There was one student who had a Spiderman toque on and had a very difficult time keeping focused on the assignment he was given. The assignment was to colour in a circle above the French word for said colour. Since he was having troubles, I decided to see if opening up a conversation about his interest, Spiderman, would get him to work on it. After a short conversation about our shared love for Spiderman, I asked him what colours Spiderman’s suit was and what those colours translated to in French. He excitedly told me the correct colours and I followed up by asking him to use Spiderman’s colours in the correct spot. Although he only coloured in his favourite hero’s colours and then got distracted again, I felt as if it was a step in the right direction. It was good progress. 

I think if teachers could recognize student’s interests/passions and relate to them or at the very least, take an interest in them, it could lead to students feeling more understood and welcome in the classroom. 

Jounrey Towards reconciliation

My aesthetic representation is of four animals from the Grandfather Teachings in the form of climbing holds and volumes on a climbing wall at the Regina Climbing Centre. As a routesetter at RCC, my job is to create eye-catching, engaging, and safe problems for the climbers to engage with and hopefully enjoy. I know firsthand the strong sense of community in this gym. When new problems get set, you can often find groups of people all huddled around and working on the same problem. They do this while cheering each other on. My goal was not only to create something that made people look and say “I want to try that!”, but to also bring people together to work on the project. Luckily, I saw both.