Below is a link to my final digital story. I apologize for the wrong date entered, it should say April 6th (not 7th).

I decided to do my final digital story in the form of a PowerPoint voice over just to keep my thoughts on track. Through the presentation I highlight my evolution process through the term, my approach to curriculum and future growth.

I hope you enjoy.

When thinking back to my experiences of mathematics, I always thought of it as a positive experience. I never really struggled with math and never really took into considerations more about the curriculum and what could be included in the math classroom. We were always given one strategy to use for math and I never found any problem with it. I understood the concepts and that was all that mattered, of so I thought.

Through reading Jagged Worldviews Colliding my perspective on mathematics curriculum changed. Through the reading it highlighted the holistic worldviews of the Indigenous people. This gave me a greater sense of what we are missing out on when we are only learning in one (Eurocentric) curriculum viewpoint. by having this narrow minded view, we are receiving a narrow minded education. On page 82 of the reading Leroy Little Bear talks about how the Eurocentric system is much more linear and static compared to the Indigenous way of knowing. This reading highlights the value in incorporating different ways of knowing.

The reading Teaching Mathematics and the Inuit Community challenges the Eurocentric view of mathematics. One of the challenges it talks about is mathematics as culture (Poirier, 54). In school I have heard the comments about how math is a universal language, it is the same everywhere. Poirier writes about how Inuit schools are breaking those moulds and learning mathematics in their language. However, due to this approach, there has been a gap in education. It is important for us as educators to be sensitive to this gap and help to teach math in a more holistic way, with numerous ways of knowing.

Another challenge that the Inuit community is providing in comparison to Eurocentric views of mathematics, is the importance of spatial relations (Poirier, 55). Spatial relations is an important component of Inuit mathematic ways of knowing, however, it is not as important to Eurocentric worldviews. There are numerous benefits to adopting knowledge of spatial relations in math and our curriculum should make effort to embody those ideas.

A third challenge is in the learning methods (Poirier, 55). Eurocentric views resort mainly to textbook, paper and pencil type approaches. In comparison, Inuit views are more holistic and work on problem solving through experience.

There are benefits and challenges to both approaches to mathematics, however, it is important that as teachers we look at both views when creating curriculum. When it comes to mathematics, there are diverse needs for each student to succeed. By having the resources and knowledge to teach for numerous learning styles is important and mandatory as an educator.

I grew up going to a predominantly white, middle-class school. Through this educational experience, I have found many biases and misconceptions about certain topics. Our history classes were unintentionally ‘whitewashed’ and I found coming to University eye-opening.

One thing I really appreciate about this class and many others that I have taken thus far is the transparency. I have found value in being open and honest with students about not knowing it all but working towards knowledge from numerous perspectives. Many topics in this course and others have challenged me to think beyond myself and realize my own biases. Before coming into education I thought I had no biases, wow was I ever wrong.

This week we read Chapter 7 from Kumashiro Against Common Sense. This chapter was filled with great points and suggestions for reading against racism and oppression through English literature. I think it is important to realize the preconceived biases we have even in the texts we read. Kumashiro makes a great point in also suggesting that we have biases in the questions we ask ourselves in response to texts.

The reading from Kumashiro and the video The Danger of a Single Story go hand-in-hand for the topic of bias education and literature. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains the effects of her access to only predominately white books as a child. This supports the notion of the importance of picking the best books and having meaningful conversations about them. In my schooling many of the single stories told were about white settlers, white poets and white scientists. Because of my education experiences, I am going to have to be even more concious of my own biases as I continue on into teaching.

This week we had many different resources provided in order to gain a deeper understanding of Treaty Education. I have many points to bring up in regards to Dwayne’s challenge with Treaty Education and to the supplementary questions.

There were many points brought up in the reading We are all Treaty People that stand to reason the importance of teaching Treaty Education. The reading talks about the importance of hearing other people’s stories. There was a powerful statement that stated how the treaties are OUR story: what was shared, and also what was lost (Chambers, 29). It is important for students, and families, to hear not only their stories but also stories from other people. Having a different perspective on the same topic can be a powerful tool for deeper learning. Chambers also mentions in the reading how we are all treaty people and how that means we have the opportunity to live differently than our ancestors (Chambers, 35). When we are aware of the treaties and how we can uphold them, we will be able to create better relationships and deeper connections for the future to come.

Going forward with a positive relationship also means looking at the past. In the video On What Terms Can we Speak? Dwayne Donald highlights the importance of looking at the past, present and future. This point shows the great importance of Treaty Education. We cannot build solid relationships without knowing the past and how to change the future. Donald also talked about how relationships can be hindered between ‘Canadian, Canadians’ and Indigenous people due to preconceived notions on culture. There is a thought that Indigenous people have a lot of culture and that ‘Canadian, Canadians’ have none. By being able to crush this stereotype of culture, relationships can be renewed and created stronger because of it.

