Kelly.McLaughlin Advocacy for change, Assessment and Evaluation, Challenging Topics, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Mental Health, Report Cards, Reporting, Student wellbeing, Wellbeing

Report Card Feelings

Last post, I discussed mental health activities and one was discussing report card feelings. I went further into the topic with my class and thought I would share the results of how that went.

Today was the day that report cards went home with students so I took a moment to re-read their brainstorm list of ideas about how they felt regarding report cards. I also asked today that if they felt comfortable, they could raise their hand to show how they were feeling. I thought it would be important to look around and see who was raising their hands for the positive feelings vs. the negative ones. It was not what I expected. Students who put up their hands for the negative responses were not necessarily the students who had reason for concern. We cannot always assume that the students who participate the most/ try the extensions etc. will feel positive about seeing their report cards. They may have the highest expectations for themselves of everyone and with that, their parents may share those expectations.

It will also be important to talk to my class Tuesday after they have read their reports, discussed them with family and have had time to reflect on them to see how they feel. One number/comment to summarize all their efforts in a subject can often feel defeating so I want to address those feelings next week.

I thought it would be meaningful for all educators to see the results of the question “How do report cards make you feel?” My class sorted all of the feelings into either positive feelings or negative feelings.

Positive Feelings:

  • I feel good
  • I feel okay- I like knowing my grades
  • I love them
  • It’s okay
  • I get proud of myself to see how I did
  • Exciting
  • I feel proud of myself when I get good marks
  • I like reports because it shows how good you have been doing
  • BEST THING!
  • Decent
  • I feel excited to see what to improve on
  • I feel good about it
  • I feel okay seeing my marks
  • It’s okay I guess
  • I feel good and alright

Negative Feelings:

  • I feel bad
  • I feel nervous
  • I hate them
  • I do not care about them
  • I am scared
  • I feel terrible, it’s scary
  • I am scared about when I get my report card
  • It is horrifying because I do not want my grandparents to judge me

We agreed as a class that we were happy there were more positive feelings than negative. We know that these feelings resulted from past experiences and could change based on what to come. But, as their teacher, I need to think about where to go from here. There are so many great podcasts, inservices, articles and books about how to approach report cards. The negative stigma around them will always be hard to shake because so many students struggle with feelings proud of their efforts. I hope this year to help shake those feelings and help students feel proud of what they are doing, regardless of what it all averages out to be.

Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Drama, Literacy, Math, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Reporting, Student wellbeing, Wellbeing, wellness

Mental Health Activities

January 25th was an important day to talk about mental health as each year, “Bell Let’s Talk Day” reminds us all that conversations are such an important part of our day as educators. As educators, it is our duty to ensure the mental well-being of each of our students is thought about daily. Some students keep their feelings inside and some claim to be happy 24/7. How do we dive deep into these important conversations and make sure that we are providing opportunities for our students to speak out? Here are some ways to get talking about mental health without making it the central focus. Starting small to get kids talking.

Math Activity

My students were looking at topics to create an infographic about and as a class, decided the most important infographic that should be on display in every intermediate class was one about mental health. So students looked for statistics related to youth mental health in Canada. They found fractions, percentages and various facts that told a story about the mental health of youth in Canada. They shared these infographics with their peers and discussed many important facts. Then, yesterday I pulled up the website about “Bell Let’s Talk Day” and students found many statistics on this page that they had used in their own infographics. We looked at the resources available and then talked about resources to help within our own school (Positive space groups, social worker, clubs, talking to teachers, etc.)

