Today some fellow teacher candidates and myself got the opportunity to go out and experience the land on one of the trapline areas here in Prince George. We joined a grade 6/7 split class from Heritage Elementary and Indigenous Land Based Educators Reid and Kelsey, along with them they brought Indigenous Elder Clifford. The traplines were off an old logging road about 50 minutes from Heritage school. As we drove out to the location, I was thinking about how lucky I am to get to be a part of this experience, and how lucky I am to be becoming a teacher in this day and age where we are allowed and actually encouraged to do field trips of this nature. When I was going to elementary school the most “outdoorsy” we got was taking a field trip to the lake on a nice sunny day. On this field trip we were taught about why we should be grateful to the land and the ground underneath our feet that provides us life. The kids were tasked with building a fire using only a flint and a cotton ball, everything else was to be gathered by hand by themselves. The kids got to work together to build themselves a shelter, They were shown how to responsibly us a hand saw and I was so very impressed with how responsible they were with it. Finally, students walked the actual trapline and learned about trapping from Reid, the actually owner of the claim of land we were on and owner of the traplines we walked. Within all of these events that happened my biggest take away was the engagement from the students and the immense amount of participation they put forth while doing all the activities. The one thing I have forgotten to mention was the fact that the whole entire trip was met with consistent heavy slush rain. Every single person on this trip was drenched, the weather conditions were less than desirable. Even in these conditions the participation from the students was present and it was not just present, it was every single kid actually seeming to enjoy what they were doing. I was amazing to see and it just goes to show you how much kids really do appreciate getting out of the classroom and getting creative and engaged in their learning. A lot of valuable skills an knowledge was shared and taught on this field trip. This trip made me even more excited to get into the field of teaching, just to see how evolved it has become and how much room their is to get creative and fun with how you decide to teach material to student. To wrap it all up this was not just a fun experience it was an important one. There is no better way to connect with Indigenous knowledge and truly connect with the land then to just simply do it. I will remember this field trip for a long time to come, I walked away with a marshmallow roasting stick made for me by elder Clifford, and an irreplaceable experience I hope to take into my own classroom one day!
