Educators engage in professional learning.
Throughout my learning in the BEd program at UNBC, I have had the great privilege to take part in three professional learning days. The first having took place in 2019, so the current COVID restrictions were not yet inhibiting such a gathering. This ProD day was titled Lhulh’uts’ut’en We Come Together, and centered on Indigenous learning and how we as educators should be striving to implement Indigenous culture into our curriculum. It truly was an enlightening and inspirational day! The two keynote speakers were Waneek Horn Miller and Jordin Tootoo, who were both incredibly open and vulnerable with us all about their lives and how we as educators can strive to make our schools more inclusive and supportive of our Indigenous students. This year however, the Pro D days looked a little bit different as we were unable to gather, meet, and learn together under one roof. But thank goodness for technology and the power of Zoom video chat! To kick off our final year in the BEd program my cohort had the privilege of attending our second SD57 Lhulh’uts’ut’en We Come Together Indigenous Professional Development Day on September 25, 2020. Although many of us were saddened by the fact that we could not indulge in this day of learning in the same ways we did last year, we were all grateful to be in attendance. The beginning of the day featured the keynote speaker Dr. Dustin Louie who was a pleasure to listen to. During the afternoon I took part in the “Storytelling, Symbolism, and Inter-Cultural Relationships” workshop presented by Jolene Andrew, who is an Aboriginal community developer and North West Coast artist. It was such a gift to have the opportunity to learn about her style of Aboriginal artwork and have the invitation to play with this form ourselves. On October 23, 2020 I was able to be a part of the Classrooms to Communities Provincial Conference of Lhtakoh — Where People, Place and Practice Flow Together. I was so glad that although given the current state of the world we all as educators and aspiring educators were able to come together and share in the learning and growth of such a conference. I do hope, though, that in the future we will all be able to gather in person once again and create those meaningful connections that such days of learning facilitate.
