So many emails!
My workday begins as any other day, my iPhone sleep app gently wakes me up with soft and yet surprisingly annoying meditative music. Said ‘music’, if you can call it that, becomes progressively louder until I can no longer handle the overtly aggressive undertones of my simple phone. Then I do my usual routine of showering, feeding my dog, and then creating the ambrosia of the gods – my morning espresso because we all know and understand strong espresso is life!
Then I drive my plug-in electric hybrid vehicle to Łuwechōn Kots’ede’i Kime, the Grade K-12 school I work at ten minutes away from my home. Yes indeed, life is difficult.
Then, upon arrival, I check to ensure the alarm system is deactivated and proceed to my administrator’s office to check my many, many emails…
Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration but some days it sure feels that way. Then, at 8:30 the other staff and students arrive to enjoy our breakfast program. Then back to more emails.
As I was a teaching administrator this last year, my life is a busy one and the staff tend to rely on technology to access me through texts, emails, and using messenger. In fact, the small Indigenous community I reside in uses Messenger as their primary form of communication. Therefore, emails are shockingly obsolete to parents, and staff update them daily over messenger!
Then I head to my classroom at 9:00 AM where I complete the class attendance online and then we have a gratitude circle where each student tells us all how they are doing and what they are grateful for; however, before that, we all lie down on the carpet or somewhere in the classroom and we do a 5 minute mindful meditation on Youtube found here:
This helps my students get focussed as well as allows them to shed any negative events that may have caused anxiety from home or on the bus. It also allows them to get into a calm and centred learning mode. Then, we jump into Math (my favourite subject) and once they are engaged in their projects, games, or numeracy building tasks, I play them some soft nature sounds to help them continue to be focussed. This is entirely a Pavlovian response and they have internalized that listening to this soft music or this Indigenous flute with nature sounds means quiet working time.
In this era of trauma informed practice, soft nature sounds tend to reduce anxiety in both children and adults and calm the flight or fight response. There are several studies that exemplify the benefits of such practices, as seen below:
https://www.theswaddle.com/why-listening-to-nature-sounds-has-such-a-powerful-effect-on-mood
If we have science or a fine arts project planned, I will often show a video demonstration or something that is tailored to enhance the student’s learning. This is important because there are such varied learning styles that I try to encompass as many as possible in the day to support my students a much as possible.
On Fridays, they will sometimes earn ‘device day’ in which they can listen to music on any device they choose to bring from home and/or play games on the class tablets or in person with each other in the afternoon for an hour. At times, they opt to play Kahoot! for that time period or some other online learning games.
That wraps up some of the diverse methods that technology weaves throughout my teaching/principal/student’s lives daily. Once the students go home, back to those emails…
3 thoughts on “So many emails!”
I love how your school is so land-based and nature-focused. It is very holistic, and I appreciate how beneficial this is for your students. Should I assume this also benefits the rest of the community? I teach at a school that was designed with technology in mind. While this seems ideal, it can be overwhelming and distracting to the students and teachers. By the time we get through the tech stuff, we have missed what we are teaching… have we lost the plot?
I agree! I adore that the Indigenous school that I work at has a cultural calendar that weaves through the academic one. This community is very focused on reclaiming their language, art, and cultural practices and, coming from an outdoor education school previously, I have made it my goal to encourage as much on-the-land and on-the-water learning as possible.
Unfortunately, the town had a Residential Day School so the legacy of education benefitting the community was never fostered. In fact, several of the Elders refuse to even set foot on the school grounds. It is entirely heartbreaking!
As such, I have worked valiantly and encouraged the space and resources for as much Indigenous content as possible: Elder’s Teas, Sweat lodges for the students, Na’ha (Indigenous hand games), trapping, ice fishing, medicine collection, hunting, and even a Cultural Committee with both community members and teachers who work on actively planning as much cultural practices for the students as possible.
As a PE teacher, my mornings are slightly different—I usually wake up to the sound of my own knees cracking like bubble wrap and a whistle mysteriously around my neck. While you’re crafting espresso like a civilized human, I’m just trying to locate my missing dodgeballs and not trip over a rogue scooter board.
Also, your mindfulness routine sounds amazing. Meanwhile, I’m over here trying to convince a room full of sugar-fueled kids that doing 10 jumping jacks counts as “fun.” Maybe I need to swap my playlist of ’80s workout jams for Indigenous flute music… or maybe not, because watching kids try yoga while Eye of the Tiger plays is comedy gold.
Loved this post—funny, relatable, and full of heart. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check my email… all 1,072 of them. 💪📬