Travel

My entire Fulbright Teachers for Global classrooms cohort was made up of 77 teachers from across the US states.  We all met virtually over the course of our 10 week-long Global education class and again during our virtual global ed symposium.  A little over 20 of us met in Toronto. In the days leading up to my departure (particularly in the Lyft to Newark airport) I found myself unusually nervous and anxious.  I am generally not a  nervous person and I LOVE to travel. I quickly realized that the source  of this nervousness was in anticipation of meeting my highly esteemed Fulbright colleagues; the superstar teachers and brilliant minds that I had met/collaborated with online so long ago.  The imposter syndrome was creeping in and I had to remind myself that I was selected to be here amongst many other incredible teachers too. 

To my great relief, when I arrived to meet some of our group in Newark, I was met with smiles, hugs, and high-fives.  I realized that anyone who would apply for a Fulbright fellowship called “Teachers for Global Classrooms,”  be selected by the admission panel, and complete the rigorous coursework, AND wait a whole year to go on the fieldwork experience-- these were kindred spirits. 

The Newark group arrived in Toronto later than expected (read: much-to-be-expected) due to airline delays. We were hungry and tired, we received our badges, itineraries, and checked into the Chelsea Hotel around 11pm. I went to bed before an early morning and  full day of orientation and Toronto City School Board visits. 

Today’s session began with meeting our IREX coordinators: Emily Dudley, Gina De Santis, Lynn Seumo. It's important to note who IREX is: they are the International Research & Exchanges Board which is “an international, non-profit organization that specializes in global education and development. Fulbright and the US Department of State (International Affairs Bureau) contracts with them to facilitate the Teachers for Global classrooms program in entirety.   It’s also the first time the Canada cohort is all in a room with one another. I can’t help but look around and recognize folks here and there from their Zoom squares. The tone of this orientation is one of diplomacy. 

Together we reviewed the itinerary for the next two weeks and were introduced to representatives of the US Embassy in Ottawa, Helen von Gohren  and the US Consulate in Toronto, Diane Del Rosario. Two brilliant young diplomats who narrate the history of US-Canada relations with a focus on the more current policies outlined in the Trudeau-Biden “Roadmap for a Renewed Partnership”: post-pandemic recovery, inclusivity, equity, and  diversity, security and defense, building global alliances, climate changes and emissions (Helen von Gohren is especially passionate about this topic and went on a fascinating tangent on her involvement in arctic initiatives), youth ambassador programs, and fostering entrepreneurship  Both diplomats explained that their job is to focus on maintaining and strengthening US-Canadian relationships. They spoke on various initiatives (arctic initiative) they engage in to do this, and gave us some historical context as well as demographic and geographic information.  

• The U.S-Canada border is the longest in the world at 5, 525 miles. 

• Despite its mass, 90%, of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the border. 

Newcomers Make Toronto Special

Another fascinating fact I learned: 1 in 5 Canadians are new immigrants. In the city of Toronto, over half of the population of 3 million people was born outside of the country! Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world: 20 percent of students in Toronto's schools speak a language other than English at home and 140 languages are spoken in Toronto alone!

I am so excited to see how Canada helps prepare, welcome, and integrate newcomers into the country and culture and I’m sure I have much to learn from such an incredibly diverse country. 

The Two- Way Mirror

Daniel Stewart, US Cultural Affairs officer, zoomed in from his post in Ottawa to remind us of an important quote by JFK regarding Canadian-American relations: "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies." He briefly spoke on what I am calling the “two way mirror” analogy: “they [Canadians] know so much more about us than we [Americans] understand or know about them.”

This is true. I mean I never knew the population of Canada before today (38 million-- 1/10th of the US population), I didn’t know they were a part of the Underground Railroad,or that they too had West Coast internment camps, I had no clue that the US has been in TWO WARS with Canada (1755 and War of 1812). We don’t learn about Canada in the US (or Mexico for that matter). We are a very self-involved country in terms of the news media we consume. Other than stereotypes like Canadians say “eh” and play hockey, reflect what more you know about our incredibly diverse and forward-thinking neighbor. 

To wrap up our sessions with government officials, Helen von Gohren spoke on Indigenous and Inuit/Actic initiatives and recommended “The Right to Be Cold” by Sheila Watt-Clouter (a book we will be reading in our Fulbright book club beginning in September). Von Gohren reminded us that despite the US and Canada serving as friends, partners, neighbors, and allies, our countries have pretty different educational systems. She previewed some of the educational trends and initiatives that we would see during our time in Canada, especially the movement to decolonize educational practices. Canadian education boards increasingly acknowledge that in addition to Indigenous knowledge having a place in the classroom, so too should Indigenous methods of learning.

Special Topics in Canadian Education

Hang Lyu, an EducationUSA Advisor at Fulbright Canada, presented on “Special Topics in Canadian Education.” She presented us with a WEALTH of knowledge and insight that would prepare us for our school visits. 

• Education is not federally regulated, each province manages their respective education system.

• Like the northeast US school runs from September- June with 190 days

• School is compulsory until age 16, 18 in the province of Manitoba

• What we think of school districts are called “school boards”

• There are four types of school boards: English secular, English Catholic, French secular, French Catholic

  • Canada has two official languages: English and French

• Language Immersion programs are common: usually English/French sometimes or English/Mandarin, which is customary in Calgary as Chinese immigrants make up the highest percentage of newcomers. In central and western provinces English/Cree immersion programs can be found.

