I was fortunate enough to been apart of the Indigenous Day of Learning on September 25, 2020 held by SD57. It was truly a remarkable experience and very insightful, thanks to the in depth perspective of Indigenous education and struggles highlighted by Dr. Dustin Louie and Dr. Niigaanwewedam Sinclair. Although not being in person, the workshops were an amazing experience through zoom and I really appreciate the hard work everyone put forth to provide us the opportunity to gain more knowledge and insight to try to incorporate Aboriginal Education in our classrooms. Something I really took away from this experience asides from the amazing Indigenous resources and curriculum content, that it is imperative that we future educators attempt to weave Indigenous content and school community. With repetition, familiarity, and confidence teachers can feel comfortable and successful in embedding Aboriginal Education in their classroom and a provide a more inclusive environment for all students. Diving into Aboriginal education is vital for our communities and surrounding Northern regions where Aboriginal youth represent a large portion of the population in our school systems. Some of these youth struggle with issues of identity and loss of culture, as well as other extenuating circumstances that may be prevalent in their lives and hinder their learning experience at school. I firmly believe that if we commit to Aboriginal content from Kindergarten to grade twelve may provide some Indigenous students a sense of pride, identity of who they are and engage or express themselves in the classroom to celebrate diverse classrooms. This is even more beneficial for non-Indigenous students to help them understand and empathize Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous perspective and cultures. My next step is to utilize and try to implement the valuable resources we have been provided in this workshop when i become a future educator and try to improve and educate myself more on Indigenous education and ways to implement the great resources provided to us in our classrooms.
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