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Food is my mother’s love language. She meticulously prepares cultural meals, searching for hard-to-find ingredients that are only sold in Asian stores – or sometimes that are only found growing in our garden or in the gardens of family friends. It was the aroma of family recipes from far away islands that greeted us coming home from school that expressed the extent of her love. Even long, exhausting days at work didn’t stop her from standing over bubbling pots and woks, stirring and mixing and frying. It was this love that assured us of all she did to nourish our bodies and souls.

In school, all of that was hidden. This love language translated into something that mirrored the dominant culture – peanut butter and jam sandwiches, apples and orange slices – something that was presentable and acceptable in public. The fluffy white rice was traded in for sliced bread and the light, delicate pancit bihon made space for cheese and crackers. The message that sometimes love had to look and sound and smell differently in different spaces and sometimes that’s how love protected us from teasing and comments that might make us feel like we did not belong. Sandwiches didn’t mean that we weren’t loved, it just meant that we were loved more freely at home when we were together. At home we could love one another in any language we chose.

I like to think that these things have changed since those days, but I see my nieces and nephews from the Philippines not eating their lunches at school. During supervision, I sometimes catch the comments at lunch hour from students who don’t understand the impact of their words and I see the reaction of those who are hurt by them.

My first attempt to counter this was to read a book about other cultures to my students. I thought if we could just read about culture, traditions, and foods, it would be enough to build empathy and help everyone to feel welcome and included. Simply reading a book would help us all understand food and belonging and love in a way that would change our community. However, I noticed that even the best books needed to be accompanied by conversation and community building. Beautiful stories and illustrations wouldn’t be enough without the invitation to humanize ourselves and others. Conversations would open the space for us to all share and build connections with one another.

Once I chose a book to read, I started by inviting the children into the conversation with my intention. This invitation sounded like, “I have some favourite foods that are important to me. I really love it when my family gets together because we like to eat spring rolls and pancit and those foods remind me of how much we love each other. Does anyone else have food that reminds them of their family?” This guided conversations around the idea of how important and special things are to each person, even when those things are different. Next, I introduced the text by saying, “In this story, we’re going to learn about one character’s special food. I want you to listen and see if you can find out what makes that food special.” Focussing their attention on what I was looking for helped us to stop during the reading and make notes of what we were reading.

The first book we read helped to celebrate foods and family, called Cora Cooks Pancit. We talked about and wrote about our important foods, using describing words about the flavours and textures and anything else we could brainstorm. The second book we read highlighted a misunderstanding between friends who were judging one another’s lunches, called The Sandwich Swap. We read this book with the intention of deciding together how we should treat each other, what we can do when we make a mistake, and how we can move forward when that happens. We learned how to be respectful when something is different from our experiences and how to help everyone to feel comfortable in class.

Finding the right book is challenging, but sometimes we don’t always need a text to navigate these conversations. Sometimes it’s a photo, a video, or a song that can spark how we engage in community conversation together. Sometimes it’s just sharing a story about my own life that the students can connect with and that allows for conversations to begin. In any of these opportunities to build an understanding of each other’s humanity, children are learning and sharing about themselves while they are learning about others.

It’s an imperfect solution to building belonging, but I think it’s a good place to start. I still dream of schools being accepting places where masking identity doesn’t feel necessary, where celebrating the entirety of ourselves is encouraged. I imagine a space where parents don’t have to learn a new love language and can hold onto traditions and cultural norms tightly, sending their children to school wrapped securely in comfort and confidence in their identity. I hope that these intentional decisions move us one step closer and that we can, by modeling and sharing, let all students know we care. I like to think, as an educator, that is my love language to students and families. We see you and celebrate you. You belong here.

Prior to the start of any professional learning session that I’m leading, I play a pre-recorded land acknowledgement. The land acknowledgement recommended by my school board was created by our Indigenous Education Department and a Treaty Partner from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations. The land acknowledgement that I and other educators in my school board use is:

The land upon which we work, live and sustain ourselves is the ancestral and treaty lands of the Miichizaagiig Annishinaabek also known today as the Mississaugas of the Credit, the rightful caretakers and title holders of this land.

We also recognize the rich pre-contact history and relationships which include the Anishinaabek and the Onkwehonwe. Since European Contact, this land continues to be home to Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. As responsible community members, we value the diversity, dignity and worth of all people.

