 Good afternoon everybody. My name is Lisa Crookshank and I am the First Nation Métis Inuit Social Studies Consultant for Edmonton Catholic Schools and to begin with, like every one of you have done, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge that we are on Treaty 7 territory and thank you for welcoming us as we're from Treaty 6 traditional territory. And I just wanted to acknowledge my team of lead teachers that all came with me today. Last night, and I just want to thank them. They've done an amazing job this year, and we have a whole representation from elementary, junior high, high school, and even some administrators. So thank you all for being here. Is it like three seconds of fame or something to get? All right. So as I was saying, we're from Edmonton Catholic, and I guess we serve as 89 schools. We have about 40,000 students. We have 3,700 staff, and out of those 40,894 students, we have 3,270 self-identified First Nation Métis Inuit students. Our department was established in 2001. And I joined our departments in November 2014. So being new, I taught in our district for about 15 years and had just recently discovered the last two years that I actually had a Métis birthday. So I was adopted and then I kind of went finding my roots. And so I think, you know, things are meant to be sometimes where you're on your journey. So I'm just very happy to be where I am today and, you know, meeting all these wonderful people. And as a lot of people said before, that, you know, it all starts with building relationships. So of course, I met Shirley, or Shirley. I met Solange last May, and it was at the Jasper Palisades, where I also met Barb Schmidt. And that's kind of where I first heard about the professional learning project. I know it had been two years in the, like, going on so far. But when I started again in the fall, I remembered, and thanks to, I think it's Sandy from Grand Yellow Head that put that First Nation Métis Inuit Teacher Camp on. And I remember certain things from that session. And one of those things was the project. So I contacted Solange in the fall and he joined. And the other lady there is Charlene Bearhead, who also has been one of my mentors this year, and coaching me through, you know, focusing on reconciliation. And she's the national lead for the truth in reconciliation, the education. It just has been a year of lots of new learning. And it is very difficult to put, you know, everything in 30 minutes. So throughout my year and a half, I've been there, taking a lot of pictures. So I thought, Oh, great, this will be a good opportunity to show my pictures. And so one of the biggest shifts, I think, in a line with one of our district's initiatives called Transform, which Transform focuses on a pedagogical shift. And so in our department, I would say in the last year and a half, we're really focusing from crafts to curriculum. Educating the educator has been a huge focus this year. And again, building capacity. And it was just recently that we noticed that this photo was actually used in our principal meetings header in their agenda. And we weren't even really aware of that. So it was kind of a win for us as the lady who did that, you know, really thought that that was important to acknowledge. So about clicking and talking at the same time. So basically, those are some of the initiatives. We also had a big shift in with the literacy focus this year. And we kind of coined the phrase from our traditional support instructors, where they would kind of focus on beating. Now we're focusing on reading. So that's kind of our new shift, our coined phrase. So in alignment with the project, that's also how I organize our project. So learning to be, how does what you do relate to who you are? And so when I first met Solange, we talked about that this is kind of like the policy section. And so we were really happy to find this piece from the, where's this from? This is from Alberta Ed. And it's really just saying again that, you know, all students need to be taught about our history in Canada, and not just the First Nation meeting in U.S. students. That also aligns with goal four, desired outcome four from Alberta Ed. And that's the call to include more education when it comes to residential schools and treaties, which again aligns with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the calls to action, which aligns with our district growth plan. So they all connect together. And part of our district growth plan involves two pieces. One focuses mostly on one of our models, which is our grad coach program, which we have at three of our high schools and three junior highs for transitioning and for successful high school completion. And then again, also to provide the professional learning to our teachers. So that brings us to learning to know. So how does knowing relate to understanding? And it wasn't really until I met with Solange, probably by the third time, that I really understood this concept of, you know, we all know things, we all know the dates and traditionally, you know, our teachers, they know that because they have to teach it. But the shift that we're trying to make is also, you know, taking that knowing to understanding and creating that empathetic view for all our students. So in the fall, we had invited ourselves to our learning coach meeting. So every school in our district has a learning coach. There was 89 people at that meeting. And we just kind of said, can we come and, you know, put a call out there and request that we have a lead teacher at every site. So that hadn't been done before. And so after we did that, we were happy at our first lead teacher meeting in October that we had about 38 come out compared to eight from the year before. So we thought that was a thing to celebrate. Now we are collaborating. I'll take lots of pictures. So also learning to go from knowing to understanding is, and I'm sure you've heard about the blanket exercise. And so that was one of the things Kyros had come out to train some of our high