teacher, I was able to somewhat smoothly end the school day, but I knew that from that day on, I would forever be over-prepared hen ever be under-prepared ever again.

At the end of this practicum, I had to say one of the hardest goodbyes I’ve ever had to say. My connection with the children and my coaching teacher made it incredibly difficult to leave a classroom that I wanted to stay in forever. However, with everything that I learned from that practicum and the relationships I created, I was able to go back to classes even more comfortable in a classroom setting and ready to take on what the program had to throw at me next.

Bring on the next practicum.

Wow, what an inspiration this woman and educator is…

I have had a chance to meet Kelsey on a couple of occasions during this first semester of the program, and I must say I clung to every word that she said during the times she spoke. The most recent visit she had with our cohort was by far the most memorable. She demonstrated to me what it meant to go through struggles yet still come out on the bright side of things. She told us about her personal experiences in the school setting when she was a student and explained that she did not want to be a teacher when she finished. She wanted to be an RCMP officer instead. I resonated with this soo much because that is exactly what I was planning to do as well. I had it decided in my mind that I would finish school and go straight into becoming a police officer, but boy, did that vision change.

Kelsey’s presentation showed us that things don’t always go as planned and life will always throw curve balls at you but you have to take them in stride and hit it out of the park. She is such an inspiration and role model to me now that I have met her because she is very easy to connect to, and one can clearly see how passionate she is about what she does. I hope that when I become a teacher, I can become half of the inspiration that Kelsey MacDonald is.

After an incredibly long day of classes, our cohort made the decision to go to the first sighting of an incredible documentary by the Tsay Keh Dene nation. This documentary is called The Scattering of Man, and boy, was it a powerful experience. This documentary was about the W.A.C. Bennett dam and the flooding that was brought on by BC Hydro. The land that the Bennett dam was situated on was the land of the Tsey Keh Dene peoples. They have inhabited this land for centuries, and the reoccurring floods eventually veered them off this land.

This film was an eye-opening piece of art that showed me the horrors that the Tsey Keh Dene nation had to endure. As a local resident of the area, I knew all about the Bennett dam. However, I never heard about what it did to the people that lived on that land and how horrific their relocation was.

At the end of the film, there was an hour of Q & A with the director of the documentary. During this Q & A, questions were asked about whether BC Hydro was held liable for the horrors that were caused. Stories were told about people not having enough time to pack up their things before the floods and losing all their belongings. We were told about Tsey Keh Dene people that had to climb trees to save themselves from the rapidly rising water.

The spotlight moment of this documentary experience was when a local elder shared his stories with us. The one thing he said that will forever stay with me is that he is tired of the word reconciliation. He wants to see more action.

So what’s next for me after watching this documentary and listening to the Q & A…?

I plan to incorporate more action toward reconciliation into my classroom. I want to be an ally to change in regards to Indigenous issues.

If you are situated in Canada, you know that September 30th is known as Orange Shirt day. As of June 2021, September 30th has become National Truth and Reconciliation day.

Orange Shirt Day was created to show support, acknowledgment, and honour toward residential school survivors. Before starting the Bachelors of Education program, my participation in Orange Shirt Day only consisted of wearing an orange shirt. However, this year, being a part of Education 394, allowed me to experience a more empowering way of honouring residential school survivors. We attended a fire circle with special guests from the UHNBC drumming group.

During this empowering experience, we learned so many things. Having the drummers there allowed us to learn about the importance of community. It taught us that in order to overcome traumatic experiences, we need to allow ourselves to fall into the arms of our community and allow ourselves to get healed by others. Many people that were a part of the circle shared their personal stories and through those stories, we learned that having drumming and fire circles provide an insight into the healing that can be welcomed through an experience like this.

This experience was incredibly moving and emotional to most of the participants and especially me. It allowed me to participate in something that was empowering and informative. Connecting with local Indigenous peoples and hearing their stories really resonated with me and helped me realize the impact colonialism has had on the Indigenous communities. These stories and connections made the experience more personal and eye-opening to the reconciliation that needs to occur in order to honour the survivors of residential schools. The experience solidified the sense of community that is present in the education program and allowed me to realize the support group that is behind us all through this program.

After participating in this intimate activity, I am excited to incorporate the power behind holding fire circles and establishing a sense of community within the classroom. I feel that experiencing such a powerful fire circle and establishing a better understanding of truth and reconciliation will help me in the future to incorporate Indigenous concepts within the classroom and encourage my students to practice reconciliation in their daily lives.

References

• Canada, Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. “Understanding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.” Www.rcaanc-Cirnac.gc.ca, 8 Sept. 2021, www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1631130192216/1631130220404.

• “Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.” Toronto Metropolitan University, www.torontomu.ca/equity/resources/discourse-docs/truth-and-reconciliation-in-canada/#:~:text=What%20is%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation%3F%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation. Accessed 26 Oct. 2022.

