I am working hard at practicum to unsettle the current space while creating my philosophy. For example, another educator’s main focus is kindergarten readiness. I see this in reward charts, one-size-fits-all crafts, circle times, and numeracy and literacy activities. I’m not trying to diminish or shame their choices as educators, however, these are the things that I don’t particularly agree with. I feel that a lot of educators do this because it is the way they were taught, and that is okay. However, I am soon going to be an ECE and I feel the importance of sharing and collaborating why my values within early childhood education are important to me in a respectful way, just like I give them the space to share their ideas. My values as an educator include collaboration, empathy, and growth.
October 3
Today I spoke with Sle7e to assist me in my pedagogical documentation. He is going to help me help the children explore my commitments to the land, language and culture. He is the main knowledge keeper at Head Start and helps me learn the language each day so I can use it when working with children. He is going to join me on walks throughout the community next week and assist me in educating the children on the language. I am looking forward to this!
October 9
Today we only had one child. It allowed me to explore my pedagogical question in depth with Carver. We went on a walk to the kekuli and took the time to explore along the way. Wherever Carver stopped, we stopped with him and listened to everything he had to say. I know sometimes for educators, or all adults you just want to get the walk over with, but I thoroughly enjoyed slowing down with Carver and having him share his perspectives. Together, we decided on a list of words we wanted to learn in the Secwepemctsin language being: Squirrel, Crow, Pinecone, Butterfly, Dirt, Frog, and Turtle. We intend on asking Sle7e these words in next weeks cultural group time.
October 17 & 18
I began working to make my pedagogical documentation visible within my centre, to bring traces of our walks inside. I put up their pinecone drawings and the pinecones we drew at their level so that they are able to interact with them. The voice button has Carver saying pinecone in Secwepemctsin. I notice him coming back to it time and time again and connecting with it.
October 21-25
The last couple of weeks, we have been looking at different prints. I brought magnifying glasses for each of us on this particular walk. Carver originally noticed the “Dinosaur snake prints” in the sand. We followed them to see where they went. Although the track ended eventually, Carver observed that this dinosaur snake may live in the kekuli. We looked at other footprints we found on the beach, and I took pictures of them to bring back to the centre and try to figure out what they belonged to. I wanted to expand on this since I have a commitment to the land. I felt that an exploration of footprints and where they are on the land intertwined well. Next week I plan on creating a map of our walk and seeing what the kids have to add to the map.
November 11-14
I created a map for the children to add to, and this resonates with bringing our walks inside. This was super interesting as recently due to a cougar in the area, we have not been able to go on walks so it was more important to continue engaging with them within the centre. I rolled out a large piece of paper and drew the main elements: the centre, the road, the paths, and the beach. I began to draw trees, and Leland and Carver drew with me. Leland said, “There are lots of trees, big trees,” while drawing a tree beside the path. Carver began quietly drawing and I asked him if he knew what kind of tree he was drawing. He thought for a minute before responding, “A walking tree, he walks and visits the kekuli too.” I asked if just that tree was a walking tree and he responded “All the trees are walking trees, they can walk anywhere.” Next he began drawing some arrows, and directed me to draw arrows also. I asked what the arrows meant, and he told me “I’m drawing where the walking trees go.” This was extremely interesting to me, I wondered where he got this idea so I would like to explore Carvers observation more. I showed the Carver the pictures of the prints we saw at the beach, and he grabbed the footprint stones we have on the tuff tray. It seemed like he was trying to figure out which print belonged to which animal (these stones have one side with a print, and one side with the animal it belongs to.) He said “It’s a seklep print!” and began drawing. It was neat to see him use the Secwepemctsin word for coyote, he didn’t seem to know it before we put a voice button on the wall a week or so ago. As Carver went to draw the print, he looked puzzled, and told me he couldn’t. I went and grabbed the magnifying glass and said “Look Carvey, you can see it better with this, it seems to have different shaped parts.” He looked and we drew each part together. Once we got to the claws, he made an observation. “The claws are like the pinecone pokes. I think they are sharp.” It was the most amazing thing to see him connect the pokes on the pinecone that he noticed weeks ago to the shape and sharpness of the coyote paws. This exploration was mostly done with Carver as we have had low attendance with other children lately, but I want to get the other children to connect with it as well.
November 18-20
This week I wanted to make an interactive map that the children could engage with. I provided pieces such as fake small trees, animals, grass, etc on the tuff tray along with the animal prints and a magnifying glass that we used outdoors prior. The children made connections to things we see outdoors along with Secwepemc words. Sle7e sat and identified different animals with us in the language. This week we have been able to walk in the community if we stay in groups close to the centre, so we took the time to walk the loop and appreciate that there were still delicious apples waiting on the tree for us! When we were walking around the garden, Carver found a white arrow shaped marking on the ground. I immediately thought that it could be an arrow guiding us somewhere, although carver reminded me that it looked like the bird prints we were observing the week prior! This was so amazing to me how many connections the children, especially Carver has made to our work throughout the process of my practicum. I plan on adding this photo to our map where we found it to engage further with this.