• Grading is relatively comparative to US system (A=80-100, B= 70-79, C=60-69, D= 50-59, F= 0-49)

• STEM initiatives in schools

• Students learn financial literacy in 4th grade

• Movement in Toronto to “destream” education (remove honors tracks and tracking in general)

• High school students are required to take 2 classes online to maintain the hybrid teaching/learning initiative and build digital literacy as prompted by the pandemic

• High school students can often choose specialized programs

• There is a great pension plan for teachers, which caused many teachers to retire during the pandemic. Now schools face teacher shortages in certain content areas since criteria for certification also became more rigorous. There is a waiver to override said certain criteria during this shortage.

• Universities in Canada are government owned and cost a flat fee of around 10K for Canadian citizens

• Universal childcare exists for $10/day

• Teacher unions vary by province. Starting teacher salaries are around 50-60K CAD

• ALL Canadian teachers as required to take coursework on supporting newcomers (Canadian term in lieu of our “ELL or MLL” terminology)

At the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), it is customary to acknowledge the Traditional and Ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples at the beginning of events, gatherings and meetings. All schools also begin their day with an acknowledgement of the territories. For more information you can read the Land Acknowledgement FAQ put together by the Urban Indigenous Education Centre. Anne Chirakal, the principal of the Central Technical School, started our meeting with a deeply heartfelt and personal land acknowledgement and brief overview of the programming she runs as the newly appointed principal of CTS-- which reminded me a lot of Dutchess Boces set in a Hogwarts-esque building in the urban sprawl north of Toronto. 

Giving Everyone a Seat at the Table

 Anne is the kind of principal you want at your school: youthful, progressive, beaming with positivity and energy-- and after our introductions she whisked off to participate in the Black Student Union’s self-created conference day that students’ spearheaded and piloted under her supervision. She spoke of her mission to center student voices. In an effort to do so, she created equity surveys in the form of  town-hall roundtables, citing that digital or paper surveys create obstacles towards equity and often are met with apathy. She spoke about the work of Marie Battiste PhD and recommended her work “Decolonizing Education: Nourishing Their Learning Spirits.” (find a link to a wonderful talk by the author outlining the tenets of her life and book).

A Mission to Create “Skilled Members of a Sustainable and Democratic Society”

Mike Gallagher, the superintendent of education welcomed us to Takaronto, the indigenous name before “Toronto.” He was calming, proud, and  I found it refreshing that he wasn't  trying to present his district as perfect, but rather a work in progress. He highlighted many of the challenges and inequities and spoke to the school’s mission to create skilled members of a “democratic and sustainable society”-- a mission that feels especially Canadian. (Here in the US our school missions usually have to do with “college and career readiness” which feels especially worker-bee capitalistic standing next to ideals of democracy and sustainability.) The Toronto CSD is huge. It encompasses 583 schools, of 247,0000 students, and employs 38,000 educators, making it the largest school boards in the entire nation (comparable to Broward county Florida. For reference NYC DOE has about 900,000 students).

Gallagher overviewed the board’s multi-year strategic plan:

1. Transform student learning

2. Create a culture for student learning and staff well being

3. Provide equity of access to learning opportunities for all students

4. Allocate human and financial resources strategically to support student needs

5. Build strong relationships and partnerships within school communities to support student learning and well-being. 

Gallagher pointed out that for too long black and indigenous communities have been put on the wayside in regards to education needs, inclusivity, and equity. He posed the rhetorical question: “Did the kids have the kind of day where they want to come back again tomorrow?” to demonstrate the TCSB approach to teaching and learning. 

Newcomers in TCSB

Suzan Joueid presented next on the ELL support offered in the district. What I am referring to as “ELL” is not the terminology used in Canada, but rather “newcomers.” What I found most interesting about the newcomer identification process is that it is all outsourced by third party hubs (typically non-profits or government agencies) at “ Newcomer Welcome Centers.” When immigrant families arrive in Canada, they are quite literally welcomed at one of these centers. There their language skills are evaluated as an entire family, their needs, backgrounds taken into consideration, they are matched with social service programs, language schools for adults, job supports, housing supports, and the students are assessed and their data is sent along to their school teachers. While this presentation was brief and there wasn’t time enough for follow-up questions (lest I’d likely hoard the mic), Joueid stated “ We are heavily focused on multilingualism as instruction” and that credit-bearing courses are offered in a variety of international languages. When I think back to the statistic that 120 languages are spoken in the TCSB and that 1 in 5 people in Toronto are newcomers-- I’m astounded at the reality that pretty much EVERYONE is or has been an “English language learner” thus there is no need for such a label. Newcomer is a more appropriate word and encapsulates the notion that some of us are just newer, fresher, greener than others. 

Destreaming for Equity

Jason To, the math coordinator, presented on the movement to “destream” curriculum which Hang mentioned in her presentation this morning. Destreaming is essentially “detracking” in our terms; a push to stop tracking students into honors tracks or AP tracks-- which over time lead to inequities and correlate with other socio-economic and often racial factors-- separating students early on into the haves and have-nots. The Toronto School Board prides itself on being one of the first to do this important equity research and put it into practice in their schools-- a movement which many other school boards have joined. 

Instead of streaming students, the TCSB is focused on engaging students’ voices and vision to create individualized “For ME Action Plans.” Using universal design, culturally responsive pedagogy, and differentiated instruction .

Mike Gallagher hopped in to state “nothing we do doesn’t have push-back but we are absolutely resolute in doing the right things for the right reasons.”

