Week 7- Summary of Learning Blog

During our final week of ECS 203, we were asked to create a final summary of what we have learned over this Spring Course. Even though it has been a fast two months of learning, throughout this journey I have encountered: epiphanies from my own schooling, realized truths about the curriculum, learned what Treaty Education is, and much more.

My Name is Baylee and this is my summary of learning!

Before taking this course, I understood “Curriculum” as the base and structure of learning and teaching for specific grades and subjects. I guess that is not necessarily wrong, but it is not necessarily right. I would not have imagined the political and biased opinions and intentions involved within the curriculum process as a whole. 

With a completely changed outlook on what truly makes up the curriculum, I would go at it from a different angle if I were involved in the making of one.  I would have content that is more Praxis model based, content that is more focused on the best interest of the students, teachers, and the community that surrounds us. I would like to include the opinions of actual teachers and those who have worked with students. I would want Indigenous representatives and Elders to be involved and to give us the proper understanding of teachings and lessons that are important to Indigenous culture, so that it can become important to everyone and taught correctly. I would like for there to be child and youth psychologists involved as well so there can be diverse and inclusive ways of learning integrated along with ways to achieve that. I would also like for there to be more instruction for educators, for there to be proper training on how to understand what is in the curriculum and how to get the information across to all the students they may encounter. I believe that there should be a way for teachers to ask questions and get more input on the content that they are teaching. Instead of there being a 50+ page document that educators have to read and create a lesson plan off of, there should be examples and direction to help the teacher teach.

I believe that a big part of being an educator is learning. We have to be constantly learning, learning to: adapt, change, grow, understand, admit to mistakes and wrong doing, to apologize, learn to healthily become better versions of ourselves everyday so we can help students do the same.

Part of growing always follows the fears of: what if I can’t help every student? What if I make a mistake? What if I am a bad teacher? 

I think that it is okay to have these fears. It is part of being human. Whenever these fears start to sneak into your thoughts, you have to make sure that you do not let your fears define you. Instead, you can use them as motivation to work towards being a better educator. Knowing that you have the best interest at heart and having the want and willingness to constantly be evolving, will only contribute to the betterment of who you are as an educator. 

Overall, this course has created a spark in understanding the conflicting opinions created by the curriculum and those teaching it that I experienced as a student and the curriculum as experience as an educator. I think that I will be a finer teacher after taking this course. I have a new understanding of what goes into the curriculum as well as what should go into the curriculum.

Week 6 Blog ECS 203

During this week in ECS 203, we read and reviewed content that is based around mathematics as well as concepts from Inuit mathematics. What is the purpose of Math? While watching Gale’s lecture on Curriculum as Numeracy, she brings up the point that we have used and understood math- more specifically subtraction- ever since we were 9 months old. We are all Mathematical beings. Then there was the quote that “maybe math just isn’t for you” that Gale has heard, this is something that I have heard and said about myself my whole life. To see this, and to know that there is a new type of support coming from those teaching Math, gives me hope that there won’t be more students like me who start to sweat when the idea of playing a math game comes into question. Gale also quotes her definition of “Math” : “math is a study of a number of things, and it’s an exploration of a number of things, and its how to represent and talk about a number of things” she includes that math is about quantity- and relates this to more than just numbers. Patterns- its more than just repeating numbers. Relationships and shapes, they all have more importance rather than just from the numerical standpoint. Gale applies math to real life, not just assigning numbers to these concepts, but to realize the relationships these concepts have to everyday situations. Between all of the readings we discover the challenges pointed out with the Eurocentric way of teaching math especially when viewed through the lens of those learning with Inuit worldview teachings. One of the biggest differences was that it was about relationships and the whole body (Spiritual, Emotional, Physical and Intellectual). They also referenced how another way Inuit mathematics challenges Eurocentric math is the use of the calendar. Mentioned in Poirier’s article their calendar is not divided into set days like ours, it is neither lunar or solar; their calendar is based on natural, independently recurring yearly events. Another way that is expressed is that Inuit people have developed a system for expressing numbers orally and through oral traditions. Since their teachings are mainly oral, Eurocentric teaching methods, such as written form are not used. Recently I took a Math 101 class at the University of Regina. My math prof was one of the best, he taught me math in a way that made me understand it and come to like it. He taught my class math in all different bases, one of them was base 20, which is what the Inuit use. This gave me another perspective on Math as a subject.

