March 2024 Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey Department News

Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey Hosts Annual Symposium

This month we were happy to host our annual planning symposium. We love hearing about all of the wonderful things happening in each of our communities. This year's theme was Beyond Academics - before and after-school programming with a focus on inclusion, language and culture. We heard from several presenters who shared different ideas that they use to include more language and culture in programming and how to be inclusive to all students. We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

A 3 day Graphic Facilitation training workshop was held for any MK staff who were interested in learning about how to offer this dynamic way to facilitate and record meetings. The workshop was provided by Brian Tarallo who works for a company called the Grove. About 15 staff took part in the training, which covered everything from drafting an agenda to creating visuals and best practices for facilitating and recording meetings and sessions. The staff who took part really enjoyed the training and are looking forward to practicing what they learned in future meetings with communities and schools.

Tech Services

On March 23rd, James and Kim hosted the Technology Integration Lead Team (TILT) in Membertou for a really exciting day. The day started with learning about some new tools and discussing current tools that they are using in their classrooms. After that, the group got to try out Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, which let them see and interact with things in a whole new way. After utilizing the VR headsets the group talked a lot about how VR could enhance the way we both teach and learn. Imagine being able to walk around ancient cities or dive into the human body without leaving the room!In the afternoon, the team got active and split into smaller groups and went on a Goosechase, which is a fun kind of scavenger hunt that utilizes an app. The TILT members ran around Membertou, solving puzzles and completing challenges. It was a great way to get to know each other better and have a lot of laughs.

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Tech Integration also hosted a PD session this month on using AI as an assistant with Brian Buffington. As usual he used his humour and charm to engage our teachers in learning something new. We explored Magic School AI and Canva, as well as a few photo creation tools. Teachers discovered that to generate quality content from AI you need to be skilled in descriptive writing. Many were excited about the ability to create, social stories, lesson plans, report card comments, and responses to emails all within Magicschool! If you weren't able to attend you should check it out.

Academic Services

STEM

Educators were invited to a Sky Stories workshop early this month. The event, which brought educators on a journey into storytelling, science and literacy was hosted in Membertou from February 28- March 1st. Educators had the opportunity to hear from Mi'kmaw Elders and Knowledge holders, along with Western Educators and Scientists about the night sky. The teachers who participated really enjoyed themselves and learned new ways to weave traditional and modern perspectives into their teaching.

Post Secondary

The Post-Secondary Navigators held various cultural workshops across the province the last few months. They offered these workshops in Post-Secondary institutions and to high school students. All of the students were very proud of their work and really enjoyed being able to take the time to connect with each other and to their culture.

Language and Culture

Our Mentor Apprentice program participants completed their 400 hours of language learning this month. We are so proud of each and every one of them for taking that important step on their language learning journey!

Community language planning has continues this month and Glooscap has been working with Giselle to develop their plan. They held a community session to gather feedback and ideas from community members of all ages.

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