August 2021

The completion of the Learning Leap site today is the final learning task in completion of my first two courses in the Indigenous Education: A Call to Action program, but its intention is looking ahead. In September I will begin a course titled Critical Service Learning and Engaged Scholarship in Indigenous Education, which will involve seeking a community partner and arriving at a shared vision for a capstone project I will complete during winter term. I have some ideas and initial contacts out, but a plan will emerge through dialogue, and further learning and reflection.

It will be exciting to see what projects each of my classmates will put together as well. From what we have heard, previous program graduates have initiated amazing work in their communities. It will be an honour to contribute to the legacy of this impactful program.

In the meantime, I am also looking forward to a few weeks of rest and renewal so that I am ready for the challenges ahead. It has been a transformative and rewarding summer despite the fires and smoke, despite the pandemic. I am so grateful.

Below is the description that was posted for this site in October 2020, which I’m about to re-work entirely. There were definitely some leaps in learning at Mount Sentinel during the school year, but not as much time to document it all as I thought there might be. Life has brought many new opportunities for learning since then. I’m excited to be re-thinking and re-imagining possibilities for the work and creativity of taking leaps toward better futures in the the West Kootenay region and beyond!

Learning Leap is a web-based initiative to support dialogue and learning, through intersectional and anti-racist lenses. To begin, the staff at Mount Sentinel Secondary School, a small community school in South Slocan, BC, are taking this leap by reading and sharing 13 books during the 2020-21 school year, and invite others to learn along with us. We are taking an appreciative inquiry approach, and are inspired by the leadership of #DisruptTexts on Twitter. We are grateful to the writers for sharing their stories and perspectives and will honour their work not only by learning from them, but also by being influenced in our teaching practice, since this leap is also for and with the youth.