I’ll leave this right here. The voice of a grade 2 student after watching @MatthewACherry’s beautiful Hair Love short film. This is all the feedback I need to keep enriching my students with slow, steady, daily representations, provocations and affirmations.

Are you an ETT member? Have you experienced violence and/or harassment at work? We invite you to participate in an arts-based focus group: Exploring the Impact of Violence Against Public School Teachers in Toronto GET DETAILS: https://t.co/hkeQuH2JRG

Listening to @GholdyM drop some serious words. One I’ll take with me is that teaching children about identity is a form of protection. Once a child knows and loves who they are, can’t nobody tell them anything. I love this deeply.

Calling all children “scholars” centralizes academic performance as the most important part of a student’s identity. I call students “children” because it represents all of their qualities, their whole identity, their humanity. #WholeChildFirst

This is gonna be flames. I’m sure of it. ☄️

Children responded: "Two-Spirit people are in the middle of two genders like the tree trunk bridge." "Two genders come together in one like tree trunk roots coming together." "Two-Spirit people are powerful and special, and two tree trunks make a strong tree." My heart!!!

We noticed that there are two different tree trunks that, at some point in time, decided to join together as one. I asked the children, "How is this Two-Spirit tree similar to Two-Spirit people? Here we see two tree trunks coming together, what comes together in Two-Spirit ppl?

We talked about why we think this is called a Two-Spirit tree. Students shared: "It is a bridge, like something is in the middle...maybe for squirrels." "It is two different trees coming together as 1." "It is like teamwork. The two trees are stronger when they work together."

THREAD: Elder Blu Waters shared with us during a session on Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer pride that there are Two-Spirit trees around us as well. Today, the Grade 2/3s looked at this Two-Spirit tree that Ms. Sharla found in her backyard. @UIEC_Tdsb

Book Title***** 47,000 Beads

The story is titled, 47, 000 dresses. The child is wrapped with love in different ways from their community as they find themself as a Two-Spirit person. https://t.co/dxf2gtuir4

...that they are surviving and thriving and that European settlers did not win. Two-Spirit people are here despite the violence they experienced & experience. They did not listen to the gender stereotypes. We ended by reading a beautiful story of a Two-Spirit Lakota child.

The settlers wanted Two-Spirit people and the rest of the community to follow their ideas of gender roles based on their gender stereotypes. This changed Two-Spirit people and their role in Indigenous communities. So, Two-Spirit identity is a way of Indigenous peoples saying...

Students learned that Two-Spirit is an identity specific to Indigenous peoples. We'd been discussing gender stereotypes and so Ss learned that European settlers wanted Indigenous peoples to change how genders were expressed in their communities.

"The Two-Spirit person is being hurt by a teacher from residential school. They are cutting their hair." "The person cutting the Two-Spirit person's hair is outside of the Indigenous community, they could be a European settler." Picture Source: https://t.co/mM9q0lByyQ

This image was shown to the children and they shared their thoughts: "This is a Two-Spirit person because they are in between the signs we see for men and women on bathroom doors. Their gender is in between." "They are sad because someone is trying to change them."

Then we learned that being a Two-Spirit person looks and means different things depending on the community. In Cree- aayahkwew “neither man nor woman” In Mohawk- Onón:wat “I have the pattern of two spirits inside my body” Students made connections to pride and trans people.

Students responded: "You have to listen to how your mind and body feels." "No one can change who you are." "You can feel like a man and woman at the same time and that's okay. It is a gift." "People might not like that you are a Two-Spirit person but that doesn't matter."

The 2/3s learned that being a Two-Spirit person is a gift and very special. Two-Spirit people have important roles to play in their communities like taking care of fires and children who do not have parents. They were asked what they can learn from Ma-Nee Chacaby's teachings.

THREAD: In preparation for @UIEC_Tdsb's event tomorrow w @MSCorneau & Elder Blue Waters on Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Pride, Gr. 2/3s learned about & discussed what it means to be a Two-Spirit person. We started by listening to Ma-Nee Chacaby's teachings

This. Sending so much love to all the bereaved mamas feeling this grief with an extra sting this weekend. 🤎