February 18th

The Ed Camp class was a great way to network with students and work together to discuss topics pertaining to school and teaching. 

I checked out the parent communication group, Indigenous topics group and viewed 10 minutes of Hans’ Scratch demo- which was amazing!

For the parent communication group we talked about different ways to communicate with parents and how to keep communication positive with parents. Especially when many parents only hear from teachers when something has gone wrong or there are issues. We discussed making a weekly newsletter for parents so they could stay informed about what their child is doing in class. Further, we discussed how to handle aggressive conversations with parents and how to de-escalate/ avoid those types of conversations. Such as : parents should never be surprised by their child’s grades; as a teacher you should always be in communication with them about their child. Thus when report cards come out they are not surprised by what they see.

The Indigenous topics group, I joined into the group when they were discussing how to include indigenous education and principles in class. When I joined in the group was discussing how a teacher should not only rely on having an Elder come into the class to teach. As a teacher we should not always be relying on outside individuals to teach these topics. We have to take on that responsibility too, we may not be able to teach and explore all of the topics within Indigenous Education, but we must do our best to do what we can and learn. I had not thought of this before, because as a teacher we have to break out of our comfort zones and engage in other types of knowledge that are beyond our Western Education. I was given this website https://wsanec.com/learn-settlers/ for more information.