Land Based Education

Land Based Learning is something that really helps me understand specific types of content that has to do with the land and people of the land which I am on. Throughout my education career, I am able to remember more material that I have experienced on the land, compared to the things that I have learned through lectures in class rooms. I personally feel that learning about the land and the history of the land is something that every person living on the land should do. Learning about the history and people of the land is something that will help people better understand what it means to be an Indigenous person on the land, and will help them better understand the different types of cultures and traditions that come with being one of those people.

With the different teaching that one can take away from learning about land-based learning, it will help them realize that the world we live in now is not the same how Indigenous people used to live before colonialism. Land-based learning will also help give people a better understanding of Indigenous peoples perspectives, and will hopefully help them see the world through an Indigenous person's perspective. Being able to see the world through an Indigenous person's perspective will help people see how the world we live in today is not something that older Indigenous people are used to. This will also help people see that the resources of the land are deteriorating, and one day will run out, unless the people of the land change something they are doing (something such as oil mines).

Learning about the land is something the every person of the land should do because it will help them feel more at peace while they are on the land, and it will help them develop a greater respect for the land as well.

Educational Perspectives



Something that I have always thought about during my life is the way different perspectives play a huge role in all of the decisions that people become encountered with. Growing up I never thought about how many different perspectives that are in and around the world we live in. But one perspective that I had always taken with me is the perspective of seeing learning is everywhere. After I was done high school in 2014, I thought that I knew everything that the world had for me to offer, but once I realized that I knew next to nothing, I started to learn about the mentality that learning never ends!

 

Working from job to job, I started to learn more about the jobs that I was doing, but never really learned more about what was beyond the job. At the same time, I never really learned more about the world that was around me. I had closed a door to the outside world, and never felt the need to open it until I thought about how much more I could learn by stepping out of my comfort zone. Not long after wanting to learn more, I decided to go to the University of Saskatchewan to become a teacher. Ever since joining the Indian Teacher Education Program, I have started to realize that I am able to learn more about myself, the history of Canada, and the history of my culture and people. Some things that I know now, I would have never known if I never signed up for school.

 

Coming to school, I was able to learn more about how different relationships between others and myself have affected my life. I have learned that learning is everywhere if you simply put your mind to it. I have figured out that I need to keep trying to learn if I want to succeed in life. I have changed my mind set from a closed mind, and changed it into an open mind. I have also learned to think about why people make decisions for themselves. Using the picture above, it has helped me realize that the way we see the world, is not the way someone else will see the world. This goes the same way for people liking other people. Just because someone, maybe even you, doesn't like you, someone else will like you. This is the same way for learning. Some people will like learning, and others will despise it. 

Treaty Education

 

Teaching students about the significance of the history of the treaties is important because it gives an overview of the relationship between the Canadian Government and the First Nations people of the land. With the creation of the numbered treaties, it proves that there was strong relationship between First Nations people and the Canadian Government. But after the creation of the numbered treaties was when the relationship took a negative turn.

After the numbered treaties were created, the Canadian Government had the mentality that First Nations people belonged on the reserves, and the reserves belonged to the First Nations people. Also the Canadian Government has the mentality that the rest of the land belonged to them. After the Canadian Government had this negative mentality, it created a relationship that was not healthy for either people. With the negative mentality brought the negative enforcements that were set by the Canadian Government (examples: residential schools and pass systems). With these different types of enforcements created a mistrust from the First Nations people towards the Canadian Government, and this mistrust still continues until this day.

Being able to recognize that the treaties were a huge part in creating a negative relationship between the First Nations people and the Canadian Government. If every educator or future educator was able to learn about the treaties and the significance that they hold will help each and every student learn a little bit more about First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. As future educators, I feel that it is important to learn, or try to learn, as much as we can about the history of the treaties because it will teach us more about the relationship between First Nations people and history of colonialism.

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Content and Perspectives

During the earlier years of my secondary education, I always listened to Indigenous guest speakers, and what they had to say. With every guest speaker, I noticed that they all had the same thing to say before they began, and that was, "I would like to acknowledge that we are on Treaty 6 territory, and the homeland of the Metis." I never understood what that meant until I took a unit in Native Studies 30 that gave me a better understanding of what treaties were, and it also gave me a better understanding of who the Metis people were.

After of couple of years on developing a better understanding of the history of the land we live on, it has given me a better understanding of why people give acknowledgements to the land. By acknowledging the land that we are on shows the respect towards First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people who have been people that lived on the land before colonialism, or were a culture of people that were created on the land.

For my own personal journey, I never really knew what it meant to acknowledge that land until I started to take history classes that were based on the history of Canada. After being able to study the different types of events that have occurred between First Nations, Metis people and the Canadian Government, it showed that the respect towards First Nations and Metis people from the Canadian Government only lasted a short amount of time before everything went downhill. After everything had gone downhill, giving acknowledgements to the land is one small step towards the up rise of First Nations and Metis culture.

