Math is something most young children fear. Math creates this type of anxiety that kids stress, and/or come home crying about. Sometimes that was me…. Throughout elementary we were allowed to use our calculators so ultimately we would just do everything on a calculator for assignments. I felt like I was unprepared for high school. I struggled with math in elementary school because my teachers tended to teach it one way and not show multiple ways to get the answer. When I got to grade 9 I was in a math class with probably the best teacher I ever had. He was very easy to confront which is necessary for students because if the student is not confident with asking the teacher questions it creates a bad situation where the student is unable to learn to their fullest potential. When I got to grade 11 I was introduced to a not so good teacher. She taught everything one way and actually did not allow you to do the equation or question another way or she would not give you the marks even though you got it right still. She was often never there which is hard for students to have sub teachers in and out and all teaching things differently. I struggled to learn because of that. She also did not allow the use of calculators, therefore, I went from relying so much on my calculator and now not allowed to use it, it was very tough. Students should be given marks for showing their work even when they do not get the right answer, teachers should encourage this. Some students just leave questions blank which is the wrong thing to tell students to do. When showing all their work students could be on the right track, but just end up making a calculation error in the end. My teacher in high school did not give out marks for showing work, it was either right or wrong. Some things I found that math encompasses some sort of discrimination is when it uses names. For example, using unisex names and referring to them as she, her, he, etc can create discrimination within math. When I reached university we learnt indigenous math which was using shapes to count or letters. I found it quite difficult.

From Gale’s lecture there are three ways that Inuit math is learnt differently. One way is how they use symbols like lines, dots, letters. They also use their 5 senses mostly smell rather than their eyes to feel the atmosphere around them. They also rely on their body parts to measure. Another thing is how elders taught math by not teaching math and giving them questions, they would teach in a way that is more student led and allows for more questioning. Teaching math should not be heavily based on content, it should allow for questions and group discussions along with ample amounts of ways of doing things to promote student success. There is never one way to do things, and if students find their own way, you as a teacher should encourage it.

I went to a Catholic school for all my schooling and majority of my classes were white privileged. The teachers I had in elementary school always said “once you hit high school the teachers will not baby you like we do here so we want to prepare you for high school”, which was not true in my case. In high school the teachers still hounded you about getting your assignments in and babied you until you got it in. I believe teachers need to encourage more individuality and accountability when it comes to homework. I find teachers are not preparing us enough for the real world. With my schooling I found we could “manipulate” the teacher to extend assignments or take an assignment out if all the students complained.

Some bias in the classrooms I have experienced are

-Students who stayed to help the teacher or talked a lot in class were more liked by the teacher

-The more athlete students were privileged and liked by the teacher

Citizenship is a way for students to get involved with communities, learn the policies and practices of being active in communities, develop social roles and norms around you.

In my experience, lots of my citizenship experience was helping out around our school community. There was tons of options for getting involved in the community in elementary school that you were forced to do as a class, versus high school it was more of an option. In elementary school we raked leaves in the community, shovel driveways, sorted food for the food bank, cleaned up garbage on the school yard. My teachers never really talked much of how to be an active citizen they just focused more on what we can do to help around communities.

At my High school (Riffel) we were the number one school that collected food for the food bank in Saskatchewan for years. Helping out around the community provides an act of kindness that can make someone’s day 10 times better. In high school we had to do 10 christian service hours and many students would just get their sheet signed by their neighbour or parent, which was ruining the purpose of it.

There are many ways that encompass being a good citizen like respecting the property of others, following rules and laws, respecting rights of others, being active and honest. My schools focused on community involvement and the morals of citizenship versus the political aspects.

Reading Cynthia’s article gave me a new perspective of what treaty education encompasses. On page 29, It states that treaties are something “we” share, Cynthia uses the word “we” because treaties are our stories and since we are all treaty people we must learn from each other. Cynthia stated treaties of Canada “As long as the sun shines and the river flows” (Chambers, 30) This means to me that the sun is gonna shine no matter if there is clouds covering it or not it is always up there, the river is constantly flowing. This relates to treaties because we are constantly learning new things about everyones cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds and we never stop learning. Learning about these treaties encompasses many things like new relationships, our shared ways of life, and the historical aspects of the land we live on.

Dwayne states how when aboriginal people and non aboriginal people are sitting across from each other you see a type of “disconnect”. This relates to colonialism as Dwayne says is a “denial of relationship”. Everyone has been colonized at some point in their lives whether its skin colour, etc. Dwayne said that when teachers teach about aboriginal perspective they teach according to how they feel about that said relationship. Therefore, I think teachers who are not comfortable with teaching about content like this they should be given the opportunity to reach out to other cooperating teachers who are comfortable to take it up in their classroom.

