I am VERY excited to announce that I will be hosting a free, 1-hour webinar called Selecting Resources with Indigenous Content on August 22nd. Sign up here to watch live at 7pm EST or to receive a link to the recording to view after!
I am excited to discuss how I vet resources from my perspective as a non-Indigenous person in this work, themes I look for, red flags I avoid, and to share my resource recommendations for all grade levels.
Thanks to the generosity of our friends at Natural Curiosity all who sign up will be entered to win a copy of their new resource which includes a focus on Indigenous perspectives on environmental inquiry in the classroom. You can see my review of the 2nd Edition of Natural Curiosity here.
Feel free to send the webinar sign up page to any of your colleagues and contact me here if you have any questions! See you on August 22nd!
I am concerned - Ontario Curriculum & Indigenous Education
Update: Please consider contacting Lisa Thompson, MPP, to share your thoughts on this.
I am concerned to hear about the cancellation of meetings on Friday at 4pm, due to start tomorrow, to bring Indigenous perspectives further into the Ontario curriculum. My understanding is that educators, including knowledge keepers and Elders set aside time to do this work and heard about this cancellation last minute. This is not the treatment that they deserve, after agreeing to come to the table.
This does not feel positive for building relationships.
We cannot go backwards in this work. I am thankful for all the educators out there who are dedicated to Indigenous education, and incorporating Indigenous perspectives. We cannot, we will not, forget about all the gains that have been made.
From 2011 to 2016 Dr. John Doran (Mi'kmaq - Shubenacadie) and I gave workshops to over 6000 teacher candidates at at OISE about Indigenous histories, current events, and pedagogies. Their interest and passion was palpable. You can't close those floodgates.
Textbook companies are on board. Good publishers are on board. Teacher education programs are taking steps. Educators, unions, admins can make the choices to keep this work in the spotlight. To hire Indigenous colleagues and knowledge keepers.
There are amazing resources out there by groundbreaking Indigenous authors. There are booksellers, like Goodminds.com.
Indigenous students need to see themselves reflected, and Settler students need to know the truth and understand their responsibilities.
What if a parent objects to this work?
This month, I have worked with a new group of teacher candidates in the course I teach, and a new group of educators in rural Ontario through facilitating a Collaborative Inquiry process. Both groups reminded me of a question that I have been consistently asked in the past five years, one that has spanned locations, contexts, grade levels, and years of teaching experience:
Read moreHow do I teach about treaties?
This year I have been asked the question "How do I teach about treaties?" by a growing number of educators.
Read moreResources for teaching about the Mi'kmaw Nation
If you are teaching about the east coast of what we now call Canada, you are most likely going to learn about the Mi'kmaq Nation with your students. I loved combing through these resources because they reminded me how distinct each Indigenous nation is from one another.
Read more