Drama Activity

I wanted to try an activity with my grade two and three students yesterday that connected to their mental health and it went very well. I encourage you to try it out with any grade in a future drama class or just as a class activity. Here is how the activity worked:

A student would be selected to be the actor and that actor would have some sort of problem that they were needing help with. Some examples are:

  • Getting a bad mark on a test
  • Getting into a fight with their best friend
  • Their best friend was moving
  • They felt sad but did not know why
  • Their goldfish passed away

It was actually challenging to think of situations that would not be triggering for students. I made sure that the actor was okay with the situation and then they proceeded to act out their feelings towards the situation. Then, they would pick three friends from the audience who would one at a time come up and try to make them feel better. It was incredible to hear all of the solutions that their friends had. Students who had not participated in drama class in the past put up their hand for the first time. They were excited to come up and comfort their friend. After the lesson, I asked the students if they could use these strategies in real life and they all agreed that they could. I know this activity comes with a risk of students having to be vulnerable but I think it was useful. I even heard a student say, “I wish I had gotten that advice a month ago!” I loved this activity and hope to try it with my intermediate students in the future.

Language Activity

As report card season is in the midst, I decided to try a different reflection activity this term. I asked students to write one word or sentence  on a cue card that best described their feelings towards report cards. This was an anonymous activity as when I collected the cards, I did not ask them to write their names on them. I then handed out a random card to each student. I asked them to think about why the student had written down that word/sentence. What could have been going through their head? Can you relate to what they wrote? Why or why not? I often hear grumblings about report cards around this time of year so I thought this would be a good chance for students to get it all out. An optional part of this activity could be having students share their word at the end if they felt comfortable doing so.

Art Activity

Last month, we were lucky enough to have someone from the Art Gallery of Hamilton come in to our classrooms. We were involved in a four week program working with watercolours with a focus on mental health. Students completed watercolour techniques in a very relaxing environment, using tape, string and tissues to create different looks. This was my favourite part of the day as every student felt connected to their work and rarely left to access a different space. Students were proud of their work and loved the simplicity of this. The arts have a way of making everyone at peace and I look forward to incorporating more periods to just create without a given set of rules.

These activities are just a few I have tried over the last month or so and I am always looking for new ways to get my students feeling comfortable around their peers and with themselves. I would love to hear about more if you have some that have worked in your own classrooms. I hope to include some photos once I am back in the classroom next week so stay tuned.

Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Inspiring Teachers, Resilience, self reflection, Student teachers, Teacher Appreciation

Teachers, YOU ROCK!

Do you ever think back in time to the moment when you discovered what you wanted to be when you grow up? Or the moment where you started your education for that career? Or your first official day of work when you have been hired? Well the entire process leading up to that exciting moment is not as easy as one may think. In fact, teaching is actually one of the most challenging careers when you come to think of it.

Just recently, I heard someone commenting on how challenging teaching was, that it was not what they thought it would be. For that reason, they would not be pursuing this career anymore. I think when I was in university, I had some kind of idea how challenging teaching would be, but you don’t really find out until the first day of your practicum. Even then, some candidates do not feel the full challenge of teaching until their first day of work. I feel for the people who go through even half of the process only to discover it’s not for them. Perhaps there needs to be a way for candidates to discover that they be not interested in the career before they put all the time and energy into the program. I remember many students dropping out of my program, maybe realizing the career was more challenging than they had first thought. I am so thankful that was not the case for me as I had been sure since I was 15 that I wanted to become a teacher. I am so grateful I had the most supportive mentors, teachers, friends, family and of course, my placement students who made my job easier than it could have been.

Think about all that teachers do within one day. Not only do they have to care for the safety and well being of 20+ children but they also have to run a successful program while thinking about the specific challenges each child faces. I think during university, I had assumed the lessons we teach were in the curriculum documents or would magically appear in a cupboard within our future classrooms. But no, these lessons have to be carefully curated for our classrooms with what sometimes feels like over 100 things taken into consideration. Then, we second guess them and try to pull them off flawlessly, hoping each child learns something from the lesson and listens to it. That has to be done not once, not twice but sometimes six times throughout a school day. That in itself is a huge success! Plus all the little intricacies of the day have to be perfectly run as well. Teaching is not easy and although it is the most rewarding career in the world (in my opinion), you have to be ready to commit to the time and patience that is required.

