Classroom Treaty

I am officially done my internship! Boom! I am so pumped about being done this chapter in my life, and gearing up for the job search! I still have a semester of classes left (fail) but I have already applied for positions in the greater Eastend area, also knows as Shaunavon.

Anyway, I wanted to share our classroom treaty simulation with all you lovely people. If you are a regular reader (it's not hard to be) then you know I have been teaching a treaty unit in the classroom. It has been the most challenging thing to teach, as there is a ton of information and it is not easy to teach it in such a way that the students actually understand. I find First Nations history very fascinating, but it can definitely be a dry subject when you are 10.

So we made a treaty simulation that brought tears and outbursts in the class. It was AWESOME! For one week, myself and my coop were the "crown", the students were First Nations people and the classroom was their reserve. The week before the simulation, the students sat in a large circle and negotiated the treaty rights amongst themselves. I tried to not intervene, unless they needed reminders to not be little a-holes to each other.

This is what they came up with

Each student copied down the agreement, signed their copy and then it was signed by both myself and my coop. Something that was suggested to me after was to have it pre-written in a different language, have students sign this copy and give them a candy for signing. The different language represents the language barrier most First Nations would have faced and the candy is the $5 that was given for signing the treaty.

As the crown, we broke the final term right off the bat. No extra equipment at recess was given HA!

Once the simulation started, we locked the classroom door. The students were not allowed in until they were invited to do so. This meant they sat in the hallway until they were completely quiet. 

If any student talked out of turn, got out of their desk without asking, was not doing their assigned work, essentially doing anything that was not perfect we made them hold this sign and sit in "jail" at the front of the classroom for 15 minutes. Harsh, but effective.

If they wanted to leave the classroom, they had to be issued a pass signed by an Indian Agent. Myself and my coop were the Indian Agents. These passes were to represent the actual reserve permits used by Indian Agents. 

The students were asked to write reflections about the treaty, and the pencils were flying. They had so much to say about how unfair it was and how frustrated they were about how we were treating them. I wasn't kidding about the tears! We also had one of the girls stay home for the rest of the week after she had a semi-meltdown. 

I know this sounds extreme, but it is an effective way to show the students a small glimpse of what life would have been like during the treaty. It generated meaningful discussions and motivated the students to research more information on their own. All in all, a successful week in teaching. 

Has anyone tried anything similar to this? I am open to suggestions for improvement! 

Not leaving a joke today. Still trying to find humor in the world after the Newtown tragedy. I hope people begin to focus on mental illness rather than gun control. I read a great article here that really made me think. Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy the holidays and what they mean to you.

Love,
Joc

A Staching Movember

Hello readers,

I am the worst blogger. Yep, its out there and I take full responsibility.

In other news, my class had a Staching Movember (see what I did there). We drew our own moustaches, coloured moustache templates, set up a display with faces and said moustaches and finally rocked felt moustaches to feel the real warmth of a lip duster. It was fabulous.

Big `ol box of Moustaches

I wish I could put pictures up of the students, it was hilarious. But there are creeps on the inter-web.

The display case consisted of 8.5 X 11 face shots of each student and a personally coloured moustache stapled under their nose. It was very cool. For the title we used something super unique - Movember. My awesome cooperating teacher found this M on google, and it made the display that much cooler.

These are some templates (again, stolen from internet) that we printed off and gave to the students to colour and draw inspiration from. 

So much awesome

Movember was great, and the school had a moustache and hat day in support of Prostate Cancer. Even though it's now December, cancer still sucks. I hope you supported in some way by either rocking a food strainer, or supporting those around you by putting up with the stache rash. 

Promise I won't take a whole month for another blog post. Love to my friends that harassed me (you know who you are).

Yep, about right

Thanks for reading lovelies! 

Joc