Integrating First Peoples’ Principles of Learning into Teaching
In my fall 2020 practicum, I set a goal to fully understand and integrate the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning into my teaching. I did this by ensuring that my lessons were personalised and localised, and always built upon students’ personal, family, and community experiences and understandings. We explored identity in several different ways, in fine arts, in language arts, and in social studies, working within the BC Curriculum as well as the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning. It was empowering to ask students to exercise their reflective capabilities and to encourage them to think about their connectedness within their schools and communities. My grade 5/6 students struggled, especially in the beginning, with thinking reflectively. When they explored their own identity in language arts, they struggled to think about who they were and what was unique about them, but they were excellent at exploring the school’s identity. Given this, I asked them in the next class to write a letter to a prospective parent considering sending their child to the school. They told the parent what they liked about the school and how they feel they belong within the school, developing their reflective capabilities and practicing their writing, including revising and editing. They produced excellent written pieces which I am binding for a ‘published’ copy to be displayed in the school library. By asking the students to learn in a way that is reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational, and by exploring their own identity, we exercised a few key First Peoples’ Principles of Learning within one lesson. In other lessons, I integrated Sm’algyax words into my teaching, recognising the role of Indigenous knowledge. In my winter practicum, I will continue to explore the principles, laddering on more deep and rich learning by integrating the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning.
