 Tell me about your program, what is it called? Our program is called the UNLAC Korean Immersion School and it was founded in 2005 by Korea linguist, I guess you would call Brian McDonald. Him and leadership at that time made a strategic plan to build a Korean Immersion School. So the local government at that time provided the building for the community so we can have our own Korean Immersion School. What are the age groups of the target audience? Our age groups start from age 3 to age 10 from early childhood to grade 4. Just to grade 4? Yes, and then once we have the grade 5 curriculum completed and then we'll continue and hopefully within the next couple of years we add on a grade depending on the curricular developers when they complete the curriculum or as they complete the curriculum. And what is the aim of the program? The aim of the program primary is to language retention, to teach our children how to retain their Korean language, the spoken language. As of now, the way we see it, the Nihil language, Nihil language is seen as a second language like the first language spoken at home is English. So our aim is to have the students speak the Korean language and also keep their identity, who they are, and be able to identify themselves as Nihil First Nations people. So it will be the next generation of the language and cultural keepers, I guess. How do you measure the success of your program? We use the language based outcomes like from the curriculum but then we modify it. So we still use the listening, the speaking, the reading, and the writing outcomes. However, we do it in our language. So we use the standard Roman orthography, reading and writing. We had switched, we, when I started here, it was a syllabics, but then the community decided, well, we can't read syllabics. So we had to switch to SRO to accommodate the parents or they'll be able to read notes and things like that. So that's one way of measuring the students' progress is through reading, writing, and also there's another, a progression sheet that's called where our gift of language and our Korean language catalyst, they developed an assessment tool where we tested students twice a year. How much they speak orally and how much they read and how much they listen. So we based a success on that. Is the demand for the program high? For the years I've been here, it hasn't risen completely high and it hasn't gone down so it's maintained at the same level. I'm predicting like within the next 10 years it will be. I'm thinking the community will want their children to learn and for our Indian Act here at the local government, I think one of the requirements now is if they want to be in government, they're going to have to be able to speak and understand our language. So I can see it going in that direction so there'll be more pre-language requested like for the community after school, evenings, and stuff like that. To you, what is Indigenous education? Indigenous, this is where I... When I hear Aboriginal, Indigenous, First Nations, Cree Nation, at a band meeting we had, it was discussed like, what are we going to call Onion Lake? So I think the community decided, okay we're going to be the Onion Lake Cree Nation. So that is how we're known as the Onion Lake Cree Nation. So Indigenous I guess means you're Indigenous to the whatever country you were born in. But Aboriginal, I never did agree with that term. So I'm very comfortable using Indigenous or Cree Nation, or First Nation. But all in all in my language, in my own identity, I'm a Neheo school. How would you define education? Education for me is being able to attend an educational institution, whether it's English or Cree, to extend your knowledge in the everyday world and being able to fit in this ever-growing society. And for the Cree immersion, it's being able to bring out the identity of a child, the soul of that child, to be able to get them to understand who they are, where they came from, because a lot of our Native children don't know who they are. If you go to the other school and ask them, what are you? Are you a Neheo? They'll say no. Because they were never taught who they are. They probably assumed they're non-First Nations because they can't speak the language. For me, I think the most important thing for a child is to know who they are, where they came from. And keeping in mind that they have to know the four foundational objectives in the school are Neheo-e-wen, that language that we speak. Gis-gamesu-en is kinship, identity, who they are. Gis-kenosu-ge-mo-en is another foundational objective, is reminding them who they are. So those four are very important for them to know. And so based on those four foundational objectives, our curriculum, that the gift of language is another department that writes our curriculum. So based on those four, that's how they develop their curriculum, and that's what the teachers follow. So what is your vision for the future of Indigenous education in your community and in Canada? My vision for my community is I'm hoping that it expands. I'm hoping that we get more students every year, that we add a grade level each year. And the way we do that is we have program reviews every year where the leadership and the Board of Education, they get to hear from all four schools within our community and then based on those, like, this is my report right here. So based on those reports, they're able to make decisions on what we need and how are we going to get there. So I'm hoping that it grows. I'm hoping we have more interest from the parents so they can send their students here. A lot of them believe that their kids need English as well to be able to assimilate into societies. So