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January 2019

United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages Celebration held in We’koqma’q!

Na’teliaq

On January 28th, Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey (MK) celebrated the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Language with an exciting event in We’koqmaq, Nova Scotia.

A cultural gathering was held at the We’koqma’q Mi’kmaw School that focussed on promoting language through the creative arts. There was drumming and dancing, a feast, and the official screening of Trevor Gould’s short film “Apajismk”.

The event also featured the official launch of the L’nuta’ql Mi’kmaw Music Showcase Album, which is a live album that many have described as the greatest Mi’kmaw concert ever assembled.

L’nuta’ql is the largest collection of original songs in the Mi’kmaw language from songwriters across the Atlantic.

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IYIL Celebration(continued)

“This project was a collective effort by more than a dozen musicians and artists across Mi’kmaki’ to help revitalize the language and create new original music in the Mi’kmaw language,” explained Jaime Battiste, project coordinator and Treaty Education Nova Scotia Lead. “The burden has been on educators and students to revitalize the language and combat the declining number of Mi’kmaq speakers within the Atlantic for too long.”

The L’nuta’ql live Album is collaborative effort between MK, Music Nova Scotia, Province of Nova Scotia, and FMP Matrix producer Scott Ferguson. The Album features 20 musical tracks in the Mi’kmaw language and some classic songs re-mastered by FMP Matrix producer Scott Ferguson. The project was meant to create incentive for artists to sing and create songs in the Mi’kmaw language. Long time recording artists and East Coast Music nominees such as Kalolin Johnson, The Relatives, Hubert Francis and many more were part of the live show during Mi’kmaw history month in October 2018.

It was an amazing day that was enjoyed by all!

A 2 minute highlight video of the concert is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9D_C-pS5_M

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The Language Department at Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey is very excited to introduce two new staff members.

The first is Michelle Marshall Johnson, Director of Mi’kmaw Language and Culture. Michelle comes to us from Eskasoni First Nation. Her parents are Albert and Murdena Marshall and she is part of the Bear Clan. She is married to Phillip Johnson and is the mother to 5 beautiful boys.

Michelle has worked in education for many years for the Eskasoni School board as a teacher and principal. Michelle has a strong passion for the Mi’kmaw language which was instilled in her throughout her life. Her parents were advocates for the language and their lives were spent dedicated to the protection and

promotion of it. “My mother was raised by Grand Chief Gabriel Sylliboy and he instilled in her the idea that language is everything,” explained Michelle. “Her life’s work was to ensure that the language is never forgotten and passed on for generations. She loved the the beauty and uniqueness of our language and she passed that love on to me.”

Michelle is excited to begin this journey at Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey and looks forward to working with all the communities in her new position.

The second is Alwyn Jeddore, Mi’kmaw Language Consultant. Alwyn is from Eskasoni First Nation, and is the son of Allan and Vivian Jeddore. Alwyn and his wife is Conchetta are newlyweds and have 2 beautiful children; Rylan and Lila. 

Alwyn was raised with Mi’kmaw being his first language and has been involved with Mi’kmaw language education for the last 9 years, which started with the Micmac Living Dictionary. He has worked in many youth summer immersion camps and has also worked at Membertou School.

“My late grandfather Wilfred Prosper Sr. was very much involved with the language and because of spending so much time with him throughout my life, he has made that impact on my life with the Mi’kmaw language which inspired me to strive to keep our language alive,” explained Alwyn. “I’m so excited and beyond grateful to be working with Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey now and can’t wait for what the future holds in store for all of us in this important journey and mission.”

Mi’kmaw Language Update

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Pictou Landing School News

It might have been a cold and stormy month, but that didn’t stop the students at Pictou Landing school from having a busy January!

As we know, Challenge-Based Learning provides an efficient and effective framework for learning while solving real-world challenges. In Pictou landing schools they tackled the Essential Question: “How can we help our community in the effort to create a clean and sustainable environment?”

In response to this, the Grade 3-6 students have been researching the decision to close the Boat Harbour Treatment Facility that has caused so much pollution.Then they wrote persuasive arguments in support of stopping the effluent dump into Boat Harbour and restoring A'se'k to it's original state as a clean and productive tidal estuary. They even had the opportunity to present at the community celebration marking the one year countdown to the closure of the Boat Harbour Treatment Facility.

Pictou Landing School is also very excited to introduce Helen Francis, Mary Irene Nicholas, Fran Nicholas, and Ralph Francis as Elders in the Classroom for their school. The Elders come in to work with the students three days per week for half an hour. They are involved in many language and culture activities. Mary Irene and Helen work with the younger children to encourage the use of the language, learning through songs and games. Ralph is continuing to work with the Grade 3/4 class, which he has done for many years. He is working on a history project, through story telling with this class. Fran is working with the Grade 5/6 class on Mi’kmaw language around studying animals and their habitat. This will result in a book for each student to research and share

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Family Literacy Day is always a big event at Pictou Landing School. Since a huge part of literacy is being able to talk and listen, family meals are a perfect opportunity for families to communicate as they sit down to share a meal together. This year they celebrated Family Literacy Day with a family breakfast and a game of Mikmaw language Kahoot with their 1:1 iPads. 

