Learning From My Reading Notes

The reading notes we had to prepare for this class were a nice change from the typical reading logs I have done in your previous classes. Preparing notes instead of formal written mini-essays allowed me to write down more of my thoughts in a way I can easily understand them when I look back on them as I wrote them in a way my brain thinks instead of formal writing. It also allowed me to not dread having to read these articles and prepare notes due to the fact they are less formal which allowed me to focus harder on the readings and enjoy my learning experience. Writing notes on my readings has allowed me to grasp a better understanding on the articles as a whole as I could write notes as I read then look back on the notes after I finished reading as a review for what I just read. The group presentations also proved useful as I could listen to how other students interpreted the readings then compare them to my own allowing me to gain a different perspective on some the articles that I may not have noticed and once again gain an overall better understanding of the material. Preparing for my own group presentation proved challenging as I do not do well with public speaking. The process of creating the presentation however proved extremely useful as I was able to create a relationship with my classmates that allowed me to have friends within the classroom environment that were able to help me with other assignments whenever I struggled. Overall, the reading notes allowed me to a gain a different perspectives on the material and an overall better understanding of what we were learning.

Learning From My Primary Document Analysis

The primary source analysis was my favourite assignment for this course. I chose the document “The Story of a National Crime: Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904-1921” by Dr. Bryce Henderson because I found it an extremely interesting and controversial read. I struggled with writing this analysis for this document because it is fifteen pages long with a lot of information so therefore I had a hard time shortening my paper without being too general in my analysis. I ended up writing seven pages when we were only required to write three to five and I could have continued to write a few more pages if I were to analyse in as much depth as I would have wanted. However, this taught me how to take a longer primary source as a whole and attempt to understand the social, political and cultural background that influenced the document and analyse it within a broader context and then use the details to represent these contexts. This longer document also forced me to compress my arguments by using my sentences and word structure more efficiently in order to cut down my word count and provide the correct length for this paper. Overall, I used this assignment to improve my essay structure in order to provide a sufficient argument of a longer document within a shorter paper.

Learning From My Research Paper

I found writing this research paper to be relatively easy for me. I attribute this to having several steps and assignments that we had to accomplish throughout the semester as stepping stones to create our final research paper. The document analysis, research proposal and research paper presentation all allowed me to gather my thoughts, ideas and arguments over the semester to gain a better overall understanding on my topic and where I wanted to take my final paper. This is my first experience with a professor focusing all the assignments off of one final project and topic and I found this experience to be highly beneficial. Through my assignments and research my topic remained on residential schools but my focus within my topic often wavered as I went through each assignment I found interest in several aspects of the residential school system. I began my research with looking into the over all long term and short term impacts on students due to the conditions of these schools which then translated into psychological impacts which narrowed down to an argument on assimilation vs. isolation. I have narrowed my thesis to state that although these schools are often thought of as an attempt at assimilation of the Indigenous culture, I argue these students were not assimilated but instead further isolated from their traditional culture and colonial Canadian society as a whole. This is an interesting thesis for me because through my research I have not found many sources comparing the two but rather speaking only to assimilation or isolation. I enjoyed writing this paper as it has a deep connection to my family heritage as my grandmother attended a residential school in Saskatchewan. Due to her trauma she never spoke towards her experiences at school nor did she teach my father and his siblings Indigenous culture due to the deeply ingrained shame and racism she experienced at school. This has in turn affected me and my education on my heritage as my family does not practice Indigenous culture as these traditional values and practices were lost with my grandmother. This research paper has allowed me to gain a better understanding of what she may have experienced in her education and has allowed me to gain an increasing gratitude towards my past and future education.

Our Assignments and Historical Thinking

All of our assignments came together to teach us how to think historically about education. Our reading notes taught us how to condense long papers into summaries, picking out the arguments, themes, and sources of the documents. Our primary source analysis taught us how to consider bias, view several perspectives and to analyse the document to form an argument about a document and its connection to the past and the present. They both taught us how to interpret documents so that we can learn about the past with a more critical mind. The presentations allowed us to consider our classmate’s interpretations on certain topics providing new incites we may have not considered. All our assignments allowed us to use a new and different format to learn about the history of education.

Learning From Life Stories of Learning

This is the first time I have done an exercise like this. At first I had a hard time understanding the assignment and how to go about it but once I started to write about public speaking it became much easier to write. Public speaking has always been a challenge for me throughout my entire education. In high school it was a bit easier because I knew and saw everyone in my classes everyday since grade school which made me less nervous to stand up in front of them to present, it felt like standing up in front of a room full of friends. When I came to university this task proved to be much more difficult as I did not know any of the students and I began to present material that was knew to me. This exercise allowed me to really examine why I struggle with public speaking and allowed me to write out a more positive outlook on it which allowed me to understand how beneficial it is for me to possess public speaking skills for my future studies and profession in elementary teaching. The reflection aspect of this assignment allowed me to  reflect on the group presentation that I had in week 5. Although I did still feel anxiety and nervous during and before that presentation I had a different outlook on it, look at it in more of a positive light and learning from the experience to hopefully improve for my solo presentation on my research paper.