they'll be able to speak and read the English. However, we do provide that here in grade four. Like, half-time the teacher teaches English and the other half the Korean language only because they'll have that easy transition when they go to the elementary school so they'll be able to read and write the English language as well. So we have that prepared for them here. And what about in Canada? In Canada, I'm hoping to see more Indigenous First Nations language schools. Like, in our surrounding community, I think the closest one would be in BC. I remember a couple of teachers and I in the previous century went to a immersion school in BC and I really liked their program. That's the only closest one that I know of and the one Manitoba is trying to start but with just one grade, which is good. So that's how you start. And finally, can you think of any types of information that if you had now, it would help to achieve your vision for the school? The type of information that I have would be what I base my program review presentation. My report also constantly looking for professional development from other communities that they can come and share with the staff. We have a lot of our own local resource people that we utilize. A lot of elders and local schools that will come and do presentations on different types of professional development. And then we have our local yearly camps. We have the fall camp and then we have a winter camp and then we have a spring and summer camp coming up in May. And then we bring in other resources, different kind of resources to come and teach our children or students and the staffs. So a lot of those kind of resources, if we keep utilizing them or if there's different pedagogies out there that I can bring in to the school and present to the administration or the board of education. But right now it's pretty hard to do but I'm always looking for resources. And aside from the programs in which you are personally involved what information do you have on other Indigenous education programs in Canada? Oh, the one I just talked about. Yes, that's the only one that I know of and the one Winnipeg resources I think it's called. We've been phoning each other and then I believe they have contacted our gift of language because they have a template on our career immersion school and I don't know where it's at right now. So that's the only other school that I know that are trying to start a career immersion school. Those are the only ones that I'm aware of but we do have a lot of communities, a lot of different schools that come and visit our school all the time. They'll come and observe our morning ceremony and then our classroom instruction. What makes our school strong in terms of our children's progress in learning who they are and teaching them about virtues and respect and all these things that many children lack, I hate to say, but we teach them here. Our morning assembly consists of they come to our school, they get dropped off, they go out to play, then they come in and then we feed them like they'll eat their breakfast and such and then they'll do their morning journals and then we all assemble in on gym at about a quarter to ten and then we start by smudging and then our elder will do the prayer and then I'll do the announcements for the school or for the teachers or whoever has anything to announce that day and then I'll do my daily routine of asking the students in Korea, of course, to tell me about the weather, the date, what day it is and we have our pre-sentence for the day and what does it mean and then we encourage them to use their language in the classroom, in the hallway and then our Oscar Queo is the Elder's Helper. He teaches the drumming and the dancing. His name is Brian Waskewicz who is a well-known chicken dancer in the Pao O circuit so he does the singing and the dancing and our kids will sing and then we'll dance and then we'll sing and that's our morning and then when we're done, they're out to play so that's where they feel grounded not just the students but the teachers do we really need that every morning so that's one way of making the students understand who they are, where they're from the singing is very powerful so we have a lot of community, other schools come and visit our school all the time Is there anything else you wanted to add? I guess I could share a little bit about our language here based on the four outcomes, the listening, the speaking, the reading, the writing let's say in grade four, we have 13 students in grade four the listening we have three stages there's basic, intermediate and advanced so we have six students who understand the language and then we have six intermediate and then we have one advanced and then for speaking four are in the basic stage and four are in the intermediate and then one is in the advanced to be able to speak so that's how we measure our students and then for reading, let me see there's nine that fall under basic and then four that fall in intermediate and one advanced so they're able to read and for writing there's two in the basic ten are able to in the intermediate level and one advanced so that I'm hoping will increase by June when we test them again and more so next year we'll be able to measure in our smart goals, one of them is for the retention part we'll be able to measure if we reach our goal we as a whole the teachers decide how much, how many percent they want to see the growth and then from all the teaching and reading and writing they have to meet or exceed that goal the following year this year we drop for some reason so I'm hoping we're able to reach the goal in June okay alright well thank you very much thank you