This coming week 5 of my students are taking off to live on the land for a few months. I spent the weekend preparing schoolwork for them to take with them to the bush. While I am sad that they won’t be in school, I am also so excited to hear about their experiences on the land. Colville Lake is known as one of the most traditional Northern communities. This trip is evidence of that fact. The families will set up tents, braid spruce branches together to sleep on, and will live off of the land. The purpose of this trip is hunting and trapping. This week we had a representative from the NWT government come talk to our staff about indigenizing education. She expressed that it is our goal to produce students who are capable people. A “capable person” is defined differently in this context though. To be a capable person in the North you must be able to survive on the land AND in the city. Therefore, school needs to provide opportunities for students to develop in both realms of life. The time that my students will spend in the bush is considered school hours. They are learning the skills needed to survive and will come back with more knowledge than I could have ever provided them within the classroom. My main goal for my students is for them to actively participate in tradition and culture while they are away. It is my hope that their school work will help enrich their time on the land. I want them to reflect, share stories, and practice skills in literacy and writing.
Each student will write in a journal, practice their reading, and work on math. I have provided them a daily checklist and the promise of a reward when they return if they do their work everyday :)
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June 2019
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