In Defence of Robin DiAngelo’s Work
On the eve of the release of Robin DiAngelo’s new book, Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm (April 6, 2021), it has become fashionable to throw her... Read More
Blog
Z is for Zzzzz: Apathy as Resistance
In July 2016, controversial radio host and columnist, John Gormley wrote a piece for the Star Phoenix about his ennui with activism. After referencing protests around Indigenous sovereignty and Black... Read More
X is for Xmas Gifts and the Wealth Gap
I remember reading an article about the racial wealth gap in the States. It said that the average Black family would need 228 years to build the wealth of a... Read More
V is for Viewpoint: Looking at the World Through Lines and Circles
A few summers ago, I was in a social justice class with a Cree elder. We were talking about inclusion. My Cree classmate had a really difficult time understanding this... Read More
K is for Keeping the Light on Racism
Over the past weekend, I had the interesting experience of being trolled. Wikipedia defines an internet troll as someone who “sows discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting... Read More
U is for Unsettling
I have fond memories of my grandmother’s farm. In the summers, we would often go there to visit for a weekend. I remember feeding the chickens, milking the cows and... Read More
Q is for Questions: The violence of disbelief
Over the past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend Saskatchewan’s annual Festival of Words. From July 13-16, Moose Jaw was the gathering place for some of Canada’s most prominent... Read More
M is for Maps
I posted a South-Up map of the world in my classroom last year. On this map, South America and Africa are on top, and Europe and North America are on... Read More
L is for Language
During the 2015 federal election, the Liberal party under Justin Trudeau pledged to resettle over 25,000 Syrian refugees. This became a polarizing issue in the election and in the Canadian... Read More
S is for Shut Up and Do the Dishes: Advice for Allies
I was at an Anti-Racism conference in the Fall of 2016 when a White professor asked the Métis presenter, Chelsea Vowel, what role she thought “allies” should play in terms... Read More
Y is for Yearly: Why Ritual is important for Reconciliation
What is the point of a flag and tipi raising ceremony? Will students remember what it means the next day, or the day after that? Is this the best use... Read More
P is for Plan
On Canada Day, I spent the afternoon in the park with our local Aboriginal association conducting a Blanket Exercise. In a Blanket Exercise, participants take on the roles of Indigenous... Read More
G is for Genocide
On July 1, 2017, Canada will mark 150 years as a country. As a teacher, I have a number of cute crafts to choose from. A hand-print Canadian flag shirt?... Read More
I is for Indian Dances
If you want to get up close and personal with cultural appropriation in Canada, there is no better place to start than your kid’s piano book. It turns out that... Read More
F is for Forts
I caught myself saying that I was going to “hold down the fort” the other day. This is an expression that I grew up with and that I have been... Read More
N is for Native
Oxford Living Dictionaries defines a ‘native’ as “a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not.” In Canada, this... Read More
T is for Treaty Walk
Two weeks ago I ran the Regina Police Service (RPS) half marathon and I wondered at the end if what I had actually done was a Treaty Walk. In the... Read More
J is for Jobs: White Teachers and Cultural Appropriation
“They want our stories without our bodies.” …Peter Sellers played an IndianAngelina Jolie played someone who is mixed-race They want our stories without our bodies. — Muna Abdi (@Muna_Abdi_Phd) June... Read More
R is for Reconciliation and our Heart Garden
With the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final report, Canada was ushered into an era of reconciliation. The TRC (2015) defines reconciliation as “establishing and maintaining a... Read More
O is for The Orenda and Trojan Horse Reconciliation
“[The Orenda] would be well placed, not only on the curricula of aboriginal studies courses, but on all Canadian history and literature courses” (Fraser, 2013, par. 9). As we try to teach for reconciliation, what role should Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda play in our classrooms?... Read More
A Jumble of Collected Thoughts on Reconciliation
Can’t help but be angry at how many (rich) white men are leading the “reconciliation” conversation. — âpihtawikosisân (@apihtawikosisan) October 19, 2016 @nicholas919191 @CBCBecauseNews @cbcradio @Mysterio_Rising @jessewente @RebeccaNorthan Forgot the... Read More
W is for Witness
On a cold February day a few years ago I happened upon the Witness Blanket installation at the University of Regina. Designed to replicate a woven blanket, the Witness Blanket... Read More
H is for Headdress
A lot has been written about headdresses, in particular, what is wrong with non-Indigenous people wearing them. Cosmo: I Made the Mistake of Wearing a Native American Headdress; Please Don’t... Read More
D is for Disappeared: Settler Colonialism and the Disappearing ‘Indian’
A few months ago, my daughter came home proud about having made some of her friends laugh. Apparently, she had said, in the context of learning about pre-contact First Nations,... Read More
A is for Awakening: Coming to Understand Myself as a Settler
As with many White people in North America, I have spent most of my life trying to define myself by what I am not. I have seen Whiteness as an... Read More
C is for Colour-Blindness
I was talking to a friend the other day and he was asking me about the topic of my thesis. I told him it was about colonialism in the classroom.... Read More
In Defense of Homework
I just finished reading Heather Shumaker’s article, ‘Homework is wrecking our kids: The research is clear, let’s ban elementary homework.’ Articles like this one about the evils of homework are driving... Read More
B is for Blackness, Blindness and Bulletin Boards
Every two weeks, students in my class work on learning how to spell a list of twenty French words. Every morning when they arrive in class they have to write... Read More
E is for Erasure
For a ‘Kindness Counts’ display, my students and I were making a chain of paper dolls. Each student was responsible for coloring one doll as themselves. One of the options... Read More
What is my job as it relates to digital citizenship?
Quickmeme.com I began this class feeling pretty confident that I knew what to do to teach and model digital citizenship in my class. I have two classroom blogs and my... Read More
Who Owns the Internet?
License: CC0 Public Domain Photo Credit: succo I began to wonder about copyright and the internet near the beginning of this class when Katia Hildebrandt explained how to “properly” use... Read More
The Future is Here: Take a look…
“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” Rabindranath Tagore The Institute for the Future (IFTF) for the University of Phoenix Research Institute... Read More
Talking to Parents
This is my fifth year of blogging in my classroom. Every year I felt like I was doing a better job at blogging and being transparent about how I was... Read More
Delving into the Digital Divide
“Hands across the Divide” © Copyright zoocreative and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence Van Dijk, Jan. (2006). Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics. 34. The Netherlands: University of... Read More
Appreciation or Appropriation?: Image usage and Aboriginal Art
It was Orange Shirt Day yesterday, September 30th. A day to remember and honour Residential School Survivors and to press for education funding equity for First Nations’ students. I wore... Read More
To Indigenize or To Not Indigenize?: That is not my question.
I have spent the last three weeks at an anti-oppressive summer institute at the University of Regina, taking two Masters classes about anti-oppressive education and curriculum development. I followed this... Read More
Discipline Policy
Here’s my discipline policy from last year. I think it still applies. Discipline Policy 2013B _2_
The jailbreak
After weeks of website hosting challenges, forgotten passwords and fiddling, I’ve finally made it to the point of posting! Hello! I have decided to call this blog, a digital place... Read More