Taking the “Special” out of Special Programming

Reiko Fuentes, head of secondary programs and admissions, told us more about choice-based programming. All secondary students within the Toronto board are able to choose a specialization or program of study (similar to a magnet school in the US) based on their unique interests. Students can choose to focus on general arts, dance, drama, music, performing arts, visual/media arts, cyber arts, elite/exceptional athletics, integrated technology, international baccalaureate, leadership pathways, math/science/technology, advanced placement, law in action, and a specialist high skills major. She notes that there is an implicit bias in the admissions process itself. After all, how is it equitable to have a selection process when student choice and voice is a priority? To address this complexity, special programs are designed to support the success of ALL interested students, not just those with demonstrated talent or ability.

Fuentes noted that special programs are not advertised or spoken about in qualitative terms like better/worse, stronger/weaker; thinking rather in terms of rebuilding and rethinking. This carefully nuanced, linguistically-precise conversation about special programming opened a proverbial can of worms in my mind-- about how oftentimes when we are trying to do the right thing it can open a pandoras box of side-effects (in this case special programs leading to inequities) that one never saw coming. I couldn’t help but think of WNYC’s podcast series Nice White Parents which outlines a similar pickle.

A suburban perspective

Today we took shuttles out of the city center and into the suburbs of Oakville, where we were split into smaller groups to visit different schools in the Halton School Board. My group visited Oodenawi Public School, a K-8 learning community about 45 minutes away in the western suburbs of Toronto. "Oodenawi" means "Community" in Ojibwe, the indigenous language of the region. This morning (and every morning so far as was customary in Toronto City School Board as well), the school announcements begin with a "land acknowledgement" along with the Canadian anthem, “O Canada,” sung in French. The introductory land acknowledgement is clearly an integral part of Ontario's curriculum revisions under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in 2008 following the discovery of mass graves at indigenous residential schools-- here in the US known as reservation schools.

“Indigenous Ways of Knowing”

Matthew Reid, a new 5th grade teacher at Oodenawi welcomed our cohort and brought us into the principal's office for a brief presentation on the school’s demographics, showed teacher-made welcome videos of the classes we would visit, nodded to the ongoing construction due to the school board’s growing population, and spoke to curricular priorities with a focus on “indigenous ways of knowing.” I really appreciate the beautiful semantic structure of this phrasing as it flows like water and can take many forms. According to Queen’s University, the intent of this phrase “Indigenous Ways of Knowing" is “to help educate people about the vast variety of knowledge that exists across diverse Indigenous communities. It also signals that, as Indigenous Peoples, we don't just learn from human interaction and relationships-- but from a variety of elements in creation such as  plant and animal nations.” 

Reid spoke of how the discovery of mass graves of indigenous children in Canadian residential schools has impacted the way history is taught at Oodenawi; moving away from a colonial lens and eurocentric maps to incorporate more indigenous voices and ways of knowing. 

Creating Connections with Traditional Elders

Gaby Eccheverria, the current principal of Oodenawi, who is soon leaving her post to serve on the Board of Indigenous Education, floated into the room with a timely grace. She noted that Oodenawi is 6 years old and that they “want to be respectful of developing on land that was traditional… With the theft of land comes the loss of language and tradition. It’s erasure of people’s culture.”

 She spoke to how before, indigenous elders were not being consulted about the way their history is represented in schools. She noted that initially their curricular shifts towards indigenous ways of knowing did not include the voices of regional elders. What good is trying to represent the views of traditional people when a non-traditional person decides what is important? It’s appropriation of spiritual practices to do so. Instead Gaby asks the elders with whom she has relationships with “What would you like us to teach?” In some way shape or form the answer always boils down to: “Have respect for all that is living.”

To be honest, I am quite surprised about how passionately and spiritually the movement towards truth and reconciliation is being integrated into urban/suburban schools here in Ontario. I expected to see this kind of shift in Saskatchewan, but I am impressed with the level of priority it is taking in highly-developed metropolitan areas as well. These towns and cities feel so much further away from their traditional origins. I also can’t help but notice that Gaby uses the term “traditional people” more often than indigenous which had been the terminology used thus far. I found a Facing History Facing Ourselves resource  that delves deeper into the historical context of these issues. 

It Takes a Village Approach to Language Development

From these heavy topics we transitioned to our school tour starting with an Inquiry-based Kindergarten. WOW what a treat to witness. Students were in literacy centers, but paused to show us their recently completed inquiry-based project on bees. I sat down with a group of 3 newcomer students who were at various stages of newcomer-ness working on matching CVC words and letters to cartoon images. One little one had just arrived as a refugee from Ukraine, her buddy who came from Egypt months prior was telling her the words in English “that’s pig” and pointing to the letter p. There was no ELL teacher here in the classroom, and I’m told there's an itinerant ELL teacher in the school, but did not get the opportunity to meet her.

 Again, the reality here is that so many students come from diverse backgrounds that they seem to immerse and scaffold each other while teachers differentiate. It’s so fascinating to *not* see the less than ideal “othering” that happens when ELLs receive their services in NYS, but I can’t help but wonder what side by side comparisons would elucidate in terms of efficacy and proficiency over time. In this inquiry based kindergarten, it looks like “it takes a village” to support this newcomer refugee towards fluency and literacy in English. From what I can tell from the Oodenawi website. ELL teachers seem to be consultants/specialists who help differentiate and modify materials rather than teach. 

