Reflecting on Fire, Classroom Care, and Indigenous Topics

I (Christina Lennox, facilitator of What I Learned in Class Today: Care in the Classroom) remember dreaming up the delivery of this workshop on a cold December afternoon. How could I capture the spirit of what UBC’s Indigenous Initiatives team at Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology designed in their original What I Learned in Class Today facilitation guide? How might I do all this, while being grounded in good heart and mind?

What came of these dreams and reflections was the persistent metaphor of a fire. Could fire be our guide to identify and plan for acts of care in the classroom especially around Indigenous topics?

Below you will find reflections, observations and key takeaway testimonials from the CTE’s first time hosting What I Learn in Class Today: Care in the Classroom. Details of our upcoming February 23rd session (online) are found at the bottom of this post.

Reflections and observations

 On a foggy winter day this January a group of CapU community gathered around a (metaphoric) fire, to closely consider… how might we plan for care in the classroom especially around Indigenous topics and realities?

In circle we listened to stories by UBC-Vancouver Students talking about their experiences with Indigenous topics in their classrooms. We built a fire, throwing pieces of kindling (examples of are) into the centre to work with and admire later. We worked together to add to our fire—tinder (plans), firewood (impact). Last, we enjoyed, admired, and celebrated, before leaving the fire to burn.

What attendees shared were their key takeaways of this workshop:

An Example of Care

We we sat in circle watching the What I Learned in Class Today Student Film with a pen and stack of note cards in hand ready to write down the examples of care we noticed.

The card reads: “take time for your class to get to know eachother—relationship building

Our next (online) session happening soon!