 Good morning. We're from Children of St. Martha's School in Lethbridge. We're located on the west side of Lethbridge and we are kiddie corner to our, we're a Catholic school, we're kiddie corner to our own parish, St. Martha's Parish as well. I want to introduce or take this time to introduce the people that are here with me today. I'm Shannon Collier. I'm the Associate Principal at Children of St. Martha's. This is my first year at the beautiful school. We have 220 students from Precate to grade six. Beside me, we have Shelly Sampack. Shelly is a grade four or five teacher at Children of St. Martha. This is her second year at the school, but she has been in education for a lot longer than that. Behind me is Louise Dixon. Louise Dixon is our grade two teacher and she has been as well at Children of St. Martha for two years, but in education for a lot longer than that. And Christina Fox. Christina Fox you'll see in a lot of the videos that we'll share today. She has been the backbone of our school and the support that we are going to share with you today as our family liaison counselor at the school. She's involved in every single class with every single student and family and we are very blessed to have her at our school each and every day. So not part-time, not in consultation, but she is with us every step of the way as we embed FMNI content into all that we do as a family at Children of St. Martha. I'm going to let Christina Fox come up and speak. Okay. Good to see each and every one of you. We start off with our honor song. For life is sacred. Children are celebrations. Walking and learning together is a rich tradition. My title is First Nations Métis Inuit Support Staff. Long title, which I'm very proud of because I am today I am representing my people and my neighbors. The theme this year is called Horizon of Hope. When we started doing the beautiful artwork of Horizon of Hope we came to the meaning for it. The gift that we receive each and every morning because life is a gift from God. When we look to the east, when we think about it, at the end of the day the horizon of hope, that's when the sun starts to come up and we realize we're alive to share our talents and our gifts. There we pray for direction and guidance. We're also blessed with vision, courage, wisdom and knowledge. For in the east we look at vision to help us acknowledge our children's dreams and to be able to dream with them and to be able to dream with the parents and have them share their dreams with their children. We look to the south, the highest point of the sun. There we start to prepare for our future and for the day to come. And then we look at wisdom to recognize each child's gift and talent for they have so many. West, where the day starts to end and we start to relax. There we need to end our day with dreams, prayers and meditation. And we think about the knowledge what we did today for our beautiful children. Acceptance, getting to know them as individuals. North, where the source of strength comes within. And this is courage because at the end of our day when we relax we pray and ask our Creator, did we embrace our call to serve with love, faith and hope. When we come in through that door, yes we all have titles. I like to believe that my title number one is being a mother. Each and every one of us are teachers because one we are mothers, we are fathers, we are aunties and we are uncles. So in looking at education, we look at our heart and we go to our mind. And what this honor song does for us is that it opens our hearts and it opens our minds and then back to the minds and back to the heart. And that's how we deliver knowledge to our children. So to start with I am Shelly and for looking at directions, focusing on the north, that's focusing on the strength and the needs and kind of where our students started from. So this was a sample of our grade six family gathering that just took place last month. Basically the purpose of it was to highlight the successes of our students not just in their final year of elementary school but throughout their educational career. Christina and the grade six teacher, Mrs. Collier as well, they organized the students, parents to get everyone to come to the family night and from there they, yeah, again, celebrated their successes. Christina also helped organize a similar family gathering night in October to emphasize really the importance of family in our students' success at school. Looking again, we have a student who is drag and boating. The importance of first-hand experiences was also emphasized. We went to the Ignite Your Spark Fair a few weeks ago and this is also important because giving our students first-hand experiences is really, I'm sorry, is really helpful and then also thank you. At the Ignite Your Spark, there was drag and boating, skateboarding, jingle dancing as well as hoop dancing to name a few. And then so also at the Pow Wow, we have a pow each year, which Christina actually informed me, it's been seven years. It's been a huge part of the strength in our school. Students experience the traditions and stories involved in the pow wow as well as they get to experience and participate in building a teepee and learn the proper teepee protocol. Christina was also able to work with the Grade 4 students and work towards kind of bridging and linking Catholic traditions with the First Nations traditions as well, so that was a big success. And then finally, this FNMI project has given us the opportunity to emphasize the strengths and provide the necessities for our students to learn through permeation of our First Nations traditions and cultures. Good morning, I'm Louise Dixon. I am tasked with looking at leadership and guidance in our school as we started the three-year project. A lot of us weren't sure which