Building Student Leaders Through Community Awareness

"Building Student Leaders Through Community Awareness"

The Intermediate classes at McKay Public School will connect with members of the aboriginal community and build knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity through a variety of hands-on activities and workshops. The students will then have an opportunity ot develop their leadership skills as they prepare and plan activities for younger classes in the school including: dramatic, musical and visual arts presentations, preparation of special foods, and sharing of information. Our hope is for the entire school to gain a greater understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity.

Update (May 31, 2011)

We began our Aboriginal awareness activities with a school-wide POW WOW the first week of May. Members of the drum group Ohnia:kara shared dances, songs and drumming with the students from Kindergarten through Grade 8.

The following week there were three Aboriginal workshops held for just the grade 7 and 8 students. The first was on the Medicine Wheel, its history and meaning, and then the presenter, Jackie LeBonte, gave each student an opportunity to make their own Medicine Wheel. The second workshop was held by a gifted artist, , who showed the students pieces of her collection of bead-work. Some of the pieces were over one hundred years old. She also taught about why beading was important in the past and its significance today. Then each student made their own bracelet. The final workshop was with Phil Davis, one of the drummers who had been here the previous week and he talked about Aboriginal music and drumming and many of the boys had the opportunity to join him at the drum for a song. The children were very attentive and really enjoyed each workshop.

The following week a staff member at our school served the Grade 7 and 8's authentic white corn soup and delicious cookies that her aunt had made. Of course the children loved this special lunch! At this point in time the grade 7 and 8 students are preparing workshops for the younger grades to continue the learning experience.

Update (June 17, 2011)

The intermediate students at McKay have been busy preparing mini-workshops for the younger students in our school. They have based their presentations on aboriginal stories, music and dances. The actual dates of the presentations have been moved to these last few weeks of June because everyone has been so busy with testing, track meets and so on.

Three groups have shared their presentations so far. One group told a story about the Turtle and then, because that class had recently studied the novel, Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes, they led the class in creating an origami (a Japanese paper-folding art) turtle. The children seemed to enjoy the activity very much. One young student was so excited, he went home and made dozens of origami turtles that night. A second group taught an Apache/Navajo song called "I Walk In Beauty" and a Friendship dance. The young primary class enjoyed the dance but were a bit hesitant to sing the song. Another group told the story of the Weasel and Others and then they played a game involving the information in the story.

Other groups will be presenting next week.