school students last year for the youth conference that Melissa was talking about. And so some of our leadership students at the high school level have been trained in that our staff has also been trained. And so we also focus on going out to schools and training the staff at the school sites. And so one thing we wanted to do was to honor our traditional treaty six territory by using the Cree medicine wheel colors in the blankets. And that's just a picture of an elementary school grade five. So we found that the blanket exercise really speaks to the grade five program of studies, grade six for justice and injustice, and pretty much every outcome for the grade seven social studies. So those are the three grades, you know, without we focus on high school, any grade it would fit into. So here's when we went to Mother Margaret Mary, we also had some of our other consultants join us that day, the religion consultants, and the social studies consultants. And has anyone here not ever experienced the blanket exercise? So a few. Okay. So we find that that's probably the most powerful experience to shift your, your focus from just knowing to understanding it's very powerful. So our district traditionally has in the past would always do aboriginal day. And I think a lot of schools are used to calling upon our department for that. And so this year we kind of revisited that we thought, you know what, it shouldn't just be a day. And it shouldn't just be a day of, you know, dancing and crafts. It needs to go beyond that. And so we're shifting now some of the schools in our district, they will have their faith days or body, mind and spirit days. And so when we get called upon to do that, now our focus is definitely on reconciliation. So it's a way to kind of bring that piece into the schools. And that's where we've had a lot of help from Charlene. So that brings us to learning to do. And the big question is how does empowering different differ from delegating? So I think sometimes when, you know, especially now that all these things are coming down with the TQS and, you know, the, the documents from Alberta Ed, you know, teachers are, are like, okay, well, we have to do this, we have to now we have to teach about residential schools, teach about treaties. And I would say 90% of our educators in our districts don't really don't know how to do that. So we decided that, well, we need to be able to reach all of you and do that. So some kind of another thing that had never really been done in our department, we have about 15 staff in total, but eight of those staff are out at school sites and they make up the Rated Journeys grad coach model. And so we decided this year as consultants that we would hold a session for our whole department staff and just really get them to look at the program and study. So when their students come to them for help and support and for tutoring, they know what the connections are. And we actually spent the day and they had to kind of highlight through whatever grade level they worked with, which outcomes potentially can they speak to their students when it comes to residential schools and treaties. And there's about 33% of the social studies outcomes that can speak to that. We also decided when we're planning that we would have our monthly PDs that have the social studies and the literacy focus. So here's some of our teachers engaging with Gouda. She's our Inuit resource person. And she also from that PD got some bookings to go to some of our schools. So there she is at St. Augustine and she brings the traditional food as well that students can try it. And then some, I was also inspired by my colleagues and friends at Edmonton Public and I thought, you know, what can we do so we can make this easier for teachers. So what we did is we also started creating more edu kits. There were some that we had, but I thought we could make more. So now we have two Inuit kits that teachers can borrow. And when I first asked about their kits, I forget, I don't know who the lady is that does their kits at Edmonton Public, but she told me that the Inuit kit is booked for two years ahead of time. And I was like, yeah, right. You know, well, it is because when I put this out to our teachers, of course the I'm like, whoever wants a kit, let me know. Well, I got about 42 emails back in about 10 minutes that they all wanted it. So so now I believe her. All right. And so we have a storytelling PD. We also involve our elders to come out and provide some knowledge and their perspective on the topics we're presenting. So our elders are always welcome. So we also try to make the setup for our PDs culturally, culturally appropriate. So we see a semicircle there. We also had our Meti PD, which also there was a fur trade kit available as well. So yeah, so I'm not going to name all the PDs, but we basically held one a month and then either our lead teachers would come or they would recommend it to whatever grade level it was appropriate for for the teachers to come at their schools. And so in March, we all the one Jeremy was talking about, we went out to the Jasper Palisades and it was I brought about I think it was 13 grade seven teachers from Edmonton Catholic to also look at the project for the mountain people. And very they were very grateful that they were also to be able to be part of that experience. So part of our learning to do in the pedagogical shift for our cultural support instructors kind of went through a big shift this year. So they have, I think Karen Aranda, how long have you been? Since the beginning. So they've been there since the beginning. And so I think they're ready for a change too. So we were given some money through a grant. And that allowed us to pay for training for Karen Aranda. So they experienced training like daily five level literacy intervention through Fountas and Penel. I forget which other school district mentioned that Jolli phonics, front loading, reading strategies. What's lots of different PD. And so we are also able to purchase a lot of our leveled