Week 5 [Learning from Place]

The article we read for week 5 was about place based learning in Indigenous culture.  Some of the ways I saw reinhabitation happening in the article was youth being taught by Indigenous Elders, as well as the middle aged adults.  These teachings were done on traditional lands, while using the Cree language, which has a huge emphasis lately for revitalization.  Teaching outside of the classroom has a massive impact because the students can make a better connection of their learning to their community and the rest of their environment, instead of just learning it in the classroom and not thinking twice about it when they do go outside.  The ways in which colonization was happening was how residential schools tore away First Nations culture from them, especially language, which is why revitalization is so important now.  Another thing would be the laws that came into place to stop something such as hunting which should be a way of doing things that doesn’t have laws, much like gardening, it’s a way of life for people that live off the natural environment, but colonizers placed laws and fees on it.  Land is something we will always have, place is something we will always have and I think using it more in your teachings will not only help students connect and learn better, but respect it more.  Having professionals come a talk about their work in different places would give better insight to what it is like, it’s the same when learning about the place you are in.  I think teaching outside and making connections of the natural world to curriculum subjects will be very important in my classroom.

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