Once again, I am so happy my 23 year old self saw past the challenges during my placement, the challenges in the university classroom, the long hours in and outside of the classroom and made it through to where I am today. I do not write this post to scare anyone but really, to congratulate all of us who made it out and are now living proof of what hard work and determination look like. Congratulations and well done because being a teacher is NOT a piece of cake!

Kelly.McLaughlin Curriculum Planning, General, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Questioning, self reflection, Teacher Wellness, Year End Reflection

Reflections from 2022

As I reflect on the year we just had, I can’t help but feel proud of myself, all the educators and of course, the children that endured all of the challenges of the year we had. From countless closures to the uncertainties, our feelings of normalcy were starting to become a thing of the past. For someone who is normally so positive, I found it hard sometimes to carry on with a smile and try to spread the feeling of “All will be well.” So how do we learn from this? How do we use what happened in 2022 to guide us in 2023.

Well as I set goals for 2023, I think I would like to bring a couple of mindsets into the new year:

Never underestimate the power of an experience

2022 was made up of many lovely experiences- whether it be viewing a musical at the local high school or playing in a soccer tournament- students remember every single experience and love to look back on it. So try to take the opportunities as they come. Read every email because you never know when a fun opportunity could come your way. Also, never be afraid to make a fun opportunity happen! I know sometimes I wonder if the students will like something I plan or ask them to plan but they always end up reminiscing on how great of a time it was. So experiences are the greatest treasure I would take from 2022, right down to a game of trivia on the playground.

Nothing is forever 

I remember being upset multiple days during 2022 thinking, “I hope this doesn’t last forever” and the truth is, it never did. So positive thinking almost always wins and stressing over things that are beyond our control never works well. I hope in 2023 that when I am faced with a challenge, I will approach it without dreading its end date and that I can find a way out of it. I know that this will ultimately make me less stressed and will help me stay positive.

Breaks are for taking a break

I remember trying to plan any break we would get: Christmas, March, summer, etc. I would carve out a few days to plan as far ahead as I could get and not actually spend any of my break on break. This summer, I tried something different. I enjoyed getting married, my honeymoon and then after, I didn’t plan. I didn’t read any documents, instead I watched videos and read articles about first day activities. I read the exciting first day back opportunities our board had made and from there, I let things happen as they may. I started to really plan the curriculum after I got to know my students. Spending weeks of the summer mapping out a plan was something I thought I needed to feel confident about the next school year- however doing so during the first weeks of September proved to be much more productive. By then, I knew my learners and knew the style of teaching I would want to use for that group. This is a style of preparedness I want to save and continue on with for 2023. I don’t think I ever really tried taking time to take a break- a break from the business and the planning. Now I know I can do it.

There are so many other things I’d like to comment on but I have my activities saved in files, my memories saved in photos and of course, actual items saved in my class. I felt it would be most important to write down these mindsets so that others could try them. Although there are many lessons and units I’d love to try again, it’s more important to reflect on the feeling and mindset I’d like to have. Stress is a feeling almost every teacher shares, I’d love to see that change into something else. This blog helps me relieve some of that and I always hope there’s someone out there that will try it too. Either by reading, replying or trying to write their own version. 

Happy new year everyone! 

 

Kelly.McLaughlin General

Winter Celebrations

Each year as we get closer to the end of 2022, I think about what ways we can celebrate the end of the calendar year as a class. When I first started teaching in 2014, I brought in a Christmas tree for my class without thinking that perhaps my class doesn’t celebrate. This year as we are learning about surveys and analyzing the results of these surveys, we decided to pose the following question to the class, “What do you celebrate in December?” This is similar to the question I asked my class last February, “What are the things people celebrate in February?” Students had the chance to pass if they preferred not to say but I found most students were excited to share what they look forward to as 2022 draws to an end.