reading resources. So that actually align with the Fountas and Penel benchmarks. Our district also uses the benchmarks for Fountas and Penel. But we thought we really need to hook our first nation maintenance students because there was a bit of a gap when it came to literacy. So we purchased lots of different resources like Eagle Crest and can't remember the wall about the literacy consultant, but we got quite a few old Turtle Island voices. There was lots of different leveled readers. So then that was a hook for our kids in that they would be able to recognize language and the things that they hear in their communities and in their homes and relate it to their reading. So that was a highlight for us as well. So here's some data from one of the schools that Aranda, our other instructor, so from November, she started, I think everyone started in about October with their reading groups. So from November to March, every student, I left their names out, went up three levels in their reading level. So in that school, she goes twice a week and has six different groups, I think 15 students all together. And then Karen, she'll speak to some of the things she's done as well. So we have about seven or eight schools, especially schools with high numbers that we provide literacy support to in like the northeast, south and west of our district. So that brings us to learning to relate how does where we learn influence how we learn. So I wanted to put this picture because I thought it was pretty cool that that's going up. Has anyone not seen that one before or heard about this? It's been in the news. I'm just not there. So for our own staff, learn to relate really speaks to community. And in the fall, Gary, our cultural advisor, Gary Gagnon, organized a staff PD for us out at our Elder Bob Cardinals place in Enoch. And so I just put pictures up of Enoch because I didn't have any from that day. But we spent the whole day with Bob and he really focused on on how we can learn from the land and how it's so important to stay connected to the land and, you know, how, how we can reach our First Nation Métis Nuit students and some really important connections. So that was a day I'll never forget. We also have a Council of Elders and their role is to meet with our Board of Trustees. So there's some decision making on that level. They have their monthly meetings. And the lady on the right is my supervisor in the yellow, Shirley Micotuck, and the lady on the left, Rhonda Metallic. She's the one similar to, I forget the elder that was talking about the Cochrane, how they organize their elders. She organizes so schools request, you know, an elder to come speak. She'll organize that and provide them with the proper protocols as well. This is just a picture of Francis Alexis. He's one of our elders. And this is him at one of our schools speaking on science and mathematics. So he did teaching with his students. And it was, it was a beautiful time. We also focus on our family nights as well. So connecting family with community, I think a couple of our, a couple of our schools have had two or three family nights throughout the year. So we, we help them with that. We also, Gary has done an amazing job reaching out to our district staff. So basically anybody is welcome to he put on a P, P professional learning session where it bridged our Aboriginal spirituality with our Catholic faith. And it was four sessions. And so he started with, you know, just what's the importance of ceremony, what it is, the traditional medicines, the protocols. And then the last session was on a Saturday where we all went out to his friend, Rocky Moran on Enoch for a traditional sweat ceremony. So Rocky was gracious enough to let us use his own families, traditional sweat lodge. And I did ask him for permission to take pictures of that day. And then it was just a beautiful day. So everybody who signed up for the first session of that PD stayed with us until the end. So that was, that was really cool. And again, you know, people, you know, educational assistance, there was our elementary religion consultant that joined us that day. So it was pretty cool. So now I'm at the point where I'm going to invite Karen up. She's going to speak to something really beautiful that she organized this year. Thank you, Lisa. I have a few notes here. When Lisa invited me to come down, I had said no. I kind of think of myself as being more of the background person. And I like to just go and work with the kids. And I enjoy that thoroughly. So I was thinking as I was sitting there that sometimes when you're really nervous like that, it's good to tell a joke. And I didn't tell Lisa this, but I'm going to try it out anyway. My mother worked for the superintendent of St. Albert's Catholic School District for many, many years. And he had shared this joke with her. So I think it's okay for me to share this joke with you. It was about a guy and he was, didn't want to get up and go to school in the morning. And his mom was knocking on the door and she was saying, you have to get up. It's time you have to go to school. And he said, I don't want to go to school today. And she knocked on the bedroom door again. And she said, you have to get up. It's time you have to go to school. And he says, mom, I don't want to go to school. The kids don't like me. She said, you get up and go to school. You don't have to go. You're the principal. So anyhow, I thought that was kind of a funny joke. My name is Karen Gagnon. And I had the privilege this year of working with our FMI students who are struggling below grade level with their reading. We received a literacy grant, as Lisa had mentioned. And so myself and my colleague, Rhonda Paul, we received some training and we went into these schools to work with our kids. And I was assigned a West End School close to Enoch Nation, St. Benedict. And I was meeting with my kids and one day, one of the students said to me, he said, you know, Ms. Gagnon, would it be okay if we went out to Enoch and read with our elders? And I