Nala'atsi Masks - Creating Connections

The case studies from the schools involved in the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network are filled with rich accounts of the ways in which teachers, principals, learners and elders are working together to create new and powerful forms of learning. We have been moved and impressed by the work at Nala'atsi School in Comox. Here is part of their story:

“Masks are elaborate and everyone has one.”

-       Nala’atsi Mask Project participant

Mask making has become an annual tradition at Nala’atsi in the Comox Valley.  Nala’atsi is an alternate program for Aboriginal students in grades 10-12 in School District #71.  The school is closely connected to the Nin’ogad, Wachiay, K’omox and MIKI’SIW Aboriginal groups, and the Mask Project is a way to bring members of the community into the school to work collaboratively with students.

Toresa Crawford has been teaching at Nala’atsi since the program’s inception in 2000.  She started the Mask Project several years ago, and has been focussing the school inquiry around how the project may increase students’ sense of belonging and cultural awareness through multi-generational connections with Elders in the community. 

This past school year Nala’atsi had 34 participants – a diverse group of Elders, students and community members with a variety of interests, abilities, skills and knowledge about their Aboriginal ancestry.  The group started with a sharing circle, with everyone introducing the person next to them and getting to know each other in a safe, respectful environment. Then, and over the course of the next two weeks, everyone participated in creating a mask and accompanying by a written piece that spoke to their creation.

All 34 participants completed the Mask Project. Often times Elders would come into the school to work on their masks with the students, sharing tea and stories, and building connections with one another. Take a look at this beautiful poster that showcases the culmination of this year’s efforts.

􀀂􀀃􀀄􀀅􀀆􀀇􀀈􀀉􀀂􀀊􀀇􀀋􀀌􀀍􀀎􀀏􀀐􀀎􀀐􀀑

On the final day of the project, the group shared tea and snacks and everyone will receive a copy of the poster as a keepsake. Toresa Crawford, through her recent AESN case study really captures why the project has become so successful: “It is important for our students to feel that they not only belong but that they have a network of people who they can count on in the Aboriginal community. Projects like this encourage diverse groups of people (who are often in different generations) to share their stories through art in a welcoming environment. It also provides many opportunities to make connections and to form relationships with positive role models”.

 We can’t wait to see what next year brings for the Mask Project. Until then, here a few comments from this year’s participants:

“The students are so interesting and I love coming into this building. I wish so much that I had had a chance to go to school at Nala’atsi. This place is VERY healing for me” - Elder 72 years

 “I didn’t think that it would be so revealing about who I am. I was okay letting others know about who I am” - Youth 16 years

“Every time I do this project (this is my second time) I feel better about myself and who I am as an Aboriginal person. It is empowering” - Youth 17 years

                                           Some of the Nala'atsi learners with their masks. 

Inquiry in Action - Leaning from BC

Right now, Linda and I are preparing to spend a week working with a group of schools in Sydney Australia who are interested in using Spirals of Inquiry to deepen their own work. As we were putting together our slides and our ideas for tomorrow, we were reflecting on some of the amazing work we have seen recently in BC. Over the next while, we are going to share some specific school stories with you on this blog - and we hope you will be as impressed and excited by the work as we have been.

Here are three examples just to kick this off.

Some of you may have read about the work on personalized learning taking place at George Bonner Middle Schools in Cowichan. We are pretty confident that if we dropped into George Bonner, we would be able to hear learners provide thoughtful answers to the key learning questions. Check out this recent article from Adminfo by principal Heidi Grant.

This year, we were fortunate to spend time in the Coast Mountains School District and to see the transformative work underway in a number of schools. We also really like this image from Suwilaawks Elementary School that was included in their growth plan. The work at Suwilaawks was also featured at the network seminar, but if you missed that, then take a look at this short video of a school on the move.

Finally, there has been a lot of interest in the Community of Learners work in Nanaimo. We really appreciate the teamwork that has created a short video explaining some of the key aspect of this work.
In addition to the Community of Leaners, there are also great video clips from other schools on the network website.   Stay tuned for more stories about BC schools over the summer!

