Technolandy

Day 14 (of 2025/26) our districts pause for an Indigenous Focused Learning Day

HEHAWŠLN

Moving Forward

Note: I am a fan of sketchnoting, but often get frustrated with how mine often defer to ‘word notes’ so this time, I am trying “comic strip noting” (with key descriptors/notes/reminders below). I still ended up being ‘too wordy’ but I might be onto something…

Belonging

* chronic absence > 18 days absent

– lean into ‘why’

– how does this influence/ebb&flow with online learning choices

– from Dr Marie WIlson – keep an eye on the lens of T&R – Residential schools didn’t just lead to a hate of that school… but also ‘of schooling’ – bonus consideration: where… 

Landy Need to put onto post it: do we need to start a relook at the concept of ‘late’ and lean into -ish mindsets – would being more flexible with ‘on time’ (a factory mindset) help support a shift from being absent to being late as a step to seeing a value of being on site (whatever that looks like) eg school starts at 9-ish, classrooms are open to start a gathering at 845… stop the stigma of ‘showing respect by being precise with timing’. I still recall an early mindset of feeling better being absent for a day in grade one than the indignity of being late (got delayed because of a train… yes, I lived on the right side of the tracks (in my mind)… what if we likewise had a flexible end time… the only ‘researched amount of time for learning’ I have come across is via Finland, and why they do 45 minutes with a 15 free time break… not our model (yet) 

Literacy and Numeracy

• Reading brain
• Explicit instruction
• Phonics & Phonemic Awareness
• Foundational Numeracy Skills

Landy Need to put onto post it: mindful modelling of adults and elders reading and mathing for joy, not as part of the job (eg reading with/to students; mathing textbook examples <— still important, but relatively nobody is showing that these skills are valuable beyond a ‘for learning’ lens)

Graduation

Collective accountability

• achievement gap is systemic
• Don’t pathology of indigenous students/families

Landy Need to put onto post it: why do we continue to focus on a systemic wish of a five year completion rate when we know so much more about neurology and that this mindset is very classist and racist in its dogma… can we more celebrate a six year and 10 year graduation rate (which would still embed and honour 5 year achievers)

Truth and reconciliation is everyone’s responsibility.

Land: We would like to express our respect for and gratitude to the Tla’amin people whose traditional and treaty territory qathet School District resides on.

We recognize the ongoing impacts of colonialism and are committed to our own learning and unlearning while courageously working towards decolonization and indigenization through truth, healing, celebration and reconciliation. 

Schema: includes the way we are wired + what we see and hear + what is presented to us + + + = why some people ‘are that way’ — admittedly there is a great amount of ignorance within our country – literally generations did not focus on indigenous histories and ways, and FN had to do the heavy lifting to shift that momentum. Thus we need to do some unlearning as well as learning… remedial (?) learning… and the approach that the attitude of one group of people knew what was better for other groups of people (gov’t records – get rid of the In) metaphorically shouting when facts and truths were kept silent on these topics (admittedly, not every school is every school). My example remains, my peer group learned/saw Louis Riel as a Canadian architect – but many friends I met in university learned of him as a key Traitor to the formation of Canada… 

Reconciliation includes addressing and seeing how/why some people are ‘stuck’. This is a cultural thing – and lectures and finger pointing won’t gain traction of change… stories and shares do… Murray Sinclair: It’s all about respect. Even the commission looking at this (TRC) knew that multiple povs were needed to define and align some of these terms and ideas.