I understand it would be hard to teach a classroom of no First Nations about First Nation culture. For example, In my first year at the university I took Indigenous 100 and it was taught by a white male. A aboriginal student raised their hand and said to the prof “why is a white male teaching me about my own culture” this really made me think about how weird it would be for a prof to teach First Nations about their own culture. I still believe it is so important because you get to develop your own beliefs and connect yourself to the land that existed before you. You get to know about different diverse traditions that exist outside your own. Maybe try to make it more fun and engaging for your students. For example, in my grade 5 class we built a teepee in our gymnasium, we learnt how to Metis square dance. Making learning about other cultures in ways children will be more engaged like art, dance, etc can help them find more joy and creativeness with the topic.

In Levin’s article about curriculum he states that curriculum is heavily structured by governments and other companies. Therefore, students have no say in what curriculum states, and teaches. Students are the one’s learning the curriculum so I believe they should have a little say in what it encompasses. It worries me that teachers, and community members do not play as much of a role with curriculum. This should be taken into consideration when curriculum is created because I believe anyone who is learning or teaching the curriculum should have a say not just the government and companies.

The Treaty Education document is very important to schools. It allows us to get information from elders who have great knowledge and story telling of certain topics. Some teachers feel tension when having to teach about indigenous culture when they are not indigenous themselves. Knowing elders can help aid teachers in teaching about treaty education because if they feel they are not educated enough to teach about indigenous culture they should bring in someone who is qualified to do so. In my high school classes we would do treaty education retreats, therefore the teachers did not have to teach about it if they were not comfortable.

In this article there are many examples of decolonization and reinhabitation. The one point that stood out to me the most was the connection to nature and the impacts it has on children’s minds and bodies. Therefore, taking learning outside in the future could help my future students to make a better connection with nature that will benefit them physically, mentally and spiritually. Being open to taking students to many different learning atmospheres is important and can be very beneficial versus always having children learn in their desks. Learning can take place anywhere, and should not only take place in the classroom.

This article also talked a lot about elders. I believe elders play a huge role in our history, as they carry many knowledgeable stories. Children can gain a sense of different cultures and identities. Having children learn about different identities is important for their own well-being. It can help form bonds and relationships by sharing many traits with other individuals.

A good student is one who is actively involved and paying attention. When student’s are engaged you can see how interested they are in the lesson/topics which can create great discussions/debates. A student can be considered “good” by even just showing or expressing that they are paying attention versus resting their heads on their desk. I find the student’s who are more privileged are the one’s who are actively asking the teacher questions when they ask, because then the class is not in silence. I think teachers need to make their lessons interesting in order to get students to participate. Usually group work can be powerful to engage all learners. It is hard to engage in class discussions if you do not understand what is going on. Teachers need to be able to “act on their feet” and know if their lesson is not working so they can adapt it to suite all student’s.

I have chosen to do my paper on the hidden curriculum. A lot of my schooling I have had seemed to focus a lot on the hidden curriculum , I think it is very important but sometimes I think it takes over the actual curriculum a student must learn. I found most my teachers would spent most their time “babysitting” us or telling us right from wrong. Lots of the hidden curriculum statements like “don’t talk while I am speaking”that the teacher states does encompass many things to learn respect but is that the teachers job? The hidden curriculum is something that is not intended but happens. For example, at recess it gives students the time to transmit different norms and beliefs onto one another. Students learn how to act at school and how to treat other students by in a way using the hidden curriculum. The way students adapt and fit in with other students is something school doesn’t teach you but you teach yourself.

In my paper I want to look at how hidden curriculum can be important and also how it can negatively affect students and different learners. Hidden curriculum also has its downsides which I want to further look at how they affect the students themselves. One scholar I have decided to use is Jean Anyon and her idea of hidden curriculum. In my summary I want to talk about how hidden curriculum can be either positive or negative. This hidden curriculum is something that is not apart of the actual curriculum that a student must learn, it is the things the students learn by simply just attending school.  I want to find articles that focus on the hidden curriculum of different students that come from unique backgrounds, the positive and negative effects of hidden curriculum, and how it affects different learners. 

I have found in my classrooms I have been in the teachers have focussed too much on content and not enough on the relationship aspect of learning. It is hard to learn from someone you don’t feel comfortable with. We need to allow students and teachers to also interact. In this reading it said curriculum is like a recipe, I really found this interesting because with a recipe things can be changed, substituted at any time and so can teaching. Teachers need to be able to work on their feet and if somethings not working with their teaching they need to adapt quick with a back up plan. Curriculum also needs to not just be about teaching it needs to be about learning too. Just because a child is listening to what is being taught does not mean the student can apply it or do it themselves. This article made me understand that education is beyond the curriculum and what goes on in the classroom can be changeable. 

Common sense is something that everyone is expected to know. Kumanshiro is new to the village and the things that may be correct/right wasn’t for him, it took him awhile to learn and develop the knowledge of the village of what others do or what they perceive as common sense. His attempts to teach and learn differently did not make sense to students. This is important to pay attention to common sense because kumanshiro brought different expectations, values, assumptions to the school. Learning differently is essential to growing as a teacher, teaching should be more than just lectures, memorization and tests and what is common to every school. He says that common sense does not tell us what schools should be doing it tells us that this and only this is what schools should be doing. We use common sense because it is how society and other people view things so we feel we should do the same. We find comfort in common sense because we are so immune to it.