And, all ideas about sunny Australia can be put to rest for this week at least. Storms are rolling in one after another.

Seminar 2013 - Videos now available

NOII Seminar 2013

Thank you to all who attended the annual Network Seminar held on Sunday, May 5^th, 2013 in Vancouver.  The focus of the Seminar this year was on the ‘down home world class work’ of BC educators, researchers and practitioners, and how that collaborative, world class, innovative work is contributing to the Network vision of EVERY learner crossing the stage with dignity, purpose and options.  It was a timely reminder that we all have a lot to celebrate!

Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation provided the welcome for the day, and spoke thoughtfully about the value of sharing traditions, language and learning with future generations.  Participants then had the opportunity to hear from a number of world class presenters:

-        Judy Halbert & Linda Kaser celebrated the disciplined approach to inquiry in which Network members collectively engage, and how this innovative approach is creating new opportunities for the NOII and AESN.

-        Laura Tait in describing how Aboriginal education is for everyone, reflected on how the personal is pedagogical, and encouraged us to reflect on who we are as educators and in so doing, ‘live’ inquiry.

-        Trish Rosborough shared her personal stories of building culture and identity. She demonstrated through story the value of building collaboration relationships between education and Aboriginal communities.

-        Nancy Perry & Deborah Butler spoke to the benefits of creating environments that support self-regulated learning while encouraging learner autonomy, and building capacity for educators to support this learning.

-        Paige Fisher, using her intriguing canoe metaphor and emphasis on teacher learning/teamwork, explained how creating a sense of belonging for learners is foundational to building confidence and success.

-        Brooke Moore captured how the Network is crucial as a safe space for teacher learning and collaboration, and the courage to swim against the stream as a collective of ‘blue fish.’

-        Catherine McGregor shared observations and reflections from her recent AESN impact study, and how Aboriginal inquiry is lifting all learners to new heights of engagement.

-        Jim Wright closed the day with a call to action, encouraging educators to take risks and embrace creativity through thoughtful leadership.   

These presentations are now available to view on the NOII website. Seminar participants also had the opportunity to network and break out into smaller, focused learning sessions.  Some key ideas that emerged include:

·       Difference between “professional development” and “teacher learning” is profound – a change in mindset.

·       Teacher learning is driven by teacher needs just as student learning is driven by student needs. There must be space for teachers to address their individual learning needs within school growth plans.

·       Teacher learning requires support on different levels, including sharing knowledge, experiences, research and beliefs.  Building relationships and trust between teachers helps build the capacity for teacher learning.

·       Celebrate both students’ and teachers’ successes in learning on a regular basis!

The themes of the day were seamlessly pulled together through the skilled facilitation of Debbie Leighton Stephens and Lynne Tomlinson. Thanks to everyone involved for contributing to another successful Seminar! 

Save the date now for next year. Seminar 2014 will take place the first weekend in May (May 2,3,4).  We are planning to build in more global connections and opportunities to network both within BC and beyond. Stay tuned for more details in the fall. 

Self Regulated Learning - UBC Summer Institute June 21

There were many highlights from the Network seminar on May 5 and very soon we will be posting video clips and the powerpoint presentations for all to experience. One of the key presentations was from Nancy Perry and Deborah Butler at UBC on self-regulated learning. We are so fortunate  to have some of the leading world experts right here in BC and we very much appreciate the generosity of Nancy and Deb is sharing their wisdom and expertise with all of us.

On June 21, they will be hosting a summer institute at UBC - Connecting Self Regulation to Learning in Schools. Please check out this opportunity.

Network Goes Global

In January Linda and I attended ICSEI in Santiago, Chile. While we were there we heard from April Lowe, a teacher leader in Sea to Sky district. April said we simply had to meet some friends of hers who teach at Colegio Institucion Teresiana - a Catholic school in Santiago.

The world is truly a network - through a friend of a friend of a friend (or something like that) it turns out that last summer April and another colleague from Squamish spent three weeks at this school helping teachers develop literacy strategies. Claudia Fábrega, one of the teachers from Santiago completed her MA at UBC and has close ties in Vancouver. 

