Inkshed #2

Lauren Christensen
January 30th, 2020

Chapter 3 outlined some of the history between Indigenous and non-Indigenous

people living in what is now known as Canada, that led us to the relationship that exists
today. While reconciliation is the stated goal of the Canadian government, there is a
long way to go before it is achieved. The treaty systems, Indian Act, residential schools,
and racism in Canada all were given as reasons the relationships are so fraught. This
chapters also outlined the role teachers have in reconciliation, namely confronting our
fears about discussing this topic and educating themselves. With proper education and
understanding, hopefully empathy can grow and we can create a world where
reconciliation can become a reality.

Chapter 4 talks all about the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a
teaching approach that creates an environment in which learning is accessible to all
students. This chapter discussed the need for relationships between everyone in the
community, teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, and students. It requires
this connection, willingness to change, and leadership from principals for UDL to
become a reality in many schools.

The readings this week definitely started with some harsh realities about
Canada’s past and present. I think teachers being aware of this is vital if we are going to
properly educate our students. I remember learning about residential schools in high
school, but I know that for many this was not the case. I am still unsure about what
should be taught at each grade. I remember last year our guest speaker (I think her
name was Bonnie) said that we shouldn’t start with genocide. Instead we should start
with joy and life and culture and as students get older we can start introducing some of
the more upsetting realities of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people. I appreciated
that the chapter started by acknowledging forgiveness is not a requirement for
reconciliation. Assuming forgiveness will be part of the process puts way too much on
survivors at what would likely just be a benefit to the Canadian government.

It was interesting to hear the author’s opinion on the role of principals. So far in
this program I feel like we haven’t really talked about principals, so I’m still not really
sure how they play into the day to day and direction of teachers lesson design. Katz
seemed to imply they were really vital to introducing UDL at a school, so I wonder what
it would be like for a teacher to implement this in their classroom without a principal
leading the way.
I would like more examples of UDL actually being implemented into classrooms. I
know this is something we’ve talked about in multiple classes and this chapter gave
some examples of how to implement it (ex. Having a meeting with a students parents),
but I would like to see what that would actually look like when teaching a lesson, doing
assessment, or answering student’s questions about the differences they would notice
between one another’s learning goals. I guess I’m just feeling like for the amount of
learning we’ve done on this subject if I was dropped into a classroom today and told to
implement it I wouldn’t even know where to start. Although that being said if I was
dropped into a classroom today I probably wouldn’t know how to do anything so maybe
I should start small.