Within my practicum I wanted to incorporate more Indigenous ideas, primarily the talking and sharing circles. I was able to work with the Indigenous ed. teacher at my school to teach these concepts and learn more about them myself.
This is the story I read to prep students for their lesson with the Indigenous ed. teacher which focused on the importance of a talking circle as well as how students can show respect during these activities.
After learning about this concept I was able to utilize a talking circle for our science lesson on biodiversity. Getting students to come outside and reflect on the variety of life surrounding them before utilizing the talking stick to share their observations and feelings. I also made sure to go around the sharing circle more than once so students had more than one opportunity to share if they were not sure the first time.
By the end of my practicum I also had the Indigenous Ed. teacher come back into the class so students could create their own talking sticks. We explained the importance of the colours used as well as how the talking stick is a useful tool for allowing everyone to share. After facilitating a few talking circles throughout my second practicum I felt students could connect those moments with the creation of their own talking stick which was great to see how excited they were about it.
My goal for my final practicum would be to utilize talking circles even more because I only did it 3 or 4 times within my second practicum, and I feel like I could do this more because each time worked fairly well even with fidgety grade 1s.