Colonialism displaced and dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands and continues to deny their basic human rights, dignities and freedoms. We are committed to learning true history to reconcile, make reparations and fulfill our treaty obligations to the Original Peoples and our collective responsibilities to the land, water, animals, and each other for future generations.

At the end of the recording, the creators pose the question, how does this land acknowledgment compel you to take action? Since I began using it, I’ve shared with colleagues that my personal call to action has been to learn more about the histories, cultures, and experiences of Indigenous People from across Turtle Island then find meaningful ways to infuse that knowledge in my work with teachers and students. To support this objective, I’ve committed to reading books by Indigenous authors and official documents focused on Indigenous People. Some of the books and documents that I’ve read include:

• Indigenous Relations: Insights and Tips to Make Reconciliation a Reality by Bob Joseph and Cynthia F. Joseph
• 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph
• Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga
• An Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King
• The Truth About Stories by Thomas King
• If I Go Missing by Brianna Jonnie, Art by Neal Shannacappo
• Fatty Legs by Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton Illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes
• The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
• Parts of Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future Executive Summary

My call to action emerges from thinking critically about the part of the land acknowledgement that resonates most with me which is, “We are committed to learning true history to reconcile, make reparations and fulfill our treaty obligations to the Original Peoples”. For me, this quote provides clear guidance for identifying a call to action that works to support Indigenous People in one of ways they have asked such as learning a more fulsome account of Canadian history then explicitly teaching that history to others to avoid making similar mistakes in the present and future as a token of reparations.

Earlier this year, at a professional learning session I facilitated for educators working with students in grades 6, 7, 8, I shared my call to action following the land acknowledgment. Then during the session focused on explicit instruction in literacy, I modeled how educators working with students in grades 7 and 8 could use the book, Indigenous Relations: Insights and Tips to Make Reconciliation a Reality, as a tool to help them teach some specific expectations found in the revised Language curriculum and the revised Social Studies, History and Geography curriculum. The expectations I identified included:

Gr. 7 & 8 Language Foundations for Reading and Writing

B2.2 demonstrate an understanding of a wide variety of words, acquire and use explicitly taught vocabulary flexibly in various contexts, including other subject areas, and use generalized morphological knowledge to analyze and understand new words in context

Gr. 7 & 8 Language – Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts

C1.1 read and comprehend various complex texts, using knowledge of words, grammar, cohesive ties, sentence structures, and background knowledge

Gr. 7 History – New France and British North America 1713-1800

A3.2: identify a few key treaties of relevance to Indigenous people during this period […] and explain the significance of some of these agreements for different people and communities in Canada

Gr. 8 History – Canada 1890-1914

B1.2: analyse some ways in which challenges affected First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals, families, and communities during this period, with specific reference to treaties, the Indian Act, the reserve system, and the residential school system

I then read the following passage from the book.

“Treaties are negotiated government-to-government contracts or agreements, used to define rights and powers and to formalize relations between governments […] Indigenous leaders negotiated in good faith for the survival of their people as they transitioned from their formerly expansive self-determining, self-governing, and self-reliant world to subsistence and dependence, living on small reserves. The treaty articles they negotiated included education, economic assistance, health care, livestock, agriculture tools, and agricultural training. The other signatory, the Crown, had a different intent. Under John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, the Crown planned to use the treaties to remove Indigenous Peoples from their lands, gain access to natural resources, open up the country for settlers, and construct a railway from Upper Canada to the Pacific Ocean” (Joseph and Joseph, 2019, p. 45-47).

Following the reading I shared the insight that educators could use this book to help students build their background knowledge on the importance of treaties in Canada which could support their reading comprehension of this, and other passages found in the book. As a direct result, it could also help educators explicitly teach parts of specific expectation C1.1, found in the revised Language curriculum. I also shared that use of this passage could help educators clarify the meaning of the word treaty for students who may have a vague understanding of it. This would support building their vocabulary knowledge that could again support their comprehension of the text while also providing explicit instruction in parts of specific expectations C1.1 and B2.2 found in the revised Language curriculum. Further, I shared that use of this passage could help educators teach students about the historical importance of treaties in Canada which could help students understand why they remain such a central part of public discourses. By doing so they could also work towards meeting grade 7 History specific expectation A3.2 and grade 8 History specific expectation B1.2.