Do Your Best & Make It Work

Next we visited a Life Skills class, which was again-- a big WOW moment.  These students had severe disabilities and physical impairments are served by the school in Oodenawi (rather than the Arc or BOCES or Astor, etc.). The district has invested in specialist equipment, has developed a kitchen, buys weekly groceries, has a washer/dryer, and many OT/PT special tools to support students at a wide range of cognitive levels and physical capabilities. These teachers Mrs. Hawranik and Mrs. Baxter, they both work SO hard, with so much drive and dedication for these students to reach their highest potential. You can feel the palpable respect that the numerous aides and other school staff  have for them. During pandemic closures there was no way for these kiddos to receive their services virtually, so these incredible women and teacher aides made it work with in-person life skills for an incredibly vulnerable population. It was really eye opening to see this kind of support in a public school. I am curious about funding and wonder if the fact that property taxes are not entirely tied to local public school funding is a contributing factor for why/how Oodenawi has the ability to meet these students' needs.

More Visits

Next we visited a French immersion year 8 room, kids were making slideshow presentations on various unions in pairs. It was interesting to learn how each year of French immersion the English to French ratio shifts to incorporate more and more of the target language.

Then, we stepped into a music classroom. The teacher had students doing an end of the year parody project in small groups. Students could choose any song (within appropriate limitations) and create a parody focused on an issue or theme of their choosing. The kids were LOVING this and I can only imagine that their youtube/twitch/tiktok followers loved it too.

Finally, we arrived a bit behind schedule to Mrs. McRae’s 4th/5th grade classroom in portable trailers outside. As I mentioned earlier the school is undergoing massive renovations and expansions as it's doubled in size in the 6 years it’s been open. The kids were in a play-state of mind as lunch was over and they were working on end-of-year memory sheets. They were getting hyped up to spin their prize wheel. In almost every student’s box titled “Favorite Part of the School Year” kids wrote that they loved being in Mrs. McRae’s class. Despite the presumably frigid winter temps in a metal trailer, and pandemic closure-opening-closure chaos, her room was a Pinterest-board of colors, games, and felt like a safe space for the kids. 

Learning the Language of the School

To end the day we returned back to the principal’s room where sandwiches were waiting for us. Halton School Board Systems Principal, Michelle Lemaire,  offered more insights in a Q & A session. She was able to answer some of my questions about the governing body that oversees ELL programming-- the Ontario Learning Board-- which develops step-proficiency levels using an initial assessment, though leveling and minutes do not seem to be the focus whatsoever. She noted that at one of the Halton High School there is a Gary Allen Language Center which acts as newcomer reception center AND provides intensive language classes on Saturdays for super new-newcomers and their families. I loved to discover that student mentors are assigned to newcomers to help them learn “the language of the school.” If you have a moment to peruse the ELL programming guide from the Ontario Ministry of Education (linked above and again here), please do. I love that the framework is less focused on state-mandated minutes and proficiency levels and more-focused on creating a welcoming environment, engaging families, adaptation of content, and building cultural responsiveness quite literally (school signs in the home language) and figuratively (slow integration of culture as an asset to the school). 

There Must Be More Than This Provincial Life 

It’s important to note that Canadian education is fully provincial so the way Ontario programming is structured may or may not look anything like its neighbor, le Quebec.  It’s also important to note that Michelle Lemaire’s job is quintessentially Canadian. Her job is to allocate resources/ social supports and services that exist within the school and outside the schools to newcomers and students/families in need. For example, she sets up settlement services for the families, intakes the newcomers and places them,  but perhaps/for example she may need to reach out to free (hello Canada) multilingual mental health care providers if the student or families have experienced trauma in their process of resettlement. 

Support Networks & Safety Nets Web Together the Learning Community 

Her job is as if a principal, guidance counselor, social worker, ELL teacher, and director of special services all merged together. It’s a reminder that Canada has so many social supports and safety nets available; whereas in my experience these responsibilities to welcome the newcomer fall on the ELL teacher in semi-collaboration with the guidance counselor. A lot falls by the wayside (and often on the shoulders of our local churches) when it comes to addressing trauma, houselessness, financial need, etc. 

OMG, Shoes

After Oodenawi, Becky Blankenship, a brilliant Humanities teacher from Vashon Island outside of Seattle, Washington invited me to join her at the Batu Shoe Museum. I expected to see some interesting historical shoes; I did not expected to be engaged in difficult and though provoking questions about the intersectionality of identity, sustainability, history, culture, power, politics, race, capitalism, patriarchy, technology…. I highly recommend you check out this museum if you are ever in Toronto. We came up with so many cool “do-now” ideas based on the exhibits.

Connecting learning with nature

Today we visited the Forest Valley Outdoor Education Center about 30 minutes north of the center of Toronto in North York. It’s one of 9 outdoor education centers in the Toronto City School Board. In Ontario which aims to “connect with student's previous learning and ignite their sense of wonder by connecting with nature so that they are inspired to take action to make their world a better place.” Certainly this mission is aligned with the notion that students be prepared for “sustainable” futures. 

David Hawker-Budlovsky, principal of the school,  welcomed us into a large lodge filled with natural artifacts and stated: 

We acknowledge we are hosted on the lands of the Mississaugas of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Wendat. We also recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples.

He pointed to a table in the corner where we were invited to try hot cedar tea (a delicious indigenous staple high in vitamin C), homemade maple raisin bread, and maple candy as he presented on the school and its approach to place-based education. Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other concepts across the curriculum. David gave some examples: 4th graders study the Fibonacci sequence by finding patterns in nature, other students learn measuring skills by trail building. 

“You can take learning outside if you walk out a door.” - D. H. Budlovsky

Since the pandemic, outdoor education transitioned from being part of pandemic “recovery” to pandemic “response” and is now integrated into TCSB curriculum.  While outdoor education is not provincially funded in Ontario, Toronto CSB sees the value of outdoor and place-based education-- perhaps moreso now after the pandemic as it allowed TCSB students opportunities to connect safely, playfully, academically, in-person, and in-nature.  TCSB students in grade 2 (1 day), 4( 2 days-1 night), and 6, 7, 8 (3 nights- 2 nights) spend days/overnight making memories at any of the 9 outdoor education centers. As you might expect, there is a beautiful medicine garden at Forest Valley that indigenous students lead in stewardship. It’s filled with plants used in traditional medicines as a way to integrate some ways of indigenous being and knowing into the Forest Valley experience. 