By viewing the supplementary videos with Claire Kreuger, it gave me a better sense of what treaty education looked like in the classroom. I found it reassuring and humbling to know that as educators we are continually learning about Treaty Education and how to implement it in the classroom. For me as a pre-service teacher I sometimes find it intimidating when I feel like I need to know everything in order to teach Treaty Education. I liked Kreuger’s point on how we are going to make mistakes, however, through those mistakes, we are able to learn and grow.

In regards to Dwayne’s challenge I would say he should use these resources in order to help his students, their families and the cooperating teacher understand the importance of Treaty Education. As Claire stated in her videos, Treaty Education is a required component of the curriculum (and for good reason). I would also say that Dwayne should be respectful of people’s comfort levels but that shouldn’t stop him from educating his students on important, relevant topics such as Treaty Education.

In this weeks reading, it talked about learning from place and how that can impact education in a positive way. The reading was a research study that focused on Mushkegowuk Cree and their concept of land. Through this reading, I found valuable points and perspectives on the importance of the land and the importance of education pertaining to land.

Throughout the text, it discusses two terms, reinhabitation and decolonization. Reinhabitation is finding ways to learn how to live well in our environments (Restoule, pg. 74). Whereas decolonization is changing our ways of thinking of the world as a place to exploit (Restoule, pg. 74). Both of these terms go hand-in-hand and can be brought back to a larger picture as seeing curriculum as Place.

The idea of taking students outside to see the value in the place we live in is wonderful. There is much reward for educating students on the environment and also on Indigenous worldviews. Through this text I, myself was able to realize the greater significance of even a river. Here is a quote from the text that stood out to me, “As part of the project, youth and Elders travelled together on the traditional waters and lands, exploring history, language, issues of governance, and land management.” (Restoule, pg. 75). Introducing elders and other guest speakers who know the history of the land would be a great addition to any classroom. Giving students the opportunity to explore the land we live on and also paying respect to it through education is a great idea.

It is important for us as educators and for our students to understand and value the connections we have to the earth. I am excited and humbled to continue to grow and learn on this topic so that I can incorporate it into my classroom someday.

For this week’s blog post I found an article on place-based education. The article I found was Engaging Underrepresented High School Students in an Urban Environmental and Geoscience Place-Based Curriculum by Amy De Felice, Jennifer D. Adams, Brett Branco and Pieranna Pieroni. In the article, they did a study on high school students to see the impact place-based education has on their learning. Their research essentially focused on the correlation between place-based learning and student’s engagement in science (Adams 50). It is encouraging as an educator to see students fully engaged in topics and having a desire to learn. Their research also found that students who were given an inquiry-based project helped to build confidence in their knowledge and understanding of a topic (Adams 52). I think as a future educator is it valuable to know different ways that students learn and are engaged. This article was informative and useful in helping to see the benefits of place-based curriculum.

This article was valuable in determining the topic I want to do for my assignment. I think it is important to seek place-based education in numerous subject areas and I am excited to learn about this topic more.

My next step will be to find other supporting articles that both are for and against the place-based approach. I think it is useful to have a well rounded view of this approach before making a solid opinion for or against it.

I found the Tyler rationale to be somewhat confining. I found it significant that the first step was to determine the need, assuming every student will be similar (Smith 4). Tyler looked at the systematic way of teaching and emphasized the outcome of lessons (Smith 4).

I have experienced the Tyler rationale in my schooling using class outlines in high school. I particularly found this in math class. We were told what to learn and then were expected to use the same method to learn it. In some ways this was beneficial to attain course objectives and outcomes, however, if a concept was difficult to understand it could be a challenge. With most high school classes there were forms of evaluation through unit exams, midterms and finals. At times these exams were a good reflection of learned knowledge but at other times they were not.

One limitation of the Tyler rationale is the flexibility of a lesson (Smith 4). With this rationale it puts great emphasis on the program and outcome. This can limit a teacher’s ability to explore and adapt to certain students’ needs. Another limitation of the Tyler rationale is the focus on predetermined results (Smith 5). By having a set of results, it limits the students ability to explore new findings and learnings that might not have been thought of prior.

Some potential benefits of the Tyler rationale could be an accountability of teachers. By having a structured course of action (with room for modification) classes would be learning relatively similar things. By having consistency between classes means that all students would have an equal opportunity for a fulfilling, beneficial educational experience in school.

Kumashiro defines ‘commonsense’ as something everyone should know, it creates a sense of normalcy. Tells schools the systems of teaching and learning they should be doing instead of looking for improvements to promote learning and to improve the overall wellbeing of the students in the classroom.

It is important to pay attention to the ‘common sense’ because the ‘common sense’ practice might not be the best suited for every classroom environment. If every school practiced ‘common sense’ approaches, there will be a lot of students who do not receive the care and attention that they need. It is important to consider your students and classroom before assuming that ‘common sense’ teaching methods will be of benefit to your students.

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