The next step that could help with the up rise of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit cultures and traditions is getting the cultures and traditions included in the Ministry of Education's Curriculum. By having any of these cultures and traditions included in the curriculum and having them involved in the classroom could create a better relationship between First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people and the rest of the Canadian Society.

Being a future educator, I feel that every teacher should do their best to incorporate any type of culture or tradition from a First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or any other types of ethnic origin in their lessons and units.

GRASPS (Understand By Design)

I had posted this in ECUR 379's Blog, but I thought I would share this again. This is a great resource to help with the GRASPS section of a unit plan.

Whenever I am doing a unit plan, I used to get held up at the GRASPS portion of the unit plan because I was unsure of what to say. But with the help of the different handouts that I have been given throughout my education career, I have held on to this handout, specifically to help with my unit plans.




Constructing a Performance Task Scenario Using GRASPS

Consider the following set of stem statements as you construct a scenario for a performance task. Refer to the tables above to help you brainstorm possible scenarios. Note: These are idea starters. Resist the urge to fill in all of the blanks! Goal:  Your task is _________________________________________________________________
 Your goal is to _______________________________________________________________

 The problem or challenge is ____________________________________________________
 The obstacle to overcome is ____________________________________________________


Role:  You are_____________________________________________________________________

 You have been asked to _______________________________________________________

 Your job is __________________________________________________________________


Audience:  Your clients are _____________________________________________________________

 The target audience is ________________________________________________________

 You need to convince ________________________________________________________



Situation:  The context you find yourself in is______________________________________________

 The challenge involves dealing with _____________________________________________



Product, Performance, and Purpose:  You will create a _______________________________________ in order to__________________________

 You need to develop ____________________________________so that _____________________________



Standards and Criteria for Success:  Your performance needs to _________________________________________________________________

 Your work will be judged by _________________________________________________________________

 Your product must meet the following standard (quality) __________________________________________

 A successful result will ______________________________________________________________________




By answering the different questions that the handout provides, I have been able to fill out the GRASPS portions with less problems. This hand out has always helped me, and I am sure it can help you.

Multicultural Perspective

Before coming into the Indian Teacher Education Program, the word MULTICULTURAL did not have a whole lot of significance to me. But now that I am just months away from my extended practicum, it has started to become a word that I am using more often. Over the past couple of years, I have had the opportunity to take classes that have helped me understand what it really means for all of us to live in a multicultural world.

 

During one of my pre-internships, I was able to be placed at Mount Royal Collegiate. At Mount Royal, they have one of the highest Indigenous populations and they also have one of the highest populations of other ethnic origins. While I was at Mount Royal, I was able to talk to a couple of students, and they were able to tell me about what their cultural norms are back in their home country. Being able to hear about the differences that these students needed to adapt to gave me the realization that everyone is different, especially when it comes to things that we think are "Normal."

 

Based on the different things that I have learned from classes, pre-internships, and other activities that I do outside of school, I was able to develop more of an understanding about the different ways that I will be able to take different types of perspectives into the different lessons and units that I have created and will be creating in the future. Also keeping in mind that I, as a future educator, will need to find many more texts and readings that can reflect the realities of the students in my future classrooms.

 

Now that I am going into my extended practicum, I will have the opportunity to give my students a chance to hear what I have learned over the past few years of university, and provide them with fun, engaging, and realistic lessons that they can use in their daily lives.



What does Social Studies mean to me?

For me personally, social studies is to study about different social, racial, economic, or political issues that have rose up in today's society, or an issue that has already risen in a past event. 

From what I have been taught in the early years of my elementary school career, I remember doing a bunch of activities such as CURRENT EVENTS. Current Events is where we would take a bunch of different articles where we would take the 5 W's and explain what is going on throughout the article and the world around us. Most of the time I would choose the sports section, so I would not learn much because I knew the things before hand.

It wasn't until I was in high school where I started to learn more about the different social justice, geography, political, and economic issues. Learning about what different types of issues with slavery, residential schools, and other types of oppression helped me create a mindset that was much more aware of different types of oppression.

Also when I was in the elementary years of my education career when I started learning about geography and political actions. I remember coloring in the map of Canada, but it wasn't until I was in high school when I started to understand where the different types of historical events have taken place (example: Quebeckers wanting out of Canada on many occasions). 

Now that I have been able to learn more about what Social Studies actually is, I now know that social studies covers more subjects such as economics, history, and native studies. But with this class, I look forward to looking for more information on how I will be able to teach more about social studies in a fun, engaging, and authentic manner with each and every one of my students!