From here, we graphed the results and saw that almost all of our students celebrate Christmas, many celebrate New Years Eve, two celebrate Diwali (which my student suggested was a winter holiday) and many students just enjoy celebrating two weeks off to themselves. After displaying this graph on our math wall, I brought in some decorations and students decorated the class making sure to have all celebrations equally represented. From there, we started learning about other celebrations and students started to share that they had never heard of them before. We listened to Kwanzaa stories and heard about the history of the day. Later this week, we will listen to stories from other cultures. We also have a calendar with 31 squares on it where each day, the previous student of the day selects a friend to have a treat. This is selected based on who they think has been trying their best and should have a treat. This is a simple way to take a holiday item and turn it into a student-led initiative (non-holiday related).

Next week, once again students in our school will be learning about a variety of Winter Celebrations by helping with crafts and lessons shared by other teachers in the school. Even though December is filled with holidays, it will be important to recognize holidays in the other months that they occur as we need to continue to be mindful of all celebrations equally.

A student in grade three asked me this question the other day, “Why can’t we say the word Christmas?” which I thought was a very important question. I hope I helped him understand that we can say it but not everyone celebrates it. So it is important to know if someone celebrates a holiday before we just assume that they do and before we wish them well on that day.

How do you celebrate the holidays in December with your class?

Kelly.McLaughlin 2SLGBTQ+, Equity, Gender, Gender Equity, Gender stereotypes, Inclusion, LGBTQ2S

Transgender Awareness Week

Earlier this month, my class participated in discussions about transgender awareness week. We looked into the website provided by my school board which offered us many ideas of how we could learn and listen. Here is the website: Transweek Webpage The part of the mentioned website titled “Tips for Allies of Transgender People” was very helpful as it went over various situations many of us had found ourselves in before. The tips page can be found here: Tips These tips can be helpful for students, teachers, family members, etc. as many things we are currently doing could potentially be harmful for our trans students. Even something that we may think is as simple as “We are having a transgender week discussion today” to a trans student could be triggering.

Each student had a chance to write on a sticky note how they could be a supportive ally during transgender week this year. Here are the ideas from my grade 7/8 students:

  • Don’t assume, don’t say the wrong pronouns
  • Learn more about the history or Trans Awareness Week, be supportive and do not make any assumptions
  • Tell everyone about awareness and ask them to spread awareness 
  • Do not be violent or rude to transgender people 
  • Do not make assumptions about transgender people and  their sexual orientation 
  • Be nice, be friends and never ask someone if they are trans 
  • Ask pronouns before assuming genders 
  • Help raise awareness and visibility of transgender people and the issues their community faces 
  • Try not to be rude, everyone can be who they want to people, be careful not to mis gender someone
  • Treat everyone the same, let them be who they want to be, show them that you care and that they can live their life. Never make someone share unless they want to 
  • Respect the person’s boundaries about their pronouns, sexual orientation and how they represent themselves 
  • Believing everyone should be what they want, they have a choice and they should be themselves and we shouldn’t judge that 
  • Post about in a respectful way (hashtag, etc), never ask what someone’s “real name” or use the wrong pronoun, respect them and their gender, listen if they would like to talk about their gender
  • Don’t make assumptions and listen first
  • Be supportive, respectful and respect boundaries and pronouns

I thought all of these ideas were incredible and are a clear sign of how supportive and respectful this generation is. I am really trying to be respectful and diligent in making sure I do not miss any of the Awareness weeks this year. I even left a full period open in my schedule to discuss them each week. I sometimes find it challenging to try to make them all into a lesson so sometimes a discussion is all you need. Discussing these real world topics is so important and I find it is often the most rewarding part of the week.

Looking forward to sharing next time about how our survey project has revealed our December celebrations and how we will celebrate them all equally.

