Here is a link to the First Peoples Principals of Learning. These principals guide my teaching practice as they did for Indigenous peoples since the beginning of time. One of the principals that I connect to the most is:
“Learning takes patience and time”
I like this principal because in my own past with education I often felt rushed to hand in work and complete timed activities like mad minuets. These activities did not advance my learning instead these activities caused me a large amount of anxiety. When I was first introduced to this principal in university I felt like a weight was lifted from me. I realized that being able to learn something quickly was not a measure of a persons ability to learn.
By bringing these principals into our classrooms we not only include Indigenous ways of knowing and being, we also increase our students learning and lower the levels of anxiety in our classrooms.
Here I have the link to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions call to action
The five calls below are the ones that connect directly to education. All 94 calls work towards making Canada a better and safer place for our students but these five are a great place for me as a teacher to start.
- Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.
- Improving education attainment levels and success rates.
- Developing culturally appropriate curricula.
- Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.
- Training that includes education on Aboriginal history, the legacy of residential schools, treaties and Indigenous rights, Indigenous law, Aboriginal-Crown relations, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.
I want to ensure that all my students learn about the local Indigenous language wherever I end up teaching. I want to display the local Indigenous language in my classroom and have books written by local authors and Indigenous authors in my classroom. I want to connect with the Indigenous workers in my district to help me Indigenize my classroom and my lessons. I want to teach Indigenous history to my students. This includes all the beautiful pieces of Indigenous culture such as art, dance, and celebrations as well as the past and current hardships endured by Indigenous peoples.