I concluded this portion of the session by reminding educators of how I strive to find meaningful ways to align my call to action with my work to ensure I honour my commitment to supporting reconciliation and making reparations to Indigenous Peoples. I encouraged them to find meaningful ways to do the same.

“You have no books that I want to read!”

This quote is from a five year old boy who was being shown around the school library. He had just been playing hide and seek during the book exchange time. I had only just begun my role as teacher-librarian and I didn’t know the collection all that well at the time. I tried books on dinosaurs and cars but he wasn’t interested. He could only tell me about a video game he played.

Shortly after that experience I surveyed staff and students on what books they wanted in the library. I started holding comic book fairs and building the collection to meet everyone’s needs. I advocated for funds from the school council and the school budget. I was determined to improve the collection so that every student could find something they loved to read.

Graphic novels became a hot commodity; especially ones with characters and story lines from movies, video games and card games. Non-fiction books relating to popular sports, video games, animated features, and pets started flying off the shelves. We couldn’t keep up with the shelving and we started a reading club.

It all started by listening to a student whose needs weren’t being met.

Our students have such diverse learning needs and special interests but it’s not always easy to get the right resource or learning tool. Sometimes there will be obstacles like money, lack of knowledge or understanding. I’ve written before about advocacy and how important it is for teachers to be a strong voice for their students.

One of the most important things we can do to reassure students that we have their interests at heart is to listen without judgement. Listening builds trust and creates a safe learning environment. Besides using surveys and other written tasks, we can listen to students through discussions, group work, audio and video.

I’m happy to say that we eventually got the right book into that student’s hands but he still liked playing hide and seek when he got the chance.

Every year, when parent-teacher interviews approach, I get excited about meeting families and sharing all the wonderful things about their children—what they’ve accomplished and how they’re adjusting to the classroom. I used to prepare a little sheet with notes on what I wanted to discuss, neatly organizing my thoughts for each student. But one year, I decided to try something different. I figured, why not? I was ready to mix things up and see how empowering students to take charge of their own conferences would change the dynamic.

Here’s what I discovered:

Running a successful student-led conference is all about preparation and providing students with the tools they need to feel confident. In the weeks leading up to the conference, it’s important to give students time to reflect on their work. You can help them select key pieces from different subjects—like literacy, numeracy, or art—that show their growth. For younger students, offering reflection prompts like “I’m proud of this because…” can make this process easier.

Encourage students to think about their learning in a guided way. Ask questions that push them to consider their progress, such as “What was a challenge for you in this project?” or “What strategies did you use to solve this problem?” These moments of reflection help build self-awareness and confidence, which are important to owning their learning journey.

Once students have gathered their work, they can put together a portfolio, either in a digital format or a simple folder. This portfolio will be the foundation for their presentation during the conference. To make students feel more comfortable, you can practice with them ahead of time. A little role-playing can go a long way in helping them feel prepared. You could even provide a simple script, an outline, or sticky notes for younger students to jot down what they’re most proud of, helping guide them through what they want to say. Another option could also be to record their audio and attach it to a QR code for parents to scan and listen to it during their visit.

During student-led conferences, it’s key to strike a fine balance between student ownership and teacher input. Allow students enough time to present their work, reflect on their progress, and showcase their achievements. At the same time, keep in mind that parents look forward to hearing from you as the educator, so after the student’s presentation, take a moment to provide your professional insights, addressing areas of strength and opportunities for growth. Be sure to leave time for parents to ask questions or share their observations. This approach ensures that the conference is collaborative, informative, and engaging for everyone involved.

On the day of the conference, create a welcoming environment where students can comfortably lead the discussion. Whether it’s at their desk or a special conference table, they’ll guide their parents through the portfolio and talk about their experiences.

Timing is crucial when organizing student-led conferences. As you experiment with different approaches, you’ll discover what works best for you and your students. Hosting one interview at a time might lead to running out of time quickly, but if you value that one-on-one connection, you may find it worthwhile and manageable with careful planning. Alternatively, you might try running two or three conferences simultaneously, allowing you to rotate between students and maximize efficiency without sacrificing the quality of the interactions. Finding the right balance is key—it’s about what feels most impactful for you and your students.

Wrapping up the conference with a goal-setting activity, where students identify what they want to work on next, is a great way to keep parents involved in their child’s learning. Don’t forget to celebrate their efforts with a smile, a high-five, or words of praise.