Learning Story – Weledeh Catholic School – Aftermath of the Storm

Learning Story – Weledeh Catholic School – Aftermath of the Storm

Session 4, The Week of October 23, 2024

What Happened?

Overnight, a storm rolled in, and the Land changed! With that, we shifted how we take care of the land at the Bushkids site. We often begin the day with heavy play and work to set us up for a well-regulated day. Today, the snow offered a lot of opportunities for this. We asked several students to volunteer to help shovel the pathway between the Bushkids’ site and the Healing Camp. Four students volunteered to work together to complete this task. There were two large shovels and two small ones. As a group, they coordinated and took turns using the shovels. 

Once the section was completed, they noticed that the rest of the path needed work. “Can we keep shovelling?” They took the initiative and continued down the path, discussing whose turn it was and how to shovel the path best. 

Suddenly, someone had an idea!

“We could shovel driveways for money!” 

“How much could we charge?”

“We could print off an ad.” 

“Do you want your driveway squeaky clean? Call us!”

“Whose number will we use?” 

“Can your mom drive us around?”

“Where do you live?”

“What neighbourhood should we go to?”

“How much money can we charge? $5 or $10?”

“It depends on how big the driveway is. We can charge different amounts for different size drive ways.”

“If there is three of us and we charge $15, then we each get $5”

Our inquiry of the day was: How do we show love to each other? When we asked how we showed love at the end of the day:

“In the food.”

“When we listened to each other.”

“When we shoveled the pathway.”

“When we worked together.”

“In our laughter.”

“In the ways we speak to each other.”

“When we took care of the site -chopping wood, making kindling.”

“When we share stories about ourselves.”

“When we showed kindness by ensuring each other had dry clothing.”

Why is it Important?

The students were given the time and the space to lead their learning. This authentic opportunity allowed the students to connect their learning to their community. The Elders shared how grateful they were for the students. During the morning circle, several students were surprised when one of the educators mentioned that this was a way to show love. Often, the idea of love is limited to ideas of love for family or romantic love. Still, we discussed how love can be shown to our friends, educators, people we don’t know, people in our community, people across the country, and beyond. We asked them to take time throughout the day to notice how they saw people showing love. 

During our closing circle, we went around the circle and most students were able to share a moment when they saw someone doing something which was an act of love. 

What Does This Mean For Next Time?

As educators, we will continue to create the space for the students to develop their leadership skills by guiding their own learning. We will also create the time for them to reflect on how their interests and strengths will help them to become a capable person. We will also continue to discuss how we can show love to the people around us by using the gifts that we have.