Ice Fishing in God’s Lake Narrows

Ice fishing in God's Lake Narrows

Last month, Rebecca and Mackenzie from the Learning Bird team visited God’s Lake Narrows in Manitoba. This was Rebecca’s second trip to the community. During her time onsite, she met with educators to walk them through accessing resources that support their teaching. At the same time, Mackenzie filmed in and around the community to gather footage for the school’s custom content.

The team had the opportunity to film ice fishing for one of the new resource kits we are making together. They drove by snowmobile for thirty minutes over the snow and ice until they finally reached the net. After getting set up and removing the ice covering the hole, the net was pulled from the lake a few feet at a time to remove the fish before they froze at the surface. The team was busy documenting the process, but they got a chance to pull the net. It was definitely harder than it looked!

This was the first time either Mackenzie or Rebecca had the chance to ice fish. They were both delightfully surprised by the processes of net setting.

Teacher Coaching Community Visits

St. Theresa Point community visits

This past month has been an exciting time for the Learning Bird team. We’ve been busy travelling to the communities we work with to support educators, show off the fantastic lessons that communities have created, and collect resources from within communities to create even more lessons. We wanted to share some of our experiences on these community visits. Four team members have shared their most recent school and community visits below. During these trips, our team connected with educators one-on-one, and we had some great discussions along the way.

Cross Lake, Manitoba

Peter's Community Visits

I’m Peter, an Education Account Lead at Learning Bird. I work with educators and administrators to help integrate Learning Bird resources into their classrooms. Recently, I got to see the beauty of Northern Manitoba when I visited Cross Lake. I spent two days working closely with educators at Mikisew High School. I also participated in various activities and events while in the community.

My work with educators consisted of helping them develop ideas to integrate more digital resources into their teaching practice. I met with educators in small groups, discussing pedagogy and digital technology. Educators spoke of the challenges of including digital resources in a remote community. I worked with them to address those challenges.

While on-site, I also had the chance to run a Professional Development workshop. It focused on activities that educators could run in the classroom with limited access to digital technology. Educators had the chance to share some of their own strategies with one another. They discussed how they would use these new activities in their pedagogy.

snowshoes

Mikisew High School

The school community at Mikisew High School welcomed me, and I was able to help out during the school’s Mini-Festival. I led my group of learners through various games and challenges happening all around the school. Activities included Moose Calling, Trap Setting, Snowshoe Racing, and many others.

One evening, the community gathered at Cross Lake Sports Complex for a Jigging Contest. This was a great opportunity to spend time with Mikisew High School educators and staff outside the school. I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to partake in these events and activities. I am learning more and more about Northern Manitoba as time goes on and very much look forward to more community visits as soon as I can. A big thank you to all the Mikisew educators and staff for making me feel so welcome.

Lil’wat Nation, British Columbia

Joelle's Community Visits

Hello! My name is Joelle, and I am the Education Training Manager at Learning Bird. My goal is to ensure that our training and workshops go smoothly and meet the expectations of our partner communities and schools.

At the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of visiting Xet̓ólacw Community School in Lil’wat Nation for the second time this year. It was truly a great experience.

Upon arrival, I was welcomed with open arms by all staff members. Kevin, the wonderful and competent IT technician, helped support the update of their local server, which went smoothly. This enabled me to spend two days coaching educators on finding content on the Learning Bird platform to help support their instruction.

We revisited some content we worked on together last year in math, like “Similar Figures of Canoes,” and cultural content, like “Importance of Land to the Lil’wat/St’at’iyém’c People,” which was created to support their local “Walking the Land” curriculum. I also worked with the science and math educators to develop the content we are collaborating on this year. They’ve got some great lessons coming up!

School staff in Lil'wat Nation

One-on-One Conversations

What I particularly enjoyed from my interaction with educators on community visits is the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with each of them. This gave me insight into their personal successes and challenges in the classroom. I was able to adapt my coaching sessions to try and meet their needs. This also gave educators room to share their thoughts and feedback about Learning Bird which we greatly value.

While in Lil’wat Nation, I visited the community cultural center, where I finally met the lovely Lois. After speaking with her many times over the phone, I was glad to meet her face-to-face. I also have to admit that I went on a little shopping spree there and bought some lovely local items. From the beautiful mountains to the wonderful educators and staff to learners scaring me from behind doors every time I walked out of a classroom, I do have to say that this was an unforgettable trip. A big thank you to the principal, Rosa, for helping organize the community visits and to everyone there for being such an awesome group to work with.

