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Module 2 Reflection

ellaflitcroft

3-5 artifacts from my learning:

1. Kinship & Community

  • I learned that building a classroom community can go beyond teacher-student relationships and focus on kinship, connection, responsibility, and caring for one another.
  • This has made me think about creating a classroom where students learn from and support each other.
  • Connection to my inquiry: I want to use sharing circles, group activities, and relationship-building to create a classroom where everyone feels they belong.

2. Witnessing & Deep Listening

  • I learned that witnessing is more than simply listening. It involves remembering, respecting, reflecting on, and carrying knowledge forward.
  • This made me think differently about how students can learn from each other’s stories and experiences.
  • Connection to my inquiry: I want to create more opportunities for students to listen deeply, reflect, and think about how their learning can influence their actions.

3. Health, Wellness & Indigenous Leadership

  • I learned that leadership can focus on relationships, community well-being, responsibility, respect, and caring for future generations, rather than simply being the person in charge.
  • Connection to my inquiry: I want to model these qualities as a teacher and give students opportunities to lead, collaborate, support each other, and take responsibility within the classroom.

4. Indigenous Leadership – Autumn Peltier

  • Learning about Autumn Peltier showed me that young people can be powerful leaders and that leadership can involve advocating for water, land, community, and future generations.
  • Connection to my inquiry: I want to give students opportunities to develop their own voices and understand that they can contribute to their communities, regardless of their age.

To Date Reflection (Modules 1&2):

Looking back at the first two modules, I have realized that I still have a lot to learn about Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing. Before this course, I understood the importance of respecting Indigenous peoples and learning about their history, but I didn’t always understand how deeply land, relationships, community, culture, and learning are connected.

One of my biggest takeaways has been that Indigenous learning should not just be something I add to one lesson or unit. The First Peoples Principles of Learning have made me think more about how I teach, including building relationships, learning through experience, connecting with the land, and creating a strong classroom community. Learning about kinship, witnessing, deep listening, leadership, and land-based learning has also given me new ways to think about my role as a teacher.

I have also become more aware of the responsibility that comes with learning. Whether it is using respectful terminology, creating a meaningful land acknowledgement, or learning from Indigenous knowledge, I need to approach these things with humility and continue learning rather than assuming I already know enough.

This connects to my inquiry question: How can I meaningfully and authentically incorporate Indigenous perspectives and the First Peoples Principles of Learning into my everyday classroom practice? So far, I am realizing that the answer is not just about what I teach, but about how I build relationships, how I listen, how I learn, and how I create a classroom where students feel connected to each other, their community, and the land.