Call to Action TRC Response

 

In order to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action I will implement many different resources and lessons in my classroom. 

Film

The film, ‘The Eyes of Children’ — life at a residential school by CBC, captures clips of the Kamloops Residential School at Christmas time in 1962. Since this was a staged film, it doesn’t show sensitive information but still captures the scenes of residential schools. I would show this to a grade ten class so they could see the setup of the residential school. I would explain to the class that the film was staged and the children had to practice “being good” during filming.

Book

The book, My Name is Seepeetza, is about a girl’s harsh upbringing in a residential school in Kamloops in the 1950s. It is an autobiography that tells a lot of sad, true stories that she and other children had to endure. I would use this book in a grade five class for a novel study. Although it is harsh to read, the story brings light to all of the hardships that children went through during their time at residential schools as well as their time after as a survivor. 

Website

The Secwepemc SD73 interactive website is a great resource to teach about the Secwepemc heritage and culture. I would use it in a grade three or four class as a tool to educate students on the culture that exists all around us. I think it is a great website that has a lot of information in it.

Case Study Responses

Whose Culture? Who’s Teaching?- Philosophy

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 9:58 AM

 In this case, Connie makes a passionate plea for allowing non-certified elders to teach the Indigenous language course. Should all teachers be certified? What might the consequences be if we opened up teaching to non-certified persons? Justify your response.

I think that a teacher that isn’t certified should be able to teach one course at a time, especially a culturally based course. In this case, the school and the students would benefit from having a non-certified elder teach the Indigenous language course. Yes, the elder wouldn’t have the same qualifications as a certified teacher, but in the Indigenous language course, the elder would do a much better job teaching the students. Having a non-certified teacher come in for a few hours a week would do no harm to the students. In fact, students could gain more knowledge and have a more valuable experience from a non-certified teacher that wasn’t taught to teach in the same way and the same content. The elders would have some interesting techniques in the practice of teachers that certified teachers could learn from. 

When I was in elementary school, we had an elder that would come in and do crafts and cook with our class. She wasn’t certified, and my teacher would either stay in the room with us or leave for a while. The elder would tell my teacher what she was going to do with us each week, so kind of like a lesson plan for the year. My teacher would ask to switch the order around sometimes just for time purposes. I still remember learning from this elder and really enjoyed the days when she would come into the classroom. 

As a teacher, I wouldn’t see the harm in inviting someone in to teach something I couldn’t do justice. So if that means I invite an elder in to do a language course or art projects with my students, I know that my students would be gaining a way more valuable learning experience than if I (a settler) would try to teach them the same content. 

 

The Future is Now- Implications for Practice

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 9:36 AM

In adopting new technologies, how will you ensure that you keep both student learning and student safety at the forefront?

Having technology in the classroom is exciting and engaging for the students. But with technology, such as computers, present in the classroom, there also comes some difficulties in regulating what the students are doing on their computers and how their work is being done. Working on computers can distract students very easily but they need to still be learning and finishing their work.

In my practicum class this past fall, the teacher used Chromebooks a lot. At the beginning of my practicum I was shocked at how much students used the technology and at the types of assignments they were doing on their computers. I would walk around and observe what the students were doing on their computers. The majority of students in the class were on task, completing their work via Google Classroom. I asked my teacher mentor about how he controls what goes on and ensures they are safe. He explained that at the beginning of the school year they would do little workshops on computer use and safety. With each workshop, students would understand more and more that there are rules around the computers. If the students didn’t follow the rules or weren’t completing their work, their computer privilege would be taken away and they would have to do all of their work on paper. My teacher mentor also mentioned that many of his students (at a rural school), don’t have the opportunity to use computers outside of school so they use the computers for what they are needed for so they don’t lose their privilege. 

I really agreed with how my teacher mentor controlled the computer use. I think that if you set up rules and do little computer safety workshops, the students would respect that. There needs to be consequences if they don’t follow the rules, but as a teacher, I would need to have a back up plan incase students lost their computer privilege. 

 

Brave New World- History

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 9:12 AM

How do you think social media will affect students’ understanding of historical events? Explain.

Social media will affect students’ understanding of historical events. Many students in intermediate grades have cell phones and are connected by social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. By having social media accounts, students are exposed to so much information, whether it is age appropriate or not. Within each platform, there is useful and great information that the students can read and learn from. But across the mediascape, information disappears. There may be new on their Facebook and Instagram about current issues, but that will soon fade away. For example, my social media last month was filled with news about the devastating fires in Australia but now I see nothing about the fires and its all about the Coronavirus. Unless the students are getting current news else where, they will only know what is currently happening. 

Before there was social media, people heard about events on the news channels or in a printed newspapers. By having a print copy of a newspaper, the news never disappears. So they news articles can be used as primary sources for people in the future to refer back to. Without a physical copy of news articles or pictures, information is much harder to find and locate within the digital world.

Responses to classmates Case Study Analysis

Re: History Alone in a Crowd

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 10:12 AM

 The inclusion of students with special needs into classroom has been a positive change for the school system. I think that by including all students in the classrooms, no matter their needs, allows students to see everyone as equals. When I was in elementary school, and it was probably the same for you, the students with special needs were always in a secluded part of the school with their own teacher. But when I was at my practicum this fall, all types of students are placed in classrooms together. There was a boy in the school that had a hard time controlling his anger and he would often have meltdowns throughout the day. The students in my class would simply just quietly go close the door and not make a big deal about it. When the students are all mixed together like that it makes students not have the “us and them” mentality which leads to more inclusion throughout the entire school. 

 

Re: Blurred Reflections: Philosophy

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 10:17 AM

As a teacher it is so important to do some self reflection because as you said everyday is different. Teaching is a ever-changing practice that we will never master. I always remember that teaching is learning and learning is teaching. By doing self reflections, we can reflect on our struggles and our success and then use that to move forward. I always would do a little self reflection or journal everyday after practicum this fall and it really helped me see how teaching isn’t perfect and just when you think you are doing perfect, something will happen to change that. Teaching is very humbling and we need to learn to take everything in stride and learn every single day. 

 

Re: Brave New World: Implications for Teaching 

by Madison Smith – Thursday, 30 January 2020, 10:21 AM

 I completely agree with you on this. Students will use social media, whether we tell them to or not. So what we can do as teachers is educate them about the implications that social media can have on a person. We can educate them about the negative but also about the positive. Social media can be a very powerful tool and it is important that students know what can happen and how to deal with it. By educating students about social media, they will be able to make informed decisions about what they put up and what they don’t.Â