Robots and colours and Ozobots, oh my…

These little friends were not only fun to play with but they were also a perfect learning tool to help us understand the 7 Principles of Learning and how they are incorporated into any lesson that goes on in the classroom. This coding experience was very new to me. Working in classrooms as an Educational Assistant, introduced me to the world of coding but I have never done it myself or really understood how it works. Spending a couple of classes playing with these adorable little robots and being introduced to coding did me a world of good. I feel that although I am not an expert on coding by any means, I can begin to introduce it into my classroom and lesson plans.

Having two lectures that incorporated coding helped me as a learner and as a teacher understand the basics and the importance of knowing how to code. It helps students begin to understand how technology works as well as me as a future educator understand the importance of incorporating it into the classroom. Anywho, enough about me…

Here’s how the 7 Principles of Learning are incorporated into the coding of Ozobots…

1. Learners at the Centre — one of the most important principles (which probably explains why it’s first) is understanding that each lesson should focus around the students. How it will benefit them? What will they learn? Etc… Using the Ozobots, it was very clear that we (as the learners) were the centre of the lesson. We were encouraged to explore and try different things to learn how the Ozobots work. There were basic codes that we were given that we could alter and merge together with others to make the Ozobot do whatever we wanted.
2. The Social Nature of Learning — learning requires many social interactions because we as people learn from others. In accordance with the Ozobots, this principle was incorporated because we were encouraged to work together, in partners, to associate ourselves with these little robots. Although we were working in pairs, everyone ended up working together to get a rounded understanding.
3. Emotions are Integral to Learning — Through learning, we feel many emotions. No matter what age we are, learning causes us to become happy, frustrated, etc. Man did we get emotional using these Ozobots. Personally, I felt an abundance of emotions through the process of coding for the Ozobot. I felt happy when it would complete the action I wanted it to do. I felt frustrated when it would only spin in circles.
4. Recognizing Individual Differences — Each learner has a different way of learning and being in their daily lives. We got to explore our individuality with the Ozobots because we got to learn in our own way and the way we felt comfortable learning. Some of us worked using trial and error, and others mapped out our plan before even turning the robots on. Each person in the class approached the idea in a completely different way.
5. Stretching all students — In the learning environment, each student is encouraged to stretch their learning and expand their thoughts when approaching a new subject. The Ozobots allowed us to put our expanding hats on and expand the basics we were given to get them to do the tricks we wanted.
6. Assessment for Learning — With every lesson taught, there is always an assessment that follows. It’s the why to the what. Why did we learn this? Why is it important? etc. Although we weren’t giving a summative form of assessment when working with the Ozobots, we were assessing ourselves on what we learned. We thought about two words we felt associated with our feelings toward Ozobots. We assessed our own learning and came to our own personal conclusion on how we thought that lesson went for us.
7. Building Horizontal Connections — Being introduced to the Ozobots and coding as a whole acted as a shadow for the wider world of technology that will be used in the classroom and what we will be encouraged to teach our students. Coding opens such a wide introduction to other things that our students can study.

References

Dumont, Hanna, et al. How Can the Learning Sciences Inform the Design of 21 St Century Learning Environments? The Nature of Learning Using Research to Inspire Practice Edited by Practitioner Guide from The. 2012.

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On September 21st, 2022, my Education 394 class got to engage in a powerful and eye-opening experience called The Blanket Exercise. And no this isn’t an activity where you just get to sit around on blankets and have a picnic, it is a raw and emotional experience that everyone should get to be a part of in their life.

This exercise demonstrated the benefits of experiential learning. This is a term that most people, aside from the education career, have not come across. To put it in layman’s terms; experiential learning is learning by doing. It is the process of learning from experience. Instead of studying the effects of colonization and listening to a boring lecture, The Blanket Exercise allows students to experience the effects of colonialism in a powerful way. Kairos Canada gives a great explanation to the purpose of this exercise.

“The goal is to build understanding about our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by walking through pre-contact, treaty making, colonization, and resistance.”

Kairos Canada.org

As a non-Indigenous person who did not grow up learning about Indigenous struggles until my high school years, I never fully understood the impact of colonialism on Indigenous communities. This exercise fully immersed me in the impact it had. I felt very emotional through it all. It opened by eyes on the trauma that was caused and impacted me as a learner and as an educator.

Knowing that this exercise can be adapted for all ages creates a comfort in me because it means that I can incorporate it into my future classroom. This is definitely something that I am excited about taking advantage of and it has opened my mind up to multiple other activities that I can use to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and experience in the lessons that I will be teaching.

References

• “Blanket Exercise Workshop.” KAIROS Canada, www.kairoscanada.org/what-we-do/indigenous-rights/blanket-exercise.
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