Everything you know is wrong

Things I thought I knew

• Treaties are legal agreements between sovereign nations.
• Treaties are to last "as long as rivers flow"
• These agreements were signed by representatives of the Crown and First Nations leaders.
• There are three treaty areas in Alberta, 6,7 and 8.

In exchange for land, First Nations were given:

• reserve land (usually fairly crappy land)
• education
• health care
• a small amount of cash
• hunting and fishing rights
• no income tax for money earned on reserve
• no sales tax on reserve

Treaty people were not allowed to vote until 1960

They were not allowed to join the military unless they gave up their treaty rights.

Some things I thought but didn't know for sure:

• Indigenous people did not always understand the terms of the treaties
• There is only one area in Alberta not covered by a treaty, Lubicon Lake
• B.C. is not covered by treaty and they have been working on agreements as long as I can remember

Here are some things I learned:

• There is no word for "cede" or "surrender" in Cree
• Indigenous people see treaties as sacred agreements.  
• Indigenous people see treaties as a relationship. They were about peace and friendship 
• Indigenous people did not think historical treaties were about control, they were about sharing and honouring the land. 
• Oral history tells a different story about treaties
• Indigenous people did not "sign" treaties. They did not have a written language
• The terms of Treaty Six were changed as the treaty made its way from Alberta to Ottawa
• You should not even talk about the sacred nature of the treaty without smudging first
• You should not make any visual representation of a peace pipe
• Treaty rights in Alberta are being discussed at the United Nations and there are indigenous and non-indigenous treaty experts in Alberta

Where I belong

This is an activity to get kids thinking about the relationship between land, community and identity. Hopefully leading to an increased understanding about the relationship aspect of treaty.  But maybe not. Maybe they won't even be able to think about a place where they belong.

link

Created with Padlet

Blueprint

So we start our instructional design process with a blueprint, or what we used to call a "design document."  It's basically a plan for what you intend to do.

Key to the blueprint, at least for me, is identifying who the students are.  Who they are, where they are, what their background knowledge is, who is there to help them, where they want to go.

Students We know the students come from a vast array of backgrounds. Increasingly, adults.  Many students who have failed the course already. Kids at home with babies, caring for grandparents, sick parents and more. Kids with mental illness, most commonly clinical depression to the point they cannot get out of bed.  Debilitating anxiety. Kids who have been bullied and are afraid to go to school. Homeschoolers who have perhaps never attended a regular school and don't know protocols, for lack of a better word. Kids in other countries. Elite athletes, although not that many of those.  Kids who work part time. ESL students. Aboriginal kids. Kids in outreach programmes. And regular classroom students for whom the course does not fit into a timetable.There may be lots of supports or none at all. There may be strong background knowledge or limited to no formal academics.  And what to do with that information?  What does this mean for our instruction?

Goals Their goals vary, from simply getting a passing grade so they can move to the next grade and graduate, to kids trying to get top marks for scholarships and post secondary entrance.

Those things all have to be considered.

Outcomes Then we look at outcomes. What needs to be covered? (or "uncovered" as some say).

Resources What resources do we have? What can we get? Is there a prescribed or supplemental textbook? An online resource that already exists?

Supports Then we determine was supports are needed. Do we need editors and peer reviewers and web designers and writers and copyright people and digital designers? (Usually yes to all of those things) Are there extra things needed, say videographers or animators or meetings with experts or other teachers or designers of interactives? (less common, but often required)

Assessments. Formative and summative. Authentic. Practical. Automated self tests, automated feedback, reflective activities, group work, discussion postings, creative work, audio, video, visual, essays and questions, opportunities for interaction? What's appropriate? What's feasible? Is there a provincial exam? Do we teach and assess appropriately for students to succeed on those high stakes tests? 

Now we take all that and put it in the blender and see what comes out.

My key information is in a binder. On the binder is a sticker my daughter brought back from Alaska when she snowshoed at the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska. It's from the U.S. Military recruitment booth.  It reads "An Army of One."  I have a whole team of people there to support me but sometimes it feels like it's all on me.  As they say, "with great power comes great responsibility."

For me to know and you to find out

That's for me to know and you to find out

My brother used to say this to me any time I asked him a question to which he didn't have an answer or he didn't want to answer.  Or if he  just wanted to annoy me which he usually did.

But I wonder too if it's not the way we should teach kids.

Usually it's "I know the answer and now I will tell it to you." Or "I don't know the answer, here is where you can read about it."  "I am a very modern teacher.  I will show you a movie about it ...on my SmartBoard."  Or at best, "I know the answer and I will tell you exactly how to find it yourself."

I know those are efficient ways of teaching. That's how universities manage to "teach" classes of 500 students at a time or why we often turn to often poorly designed distance education instruction with pages of notes either print or online. "Here's the material. Take it home. Internalize it. We will give you a test.  There, you have learned."

Is this really the best way to learn?

So I'm working on this course.  I have content or I can create it. But do I really just want students to read and watch videos and do a project and write a test?

No. No I don't. 

I want them to think.  I want them to care.

How do I do that?

I don't know what I'm doing

I volunteered to develop courses in Aboriginal Studies. They have outcomes and textbooks. The textbooks are no longer in print.

Then I was told the First Nations treaty officers thought people didn't understand treaties. Could we create a teaching unit on that topic?  No problem I said. 

How hard could it be?  Treaties are legal agreements my ancestors signed with the ancestors of indigenous people. I would find out what those agreements were, find historical documents and images, fit them into the learning outcomes for Aboriginal Studies and Social Studies and we would have a course.

I bought books. Lots of books. Do you know how many books about treaties there are? LOTS OF BOOKS.

I have no background in Aboriginal Issues and a very limited background in Canadian history but I'm relatively intelligent. I know course design. I can learn.

Yeah.

Not as easy as all that.

Obessions

I started creating online high school English courses in 2000. 

After awhile I got obsessed.

Every day I thought about how to present ideas. I spent an entire week trying to come up with the ultimate combination of background and font and I loved it when I thought I got it right. Quite often my ideas sucked and I had to change them. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes they sucked but I couldn't let them go. It was great when I could work with someone like minded in my course creation. It was not great when my so-called peer reviewer rubber stamped what I wrote. It was disappointing when those who followed me threw out everything I did.

Then the new Social Studies curriculum came out. I spent years creating, revising and reviewing. I got tired. I let someone else take over.

Years later, it's time to get back at it.

There is so much I don't know.  It took me months to get back to that point of obsession.

I wonder if it will go away.