November 2, 2023
Academic Services
STEM
A workshop was held in the community of Glooscap on October 21 for grade 4-6 teachers. The workshop was facilitated by the Clean Foundation and the focus was on teaching climate change. Our STEM Mentor Jennifer Sawlor has been coordinating work between Mi'kmaw educators and Clean Foundation over the past 2 years to help weave Mi’kmaw ways of knowing and some language into their workshops.
We made a special effort to reach out to teachers off-reserve for those communities in the province without MK schools, and invited any teacher who has Mi’kmaw students. We had 9 teachers participate and received some great feedback on the presentation, group activities / discussions and take-home classroom resources.
Everyone was excited to be in the valley and spend the day in beautiful Gluscap First Nation.
Student Services
The EA Modules have been developed and are well under way. We have over a hundred EA's who are registered. The Modules are developed and delivered by MK staff to provide accessible professional development for EA's in the MK family of schools.
Post Secondary
We have been offering GEd testing throughout the month. We offered 3 in-house sessions, along with Pictou Landing, Potlotek, Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre with one graduate using our mobile station. Congratulations to Arthur Johnson of Potlotek.
Assesssment
This month, Sara Curry from the Nova Scotia Department of Education Evaluation Services visited Wagmatcookewey School during their Provincial Observation. She had. a great visit with Principal Louise Witzell and the students and staff.
Mi'kmaq Language and Culture
Our Mentor Apprentice participants met for the first time this month. They discussed their language goals and were provided with the resources they need to start their learning. Everyone is looking forward to being part of the project this year.
Our Mi'kmaw Language teachers took part in the first of 4 networking sessions this month. They had an opportunity to share and reflect on how their year is going so far. They reviewed the language assessment which is available for use in classrooms, and also made some crafts.
Giselle Stevens, our Mi'kmaw Language Coordinator has been holding language planning sessions this month. She has visited the communities of Annapolis Valley First Nation and Glooscap First Nation where they had discussions regarding their language goals. They are working on taking their big goals and breaking them down into a plan in order to address their individual needs. Their first sessions went very well and she is looking forward to working closely with these communities, along with Bear River, on this pilot project over the course of the year.
Treaty Education
The Treaty Education team attended an event in New Glasgow on Treaty Day. They set up a booth where they answered questions and shared resources and knowledge with people who stopped by to talk. They have also been busy providing presentations across the province at different events.
Sport
We held our annual Female Leadership Camp this month at the Delta in Halifax. We had over 20 girls from across the province join us for a fun filled weekend. They took part in self-defence classes, language lessons, and presentations from Native Women's Association. They learned the Kojua and Jingle dress dancing, and they also had discussions on MMIW and the Red Dress Project. It was a great weekend with a fantastic group of girls!
The MK Sport Schedule is now underway and students are very excited to be able to visit each other schools again!