Potential Benefits of Outdoor Education? 

Don’t be fooled by the  hiking shoes and down jacket, Budlovsky is a high caliber administrator in addition to being an avid outdoor enthusiast. He plans to begin tracking students who go on learning excursions to see if there is a correlation with academic success. His hypothesis is that students who spend time learning in/from nature, problem-solving and team building with a focus on place, will see those skills correspond with academic success. I have no doubt that in ten years or so we will encounter Budlovsky’s esteemed research paper on the topic.

Shoutout to Steph

We were lucky that one of our Fulbright colleagues, my new awesome  friend, Steph Perkins is also an outdoor educator in the mountains of Maine. She was so ecstatic to see outdoor education take precedent in an urban area and was so grateful to share and exchange experiences and lesson ideas. 

Pre-Networking Dinner

We returned back to the hotel and had some time to decompress and process the vast amount of knowledge we’ve received these past three days. I’ve just caught up on some emails and report cards. Before getting ready for a formal networking dinner with some of the diplomats and dignitaries we heard from during orientation. I sat at a table with two current Canadian Fulbright scholars and the English Teaching Chair at University of Toronto. 

Communitarian Values vs. Rugged Individualism

Dr. Michael Hawes, President and CEO of Fulbright Canada and Susan Crystal, Consul General of the US Consulate Toronto were the evening’s distinguished speakers. They spoke of Fulbright’s history and evolution since its founding over 70 years ago and shared stories of teachers—and, subsequently, youth—positively impacted by the global experiences the organization facilitates. Hawes nodded to Canada's communitarian value system “Whereas the United States champions the individual values of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", the Canadian Constitution emphasizes "peace, order, and good government." I noticed that for the first time since arriving here in Canada there wasn’t a land acknowledgement. I whispered to Sandy, the young Fulbright scholar next to me wondering why not- had they forgotten? She said “well, some people think it’s performative.” While it is unclear whether or not that is the reason for the omission, I found it super interesting to hear this new perspective.

Feeling Grateful

I feel extremely lucky to be part of this program and to call myself a Fulbrighter. I feel lit up by all that I’m learning, and ever more so inspired by my fellow Fulbrighters. I hope that I can inspire more colleagues in my district to explore travel-learning opportunities such as this. I truly didn’t expect to discover so much difference, diversity, and nuance unfolding before my eyes-- it’s hard to capture it all in real time or even in words. These new perspectives are amplified by the voices and reflections from my fellow teachers in our group as we hail from all over the country, each have our own unique lens. It makes for an incredibly profound and engaging learning experience for us all. 

Our time in Toronto has been so rich, and I’m so excited to learn more about education through a totally different provincial perspective in Saskatchewan!

Welcome to Saskatchewan

We’ve arrived and settled into our accommodations in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan! A place I’d never dreamed of visiting before in my life. Heather Zaruba from Nebraska says it reminds her of home and billboards flank the roads inviting us to “Visit North Dakota” which is 7 hours southbound. 

Saskatchewan is the home of Joni Mitchell’s early folk career (listen to Dear Sharon off the album Hejira), indeigenous musician activist Buffy St, Marie, the acclaimed University of Saskatchewan, the Synchotron machine, 46% of the global Potash industry,  Waneskewin Heritage Park & Unesco Site, Cowesses Residential School (the first of the recent series of unmarked graves discovered), the largest piece of arable land, the land of living skies, and our incredible guide for the day Candace Wasacase-Lafferty. 

Reconciliation and Reclamation

Candace greeted us warmly at the entrance of Wanuskewin Heritage Park, where she is a board member. Additionally, Candace is the Director of Honoring Nations Canada and Senior Director of Indigenous Engagement at the University of Saskatchewan where she led the realization of the Gordon Oakes Indigenous Student Center, where we will visit next Monday. 

Residential Schools

Candace began by telling us a bit about her background. She is Cree and Saulteaux, making her Anishinabe-- of the people.  Candace’s father was taken at age 5 to  Birtle residential school. Tragically, her father lost his mother (her grandmother) when he was  8 years old, though he did not learn the news until the following year and never learned what happened to her. Just last year in June 2021, 751 (!!!) unmarked graves were discovered in Cowessess, the former site of the Marieval Residential School which operated from 1899-1997 almost an entire century. Candace's grandmother’s bones among those graves. What happened at residential schools is terribly disturbing; it's hard to believe these practices went on until the late 90’s. For about a century the Catholic Church indoctrinated young indigenous people trying to wipe away their traditional language, culture, beliefs, ways of knowing, being and living-- unworthy of a marked grave. Justin Trudeau called this discovery “a genocide.” 

Indian Boarding Schools

In the US we had 367 “Indian Boarding Schools” with the same concept, different terminology. They too focused on policies of forced  assimilation, and like Canada, there are mass graves which you can read more about here. When you consider the US has 367 Indian Boarding schools (15 are still running) and Canada had 139 Residential Schools, you can see and imagine the reckoning and reconciliation that lies ahead for us Americans. Only this year are news media outlets beginning to cover this topic in the US. 

Candace maintains a hopeful attitude: “are we having an influence? Well it’s happening from story to story and heart to heart. I think it will take at least a generation but at least we are on a path.” She added that “reconciliation is for Canada, but reclamation is for the indigenous people.” 

