In June, SelfDesign® welcomed Ken Banister, Enid Elliot and Suzanne Weckend to the Board of Directors. On an individual level, their experience in education runs deep. Their combined expertise ranges from early childhood education through to post-secondary curriculum development, teaching, and education research.
In this interview, we talk to Family Services’ team lead Clarissa Tufts. She oversees the team’s direction and day-to-day operations, and works with the clinical counsellor, guidance counsellors and members of the contact assistance team who provide support to learners, families, educators and other members of the SelfDesign community.
Art Intensive Camp brings SelfDesign® learners in grades 9–12 together for one week to connect, collaborate and share while they immerse themselves in art. When the B.C. government suspended in-person learning in B.C. schools in mid-March to protect students and slow the spread of COVID-19, SelfDesign decided to take the camp online and opened it up to all interested SelfDesign learners.
In recognition that reconciliation will be one of the most important challenges facing today’s learners in the years to come, SelfDesign® seeks to integrate Indigenous culture and perspectives into the everyday learning experience.
The overall vision for reconciliation and learning at SelfDesign® is to integrate and weave Indigenous education and mainstream education seamlessly together so that learner, families, educators and contractors automatically consider both the Canadian Indigenous and the national or international perspectives, ways of knowing and being, and ways of approaching learning.
In addition to nearly a dozen resources provided internally to our community through the SelfDesign Learning Experience Library, here is a list of external resources we have shared with our community to support exploring and understanding anti-racism.
We believe all of our learners are special, but at the Virtual Commencement Ceremony held on June 13, SelfDesign® recognized the Class of 2020 for an achievement unique to them. The group of SelfDesign learners are the first learners to have gone through SelfDesign® Learning Community’s newly designed high school program from Grade 10.
For Patricia Collins, seeing learners embrace opportunities to learn about Indigenous ways of seeing and being and build them into their learning and lives drives her. Read more about Patricia’s journey to become SelfDesign® Learning Community’s Indigenous Education Facilitator.
To support continued progress to “flatten the curve” while working towards a safe return to in-person learning, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education has asked us to create a pandemic response plan. As an Online Learning school, SelfDesign® Learning Community is well-positioned to support families during a gradual return to in-person activities.
SelfDesign® has been working to build cultural bridges across and throughout our own organization. Our efforts are driven by the more than 80 recommendations put forwards by SelfDesign’s Indigenous education task force, comprised of a First Nations elder, a First Nations SelfDesign parent and learner, and SelfDesign educators including those with Indigenous heritage.