St. Theresa Point, Manitoba

Rebecca's Community Visits

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I’m an Education Account Lead at Learning Bird. My role is to support educators in finding different ways to integrate Learning Bird lessons into their teaching practice.

I recently visited St. Theresa Point First Nation in Northern Manitoba. I had a wonderful time meeting with educators at both the Middle Years School and High School. While in the community, I had the opportunity to meet with educators individually or in groups of two.

During our sessions together, we were able to look at the new lessons we collaborated on with communities across Canada, talk about integrating these lessons into teaching, and discuss the benefits and challenges of using technology in the classroom. I also had the chance to review some lessons with educators while meeting with them. You can expect to see some great lessons from St. Theresa Point soon!

Skyline in St. Theresa Point, MB

Great Discussions

I had a great time meeting with educators during this trip. This one-on-one coaching style enabled me to have great discussions with educators on topics ranging from preserving language and teaching traditional values to different ways of connecting with learners. These discussions are great for helping me understand the school and the learners more. With these understandings, I can support educators even more by helping them find lessons that will meet their goals for their learners.

I really enjoyed being in St. Theresa Point at this time of year. It was still light out after school, so I could get out and walk around the community. Seeing more of the community and the land’s beauty enabled me to see some of what makes St. Theresa Point so special. The staff at both the Middle Years School and High School are always warm and welcoming. They care very much for their learners and want to do whatever they can to ensure they receive a good education covering the provincial curriculum and local traditions. The welcoming feeling I receive from everyone I see and the educators’ passion for their learners make St. Theresa Point such a wonderful place to visit. I want to thank all the school staff for helping to make community visits so memorable.

Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nation, Saskatchewan

Charlie's Community Visits

My name is Charlie, and I am an Educational Account and Content Lead at Learning Bird. My role involves working closely with school administrators, educators, and other community members to develop digital educational resources that address their schools’ needs.

I have travelled around the country on nine different airplane models over this past year, visiting schools. Most recently, I visited Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nation and the town of Wollaston Lake in Northern Saskatchewan. I met with educators at Father Megret High School one-on-one to discuss their needs and collect content that we will use in the lessons we are creating together.

Interviewing Educators

One of the educators I sat with, Mary Ann, recorded an interview to incorporate into the lessons we are collaboratively developing. We had a detailed discussion about topics that ranged from the upcoming North of 60 Agreement to her work translating the Dene language. She also provided the narration for a reading of the legend of Thanadelthur, the version told by her grandmother. Mary Ann has long worked to preserve and invigorate language and culture in the Denesuline community. I am excited and humbled to assist her through our work together.

Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nation School

Saskatchewan does not have daylight savings time, so its clocks never change throughout the year. This meant that, while it was dark in the morning, the sunny days lasted well into early evening, so I had some time to explore. Hatchet Lake is a special place. While I was there, it was cold (-40℃!). That did not stop me from going out for a long walk on the ice road on top of the lake. I was last in Hatchet Lake before the lake froze over in the fall. A lake barge connects the town to the highway during the warm months. In the winter, the ice road provides a more regular connection. I really enjoyed my time at the school and our work together. The staff was exceptionally warm and welcoming, and I look forward to my next community visits there. Masi chok!

These visits are some of the most recent trips our team has taken. Our team has the privilege of meeting many knowledgeable people and experiencing some amazing events in our travels across Canada. We will continue to share our experiences and stories as we partner with additional schools and see more of this great land.

If you are interested in learning more about how we collaborate with schools and support educators, or if you would like to see samples of the content we’ve collaboratively built this year, please contact us.

Three Approaches to Content Collection

collecting content in community

As Learning Bird’s Education Content Manager, one of my main responsibilities is conducting needs assessments with our school and community partners. Discussing the community’s academic and cultural needs helps us outline the resources we will create collaboratively. A resource could be a video, audio file, handout activity or project, or informational slideshow. During these conversations, communities provide materials that we can incorporate into their resources. These include photos, videos, educational resources, audio clips, and other materials that support learning. We incorporate these materials through our personalized approach to content creation.

Needs Assessments and Content Creation

One of the best parts of the needs assessment conversation is getting to know the community through the people. They share insights into teaching practices, learners, and content that best support the educators, learners, school, and community. Sometimes these are cultural resources to preserve language and traditions. Other times, they are academic resources to encourage student success in English language arts, math or science. It demonstrates that just as each community is different, so is its content needs.

