Month: October 2022

September 29, 2022

For Truth and Reconciliation Day we held a fire circle with the education faculty and the UHNBC Drummers. We started a fire and formed a circle around it. The fire circle consisted of singing, drumming and talking. We sang songs for healing, honouring men, and honouring women. There were multiple hand drums that rotated around the group so everyone who wanted to try drumming could.

Making music as a group can be so impactful because everyone is able to be at the same place physically and spiritually to create a performative work of art. The songs performed had basic rhythm structures and a few repeating lyrical lines in a multitude of indigenous dialects. The simple rhythm structure and repetitive lines made it easy for someone with minimal musical knowledge to jump in and join. I found this to be a very inclusive way to celebrate, grow community, and connect.

Going forward I want to implement fire circles and music circles into my practices. This experience made me realized the value in performing and practicing music in a circle. It gives way for visual communication between musicians, makes it easier to appreciate solos, and provides better acoustics for the musicians to hear their fellow performers.

September 22 and 26, 2022

In this picture we are coding Ozobots. These small robots follow a black line and do different commands based off of colours on that line. We first made a short circuit, testing out different commands. After this we attempted to make a circular circuit that was continuous. The way the commands are coloured needs to be ver specific and we learned this the hard way. There couldn’t be space between the colours but if the colours were to overlap the Ozobot would read black between the colours. We were able to get it to read most of our commands but have trouble making the circuit continuous .

In today’s technology coding is really important to know and can be very helpful in understanding how things work. The Ozobots are really cute and interesting which would help in engaging learner. This lesson would be a very helpful introduction to coding while also challenging the learner’s motor skills and precision 😛

September 21, 2022

Today we did the blanket exercise which is an interactive way to learn Canada’s history of colonization. The exercise started with all the students standing on a blanket, some shared blankets while other’s had their own separate blanket. Each student represented a portion of the indigenous community and the blankets represented the land that they lived on. Doctor Danielle Sims and Professor Christine Yo-Husband talked through the script which went through historical events like the settlers first coming, disease and famine killing indigenous populations, children being sent off to residential schools, etc. As each event happened we would fold our blankets smaller when land was taken away and leave the area when parts of the population to died. By the end of this exercise there were only a few individuals left standing on small, folder up blankets.

I found this exercise to be very informative and impactful. Listening to the events in chronological order helped me understand the impact one event had on the other. In the past I’ve learned about each of these events individually and they became very isolated in my brain so seeing them formed in chronological order right in front of me made me aware that some of these events happened at the same time and through all of this there were other things around that also impacted these communities. I can also see how effective this exercise would be for visual learners or anyone struggling to image what it would’ve been like.

This activity is very powerful and might be a little intense for younger age groups. There is a version of this script available that is more suitable for youths which makes it a lot easier to use in elementary school. I think it’s important to still be mindful of the emotional impact this may have on the students. Something like sending a note home to the parents to let them know about the exercise, when its happening, and how it may effect individuals could help with support at home.