Kelly.McLaughlin self reflection

Remembrance Day

Each year as Remembrance Day draws near, teachers think about how they would like to approach this topic with their class. What worked one year won’t necessarily work the next. Last year, we had a virtual assembly and students reflected privately about the day. This year, we are fortunate to have an in-person assembly where students from K-8 will participate by either reading a poem, playing an instrument or even orchestrating the event. Members from the band will play and the choir will sing. To me, coming together as a school is such a meaningful experience and although we do not do it that often, when we do it means that much more. 

In my class this year, I decided against the colouring of a poppy to put together for the class wreath. Instead, students read a variety of Remembrance Day poems and selected the one word that stood out to them the most. They then would write that word on their poppy numerous times. It was very hard for some students to think of a word that represented a poppy. Maybe they wear one or colour one each year but do not know what the symbol actually represents. Here are some of the words my students came up with: respect, brave, remember, saviour, peace, fearless, hero, strong, hope, and  honour. These poppies will be hung on our class wreath and I hope a few students stop to read the words within them and think about why they were chosen. 

I also did an activity where I posed a few thinking questions to the class and asked them to reflect on the answers. Feel free to use these questions with your class either this year or next. These were the questions I posed along with some student answers:

  • What is Remembrance Day? 
    • Remembrance  day is so important the people who fought for us were brave and had the courage I’m so thankful they gave us the peace even if they didn’t wanna do it they still did.
    • Remembrance day is a day where we honour the soldiers that fought for us.
  • How can we remember our fallen soldiers?
    • We can respect the soldiers by taking a moment of silence. 
    • By being respectful during the Remembrance Day ceremony.
  • Why did people fight in the war?
    • They wanted to represent their country and to feel proud to be Canadian 
    • They had to 

Those are just a few of the many answers my grade 7 & 8 students came up with. 

Each Monday, students make a goal for the week in my class and I wanted to share one of my student’s goals this week. He wrote, “To be respectful on Remembrance Day.” I asked him to share with the class why he chose that goal for the week. He shared that each year, he feels that he doesn’t pay attention or respect the ceremony and this year he really wants to do his best to do that. I think it was a very mature goal to select and I look forward to seeing if he writes yes or no next Monday as it is up to each student to share if they felt they met their goal or not. 

I look forward to hearing any suggestions or any new ideas for Remembrance Day activities that I could try with my class next year. 

Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Curriculum Planning, Media Literacy, self reflection, Student-led projects

The Best October Student-led Project- Part Two

This blog post is a reflection of the student-created created drama shows that I blogged about earlier this month. 

One of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much is the chance to reflect. Teachers are always on the go and I sometimes miss the post lesson reflections that are so important. I will look back on this post next year when I start this task again.

The grade seven and eight students in my school came up with eight shows that were written, directed and acted by each other. They performed them over the course of the day yesterday and what a success it was! Of course, all successful events have a few glitches.

The Week of

This week was a four day week for my students so we did not begin to prepare our room for the shows until Tuesday afternoon. My students turned the classroom into a stage- making the front the stage and the back the audience. All desks were pushed back to allow for creepy monsters to hide underneath and to allows room for chairs and mats to be placed in front. They also covered the walls with table cloths and garbage bags. This part was rushed and could have been done better as each morning this week, I picked them up off the ground and re-taped them. Next year, we need to perhaps leave the walls blank and tape props to the walls. 

On Wednesday morning, students worked together to decorate the entire classroom. They made the door extremely spooky as well as all the walls. The director of each show gathered their props and costumes together in one bin. The door of our class also featured the posters from each show (advertising- media literacy piece).

On Wednesday afternoon, each group had about twenty minutes to rehearse their show with sound effects, settings (on the smartboard/projector), costumes, actors and all. This was hardly enough time as I forgot to remind students throughout the process that they would need to be adding the slide changes, sound effects and stage directions into their scripts. This is something I will do next year during the writing process. Also, twenty minutes per show was hardly enough. I timed each show during this practice to get an idea of how to schedule all the shows throughout the day.