These differences influence how I approach collaborative content creation. I visited three communities over the last few months to conduct onsite needs assessments: Treaty 4 in Saskatchewan, Gitsegukla in British Columbia, and Lac La Croix in Ontario. Each visit was radically different, from the landscapes to the meeting places and conversations. Yet they all resulted in the same outcome: an outline of the resource kits we would create for this project. Read on to learn more about each trip.

Treaty 4 Education Alliance

On a cold but sunny day at the end of February, I visited Treaty Education Alliance’s office in Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, for a jam-packed day of needs assessment and content collection. My colleague Roxanne and I met with their team of Student Retention Facilitators. We discussed the needs of the five schools we would be working with. Before the meeting, the team had sent some curriculum documents and educational resources to us. We already understood their inquiry-based approach to learning.

We determined they wanted to create resource kits based on storybooks researched, written, and illustrated by several grade 5 classes. These books contained an abundance of information about the communities and their history. As a team, we pulled out the major themes from each book. These included land loss, displacement, colonization, and residential schooling. We decided that four resources would address each storybook and cover the major themes. That way, learners from different schools could learn about each other’s histories.

We also discussed the potential of creating language resources. The team shared a wealth of educational resources and textbooks used in their schools. That allowed us to see a sampling of materials successfully used with learners. We left with our arms full of materials and an agreed-upon topic outline we could develop and expand on.

Gitsegukla First Nation

My trip to Gitsegukla in British Columbia was quite different from Treaty 4. Instead of meeting a whole team of educators, my colleague Kelsey and I drove to Gitsegukla Elementary School to meet with Terri, their grade 7 educator. Before diving into our content conversation, we first discussed her classroom. We talked about her learners and their learning needs, her teaching strategies, and the resources she uses in her classroom. During the conversation, she also mentioned resources she wished she had. We discussed some of the challenges she was facing and brainstormed some ideas.

After I had a better idea of her classroom situation and what her learners were like, we discussed the learning objects she would like to collaborate on. Terri lacked science resources, so we decided to dedicate all but one resource kit to science. We would focus on sustainability, cooking, recycling, and ecosystems. We reserved the last resource kit for an English language arts lesson about Indigenous poetry in British Columbia.

The next day, we observed a visiting scientist teach the learners about insects, bees, and pollination. It was great to meet the learners and observe them interacting in the classroom. I also took photos and collected footage around Terri’s classroom, throughout the school, and the surrounding areas. Collecting visuals helps us personalize our content and make it relevant for the learners, who will recognize their community in content while they are learning. Before leaving, we reviewed the outline with Terri to ensure that the topics and activities would suit her learners and teaching strategies. Through speaking with Terri, it was easier to see the daily reality of her classroom and understand the challenges that her learners face. That helps us ensure the content we’re creating together impacts her classroom.

Lac La Croix First Nation

My latest content needs assessment trip took me to Lac La Croix First Nation in Ontario for a week-long visit with my colleague Charlie. We had already created an outline with this community during previous needs assessment phone calls. Our goal was to come in-community to gather as many materials as possible for the resources we’d agreed to build together. That included recording interviews with Elders and videotaping cultural activities. Once we arrived at the school, we met with the principal Debbie and the team we would be working with during the week. We discussed the schedule of events and activities. We rearranged topics in the outline to accommodate what we could document and gather during our time in the community.

Over the week, the community and activities at the school immersed us, including smoking sturgeon and beaver, a fish fry, maple syrup tapping, and a community meeting about land. We recorded four sessions with community Elders and other Knowledge Keepers. They came to the school and taught the learners various topics, like hunting, land loss, treaties, identity, and culture. The team also sifted through boxes of photos of land-based activities from Debbie and scanned them digitally. We photographed other aspects of the community, such as the lake, forest, and Pow Wow grounds. Our team left with over 200 GB of images and video recordings at the end of the week. We will use them to create resource kits to help preserve and share the culture, traditions, and community members of Lac La Croix.

Personalized Content Creation

As you’ve read, our collaborative approach to content creation is highly personalized and varied from community to community. It allows us to meet the community’s unique needs, and it certainly keeps my job interesting.

If you would like to talk with us about collaborating on content creation for your school or community, don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-844-9022 or achieve@learningbird.com.