Tag Archives: Experiential Learning

Education, Indigenous Nations

Land-based learning: These schools spotlight culturally immersive education

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Pen? Check. Paper? Check. Fishing rod, canoe paddle, and weaving wool? Check, check, check. For the students of land-based learning schools, education facilities that bring culture to the classroom, school supplies extend beyond the classic pencil case, binders and backpack.

Run by educators who believe schools should nurture the innate needs and wants of young people, rather than put them into a cookie cutter student mould, you would be hard pressed to find a youth hunched over their desk, scribbling notes monotonously from a whiteboard.

“Kids need to move. If they move, they are learning,” says Tanya O’Neill, principal of siʔáḿθɘt, a K-12 Tsleil-Waututh Nation school in North Vancouver.

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Education

Folk U: Audio Postcards from the Cortes Island Academy

This whole month, Folk U Radio has been partnering with the Cortes Island Academy to feature student work and the music and ideas and voices of the Cortes Island Academy students. There are 20 of them, coming from homes in Cortes and the surrounding area to nations as distant as Germany and Indonesia.   

“We asked the students, what would you write about your experience on Cortes Island? If you were to send an audio postcard home or an audio postcard to someone you know and love, what would it sound like? They were required to record their own voices, they had to record real sound effects, download sound effects, and also get copyright free music. All is part of a project that had to be less than three minutes and would talk to their experiences, and the results have been incredible,” explained Manda Aufochs Gillespie.

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Education, Youth

Internal Sociocray with Tamias (& teens) on Folk U

Learn more about sociocracy, a holistic governance system, and its uses externally and internally as Tamias joins host Manda Aufochs Gillespie and teens from the Cortes Island Academy Tools for TruthTelling podcasting course in this special Folk U Radio episode.

Sociocracy as a form of governance uses consent decision-making and a linked circle structure to distribute power through an organization while supporting efficiency and clarity.

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Education

Rewilding a school wetland is a lesson in climate resilience

Editor’s note: the Miranda Cross mentioned in this article is a Cortes Island resident and Project Manager for the Dillon Creek Wetlands Restoration project.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quadra Elementary’s kindergarten students tried their best to follow instructions and stay seated on tarps that were spread out on the school field in an attempt to keep them clean.

But the lucky kids near the edges of the blue plastic matting already had their hands in the dirt. 

The 60-plus children recently gathered with members of the We Wai Kai Nation, Quadra Island school and community leaders and the B.C. Wildlife Federation to celebrate their new wetland restoration project by planting a selection of native trees and shrubs. 

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