Cultural Expressions of the Lheidli T'enneh

The Exploration Place exhibit we'll see on Oct 22 is called "Cultural Expressions of the Lheidli T'enneh." Pronounced Klate-lee Ten-eh -- these are the First Peoples whose traditional territory includes what is now Prince George. They were formerly known as the Fort George Indian Band, and are part of the Carrier People, a sub-group of the Dakelh Aboriginal group. They have lived in this area for thousands of years, and continue to be an important part of Prince George's cultural mosaic.

Our field excursion to see this exhibit takes place almost exactly where a Lheidli T'enneh village stood for many years during Fort George's early history, and where this people visited and lived for centuries, and so we are learning both in a place that celebrates their culture (the museum exhibit) and about a place that is important to their culture (Fort George Park). As a teacher I'm interested to see what the exhibit can tell us about First Nations connection and adaptation to place in this region. I'm also interested to challenge my stereotypes about Lheidli T'enneh culture.

I'm curious what your questions will be?

For starters, read through the elder's guide (linked here), a package put together for this museum exhibit by a BC Elder's Gathering. If you need more food for thought, read more about on the Lheidli T'enneh  website. I took 97 photos at the exhibit (linked here). Both the elder's guides and my pictures are also available on the teacher's "HANDOUT" bin when you log in at school.

TASK
Generate one powerful question you would like to have answered by what you learn from the exhibit. This could be about the place (museum or former village site), culture, museum curation process, ancient vs modern evidence, issues, whatever strikes you as interesting after reading the elder's guide. A powerful question is one that does not look for an easy answer, it often requires more questions in order to work towards a response. When you make a pattern of developing and asking powerful questions you are engaging in inquiry. Post your powerful question as a comment below.

FOLLOW-UP
After you have seen the exhibit, create a response to your powerful question. This may involve direct answers, more questions, changes to your original question, mention of links or other resources you used to consider your question, and thoughts you had about the exhibit and your question.  In other words, write freely about your question -- a powerful question deserves a powerful response; not a simple this = that, but an exploration of the topic. Post a brief summary of your response as a reply to your comment below -- indicate where you are going with this particular inquiry (this might be a good way to kick-start the rest of your response). Build your full response as a formal piece of writing and include this in your portfolio -- this will probably be a two-page document (maybe about 500 words, the length of this blog post!)

Image source: http://www.theexplorationplace.com/uploads/images/DSCF1377(2)sm.jpg

Next Step Portfolios

If you've been following on with this blog, you might recall a few posts that have mentioned journalling, portfolios, and "archiving" evidence of your learning.

1. Digital portfolios - looking at different ways to organize and display your work online -- some of you have done this, some of you have not.

2. Journalling - writing about what you are reading -- past and present

3. Topophilia - the 2nd writing activity was meant for your portfolio -- your first experience in nature (the 1st writing activity was shared on the blog)

The next step is to actually start organizing what you've been doing in the Language and Landscape program so far (including #2 and #3 above) and thinking about how you want to display it for others to see (including your teacher for assessment).  It is possible to do this in hard copy (e.g. a physical journal, portfolio, or scrapbook) but each one of you needs to find a way of making some version of this accessible online.  For example, maybe you might keep a beautiful journal of some kind with drawings and ideas, works-in-progress, etc., and then take pictures that you post on a microblog or tweet using a particular hashtag (e.g. #llport). Who knew that Social Media can be used from more than just weird outpouring of teenage angst? Ha ha... I thought that was funny. #srsnotsrs Actually, educators use it to vent and express, too, but I have found great teacher stuff my following hashtags the same way one eavesdrops on a conversation, for example #bclearns. For those of you that despise twitter, there are many other options.

FOR STARTERS (especially if you haven't picked any other way to do this), when you log in at school, make a new folder inside your home folder (the one with your name, e.g. mine is called gthielmann). Call this new folder public_html (exactly) -- this is now a public folder that others can see.  Use this to place portfolio items that you wish to show to others such as your teacher for assessment.  This could be writing samples, web links, screenshots, pictures you have taken, pieces of you are working on.  This doesn't need to be ALL of your work, just the parts you are willing to share plus a few required assignments (e.g. see #2 and #3 above).  Keep it organized -- use appropriate file titles and subfolders for big categories.

Remember to follow general guidelines for web safety - don't put too much personal information online. While your digital portfolios are meant for you, each other, your family, and your teacher, other educators and members of the public can see what you place online.

Leave a comment below indicating what you think you will do in terms of making and sharing a digital portfolio.

Flex Time Oct 3

A new use of flex time today...

Some of the students (about 16) will be in class for these two blocks in order to get help with difficult work, make revisions to your short project on geographic issues, or to complete missing assignments.

The rest of the students (about 12) are free to use this Flex where they wish -- it looks like next week, though, we'll start having to keep the Flex in the building.  It would appear that our vision for students owning their learning in their own space and time is a bit ahead of what the board office is comfortable with.  We have "face-to-face" teachers/students/schools, and we have "distributed learning" teachers/students/schools, but putting them both in the same space requires some negotiation.  Fair enough, we'll work on them, but in the mean time let's take a look at what is set up for you for this week's Flex.

Topic: E-Resources
Check out the District Learning Commons site: http://drc.sd57.bc.ca
Look around a bit -- lots of study tools and e-resources (links, videos, lessons, tutorials, etc.) that will be of use in many of your classes. Click the orange E-Resources button (or just go here) and then the LearnNowBC button (or just go here). To log in to LearnNowBC, you must do the following:

• First Initial Last Name Student Number - Example - MBerra767676 
• Password - Welcome1 
• The account setup is easy and requires a password change. 
• If you already had an account with LearnNowBC your username and password remains unchanged.

Try to find a resource that fits with one of our topics in class right now: geology, plate tectonics, faults and folds, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  Pick one of these topics that you found most difficult in class. You can access your lesson handouts anytime at: http://dpts.sd57.bc.ca/~gthielmann/LL/assets/

The other places to get e-resources is through a targeted web search.  We'll do more with that on another day, but let's not forget ye olde youtube (it's like 8 years old already!).  Here on some videos on class topics, but feel free to find your own (this was just my quick search):

Geology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-cc8fs3xYY
Plate Tectonics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSJNBMOjJs
Faults & Folds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsrm33tjN0
Volcanoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGObQ6mLWhg
Earthquakes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8mj6ISmXX0

Accountability/Assessment
For those of you not in class today, leave a comment below with two things:

1. an evaluation of the District Learning Commons site -- what are one or two things you found that you think might be useful for you as a study or learning tool (in this class or any other)?
2. a review of one or two video resources that you found and watched either through LearnNowBC or one of the links I suggested above -- how did the video help you clarify your understanding of the topic(s)

Other: finish up your work on Lessons 2A, 2B, 2C or get started on 2D or 2E -- 2E (Earthquakes) has 2 earthquake simulation games to try.

Note on tomorrow's Seminar
Expect more book talks, more project presentations, and a writing workshop activity -- Image Wheels. First block: those born January to June
Second block: those born July-December