So being a Social Studies teacher I spend a lot of my time thinking, reading and talking about societal issues, with student, colleagues, friends and family.  A curiosity and interest in the why and the what of things is what really what drives me on a professional and personal level.  I am also lucky enough to be surrounded by bright, interesting people who are willing to share their opinions and engage in lively debate.  As a result, for years, I have had the idea of recording  podcasts and sharing some of these conversations for no other reason than to illustrate that people do think, care, discuss and often disagree on real issues about education, society and life in general.  The problem, however, has always been in finding interesting enough topics and the people willing to share their opinions on them in a recording....

 Well, I'd like to introduce you to Erica McLean.  Erica is a colleague I met this year through my new position with Learning Innovations.  The last few weeks Erica and I have been sharing an office a couple times a week and we have been chatting about the Wet'suwet'en / Coastal Gaslink Pipeline dispute.  Erica is from the Gitanmaax reserve that borders the Wet'suwet'en territory so I was keen to her perspective and thoughts on the dispute.  What has resulted has been great conversations and sharing with Erica being willing to sit down with me this morning to share some of her thoughts.

This was both of our first attempt at a podcast type audio recording so it is far from polished but we did it in one take without editing so  I figure that can't be too bad.

Please click on the file below to here Erica and my conversation.
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​Erica McLean Know Why

Here is a link to Erica's Blog Skanii and her post on the Know Why conversation

On Monday I was at a workshop with Jo Chrona from FNESC exploring the BC First Nations Land, Title, and Governance Teacher Resource Guide.   It is a great resource with well laid out lessons and resources.  This guide is available as a free download and is invaluable for anyone exploring land, title and governance in BC with their classes. 

This workshop also got me thinking more about accessing local resources and histories to layer onto some of the lessons.  With a quick visit to the PGDTA Aboriginal Education Resources page I came across the Native Land Territory and Language map.  This is an interactive map that comes with a teacher's guide.  This is a great resource to spend a bit of time with especially if you are teaching social studies.

September 27th we introduced the Indigenous Big Map of Canada resource to teachers and UNBC teacher candidates.  The "Big Map" is an amazing resource and comes with a number of prep made lessons from Canadian Geographic.  Teachers and teacher candidates had a chance to explore the resources, interact with the map and collaborate on potential educational uses. 

Click here for digital copies of the Canadian Geographic lessons 

If you or your school is interested in booking the map for your school you can find information below.

Also below you will find a document with ideas for using the map provided by the UNBC teacher candidates came up with after a debrief of the afternoon.
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