As Candace tells her story, I can feel her resilience, her pride in her traditional heritage, the urge in her ancestral DNA to reclaim indigenous land, culture, and identity.  Additionally, I can feel  the spiritual history and energy of this land.  

Land Back for the Bison

The air is so clear and crisp that it hurts my lungs. The soft golden prairie stretches out into the horizon until meeting with lush, green rolling hills and the big sky. I made a mental note to paint it someday. Candaces introduces us to Dr. Ernie Walker. Who as a  young Texan archaeology student in the early 80’s  felt an energy on the land. With permission, he began to dig and found artifacts that predate the Egyptian empire 6,000 years ago and tell the story of the Plains nations. He found bison jumps, bison processing sites, tipi rings,  and the northernmost medicine wheel of the Plains nations. Dr. Walker made it his life’s work to bring bison back to this sacred land of Wanuskewin (meaning “peace of mind” in Cree) and with that recent success came the nomination as a world heritage site and will soon be featured in a Ken Burns documentary on North American prehistory and the traditional people of the Great Plains. Dr. Walker walks us down to the long stretch of plains that the newly arrived Bison call home.We could see a small family of 4: a bull, mom, and two baby bison, but were told there were about 15 bison total and more would be arriving in the coming weeks. I closed my eyes and envisioned a herd of bison running through the prairie.  It took a few moments for the profundity to sink in. After all it was a genocide of bison which sparked the settler colonialism we know today. 

Settlers and Semantics

It’s a stark and interesting contrast to see Candace in her traditional indigenous ribbon skirt and Dr. Walker in his Pendleton Texan rancher outfit complete with bolo and Stetson. However, despite their different origin stories and walks of life, they both have the same end goals: to preserve and reclaim lost, sacred history and land.

“We aren’t going to keep settler people away” Candace says, taking the role as liaison “we’re going to bring you in.” 

That word “settler” rings like a bell in my ears. It’s a word we all know from Oregon Trail, but I’ve never heard it used so often and so accurately before. I appreciate that it doesn’t imply race like “white men” or religion like “pilgrims” or the grossly euphemistic “explorers.” The word “settler” denotes one who colonizes, one who settles on new land, and more often than not one who takes another’s land. In any country with a history of cultural imperialism and colonization, making the semantic shift towards “settler” is a way to acknowledge the impact that settling has on indigenous populations and is a move towards truth and hopefully towards reconciliation. 

Inside the Wanuskewin Center and Art Museum

After our walk with Dr. Walker, we had lunch of bison burgers, elk burgers, three sisters chili, pumpkin seed salads with Saskatoon berry dressing (I believe they are Autumn Olive berries) with traditional fermented brown bread in the cafe.

Cycles in Language, Cycles in Thinking, Cycles in Nature

Afterward, we headed in to see the museum exhibits. I loved exhibits, especially the one that illustrated the sound-symbol correspondence of the Cree spoken language and illustrated how the written alphabet is not linear, rather it takes the shape of a star with more sound/symbols extending into the four directions of the wheel.

I loved the exhibition called “Thirteen Moons” in which artist Leah Marie Dorian shared the spiritual teachings of each monthly full moon and the feminine relationship with the moon cycle (of a 21 day cycle =13 moons) through beautiful, reverent, and intuitive paintings. 

Tipi Teaching as Guidelines for Life

I also really appreciated the “Tipi teachings” with the main tenets of indigenous ways of being/knowing spirit inscribed on exterior tipi panels. Did you know that every plains Tipi is erected with three foundational poles signifying obedience, humility, respect. These poles are the base by which all of the other poles are supported and in that way the Cree believe that human character is supported by obedience, humility, and respect. Please use the link above to learn about the other important tenets of Tipi teachings. There is a great video of an elder showing young kiddos how to weave the teachings into a hands-on social-emotional classroom learning experience.

  I was struck by how parallel these teachings are to the Yamas and Niyamas outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that I have been personally reading/studying/translating. It’s a comforting reminder that this innate spiritual wisdom is universal within the collective unconscious and transcends language and culture.

Before too long we were called to the outdoor ceremonial circle where we got to watch powwow dances by a beautiful “fancy dancer” ,Tiana, a young woman on a journey of reclaiming her ancestral dances. She told of her fascination with the fancy dancers as a child visiting Pow Wows with her grandparents and decided to pursue traditional dancings as a hobby as she grew older. She travels to pow wows across Canada. She performed a dance with scarves spinning and hitting the scarves down on the ground around her. “I touch my scarves to the ground to let Mother Earth know that I’m the one making a ruckus.” she said.

While waiting for the bus to take us back to the hotel, I sat on the top of the hill overlooking the prairie, breathing in the freshest air, looking down at a pre-historic medicine wheel, imaging clusters of Tipis, envisioning the herd of bison grow and grow. There was a peace of being present in that moment and a connection with the land and the spirit in the land here. You can feel it. Wanuskewin is a very special place and arguably one of Canada's most significant recent cultural restoration projects. I’m filled with gratitude to have witnessed Wanuskewin's beauty and meditative "peace of mind" energy. Thank you.

Today was such a deeply moving day that I feel I need to write two separate entries describing our experiences.

