Monday, March 12, 2012

First Nations in the news

It's been a while since I've blogged! School's been keeping me busy and I've been busy fixing up the pages and adding resources - it's overwhelming sometimes when you realize how much information is really out there.

I wanted to share this article I found today, which talks about Aboriginal people and the education system (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/23/pol-first-nations-education.html). It really bothers me that there is such a lack of awareness surrounding this issue. There are Aboriginal people living in our country in extreme poverty, worse than I've seen while living in the slums of El Salvador, but yet no one seems to know, care, or do something about it. This is a very complex situation. It isn't a matter of sending money, or houses, or telling the aboriginal people to “just move”. 



In this article The First Nations Chiefs say that it is difficult to improve education unless the government also deals with the poverty, shortage of housing, under-funding of child welfare services, etc. In the meantime, however, how can we as educators, not only educate people on the atrocious living conditions of our fellow citizens, but also eradicate negative stereotypes that people may have in regards to aboriginal people? I will eventually create a new "page" on my blog dedicated to First Nations people and issues, and resources that can helps us, teachers, help and educate all of our students (including the aboriginal students) in our class. 



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Multiculturalism and The Arts

This past week we had to hand in an assignment for our Arts class. I really enjoyed doing this assignment in which we had to choose a theme, and with it, create 10 different Arts lessons touching on each and every strand in the Arts curriculum. I chose to go with the theme of multiculturalism - in my assignment, I take my students on a trip around the world, visiting 6 countries and exposing them to a world of culture, adventure, music, and tradition. Click here to see the assignment. You can also view more details on it in "The Arts" page. Do you have any comments/ideas on other multicultural themes or ideas for the classroom?