I had the opportunity to sit in on School District 57’s, Lhulh’uts’ut’en Working Together Virtual Indigenous Professional Development Day. It was a wonderful and thought-provoking day of learning. I listened to Dr Dustin Louie talk about reconciliation and that reconciliation is not just an apology for what has happened in the past, but reconciliation is also thinking about the future. You can see reconciliation as making a better society for the future and creating a fairer society. How can you make this society fairer? Recognizing that everyone is different, therefore everyone will have different needs and need different things. Educators can do this by recognizing that kids need to be able to be who they are in the classroom atmosphere and have their strengths celebrated.
A wonderful way to incorporate the indigenous practice into the classroom is by using oral traditions and bringing life into indigenous stories. Storytelling helps to connect people, build relationships and is a wonderful teaching and learning tool for all ages. Some of the most effective teachers are amazing storytellers and can captivate their student’s imagination. During the workshop, I learned how to bring puppets into my classroom to help me tell stories. The puppets help add drama, excitement and promote good listening among the students. Students from kindergarten to grade 7 enjoy the puppets. I am excited to learn more about oral traditions, these magnificent stories, and bringing all this new knowledge into my future classroom.