Grandfather Teachings

W.H Ballard and the Grandfather Teachings – Our Journey so far…

In September of 2018 our W.H. Ballard school community chose a new path to achieve our monthly goals and to enhance the Character Education of our students.  In the past few years we have encouraged our students to be the “ROCK”, to strive to demonstrate Respect, Optimism, Compassion and Kindness. We wanted to do more this year to expand and align our Social Skills learning with HWDSB’s goal to promote truth and reconciliation initiatives within schools and to build our student’s knowledge of Indigenous cultures. We wanted our students to better understand, what is respect, optimism, compassion and kindness and to talk and share more about what these virtues could look like at W.H. Ballard. It is our hope that over this year our students will develop a greater appreciation for the First Nations Community, Culture and History which are so deeply embedded in our Social Studies and History Curriculums.

Our journey began in May of 2018 when lead staff met with our Indigenous Consultant to assist us in introducing and adopting the Grandfather Teachings at W.H. Ballard.  Our Indigenous Consultant met with our entire staff in June and a plan for introducing and teaching the Virtues was developed. Staff leads on the project reached out to and met with Indigenous Teachers from our board and the Hamilton Regional Indian Center for assistance with the Grandfather Teachings.  A cultural leader was invited from the Indian Center to introduce the teachings to the entire school in September. He returned in October to discuss the first of our teachings, Respect. HWDSB’s Indigenous Consultant offered a series of workshops at W.H. Ballard over the past several months which many of our teachers attended.

Each month the teacher’s are provided with a lesson framework and given resources to teach their students a new virtue. The lesson framework was shared with our Indigenous Consultant and Cultural Leader.  Teachers have been provided with websites to consult and we are gradually trying to build our collection of books to share and support our students and teachers in their learning. As well, each student received an empty bracelet in September to use to collect beads for their own “Wampum Bracelet”.  The bracelets are displayed in the classrooms. Each new month and new Grandfather Teaching has a corresponding coloured bead. Students can collect beads by following the teachings and being acknowledged by staff in the building. In this way, the students are encouraged to share and remember their own stories as the year progresses.  Every student receives a new bead each month and different students will be honoured monthly for demonstrating a good understanding of the monthly virtue and committing to treating others kindly and respectfully.

We welcome any questions regarding the path we have chosen for our students.  The Grandfather Teachings of Respect, Bravery, Truth, Honesty, Humility, Wisdom and Love we have adopted help us to learn how to be good people, how to make better choices and get along with one another.  We are just beginning our journey and look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months.

Further information can be found on the following websites:

https://empoweringthespirit.ca/cultures-of-belonging/seven-grandfathers-teachings/

https://www.7grandfatherteachings.ca/index.html

https://www.abegweithealth.ca/carousel/carousel.asp

https://onjisay-aki.org/anishinabe-sacred-teachings

Sincerely,

Your W.H. Ballard Staff