School Name: Silver Creek Elementary
School District: SD#83 North Okanagan-Shuswap
Inquiry Team Members:Noah Ralston nralston@sd83.bc.ca
Katherine Ralston kraslston@sd83.bc.ca
Sam West Swest@sd83.bc.ca
Alexa Klassen akllassen@sd83.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: kmazur@sd83.bc.ca
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE
Grade Levels: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Area(s): Arts Education, Language Arts – Oral Language, Social Studies
Focus Addressed: Aboriginal understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Indigenous pedagogy, Social and emotional learning
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can we transform physical learning space (indoor and outdoor) to enhance indigenous cultural perspective?
Scanning: Our Indigenous Support Worker led the students through lessons on the medicine wheel and teachers extended these lessons in their Social Studies Classes.
Focus: We wanted to create a structure that brings Indigenous Perspectives into our school. The Indigenous Learning Circle will do that. It will be something that kids will play on and use in their classrooms each day. We want our students and staff to understand what the medicine wheel represents and how it connects to a balanced healthy life.
Hunch: Students will be more reflective and intuitive when it comes to understanding their choices in life. The balance of emotional and spiritual and physical well being should be taught and understood when things are out of balance. As a team we have always tried to teach self regulation skills to our students but this needs to be continued.
New Professional Learning: Our TRC was great in helping us gather ideas for this inquiry project as well as our Indigenous support worker, Nicole. It was great as a staff to develop a rich plan involving so many aspects of learning for our Indigenous Learning circle.
Taking Action: 1. Teach the principles of Indigenous people
2. Teach the medicine wheel
3. Create an artistic representation of one aspect of the medicine wheel (plants, seasons, directions)
4. Community build a circle of 28 concrete logs outside in the playground.
5. Attach wood for benches across the top
6. In September each class will be given a direction/section of the wheel
7. Each class, using printmaking principles, will make a symbol or art form representing their section. We will make pictographs of the image on the concrete tubes.
8. Using rocks we will create a mosaic of the animal of each section.
9. We will erect a plaque that states the philosophy and educational connection of our learning circle.
Checking: The students love the circle but have had very little time to use it. the construction will be done soon. we are very satisfied with our circle, I think it is the nicest in the district.
Reflections/Advice: Our learning was deep and ongoing, it connected to students in every grade level. Next we will make pictographs to decorate the concrete posts. Then we will make a rock mosaic of our animal. Then we can use it as a learning circle. Next time put the sauna tubes deeper in the soil.