University of Saskatchewan

We began the day early on Monday to finally visit the University of Saskatchewan where we met again with Candace Wasacase-Lafferty who had guided us at Wanuskewin. She brought us to The Gordon Oakes Red Bear Student Centre (GORBSC), which aims “to facilitate the coordination of effective student services for Métis, First Nations and Inuit students and build relationships within and outside the university with Indigenous peoples. The centre provides a home for Indigenous undergraduate and graduate student leadership and allows for mutual learning opportunities for students and faculty. The centre also functions as the university’s hub for on-campus Indigenous engagement and initiatives.” Candace advocated for this center since the early aughts, “nobody wanted to invest in indigenous space” she said. It wasn’t until 2014 USask decided to fund the centre and in 2016 they broke ground. 

A Ceremonial Gathering Space

Designed by a First Nations architect Douglas Cardinal of the Blackfoot Metis and modeled after a sweat lodge, the physical space is curvaceous, light-filled, and breathtaking. Natural, regional woods create a warmth within and on the ceiling is a medicine wheel, its four quadrants symbolizing the continuous harmony between one’s physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional realities. The wheel sits above the space used to engage in ceremony, and the filtration system situated in the middle of the wheel around a skylight is designed so that the smoke created by burnt offerings and/or smudging is scattered north, south, east, and west simultaneously. 

“Our Elders are our PhD’s” - Candace Wasacase-Lafferty

Elder Roland Duquette welcomed us into our first ceremonial smudging ceremony.  We sat in a circle around a bear skin, under the medicine wheel ceiling, with offerings of tobacco, sweetgrass, and sage in the center. He described the meaning behind a smudging ceremony -- a way to clear negativity in and around the spirit-- a tradition that is offered and open to all folks indigenous and non-indigenous every Monday in the GORBSC. “Sometimes I come home and my wife says ‘is your heart clear?” Elder Roland described how so often our hearts get lost in our everyday interactions and it’s hard to see/know/connect with a person. He described a recent interaction: “‘I said,’I didn’t feel your emotions when you were talking’. It was like his head was above water. So I said to him,’ let’s really talk and understand each other.’”

Coming Together and Speaking From the Heart

Elder Duquette has a gentle nature but a powerful presence and a beautiful fluidity with his words. He expressed that we all have stories, families, and personal identities that make us unique, but also connect us in community as human beings.”We are unique in design, color, language, but you offended me when you said we are different. We are the same in wheels and structure.” If we share who we are from the heart, we discover commonalities. He began by speaking about his family and home and how his history was carved by both and how both have changed and expanded who he was. He invited us to share “who we are” in storytelling format. We went around the circle telling our narratives, the complicated sorrows and the joys of who we are and where we come from. Elder Duquette has a way of speaking from the heart that is contagious and so we all found ourselves speaking from the heart too; sharing our most vulnerable truths and selves, hugging, and crying, and growing closer together. The intimacy and vulnerability that our Saskatoon group shared in this ceremony drew us closer us as a family. As super-teachers, we often live in our heads, but this experience moved us into our heart spaces. It was transformative and unforgettable.

SkyDancer 

The ever-connected Candace invited Elder poet Lousie B. Halfe to join our circle after the smudging ceremony. We were overjoyed to learn that she has been recognized as Canada’s National Poet Laureate for 2021. Louise, who also goes by Skydancer, is also a survivor of residential schools like Edler Roland Duquette. She is also a Jungian therapist which she attributes in large part to healing her past traumas. She generously gifted each of us a signed copy of each of her poetry books. I’m so excited to use these in my classroom next year and share them with colleagues. 

Indigenous Programming & Ongoing Movements

Candace is a big deal here at USask as the senior director of Indigenous initiatives and community relations in the provost’s office at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). USask boasts the highest Indigenous enrollment rate of any other Canadian university at 14%. 

Before leaving campus we were encouraged to look into and commemorate “Orange Shirt Day” a movement to remember the missing indigenous children and the legacy of Canada’s residential school system annually on September 30th, and every last Friday at USask. The movement is gaining traction, Queen Elizabeth has acknowledged the day and the Canadian Parliament has called it a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation beginning last year in 2021. 

St. Francis Cree Bilingual School

In My Humble Opinion, the Most Inspiring School in North America

Before you start reading this entry, please pause and take 4 minutes to watch the St. Frances Cree Bilingual School video linked above. You might want to have a tissue nearby as you learn the inspiring decade long advocacy for this K-8 school to receive provincial recognition and funding. 

In addition to treaty education which is taught in all Canadian schools, St. Frances Cree Bilingual School (on Treaty 6 land) supports Cree culture, language, and heritage programming at the school. The school has a drum group, traditional flute players, pow wow dance troupe, and annual pow wows which have been integral in helping students embrace traditional aspects of their Indigenous heritage and identity. Elders and teachers support the implementation of traditional Cree ceremonial practices throughout the school day.

Parent Power: Voice & Vision

What an honor and privilege it was to be able to visit what will soon be the largest indigenous language school in the world. St Frances Cree Bilingual School focuses on nehiyaw language and culture. The school serves nearly 700 students, representing 57 Saskatoon neighborhoods and 55 First Nations communities. St. Frances is such a unique and special learning community, with a level of parent engagement, involvement, and empowerment that is rarely seen. Two of the original four mothers who advocated for the school (as seen in the video Jayce & Cece) welcomed us along with the school principal, assistant principal, school superintendent, and KoKo Shirley (who I’ll speak more about later). Through the initiative led by these four moms, St. Frances has been funded by Saskatchewan Ministry of Education and First Nations Bank to rebuild an entirely brand new school reflective of traditional values in 2024.

