The two pictures included in this blog post come from classrooms during my observational practicum experiences. These are ways I have been inspired by Education 394 to incorporate what I have learned into my future classroom as a teacher! Featuring my first day of school at the end 🙂

• BC Curriculum- I have learned in this course that the BC curriculum is complex and has many layers. Understanding the entirety of the BC curriculum will take time, practice, and energy! This class has excited me about how I am going to implement the BC curriculum in my classroom and the many ways you can lesson plan with the curriculum. The BC curriculum is an open book that is ready to be turned into whatever I am passionate about teaching to my kids.

• Place-Based Learning- There is no better way to learn about local contexts than by leaving the classroom and getting out into the community. Learning about who you are and where you come from promotes many different skills in students and empowers students to be creative and learn more about where they are and why it is important.

• Lesson Planning- Lesson planning can be done starting from the top with big ideas, or from the bottom (the lesson itself) and working up. Lesson planning as a teacher is one of the most important skills. I have also learned the importance of being specific and planning for assessment. Choose one big idea and one First Peoples principle for a lesson and work from there.   

• Land-Based Learning- Especially living in Canada, land-based learning can be connected to every big idea, core curriculum, and content within the BC curriculum. The land is a powerful teaching tool that can work as another teacher! Land-based learning is valuable for teaching Indigenous ways of knowing. Bringing students outside for their learning is incredibly beneficial to their physical health, confidence, and building connections with the world we live in.

• Professional Standards- The professional standards for BC educators are the driving aspects of what makes a good teacher. These are the standards that we are expected to follow within and outside of schools. I love these standards because they powerfully demonstrate how to be a good role model to children in schools, and guide educators in following safe and ethical ways of teaching and communicating with kids and families.   

• Assessment- Formative and summative assessments are very different from each other and both can be used simultaneously. Some of the main ideas I learned from this course are that formative assessment can be done all the time and can be as simple as observation. Summative assessment happens less often but does not have to be in the form of a final product. Some of the negative worries or ideas I had about assessment have been debunked and I look forward to learning more in future courses!

• First Peoples Principles of Learning- The First Peoples principles of learning, although required, are a beautiful way to incorporate First Peoples learning into every aspect of education. Western education has historically been traumatic for Indigenous peoples in Canada, and this is a way to begin dismantling colonialism in the classroom. I am excited to bring Indigenous ways of knowing into everything I do as a teacher in every subject and grade level that I teach.  

• Resources- As a teacher, it is important to know where, what, and how you can access resources to grow myself as an educator and provide more opportunities to students. Our class trip to the Prince George Public Library highlighted how easy it is to find resources that can develop my professional abilities as a teacher.      

• Truth and Reconciliation- As a non-Indigenous educator in Canada, I deeply respect standard 9 and recognize the importance of truth and reconciliation. This course has further driven my willingness to build relationships with Indigenous peoples and incorporate the First Peoples Principles into my teaching. Honoring Indigenous peoples’ pasts, presents, and futures is something I hope to do every day of my life and inspire others to do as well.

• Who I am as a Teacher- Something I had not thought about much coming into the program is who I am as a person, and who I want to be as a teacher. I have many personal values and experiences that makeup who I am, and I am so excited to bring these into my philosophy of education. This course specifically has asked me to reflect on those values and how I hope to incorporate them into my future careers!  

I was grateful to visit the Two Rivers Art Gallery this week with our Education 394 class! The art gallery was a powerful representation of place-based learning because it highlighted local contexts and how they can be brought into the classroom. We got a tour of their current art exhibits at the art gallery. My favorite artwork was a painting called “Two Rivers” by Mykola Zhuravel (shown above) which presented Prince George through the lens of someone who is not local. This painting got me thinking a lot about the importance of local context. Although the painting was gorgeous, it was missing some of the details of the city that a local citizen would understand. An artist from Prince George would probably have painted the city very differently than Zhuravel. This shows that understanding the local place where we reside is necessary for education and recognizing where we come from and where we are.   

Like our experience at the art gallery, students can learn many social skills and agency from connecting to place. By understanding the role, they play in the community, and by participating in local events students build curiosity, inspiration, and a love for the community. This is a powerful form of education that cannot be achieved in the classroom. Just from one visit to the art gallery, I left with questions about my community, curiosity about local artists, and inspiration to be creative outside of school.

