School Name: Peter Greer Elementary School
School District: SD#23 Central Okanagan
Inquiry Team Members: Clint Maltais: clint.maltais@sd23.bc.ca, Alex Chan-Rancourt: alexandra.rancourt@sd23.bc.ca, Sheena Welsh: sheena.welsh@sd23.bc.ca, Whitney Martin: whitney.martin@sd23.bc.ca, James Minkus: james.minkus@sd23.bc.ca, Jeremy Sanbrooks: jeremy.sanbrooks@sd23.bc.ca, Rose Alexis: rose.alexis@sd23.bc.ca, Matthew Olson: matthew.olson@sd23.bc.ca, Sara Fletcher: sara.fletcher@sd23.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: clint.maltais@sd23.bc.ca
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE
Focus Addressed: How can we meaningfully integrate learning in our natural and local environment throughout the year, while embedding Indigenous ways of knowing and doing?
Inquiry Story: Our inquiry began when two of our educators wondered how we can move First Peoples’ Principles of Learning from practice, into meaningful pedagogy using a land-based approach. After scanning our students at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, we engaged our families in conversations about outdoor experiences and local knowledge in the Fall of this school year. We noticed their was a gap between families and students when it came to thinking about and communicating significant learning stories around our theme of nature connectedness and FPPL. As a staff, we explored our own assumptions around taking learning outdoors and using FPPL as a framework to guide instructional decisions. We committed to testing our assumptions through the implementation of three core routines – sit spots, story of the day, and reflective journaling/sketching. Our next steps are to set the conditions and create the space for these routines in the upcoming school year, and reflect on how these experiences might challenge some of our deeply rooted assumptions about education.