When it comes to single stories, or the “danger” of single stories, the Ted talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie she talks about how the characters in the books she read were usually white, eating apples, talking about weather that was different than she experienced where she lived, and drinking beverages that she never knew about. Basically, she read about monotone, copy and paste, lacking diverse stories, which means she would write about monotone, copy and paste, lacking diverse stories. The questions I have been asked is: which “single stories” were present in my own schooling? Whose truth mattered? What biases and lenses do you bring to the classroom? How might we unlearn / work against these biases? Similar to Chimamanda, the stories I read always involved white characters who had both a mom and dad that lived in clean big houses with a medium sized dog named Rover. This is only one truth that is being shared, however, I never got to read about everybody else’s truths, all truths matter. The best way for us to unlearn and to work against these biases is to understand why the stories that were read to us growing up (at least in my grade and school) have negative impacts on everyone involved. We need to understand, recognize, and change. In my future classrooms, I will have books that involve all family types, skin types, situation types, sexual orientation types, animals, and more. I want to have books and stories that are inclusive to all. I want every student to have a story they can relate to, whether it’s about skin colour, having two moms, or about the fact that they too have a dog. I want to involve all stories so that it pushes for inclusivity, kindness, acceptance, support, and love. 

Thank you for reading.

Best, Baylee

Week 5 Blog ECS 203

During this week in ECS 203, we read and viewed a few different articles about Teaching Treaties, Treaty education, and On what Terms we can speak on. The main prompt going into this week’s blog was to address what we think the purpose is of teaching Treaty Education/ content when there are few or no First Nations, Metis, Inuit peoples present. As Clair mentioned in most of her classrooms, there was a majority of white students. She goes over a few concepts- Treaty Education and Settler Education. Both of the topics connect with the idea of having students understand the true meaning behind past histories, current time events, and future actions, and the impact of what they are learning has. Clair spells out while she is teaching that even 8 year old students in her class who had zero involvement with any type of residential schools- were not even born when residential schools were happening- are out here saying they/we need to own what has happened. That right there is one of the main reasons why we need to include more Treaty Ed. We as a nation cannot move forward and provide the proper respect to one another until the work is done. We need to learn the true harsh facts, and teach the true harsh facts, to not move past, but to move forward with the information that we have gained and set everyone up for an inclusive and understood tomorrow. Clair also mentions how Indigenous daughters feel a barrier between themselves and success. This is because we have not pursued the moving forward aspects, instead we have created a target. Instead of making those around us feel like they belong, we created a divide. How do we move forward? We need to understand and feel the past, we need to resonate with the grief and the shame, then we need to see how we can change that everlasting feeling into power and togetherness. Now we need to include these teachings into daily practice so we are not painting a target on anyone’s back, we are creating a learned history and a new path towards the betterment of understanding culture. We need to create a space where we understand where the treaties are and what they mean. What they meant before and what they mean now. We need to understand the feelings that follow being a Treaty person and what it means to be a Treaty person. We need to understand privilege and what it means to recognize and take accountability. We need to be constantly learning, we need to understand the proper terminology and know when we are crossing a line. We need to understand the diverse lifestyles and traditions and include them in our lives and classrooms. We need to move forward.

What does “We are all Treaty people” mean to me? When I first saw this question, I was at a loss, I was stumped, what does it mean in general? What does it mean to me? After watching Claire’s video, it made me feel better. What I know from my past knowledge is that being a Treaty person is about living on the Land that a Treaty was negotiated a long time ago. I am a Treaty 4 person, and we who live on the Treaty land are Treaty people. But I never gave it more thought than that. When watching the video On What Terms can we Speak with Dwayne Donald, I realized that I truly do not understand what it means to be a Treaty person, so how can I teach about it? To me after the viewings and readings, I have formed a new constantly growing/ adapting/ changing vision on what it means to be Treaty people, it means to respect the land that we are on, respect the history, respect those that we share this land with, that this is not our land- we do not own it- but we live on it and with it and its nature, and it is to push for a society with togetherness. One thing to note is that it is not a set definition, but a viewpoint that is not set in stone. We need to bring those together who have been torn apart, the communities who were forced to no longer exist. Bring together all of us as Treaty People. Dwayne mentions how we miss each other, how there has been a disconnect. How the true problem is not with the information, but with the relationships along the way. We need to understand that there has been a divide created through and it has continued to be formed the way we have been teaching. In order to move forward we need to address the relationships, and create a new strengthened bond. 

Now to respond to the email. Claire goes over how she sets up her classroom, how she wants everyone to feel included. Being a Treaty person and talking about Treaty Education, more than discussing the information. It is about discussing the relationships that have developed on this Treaty land, it is about understanding and creating a new environment that opens up a safe space to grow and rebuild the tensions and relationships. I want to create a space for the future students I teach, while involving inclusive language and atmosphere. A safe space for people to ask questions and become bonded to one another- not through obligation- but through a want and a care. 

Thank you for reading,

Best, Baylee