Today I observed in a classroom where the teacher was having year 11 history students read a short history of the settlement of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (aka Wellington) and surrounding areas, in preparation for a much larger community-based project. As they read, their job was to annotate a map, illustrating what they were reading.
Most students were overwhelmed by the process of labelling the map because they didn't know any of the Maori place names. (This was sort of the point.) As they got the hang of reading between the lines, googling the Maori words, and understanding what their teacher wanted, slowly their maps came together. The teacher did a great job of trying to help them see the significance of what they were doing, but I couldn't help but wonder if students were grasping the deeper meaning under it all. They were reading about the earliest known human history of their own city, yet none of them knew the history or even the place names.
I'm not sure how to recreate this lesson for myself or for my students. Because New Zealand has a relatively known "starting point" for human history, it feels much more manageable to teach Maori history. The history here also feels so much more accessible. I'm not sure how much that is reality, versus perception, but I already know more about Maori history than I do about indigenous history in Minnesota. I don't even know the names of the tribes in Minnesota. (I can't believe I just said that out loud.) I certainly wouldn't be able to help students label parts of a map. Ok, google tells me I need to quit embarrassing myself and learn about the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples.
I have no memory of learning about Dakota or Ojibwe people growing up. As a teacher I taught myself some basics about the Wampanoag in Massachusetts, the Iroquois in New York, and the Utes, Paiutes, Goshutes, Shoshones, and Navajos in Utah. But really? I don't know anything. In Minnesota I live a few miles from an urban Indian reservation and I didn't even know it existed until Jen pointed it out to me.
I can't decide who I'm angry at for all the education I never got. I guess from this point forward the only person I can blame is myself. Better get on it.
Most students were overwhelmed by the process of labelling the map because they didn't know any of the Maori place names. (This was sort of the point.) As they got the hang of reading between the lines, googling the Maori words, and understanding what their teacher wanted, slowly their maps came together. The teacher did a great job of trying to help them see the significance of what they were doing, but I couldn't help but wonder if students were grasping the deeper meaning under it all. They were reading about the earliest known human history of their own city, yet none of them knew the history or even the place names.
I'm not sure how to recreate this lesson for myself or for my students. Because New Zealand has a relatively known "starting point" for human history, it feels much more manageable to teach Maori history. The history here also feels so much more accessible. I'm not sure how much that is reality, versus perception, but I already know more about Maori history than I do about indigenous history in Minnesota. I don't even know the names of the tribes in Minnesota. (I can't believe I just said that out loud.) I certainly wouldn't be able to help students label parts of a map. Ok, google tells me I need to quit embarrassing myself and learn about the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples.
I have no memory of learning about Dakota or Ojibwe people growing up. As a teacher I taught myself some basics about the Wampanoag in Massachusetts, the Iroquois in New York, and the Utes, Paiutes, Goshutes, Shoshones, and Navajos in Utah. But really? I don't know anything. In Minnesota I live a few miles from an urban Indian reservation and I didn't even know it existed until Jen pointed it out to me.
I can't decide who I'm angry at for all the education I never got. I guess from this point forward the only person I can blame is myself. Better get on it.