Belonging is the beginning. Our goal is to create structures, ceremonies, and learning environments that will set the stage for a culture that is accepting of all students and meets them where they are in their learning journey.
Earlier this year, I collected some photos of learners participating in various opportunities around the school, as examples of community, places where kids were engaging and could belong. These are lovely pictures, and genuine examples, but they fall short of providing deep opportunities for EVERYONE to belong. Kids join in if they choose, but if you look closely at the pictures, you'll notice that many of our learners don't appear in ANY of them.
Since I took those photos, the staff has really come together to consider deeper, more deliberate and focused, initiatives to help our kids who most need to belong find a place in our learning community. While we're only at the beginning of this journey, I'm really excited about how things are going.
One of our PLC groups has decided to focus on ways to forge connections with a number of our students who are living on reserve, and who are not finding success with their learning. While we see many of these kids every day, they are not attending their classes, are not participating in the clubs and events around the school, are not successfully moving toward graduation. They are not finding their way to us, so we need to go to them. As a staff, we're going to take one or two of these learners under our wings, encourage them. Support them. Meet with them at least once a week, and listen to them.
We're also going to reach out to their community. We would like to explore hosting parent-teacher conferences at the Band hall, to help families who are not able to get into the school get to know us and for us to get to know them. We're going to work with our elder to offer opportunities at school that are culturally relevant for these learners. The counselor for Aboriginal Youth Mental Health now holds weekly office hours in our building.
Our course calendar for next year will have some changes. While pairing wood shop with math didn't quite pan out as we hoped, we're optimistic that pairing foods with math next year will give our students a way to learn practical numeracy skills at the same time they learn to create family meals and culturally-based recipes. This is not an intervention for our vulnerable students, but a super-exciting opportunity to be part of a cohort that approaches learning a different way, based in First Peoples' Principles of Learning. Our big dream is that it's the start of a new way to approach learning in our building as a whole.
The Aboriginal Education teacher at our school has been working with a local artist, and some time in the next year or so, we will have a beautiful carving hanging over our stage and multi-purpose room. He hopes to create Aboriginal Student Council at our school, to help our Indigenous students have a larger voice. A member of this student council will sit on the executive of our broader Student Council, alongside the grade reps and representative from the Queer-Straight Alliance.
Our Learning Leaders team is also seeking ways to enhance connection and belonging for our students. We've been reading Martin Brokenleg's book "Reclaiming Youth At Risk," and are excited to be implementing a school-wide focus on the Circle of Courage. As part of our weekly recognition gathering, we'll give "shout-outs" to students demonstrating belonging, independence, gratitude and mastery, creating a large visual display to acknowledge their contributions. We'll teach lessons in all of our Humanities and English classes exploring these areas, with belonging being our first quadrant.
The lessons are part of one other exciting piece. Last week, I was lucky enough to participate in FNESC's session on the revised English First People's 10-12 curriculum. It was my first exposure to these courses. They are literature-rich, built around First People's Principles of Learning, and arranged thematically. It's as if the unit on Belonging was especially created just for us. It arrived in my hands at the just the right time. These lessons will provide a beautiful launch pad for our work with the Circle of Courage, and will hopefully inspire some of our students to sign up for the other English First People's courses being offered next year. (The final draft of the guide will be available online by the end of April, 2018).
This is one of those rare magical times when everyone seems to be moving alongside one another in a common purpose. We've taken some deliberate, focused steps together, and I truly believe it has grown from an intrinsic understanding that belonging really is the beginning. We didn't start from the notion that it was "time to work on goal #1." We have a collective awareness that what we're doing isn't enough for some of our kids, and a deep desire to figure out how to change things. It stems from the belief that EVERYONE deserves to have a place they feel successful and part of in our school. I'm proud to be part of this team. We understand that they're all our kids.
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