thought, you know, that's awesome. That's a wonderful idea. So I got in touch with someone who could get me in touch with the elders' lodge. And when I called them, I initially thought that it was a six month program. Perhaps we could come out at the end of the six months and we could show them what we had learned in our reading program. When I did speak to someone there, they said, you know, why wait until the end of the program? Can you bring them out for Christmas? We would like to meet them. We want to know who they are and we want to know how they're doing. We want to support them as best as we can. So we were able to arrange it and we ended up inviting, I always teased the principal. I said, we ended up inviting everybody and their cat and dog because we ended up having a fairly big group. We invited parents and aunties and uncles and grandparents and the elders' lodge. Their job was to invite the elders from the community. So we loaded up the bus, kind of like the Beverly Hills and we even packed up the principal and we brought him with us too. And we went out and we had the most amazing time. And the kids, we demonstrated the reading that we normally would do when I would meet with them and they actually used the microphone and they got up and they, we met all the elders. We made them a gift and unbeknownst to me, they had invited the chief. However, the chief was in Ottawa at the time, so he sent someone in his place and it was really inspiring for the staff and the students, for everyone. It was a counselor, John Thomas, I believe was his name from Enoch Nation. And he spoke to the children in Cree and then went on to say to them that what they were doing was so important that this reading is a life skill and that it will take you anywhere you want to go and that we look to you, youth, to be the future. You're our leaders down the road. And you know, 100 years ago we used to hunt buffalo and that's how we survived but education is our buffalo and we've heard that term so often. But you know, it just touched the kids and it touched all of us and the elders went on to say that we're here to support you and we want you to do well and we're going, we're going to pray for you. And you know, it was just such a success and we came back and the kids said, when are we going back? When are we going back? So we have arranged it. We're going to go back on June 3rd for our wrap up. I contacted the elders center again and they're very excited, looking forward to us returning. And you know, the kids feel a real sense of belonging. They feel a sense of being a place that's safe for them to take risks, for them to feel supported and encouraged. I feel I have the best job in the world. What I have to do is just be there for them and hold that space for them and give them my best every day. And we just came up with a name for our program and we're going to call ourselves Read, Lead and Succeed. Thank you. Great. So just a couple more things under learning to relate. A couple of weeks ago, Wanda, she's our new community relations person, met with Mahdi Matheson. She is our Edmonton photographer that's taken on the initiative of the Red Dress Project. Okay, five seconds or five minutes. Five minutes, okay. Okay. So one of our high schools, Archbishop Oscar Romero, hosted these beautiful photographs and the leadership students there did a project. I'm bringing awareness to the students and staff at that school about the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. And so it was a, we went for the session that Mahdi held and spoke to and it's on Facebook, you can follow it and they're really encouraging like anybody to join that and to add to their photos. One of our, a lot of the things that we've done is we have a program called Our Lady of Grace and it's kind of, it's held at Cardinal Collins, which is one of our alternative Ed schools or fresh start sites. And so we support our students that have had children in their teen years and helped the moms to finish. And so every May there's a baptism for all their children, which is right across the street from our site. So I work at the Sacred Heart Learning Center and Sacred Heart Church honors all the children and they go through their baptism. This picture, these are pictures I've wanted to show because it shows Elise Wood, who's holding her son, Fisher. And he was actually named after one of our district chaplains who passed away last year and they were best friends with him. So they gave him their baby father catfish, his name. And then she is the grad coach at Oscar Romero High School. And then she asked one of our curriculum sport instructors, Ronna Paul, to be the godmother. So I thought that was a beautiful thing. The one thing that's coming up this Saturday is our annual Ben Capro Powell that was 35 years this year that we've had it and I've heard it's grown. It used to be held at the school and now it's at the Commonwealth Stadium. So it's really grown and so everybody you're all welcome to come and I'm pretty sure there might be some people. I met these. This man on the left, he was from Masquichis last year. And I asked, I was just, it was my first time I went to a powwow. So I was pretty, I thought it was really amazing. And so I asked to take pictures of people's regalia. The two guys on the left, they're from Kisakawa Wasis, which is our mountain creek camp that Edmonton Catholic Schools has adopted out in Rob, Alberta. So we help and take care of that school with them. And then that's almost it. That's the powwow again. And I always feel like I'm missing something. There was something I was going to talk about. And I think actually Jeremy and Melissa touched on it just when I kind of go throughout the year our reconciliation week that's coming up in partnership with Edmonton Catholic Schools and the City of Edmonton. So that's something we'll be working closely with our schools on. So I would just like to say thank you. I hope you enjoyed our journey in sharing and First Nation Métis in your education. Thank you.