As soon as I walked the doors at the Imperial Community School, I was instantly shocked by the amount of First Nations representation that was on display. There were plenty of Handmade crafts in support of “orange shirt day” which were lining the hallways all the way down; many of them had inspirational quotes on them or simply the student’s names of who made them. The next thing to really catch my eye was a massive mural/art piece displaying the Aboriginal medicine wheel. On the medicine wheel were smaller pictures. The pictures consisted of many things related to earth and nature such as oceans, trees, the four elements and people holding hands. When I was growing up I went to Glen Elm school (if you are currently going to Glen Elm school please tell me if they have changed) and everything was bare stone walls with maybe the odd picture related to an upcoming holiday. Nothing was ever there to bring in a sense of community or acceptance it was simply a school devoted to education. So, for me seeing this kind of acceptance of multiculturalism made me very happy.
Secondly, I want to say that the first day was a bit odd, the teacher whose class I was supposed to be sitting in on was currently on medical leave for the morning. So instead I was sitting in on a substitute teacher. But in a sense, it was also a relief seeing how I wasn’t the only new face for the children. To begin the day the substitute began by taking attendance, introducing herself as well as myself. She then went on to play guitar and sing with the students. Once she was done, we went up into the library so the students could participate in a special lesion based on the basics of coding. The lesion was being filmed and being live-streamed to other classrooms where other kids were also doing the lesson. One thing I observed here is that one young girl did not have permission from her parents to be filmed or have pictures taken off. So sadly, she had to sit in the corner behind the camera people. I just wish there was a way to have included her in the activities.
The classroom I was in was a very friendly and inviting place everything was colorful and had a purpose everywhere I looked seem to be more books for the children to read, and different chairs and desks for them to sit out. From the looks of it, there was a seating plan but I’m not too sure if it is strictly followed or only in play when doing certain activities. The group of students was very well behaved was quite surprised by that. for the most part, kids respect each other’s personal bubbles and didn’t really distract others and once it became time to work, I notice several of them helping each other out and even changing seats to sit closer to those who needed help. What students seemed very comfortable talking to me. The students strived more from active learning from the substitute instead of individual booklets, when the substitute engaged in an activity of learning patterns all the students had their hands raised excited to play with the blocks of different colors that were used to make patterns. Almost all the students understood how to make repeating patterns (AABBAA…, ababab…,etc.) But once they had to do the same thing in the booklets, many of them would only show one pattern and often incorrectly. Some of the conversations I had persisted of what my favorite color was, who is my favorite superhero and if I had any pets. They definitely seemed very curious about how I could be such a “big student” I tried to explain to a few that I was learning to become a teacher but I don’t really think they understood. One funny exchange with this student asking if I was the husband of their teacher, I really thought that was quite funny.
To quickly summarise, the entire environment is something that I’ve never seen before it’s so inviting and willing to accept others is instantly felt upon entering; I felt very welcome from the teachers and from the students. They definitely are a curious bunch who seems to enjoy trying new things and meeting new people. I know next time I visit they’ll be working with clay figurines so I’m excited to see how they will listen to the instructions and see what they create.