direction we were going on and between Salage and Christina as well as our board office, we were able to begin our project. We really discussed as a staff, what is this three years meant and what were the good things that came out of the project. We discussed that there was a lot of good things happening in the school but we weren't working together, we weren't sharing those ideas because we didn't have any authentic time to do that. To sit down with your colleagues for an entire day and work on projects together that you come up with together, then you have a vested interest in them and you have a vested interest in seeing that they succeed. Christina was there and so was Salage all throughout the days that we did the planning. Christina was there to answer those questions that as teachers we feel that we have to know the information. Well, there was a lot of questions that were hard to ask and you felt like a child asking questions that might be politically incorrect, challenging what you knew, challenging yourself to have a deeper understanding in what you were teaching and okay, you're putting the content into your teaching but what is it that you were putting in? And Christina was wonderful in answering all the questions that we had no matter what we asked, no matter how we asked it and that to me says a lot about Christina and her devotion to our kids and to our First Nations students but also to our kids in general because she wants the best for all of them. One of the things that we said too was it would give the staff time to build relationships with each other, build that trust relationship and that filtered out into our relationships with our parents as well. We see more parents coming in, we see more parents coming in, coming to help their child and help their child in terms of this is what I need you to do as a teacher for my child and those kind of conversations were not always happening and it's nice to see that they are now. The staff was able to attend workshops and PD sessions that were given by other districts. There was a group of us that went to Blackfoot Crossing with Randy Bottle and were able to learn about the signing of Treaty 7 and what it would have been like for those people at that time. That is authentic learning as a professional because that is learning I couldn't get anywhere else. We also talked about how do we embed that learning into all that we do so we can get the most out of the funding from the province and one of the things that we did is we took a spiritual retreat normally reserved for somewhere, some venue around Lethbridge instead we went down to Writing on Stone and we learned what that meant to the people the Blackfoot people and how sacred it is and why and how things happened there. So that is authentic learning that we can carry back to our classrooms. We challenged during this time a lot of long held beliefs that were in the community about First Nations Métis and Inuit culture and it was nice to see that we are the better for it some really authentic learning took place as a staff changing not only how we felt but how we reacted to certain things like attendance really looking at the deeper meaning of what does lack of attendance mean and why aren't they there and I'm happy to say that we've had some successes in that regard as well. Lastly it opened our eyes to the realities of residential schools from first hand knowledge of listening to Christina as well as Peter strikes with a gun talk about their experiences. They are leaders in our journey and Solange and Christina and the province for giving us the funding they've really started off something so we're hoping to keep that keep the momentum rolling. Christina is an elder in the Blackfoot or in the blood tribe she has been our liaison for a number of years before Eve and I came to the school. This position includes home visit, classroom visits facilitating meetings between parents school to stakeholders like teachers, board office employees and the community. She also brings with her a wealth of cultural knowledge to our non-native and native students alike and staff as she teaches us the Blackfoot language as well. Christina is also responsible for saying the prayer in Blackfoot every Wednesday and the kids have picked up our food in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in Blackfoot as well and it's really wonderful to see the kids saying it as soon as she begins so they're now joining her. She sings and plays the guitar, teaches music she teaches life skills in order to build a self-esteem, confidence and pride in who they are. She also facilitates workshops and staff retreats for all ages not only in the school but outside of the school and we are fortunate to have her on our staff. Tom Little Bear also joined us. He's a member of the Blood Tribe and traveled down with us to Writing on Stone and shared a lot of his stories and shared a lot of the culture with us while we were down there and we thank him as well. Peter and Jeannie Strikes with a gun have been in our school so often that we feel like they're family. They are always there. Peter is an elder in the Pekani Nation. Peter's stories combine scripture and cultural ways which gives a strong teaching and meaning to whatever he's speaking about. He's one of the important resources that Christina calls upon for whatever we need in our school. So at Christina's invitation also he's coming to join our powwow this year our seventh annual powwow and he's taught us a lot about the culture but dancing, he's taught the kids about the regalia and he's also invited them to come up and try a hand at dancing. So the kids really enjoy that and they become a part of it even though they're non-native. So we have done some interesting things and I'm hoping to continue this even