Pictou Landing School News

To conclude the month, Plfn school students took part in the annual practice of feeding Apuknajit. Each student gave thanks for the blessings of the winter so far and a prayer for the future.

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LSK School NewsIt has been a busy January for Students at LSK school. On Thursday, January 17th, Mrs. Crystal Gloade visited the grade 5 classroom to teach the students how to make their own moose calls. It was a great deal of work but they all enjoyed learning about this part of their culture. The students learned when and how to safely harvest birch bark. They also looked at other ways to create other art with birch bark.

The grade 3 class has been enjoying using the new OSMO kits provided by MK. There are some really cool apps that allow them to develop their Math, Literacy and coding skills using hands on materials. They have even been introducing them to their reading buddies in Ms. Brooks' class in Grade Primary. They are really excited about their upcoming field trip to the Museum of Natural History in Halifax on Friday to see the dinosaur exhibit. They plan on reading some texts leading up to the day so that students will be able to make lots of text to world connections.

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Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey Read-Aloud Project During a four-week period this past fall, sixty-five high school students and their teachers at Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni and L’nu Sipuk Kina’muokuom in Indian Brook partnered up to take part in a shared read-aloud experience. This experience was referred to as the Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewy Read-Aloud Project. It was designed to bring together students from different communities through reading the same novel and then blogging about it. In addition to being from different communities, the students also represented different courses and grade levels. Despite these differences, all were able to participate and learn from one another.

Blogging is a form of communication students will need in the future they will inhabit. From blogging, students learn how to craft clear sentences, use language in original ways to express an opinion or perspective, organize thoughts into a meaningful structure, and comment meaningfully to add to a conversation. Besides the skills that students are learning, and perhaps most importantly, blogging is a way to help students build a sense of community with each other. As the new saying goes, ‘It’s a blog world, after all’.

The book chosen by the teachers involved in this project was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Each day, the teachers read aloud one section of the book to their students. At the end of each week, students responded to a prompt posted by one of the teachers by blogging in Google Classroom. After they constructed their own response to the novel and posted it, students then read through other students’ responses. They engaged in an online dialogue by choosing one or more responses to respond to and comment on .

The project was successful not only in bringing students from the two communities together, but it was also successful in improving the quality of student work. The teachers involved noted that students were careful to craft quality responses when they knew that other students would be able to read what they wrote. Aside from being engaged with the story itself, students also looked forward to Fridays when they were able to see what their peers thought of the week’s reading.

The teachers who choose to take part in the Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey Read-Aloud Project were Liam Walker and Chris Gallant from Eskasoni (Chris was the brainchild behind this project) and Nikki Maloney from L’nu Sipuk Kina’muokuom . These teachers found the project to be worthwhile and are already looking forward to the opportunity to participate again. They agree that it was a meaningful way to engage and motivate students and have them connect with one other. The teachers hope that more schools will participate in future MK Read-Alouds as it proved to be such a valuable learning experience.

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Introducing OSMO

Students love taking part in hands-on activities that allow them to learn while they play. OSMO does just that! It is a is a learning system that uses an iPad and physical objects which helps to keep kids engaged in learning and build their confidence through hands-on play. OSMO provides the opportunity for students to improve their skills in coding, math, literacy, art, creative problem solving, and more!

In order for teachers to get the most out of this new technology, they need to learn about all of the possibilities for using it. During the months of December and January, one-day training sessions were offered to teachers on 5 different days, in order to accommodate their schedules. Two of those days were Saturdays, to allow for teachers to attend if their schools were unable to find substitute teachers. By the end of January, almost all of the teachers in grades 2 & 3 received training.

Although OSMO is suitable for grades primary to six, grades 2 and 3 teachers were the target for the training sessions. OSMO provides a great bridge from Bee Bots, which primary and one classes are using to explore coding, and Sphero robots, which are being used for coding in grades 4-6

All schools received at least 1 OSMO kit, which is comprised of 3-4 OSMO bases, along with an equal number of the following OSMO games/resources: Coding Aubie, Numbers, Words, Pizza Co., and Tangram. They’ll also receive Coding Jam and Coding Duo once the students get comfortable with Coding Aubie. In addition, an equal number of iPads (3-4) were provided to teachers who did not already have them in their room. When not doing an OSMO related lesson, these iPads can also be used for other activities requiring an iPad.

Additional support has been offered to teachers and Allan Mackenzie, Technology Integration Specialist, will be visiting the classrooms of teachers who request it. In addition, a lot of teacher resources are available on the Google Site (resources.kinu.ca), which will be updated when new resources become available.

In preparation for the training sessions, Bob Crane (MK Numeracy Consultant), as well as Kyla Bernard and Charleen Ferguson (Elementary Math Mentors) became involved with the planning and facilitation of the OSMO training . They recognize the value of integrating OSMO as well as the connections between math and coding. Kyla and Charleen provide regular classroom support for these teachers, and have a tremendous amount of experience teaching in the elementary grades. As I’m sure these teachers would agree, it was a huge asset having them involved with this training!

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Have an event or story idea you’d like to see in the February newsletter? Contact Shara at shara@kinu.ca or 567-0336 ext.5603

Upcoming Events

MK Community and Strategic Planning Symposium March 13 and 14, 2019

We’re looking for your ideas! Contact shara@kinu.ca

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