April had planted the seed about inquiry and literacy and our conversation in  January led to our thinking - why couldn't a school in Chile be part of the network. With April's on-line coaching,   Colegio Institucion Teresiana has taken the plunge into inquiry with a specific focus on reading using Adrienne Gear's work as the basis for their new professional learning. Check out their NOII question and at the end of this post, take a look at the comments from Claudia about the progress they are making in their literacy work. It is pretty impressive!

We are excited about the potential for connections with schools in Australia as well. In June Linda and I will be working with 20 school in a suburban area of south west Sydney. They will be using the spiral of inquiry to focus their change efforts and to direct their professional learning - and they are especially interested in connecting with BC schools who are also working with the spiral of inquiry. Representatives from these schools are planning to attend the Network seminar in May 2014 to connect in person with BC colleagues. Stay tuned! Who knows what opportunities this might create.

Here's what Claudia had to say.....

Santiago of Chile

April 29th, 2013.

Dear April:

I have been working a lot lately but always thinking about you and about the wonderful experience I had with you while I was in Canada. You cannot imagine how useful has been everything you showed me; I am already implementing many ideas.

I have been working directly with teachers of preschool and elementary school. All photographs taken on our trip have been of great support to encourage reading. This experience has strongly questioned our pedagogical practices, which have not been very well evaluated recently, especially in Math.

Below I describe implemented actions and activities acquired from Canada´s internship:

Together with Magdalena we had meetings with the management team, academic coordinators (subject head teachers), preschool, elementary teachers and English teachers to share the experiences we had in Canada and also to share the challenges we face now to achieve our short and long run objectives.

During the meeting it was positively evaluated the opportunity of joining NOII.

Thanks to an internal reconstruction of our library we could rearrange the library´s functionality and incorporate several parameters observed in your library. Now, it has become a better area to work in, however there are still a couple of things that need to be fixed. Thanks to this rearrangement the bookshelves are placed in an efficient way to exhibit different books.

     Rules for library use were established in order to create an ideal place for research, reading and working.
1,636 text books were purchased (Spanish, Mathematics, Science, and History books for elementary school to tenth grade).

We reviewed all the personal reading lists and we changed many of them. All Students, from elementary to high school, have to read one book monthly for Spanish class so we decided to buy many different books.

The infant library helped increase the number and variety of texts in the classrooms, from preschool to fourth grade.

We reoriented and implemented the infant library in order to allow the little ones find books easier. It looks really nice and cozy now.

Students, from preschool to fourth grade, are participating in a one hour/week storytelling activity which is in charge of the librarian.

Every Wednesday morning all students, from preschool to 4th grade, have a period of silence reading before starting class. Each child must bring a book or choose one from the classroom and read for 10 minutes in silence.

The number of times that teachers read to children has increased; these readings are in groups and for the purpose of motivating reading. These readings have been incorporated in the weekly planning.

Every Friday preschool Children take a book from the classroom library to read it at home with their parents. Then, on Mondays they can comment on the book they read.

We are implementing some signage we saw at your school in order to provide visual information on certain learning processes.

a.     We celebrated “Book Week” from April 22nd to April 26th. This celebration used to be only one day, but we decided to expand the celebration to a week to highlight the importance of reading.

b.     We translated the poster "10 great reasons to read" and asked eleven and twelve graders (students specialized in the artistic area) to create different designs for the phrases. These designs are now displayed around the school in colorful posters. These posters will become part of the permanent library decoration. We also displayed the phrases at the school entrance and each classroom.

c.     High school students (eleven and twelve graders) who belong to the Student Council (16 in total) dressed as story characters, and on Monday and Friday mornings of Book Week they received all students at the school entrance. Also, during that week they told one story to preschool daily. This experience was highly valued by children and teachers.

d.     Students from seventh to twelve grades had an encounter with a Chilean writer named Francisco Mouat and the seventh graders are reading one of his novels right now. It was very interesting to see the level of reflection children had after this activity.

e.     Eleven graders had an encounter with Alvaro Bisam, also a writer. Both were enriching experiences for students.

f.      Different storytelling and plays were also performed using a technique called "Kamishibai" from preschool to sixth grade.

g.     Our students created micro illustrated stories which were shown every day.

h.     The Parent Center promoted a bartering book activity; this was held every morning in the lobby.