after the project is no longer. I'm speaking to the self and I have to thank Louise because Christina and I were just smiling and winking at each other when you can hear a teacher take half the things that I was going to say as an administrator and share that with you today makes my heart just overwhelmed with happiness because it shows that the teachers every single teacher in Children of St. Martha has included and embedded FMNI content in all that we do when I walk into the school every morning speaking of the South I walk in and you can feel the energy in the building we have a high percentage probably one of the top percentage of FMNI students in our district come to Children of St. Martha some of those little kids get on the bus for an hour every morning and Christina is the first person who greets them every morning to give them breakfast so we have a breakfast program at the end of the day before a lot of those children get back on the bus to head home for an hour or longer Christina is out there with sandwiches bringing them out to the bus we're high-fiving the bus driver and saying take care of our little ones as you take them home so this is my first year at Children of St. Martha I had 20 years of junior high high school grade 7 to 12 so this is my first experience in a pre-cated grade 6 and I need to share with you that I have never seen a school like this school you just have to walk in to see the families that surround the children and the teachers that are really engaged in all that they're sharing with you today in addition because I don't want to take the time I need to share with you as well our district's central office Mr. Chris Smeaton is one of the head supporters that really allow within our schools for people to embrace this and really make it part of what we do so Chris Smeaton was honored in 2004 with his Blackfoot name Sacred Wings we're very pleased and proud that our leader from our district office has been given that honor I'd like Christina to come up and we'll speak about the east or the west what I have in my hand is my Indian filing Children of St. Martha know about that Blackfoot class they come to ask who can join Blackfoot class we are all children of God my Blackfoot class is open to everyone and anyone we as Nitsudafi meaning real people education we look at it differently because we live by the honor song we have a responsibility in the transfer of knowledge we believe that every child needs to live with faith need to live with hope and need to live with love our responsibility we need to praise often appreciate our children often build security give them faith to believe in themselves we need to accept build their self-esteem self-esteem and they need to know that they are loved they are valued and they are cared for the Lord's prayer translated to Blackfoot is so beautiful and so powerful because it's the world's prayer and every Wednesday like Mrs. C. had mentioned I get the opportunity to say the Lord's prayer over the intercom every morning and all the teachers come and say the children all followed you everyone is learning and so for their homework this summer the rest of the staff with Mrs. C they're going to learn the Lord's prayer and so their first exam is September before they come into that door I'll try and beat Mrs. C. that morning September the honor song starts in our minds like I had mentioned that is our foundation all that we do to be able to build faith, hope and love for each and every one of our children and a staff and the four aspects of our nature mental, physical, spiritual and emotional they are like seeds they have the potential to grow into powerful gifts there we can look at their culture our culture, every one of us here our identity and language our self-concept our self-esteem and our self-determination we have a teepee you saw the little teepee the miniature teepee that is in my office by the way I'm so blessed I have my own office and I have my classroom they treat me, I'm blessed and I believe that we should all have a teepee visual in our schools because with the teepee teachings we teach about every step in putting up our teepee we have the four main poles that represent the northeast southwest can also represent the flower, our people mom, dad son and daughter or grandma and grandparents and with the rest of the poles are the values that we use we teach our kids that's why I had started off at the Lord's Prayer that's why I had started off at the Lord's Prayer that's why I had started off at the Lord's Prayer kindness to others respect for others and to be blackfoot to be proud of who you are always being able to take on task independently because you have the faith within yourself being helpful to others such as what we're doing here today we're wanting to help each other because we are all working for children and for that I'm very proud of each and every one of you and everything comes in pairs we need to balance work on our lifestyle we need to look at the four aspects of our nature and everything that is given to a person to do what they want with it and guide them because they too have lots of knowledge to share it is a great honor to be a part of the family of the children of St. Martha's because I as an individual feel like a family member down the hallway I meet a group of students a class going to another classroom and they all say ok and that is so nice which means hello or Kedemudsen we'll see you again at the end of the day so that is so nice so nice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is an honor song opening for each day for us at Children of St. Martha's when we truly love our children work is not hard when we truly put our titles in the back of our pockets and work from the heart success will be a blessing thank you God bless you all