Recap: EDU 211

Recap of EDU 211: Aboriginal Education and Contexts for Professional and Personal Engagement

This was a challenging course, to be honest. But rather than focusing on the negatives, I'll talk about just the positives instead. Going into this I had little to no background information about any Aboriginal-related content, so I was really going into the class blind. We had a mass lecture on Tuesdays once a week and a seminar on Thursdays. Tuesdays we were in this gigantic lecture hall while on Thursdays we were in a more intimate classroom. (Intimate as in less students and can actually have meaningful discussion). 

Instead of having an assigned textbook, there were numerous readings that were to be completed by the week. Truthfully, I barely did the readings. I think there was just too much that I gave up. What a crappy attitude to have, but unfortunately the number of readings required each week equated to legitimately more than a regular textbook. There were though, some readings that I found really interesting, such as sections of one of our professor's dissertation. I say "one of" because there were not 1, but 4, different professors that lectured on our section on Tuesdays. I found about 4 or 5 distinct readings that were extremely relevant to not just the Aboriginal context to the course, but how it can apply to myself when teaching.

Thoughts Throughout

I really enjoyed the seminar portion that was on Thursdays every week. As I said earlier, it was more intimate, but also there was that comfortable environment our seminar facilitator ensured. During our seminar we discussed about the lecture material for a bit, then our SF would teach, then finish with a sincere talking circle. I found that expressing our feelings and thoughts, in addition to listening to our peers about Aboriginal content helped the seminar environment to be more effective.

Oh, I also forgot, this is a picture of me sleeping during lecture. My friend was sneaky about it. But when looking back, I have to admit, it is pretty funny. 

Final Thoughts

Despite the challenges this course faced, I didn't mind this course at all. In fact, I enjoyed the material and how relevant and applicable it is to me. I really liked how I didn't have to buy a textbook (saves me money) and that it was half lecture and half seminar. After doing really brutal on the midterm, I was pleasantly shocked that I received higher grade than what I was expecting. At that second, I was D.W. Read.