Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action

Goal 1:

The use of one standardized centrally created land acknowledgment used throughout the school reveals the need for “building student and teacher capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect” (Call to Action 63.3) as well as “identifying teacher training needs relating to Indigenous education” (63.4). Our school will therefore commit to writing personalized land acknowledgments as an entry point for cross-curricular learning about “[Indigenous] peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools” (63.1) with a goal of 100% classroom participation. This will be measured by collaboration, communication and information sharing with the Indigenous Education Team once during each school term by the Principal, as well as with the participation of individual students reading their individual land acknowledgements throughout the school as a part of the opening day procedures.

Strategies:

• Consult the Indigenous Education website for land acknowledgment workshops and resources and/or invite a member of the Indigenous Ed team into a staff meeting to model the process and explain the rationale (teacher training)

• Collaborate with the Indigenous Education team to see connections between classroom-specific program plans, the Calls to Action, and the land acknowledgment as needed (teacher training/planning)

• Teachers facilitate land acknowledgment workshops with all students in all classes to write their personalized first drafts

• Do inquiry-based learning in response to observations that align with program planning in the classroom in collaboration with community partners

• Principal models how to write and speak Land Acknowledgements

• Write a second draft and assess the level of specificity and word choice to assess learning

• Use personalized land acknowledgments for opening day procedures

• Write new Land Acknowledgements regularly in all classes and with all students

Potential Data Sources:

• Hearing staff and students using the words in their day-to-day (frequency of use)

• Purchasing of Indigenous Language resources

• Documented collaboration with Indigenous Language Carriers 

• Seeing the learning visible in anchor charts and word walls

Goal 2:

The lack of presence of Indigenous languages in the school reveals the need to recognize that “Indigenous languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society and there is an urgency to preserve them” (14.1). In recognition of the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages, the school will incorporate 5 new Algonquin words in educational resources, learning environments, and pedagogical practice throughout the school year. This will be done in collaboration with the Indigenous Education team.

Strategies:

• Build consensus in a staff meeting to determine which words should be integrated within the school year to build community 

• Consult the Indigenous Education website to access resources created with Jay Odjick (videos) 

• Order Jay Odjick posters from the Indigenous Education team (already present with and integrated into Grade K-3 language arts resources)

• Consult the Indigenous Ed team to connect with language carriers as needed to ensure accurate use and understanding of any words not in the resources shared by Jay Odjick.

• Consult the Algonquin language dictionary apps available

• Allocate SIED (School Indigenous Education, Deep Learning) funding to purchasing necessary materials and providing honoraria to community guests

• Provide frequent opportunities to hear the language being used

Potential Data Sources:

• 5% Increase in educators incorporating Indigenous content in their classes, across subjects 

• 5% more teachers registering for professional development and sharing their learning at staff meetings

• Documented evidence of collaboration with Indigenous Education team and community partners (emails, sign in sheets)

• Visibility of professional development strategies being applied through classroom practices, changes in learning environments, student exit cards, resource materials, land-based learning

• Evidence of balance between 60% trauma heavy resources and 40% celebration of beauty, brilliance, and innovation of historic and contemporary Indigenous people with a goal of making it eventually 40% trauma focus and 60% beauty, brilliance, and innovation over time.

Goal 3:

In response to teachers expressing discomfort around the implementation of “age-appropriate” Indigenous resources and pedagogy “on residential schools, Treaties, and [Indigenous] peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada” (62.1), our school will use the SIED (School Indigenous Education, Deep Learning) fund to provide opportunities for “teacher-training” (63.4) and resource review and revision in collaboration with the Indigenous Education team and community partners to build student and teacher capacity for “intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect”(63.3).

Strategies:

• Do a “learning walk” to gather inventory on resources and best practices visible in the school.

• Document the baseline - what is the balance between trauma-heavy resources vs incorporation of beauty, brilliance, and innovation in courses and whole school activities; what is teacher comfort in integrating Indigenous resources and pedagogy at the start of the year; what is the current participation in Indigenous Education professional development and what current strategies are being implemented through the school?

• Consult with the Indigenous Education website to gather resources and professional development opportunities

• Review the educator updates regularly to see opportunities for professional development

• Determine how the school will participate in OCSB Indigenous Days of Significance and First Nations Family and Caring Society Days of Significance and experiential learning opportunities.

• Determine a PD Plan - in response to the needs assessment determine the required PD, who will attend, and the roll out of the professional learning to the staff

• Collaborate with the Indigenous Education team to ensure that resources found in the school are up to date and reflect current best practices in terminology, visual representation, regional specificity, content accuracy, capitalization and pronoun use (reference document linked here).

• Review the protocols for communicating with and hosting community members - ensure that all staff are aware of these protocols. Reach out to the Indigenous Education team if in doubt.

• Celebrate Indigenous excellence by way of art and sport.. Things to consider: Hall of Fame for athletes and sport innovation, and undertake collaborative art project between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists (83, 87)