The teachers were given material for personal reflection and for preparing reading motivated activities.

As you see my dear friend, we have not stopped working and I feel personally responsible for transmitting the importance of what I learned from you to my students. I have a strong belief that what we do will significantly improve the quality of the learning process that our students go through, and we will have the opportunity to reflect on our teaching practices and make the correct changes when needed.

Nowadays, I have been with a lot of work and meetings, but I haven´t forgotten my commitment to implement these changes, I know we can achieve them.

The NOII will be implemented.

********************************************************************************

I hope you agree with us that this is a pretty impressive start to NOII involvement!

AESN Report - An Important Set of Stories

The final report and executive summary from the impact study on the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network is now available at http://inquiry.noii.ca


We encourage everyone to take a look.  The stories of impact and hope have much to offer all educators interested in strengthening outcomes for Aboriginal learners - and deepening the knowledge and understanding for learners of all ages.  The observations about the work still to be done are inspiring linda and me to redouble our efforts with AESN - and we hope they have the same impact on you too!

At the seminar  May 5, Dr. Catherine McGregor, the lead researcher on this study will provide some of her personal observations from the time she spent with educators from Prince Rupert to Arrow Lakes - and many places in between. We look forward to seeing many of our blog and twitter followers  - and our colleagues from across BC and the Yukon this weekend.

Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network – Inquiry Lifting All Learners

“If we are going to be professional and thoughtful teachers, then we have to ask, challenge and question” How do we do this better for kids? In our discussions we’ve also come to understand that what is good for Aboriginal students is good for everyone…..but it took all of us challenging the status quo to finally figure it out.” Network member

“AESN gave me the vehicle and place to do the work that was near and dear to my heart. It kept me going. You need a place to be validated where you work…I am motivated because AESN validates be in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. Network member

“The Network has given people permission to learn about Aboriginal education; it wasn’t in our sight lines prior to this.” Network member

This year the federal government through AANDC (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada) commissioned a research study to assess the impact of the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network. These quotes came teachers who were interviewed as part of the study and capture much of the essence of what we in AESN have been working on for the past four years. The final report will be released very soon.

The study concludes with the observation that AESN has had some very significant transformational impacts on schools, teachers and districts around the province – and that there is still a lot of work to be done before we realize the network goal of EVERY learner crossing the stage with dignity, purpose and options – and realize the dream of high quality and high equity learning experiences for every learner in BC.

We are very pleased that there are many opportunities for schools, regardless of where they are in BC, to become involved in networked inquiries for 2013-2014 starting right away. The Network seminar (registration information -  http://goo.gl/KoEda ) on May 5 at SFU Harbourside will feature many examples of transformative inquiry from AESN and perspectives from a number of highly respected Aboriginal leaders. At the seminar we will also be launching two new initiatives for schools to consider for the upcoming year.

First, as a result of financial support from the Vancouver Foundation, Debbie Koehn will be taking the lead on developing inquiries focused on Aboriginal understandings at the level of individual students.  Second, the Irving K Barber foundation at UBC is providing support for school teams who will focus their inquiries on transitions for Aboriginal learners – from elementary to secondary school and from secondary to post secondary.  ‘Dignity, purpose and options’ at transition points are the heart of this work.

And, all schools are always invited to pursue questions connected to making the goals of the local Enhancement Agreements come alive in classrooms. This has been the basis for AESN since its inception. We are very pleased that as a result of the sales of Spirals of Inquiry: for equity and quality and with recent funding support from the Ministry of Education, that all schools tackling important questions connected to Aboriginal learners and Aboriginal understandings will receive recognition grants at the conclusion of their case studies.  Stay tuned to the NOII website (www.noii.ca) for additional information about how to become involved.

We are grateful to DASH for the continuing partnership around inquiry, innovative practice and healthy living. AESN is a good example of what can happen when people of good will come together to tackle challenging issues in a spirit of inquiry.