Show Day

The day had finally come and it was show time! Students got into their costumes and had a little makeup added to increase the scare effect! We were all dressed and ready for the first show. Classes came two at a time and stayed for half an hour. This was the perfect amount of time as we usually got through 3-4 shows per viewing. Almost our entire school grades 1-8 ended up coming to see the shows.

The shows went about as well as they could with the amount of practice each show had! By the fourth or fifth performance, a few shows were flawless. The slides were controlled by one of my students who started to memorize when the settings would change. The sound effects were played live from a piano that has creepy sound effects. My student improvised when the sounds were not provided for her and by the second performance of each show, she had memorized them. Each audience was so captivated by the stories and teachers were really impressed with the students. Next year, I will tell students that a show around 3-4 minutes worked the best in terms of audience interest and transitions. The actors in longer shows had a hard time knowing when it was their turn and when they were off stage. 

Tips for Teachers who try this in 2023

I found as soon as I released the responsibility to each director- the show was theirs. Whatever happened happened and I did not feel automatically responsible when a show did not go as planned. It was incredible seeing the students take control of what they had created and very rarely did they need any assistance from me. I think the only question I was asked during the show day was “Can I go to the bathroom?” The student leadership, collaboration and responsibility was so impressive.

Taking on something like this may seem like a lot but the amount of curriculum connections are endless. I also heard a lot of students comment on how many memories they were making during this. Students who have issues coming into the class each day did not during our drama project.

What’s Next?

Students are already asking if we can do this again during the Winter months. I think it would be a great idea during December to show all the different ways people celebrate at that time of year. Perhaps instead of acting, we could try telling stories from various cultures. All things to think about and when you get a group of students who enjoy producing shows this much, the possibilities are endless!

Above is a picture of the live performance of “The Crooked Man”- Written and Directed by a grade seven student.

Kelly.McLaughlin Curriculum Planning, Literacy, Student-led projects

The Best October Student-led Project

This is my ninth year teaching which means it is my ninth October with a class. October is one of my favourite months in the classroom as it lends room for so many exciting activities. For the past seven years, my class has created some sort of Halloween related show or haunted house at the end of the month. Sadly, I missed one year while I was teaching online. I wonder each year if it is something I am doing because I enjoy the tradition or if students are genuinely interested in this activity. So this year, I asked students if they had any ideas rather than share what we could do.

My class of 27 students all celebrate Halloween so we were all set for a brainstorm session. Here are the ideas my students came up with:

  • Escape Room
  • Haunted Gym
  • Student skits in a classroom
  • Student activity centres in the gym

After discussing it with a student-created drama committee, my students came up with student-created skits in a decorated classroom as their favourite idea. Then, we went about discussing how the planning process works. This is what my grade 7/8 drama committee came up with:

  1. Decide on a date (October 27th)
  2. Ask the other 7/8 classes if they would like to participate
  3. Ask permission from our school administration if grade 7/8 classes can show their skits to the other classes
  4. Send an email to all staff
  5. Start to advertise our idea
  6. Sign up classes for the viewing of each show
  7. Come up with a schedule

Yesterday, my four students who had a meeting with admin. were approved for this idea and were reminded to have a fall activity such as a word search or other for students to work on if they do not celebrate Halloween. As teachers, it is important that we use this opportunity to help students and even challenge them to think critically. With our support/modelling they will recognize the importance of being inclusive when the activities are being planned for all students in the school. We can challenge our students to plan alternatives that are equally valued and engaging and still connected to the curriculum. 

Then, we focused on the actual drama part of the project. In our language class, we are working on short spooky stories. My students (along with the other grade 7/8 classes) are working on creating a story where they need to identify the characters, the setting, the problem and the solution. My students presented their plot ideas today to the class and two were selected to be turned into scripts. The rest will be writing short stories and which will be one of their writing marks this term. This was such a fun class activity today as I put on some spooky music and students read their ideas.