A Visionary Place to Learn

Architectural plans for the new St. Frances School will reflect traditional ways of being and knowing and the Cree identity, values, and language. The shape of the building will reflect the Northern Lights, nehiyaw words like “Miyo Pimohewin,” meaning “to walk in a good way,” will be etched into the exterior. This phrase is a pillar for SF’s overarching traditional moral and ethical teachings. What I found most interesting will be the use of pod-classrooms to engage in collaborative teaching and learning. This design is emblematic of the communal mindset of indigenous tribes. The Elders said to us “please don't put the children in boxes.” Instead there will be a circular community classroom in the center and small groups can break off into smaller class pods around the communal classroom. I can’t help but notice an affinity to circles versus lines in Indigenous architecture. We saw similar designs in the Gordon Oaks Centre earlier today. The outside will have tipis, fire rings, a medicine garden, and an herbal medicine laboratory.  

Principal, Assistant Principal, and KoKo

One of the most interesting factors was the administrative structure. Whereas in Halton district in Toronto, Gaby Ecchevaria spoke about the importance of regular consulting with indigenous elders. However at St. Frances, Koko Shirley oversees the daily runnings of the school alongside the principals. KoKo or “kôhkom” meaning “your grandmother” in Cree takes on a leadership role with a focus on indigenous knowledge and language. She is not a third party that is consulted, rather she is in the school, running the school, checking in with parents and families. Beyond this the Principal is Cree and Vice Principal is Metis so the students see themselves in the school leaders. 

The linguist and *almost/aspiring Polyglot in me LOVED sitting in on the Cree lessons. I learned SO much about the transcription from sitting alongside Jaden as we translated and conjugated verbs. Here’s a brief overview of Cree phonics and phonemics-- if you like to nerd out on that kind of stuff like me. 

Challenges & Techniques

The biggest challenge it seems is finding highly qualified bilingual English-Cree teachers. Unfortunately due to residential schools the Cree language skipped a generation: “My kids are more fluent in Cree than I am” said Jayce, one of the original four super moms. We saw a variety of teaching styles and methodologies as we explored the classrooms, some teachers employing songs and TPR (total physical response) to play Simon Says with morning routine words. We also saw teachers using word walls and matching games to learn about animals in Cree. In the 5th grade classroom students were using letter by letter translation methods to write common verbs in Cree. As a new language teacher it was really interesting to see all the different language acquisition techniques at work and the gradual increase in linguistic complexity!

Teaching Kids How to Love Themselves

Jayce, the parent advocate, original 4 supermom spoke to the drive behind her advocacy for the school: “Our kids come to school without the knowledge of how to love themselves. That’s what we try to nurture here because these kids deserve that.”

Today was interesting. Originally we were supposed to meet with a panel including representatives from the Saskatoon Public Schools, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, they were unable to make it. This allowed us a more intimate meeting with Rob Norris, the province’s former Education Minister. Rob has had a very varied and interesting career. He has been Coordinator of Global Relations at the University of Saskatchewan. member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly as  Minister of Advanced Education, Employment, Labour, Immigration, and Innovation as the Legislative Secretary for First Nations and Metis Peoples; and as if that wasn’t impressive enough also as the Senior Government Relations Officer for Canada’s synchrotron

Braiding Together a History with Many Strands

Rob’s experiences in global education, national education, higher education, indigenous rights, politics, policy, history and science made him an ideal speaker. His style of oration was so unique, he seemed to weave three different threads/lines of thinking together in real time as he made his contextualized points. Rob really wanted us to see parallels between US and Canadian history, have a more nuanced understanding of settler-indigenous relations during the time of the Metis Rebellion-- a guerilla resistance led by Louis Riel. As Rob told the history of Chief Whitecap arriving at Regina before Riel is hung with his neighbor, a white settler named Willoughby. Willoughby was able to speak/translate for Chief Whitecap and have Louis released from execution. At this point, I realize that this third narrative thread is the telling of the first moment of “reconciliation.” (Note: I’ve not been able to find adequate sources to fact-check this history- so grain of salt).  

Good Work

Rob also gave us some  practical advice as well. “You can be doing good work,” he said, “make sure people are seeing that you are doing good work.” This was in reference to his leadership in the establishment of a rare scientific device called a synchrotron at USask. It was his innate networking skills that was able to attract funds, believers, and investors. As someone who is quiet about my work and accomplishments, I hope to work on this in the coming academic year.

Remai Modern

After meeting with Rob Norris we walked down to have a private tour at Saskatoon’s Modern Art Museum. Housed in a huge, modern building along the river. Carol and Wendy greeted our group and selected their favorite 3 exhibits for us to see. It seemed we had the whole museum closed to ourselves! The first exhibition was an impressive collection of modern art including Picasso’s lithographs and noteworthy impressionist landscapes.

Buffalo Boy Won’t You Come Out?

We ascended to the next exhibition by Buffalo Boy, Adrian Stimpson, an indigenous “two spirit” (homosexual) who makes sculptural, visual, and video art -- typically using/wearing Buffalo hides-- to express the process of reconciling with his history, culture, and identity. His works were powerful and even chilling. 

My interpretation: by killing the buffallo, the settlers killed the indigenous spirit, Buffalo Boy as artist and alter ego attempts to reclaim and revive the buffalo in and through art and in doing so is reclaiming and reviving the vivacity of indigeneity. 

Water is Life

Our final exhibition was called “Great Plains” and was a collection of regional artists from unsurprisingly, the great plains region. My favorite exhibition was a collection of signs from the fight to preserve water on the Dakota Access Pipeline. The words on the sign felt like universal calls to life; stark but poetic, written in every shade of blue.

Some of my incredible colleagues, Becky, Olivia, Anastazia, and Jorge have put together a panel discussion on their take-aways and hope to present as panelists at SXSW. Please take a moment to create an account and VOTE! Please and thank you!