At Two Rivers Art Gallery, we also got to reflect on our self-identities and the role they play in our communities. For our art project, we were given the choice to express ourselves through a self-portrait or something important to us. Art is very important in education because it promotes creativity and self-confidence. Even though I am not an artistic person, the chance to express myself in the real world outside of the classroom empowered me to practice my creative skills and implement them in my classroom. Place-based learning at the art gallery, not only encourages creativity in students but it gives the students real-life applicable skills to use at home and outside of school.  

A metaphor that deeply represents my journey through education and my philosophy as a future educator is my medicine pouch containing sage. This medicine pouch was gifted to me by Elder Earl Wallace Henderson during a First Nations course I took at UNBC over the summer of 2023. One memorable lesson I learned during this course was that learning Indigenous cultures, in this case, Plains Cree culture, is vital in education across the province of BC and Canada.   

Smudging using sage and other traditional medicine has many traditional purposes that I believe are metaphorical for a classroom space that I hope to uphold. Smudging purifies the mind, body, spirit, and heart of negative energies, thoughts, and beliefs. A cleansed mind is important for learning because it frees an individual of biases that restrict knowledge. Within the individual, smudging a person can provide clarity, creativity, kindness, and open-mindedness.

An open mind and heart in teaching can create a space of cultural safety where everyone in the classroom feels safe and comfortable to take down their barriers. The classroom is a community where every individual holds valuable perspectives and ideas, each of which is an important piece of the puzzle. From my experience as a student in BC’s education system, there were times in educational spaces when I felt unsafe and scared to learn. I believe strongly that one cannot learn if they feel unsafe as this is a massive barrier preventing them from seeking education. However, I pledge to do everything I can as an educator to ensure that all students feel the utmost safety and comfort in their educational journeys. This requires encouraging cultural connectedness and bringing Indigenous voices into the classroom. The medicine pouch is a metaphor for encouraging love, community, and cultural safety within spaces where learning is present.

At Cottonwood Park this week, I learned a lot about land-based learning and its impacts on lesson planning as a teacher. This week we had the opportunity to spend class outside surrounded by beautiful fall scenery, and lesson plan from an Indigenous land-based approach. Land-based learning has many benefits on the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of a person, so it is important to incorporate going outside into lesson plans. I also learned more about the First Peoples’ principles of learning and how they can be adapted into everything you teach. It is interesting to perceive education through the lens of the principles, and I thought it would be more challenging to incorporate these aspects into education. It is quite cool that everything we teach can easily connect to the natural world and the First Peoples’ principles of learning.

The valuable pieces I took from our time at Cottonwood Park taught me why land-based learning is important and why I hope to implement it in my future career. Children can grasp Indigenous culture much stronger when learning on the land through Indigenous knowledge structures. I believe it is important to move away from a Westernized classroom approach to education and more towards a natural land-based approach because it brings Indigenous education to the forefront. Upon reflecting on this class, it is now clear to me that nature is a teacher in its way. It is powerful that children can learn all subjects, including math, social studies, and English out on the land and from the land.

Moving forward, from the perspective of someone passionate about nature, and Indigenous perspectives in Education, I hope to use land-based learning as a valuable tool. Not only does learning on the land teach children environmental sustainability, responsibility, and how to protect the natural world, but it also teaches recognition of culture, territories, and cultural history. The land teaches people to be cautious of where they walk and how they walk there, and to recognize those who have walked there before us. The land holds history that is ready to be shared and learned and I hope to use that to my advantage as a teacher.   

EDUC 394 Class field trip to West Lake Provincial park! It was a beautiful day to focus on land-based learning and connection to the natural world as a valuable aspect of education. Reflecting on West Lake and land-based learning, it was powerful to experience the new walking curriculum. This activity forced me to analyze and think about the environment around me. It was powerful to notice things I had never noticed before and incorporate them into an educational opportunity. The land can offer so many ways to teach all subject areas. Even just by analyzing the shapes around us, I am inspired to teach elementary level math and science out on the land, and I hope I can inspire others to incorporate the land into their learning too.