During drama class, we came up with seven exciting roles that students can sign up for to be involved in this class project:

  1. Acting in the shows (there will be five shows total)
  2. Script writing (working with the students who had their plot selected)
  3. Sound effects
  4. Set design (how to transform a classroom into a haunted stage)
  5. Costumes, hair and makeup
  6. Classroom sign up
  7. Advertising the event (email, posters, imovie trailer and announcements)

Almost all of my students signed up for three or more roles and are excited to get started on this right away.

Each year, I look forward to this project so much as it includes so many curriculum connections in all of the below listed subjects:

  • Art
  • Drama
  • Language- writing, media literacy and oral communication
  • Learning skills- collaboration

Overall, this is a tradition I really look forward to each year but of course, would not proceed with it if students were not interested.  Learning that is integrated like this, with student voice and leadership at the core and has strong curriculum connections does not have to be limited to a holiday or season. A big idea, social issue or other relevant theme helps to connect and motivate the students’ learning. Knowing your learners, who they are and what is important to them will guide you on selecting themes and connections for your students! I am lucky my students want to make such an impact in their school community as each year even in June, I hear students in the halls still talking about the haunted house/stories. I look forward to this year being better than ever as we are not limited to staying within our cohorts, etc. I look forward to sharing about how it went and perhaps even sharing some spooky photos!

Kelly.McLaughlin 2SLGBTQ+, Challenging Topics, First Nations, Indigenous Perspectives, Music, self reflection, Truth and Reconciliation

A Day To Listen

September is a busy month in schools as teachers get to know their students, learn new curriculum, set up classroom norms and some teachers even have to deal with reorganization by the end of the month. It has been an especially busy start for my class as many students are new to our school and some are returning back to the classroom for the first time in almost three years. Getting into a routine has been challenging as I know the routine is an important thing to establish in September.

Having said that, September is an important month about Truth and Reconciliation. As September 30th is Truth and Reconciliation Day, schools prepare differently to reflect as a community. Our school spent time considering a school-wide assembly filled with student created land acknowledgements, a video of all students sharing why they wear orange, various poems, Indigenous art and highlights from the 94 Calls to Action. We shared our thoughts with Indigenous members within our board and were asked to remind the school community that Orange “Every Child Matters” shirts should be worn all year not just on September 30th. They also shared other ideas to ensure our assembly was culturally appropriate.

Students in my class as well as many others started looking at the Land Acknowledgement and thinking about what it really meant. Students hear it on the announcements every day but may not actually understand the meaning of the words. Many students came up with really well written versions and were going to read them to the school.

However, our board sent out an email stating that we needed to avoid assemblies on September 30th and that it would be better to reflect and listen within our own classrooms so that we could support student responses within the classroom. We were asked to concentrate on classroom activities instead. We decided to have students read their land acknowledgements over the announcements and some staff shared their student-created videos by email instead.

I was able to share the video with my class from our member ETFO news from September 28th, where Shawnee Talbot explains her connection to music. The video can be found if you click this link: Music is Medicine. My grade eight history class watched her TedxGrandJunction video about her life as a member of the Two Spirit community and how music has been such an integral part of her life. Students connected with their love for music and how it helps them during their times of need. It was a great discussion and I really encourage you to explore our ETFO news article from September 28th for more resources. The entire resource can be found here: Two Spirit Resource. 

I would like to close this post by sharing a reflective piece of writing by one of my students as she shares how she will help others remember the horrible past of Residential Schools:

“I pledge to remember the people who were here before us on this land and how they suffered in residential schools. Also, to help younger people to remember by telling stories, wearing an orange shirt, watching videos about Truth and Reconciliation and making posters to put up on walls. I would want my teacher to bring a friend or a member of the Indigenous Community to share about Truth and Reconciliation. We should also have moments of silence and reflection to honour the children who died in Residential Schools. I also want the people around to acknowledge that it is Truth and Reconciliation and respect the people who may have lost a family or friend in a Residential school.”

I share this post in a reflective lens and understand I am learning and listening each year as we reflect on the horrible past of our country.