During Practicum 491, I planned a diversity lesson plan where students learned about accepting and celebrating differences. My students watched a video on the different students in the world and as a special treat-my mom came in and sang a traditional song to my students. It was a lesson that I will always remember!
During my practicum at Marie Sharpe, my Kindergarten students and I designed and printed pictures of our faces and turn ourselves into elves. We then placed our elf on the door for the Christmas Door Contest. I thought the First Nations Principles reflected on this piece because we worked together and put together a piece of art that represents our classroom community. Community was the biggest give away during this activity.
My Kindergarten students practiced singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas for the Christmas Concert at the end of December. They wore elf and reindeer hats and played with instruments as they sang. A beautiful way to represent First Peoples Principals as it demonstrates the importance of community in the classroom.
As I taught at Harwin Elementary throughout the weeks, I started to notice something. I had realized there was First Nations artwork framed in the hallways of the entire school. I decided to do something about the artwork. I had students go on an art scavenger hunt around the school. Student’s task was to roughly draw what they found, tell me what they thought each artwork was about, and what it meant to them. Afterward, I had them create a painting of something that represented themselves. – It was such a “out of the box” lesson that I created but I and my students very much enjoyed it!
It was one of my first times teaching at Harwin Elementary! I remember having butterflies in my stomach, feeling tired from a sleepless night and I kept thinking.. will they learn from my lesson? I started off reading a story about Totem Poles and had a discussion on the meaning of Totem Poles for First Nations Peoples. I, then had them work in partners with one box per group. I gave them options to use any type of material to display a few of their own cultural components on the box. In the end, we placed it together and it become one big classroom Totem Pole. The Totem Pole culturally represented my students. -It might have been one of my first lessons taught but it was one of my favorite ones by far!
This video demonstrates the challenges First Nations students face when transitioning from elementary years to secondary years. This presentation video was made for UNBC Introduction to Aboriginal Studies with Tina Fraser.