Northwestern Ontario students teach kids in the south about Indigenous culture

Two Grade 3 and 4 classes in Whitby, Ont. are learning about Indigenous culture from students thousands kilometres away in northern Ontario.

"We thought, how can we actually learn about the Indigenous people and what they're going through?" said Patriza Bortoluzzi, a teacher librarian at Theresa Catholic School and St. Matthew The Evangelist Catholic School in Whitby, Ont.

The classes from Theresa and St. Matthew schools started a program to communicate with another Grade 3 class at Marjorie Mills Public School in Longlac, Ont., which has an over 80 per cent Indigenous student population. The three classes communicate over padlet, an app that allows the classes to post on a virtual bulletin board. Students ask each other questions like what language do you speak? Where do you go on field trips? And is it cold there?

"Almost like a glorified pen pal, so to speak," said Loretta Traynor, a teacher at St. Theresa.

The teachers said that they are focusing on an "inquiry classroom" allowing the students to ask questions and discover the similarities and difference between them, which also gives the students a language to describe their own cultural identities, something the Grade 3 social studies curriculum focuses on.

"Not always do you as a student, or even as an adult in Longlac ... get to experience that diversity in southern Ontario," said Lisa Adams of Marjorie Millsl. "In southern Ontario they don't always get to experience that wonderful First Nations culture that we have such a great connection with here in Longlac."

Bortoluzzi and Traynor came up with the idea to converse with an northern class after the youth suicide crisis in Attawapiskat First Nation was dominating headlines in 2016.

"Pat and I both felt that there was something we could do as educators," said Traynor.

They thought that making connections between the communities at a younger age could bridge a better understanding of each other, and Bortoluzzi and Traynor visited Longlac to meet Adama's class and participate in a fall harvest festival.

The program is being funded by the Ministry of Education Teacher Learning and Leadership Program with a $47,000 grant. This has been used to buy electronics such as iPads and Apple TVs to enable the classes to communicate with each other.

"I think it's authentic learning," Bortoluzzi said. "They're engaged, they want to be there, they want to learn, they're curious, they want to keep asking questions about it."

The student have also talked to each other via Skype, and will be setting up an online classroom for the curriculum's lessons.

"We are hoping that they want to build friendships with one another and want to continue on their own," Bortoluzzi said.