Teaching Culturally

Teaching with Culture Instead of About it from a Native American Perspective

Take a deeper dive into what it means to teach culturally vs teach about culture with Mark Denning. Mark is an experienced educator, lecturer and curriculum specialist in American Indian history and culture. Learn specific examples of how to incorporate culture into your everyday lessons and interactions with a focus on Native American Culture. Discuss contemporary issues impacting students and families such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Indian Child-Welfare Act and other influences relative to Indigenous education.

Participants in this course will gain tools needed to be an effective, culturally competent educator, with a focus on building a relationship with, and responsibility for, the environment. The key objective of this class is to help teachers learn about themselves while also learning about teaching their students from a lens of teaching culturally not about culture. The goal is that Mark will pose a question/thought weekly that will be informed by each live-online class and will be open to the group to discuss in a safe and open forum with other educators. This interaction and honest discussion will lead to informed lesson planning that will assist the teachers to prepare rich lessons/units for their students. The focus will be on Mark to open the dialog and inform the teachers, but the ultimate goal will be to create substantive classroom materials resulting from the work of the group and the teachers themselves.

This course is designed as a companion class to ACT 31: History, Culture and Sovereignty Rights of Wisconsin Indians. Participation in ACT 31 is not a prerequisite to take this course. This course is taught with Educators as the core audience however any specialty is welcome to join.

Instructor

Mark Denning

My Anishinaabe name is Nodaway Benaise and I am Sturgeon Clan. I am enrolled in the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, and my ancestry includes Menominee, Mille Lacs Ojibwe, Stockbridge-Munsee, French and English. My experience as an educator, lecturer and curriculum specialist in ... read more

Who Should Attend

Educators, School based professionals, Social Workers, Speech Language Pathologists, Paraprofessionals

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

• Increase knowledge of best practices, model programs and available resources.
• Participants will leave this course ready to be an advocate and guide for their classroom, school and district on topics relating to ACT 31.
• The purpose of this class is to learn to teach culturally instead of teaching about culture. With a focus on Native American Culture.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Notes

This is a noncredit enrichment program. Progress and courses completed are marked by Continuing Education Units. CEUs are not transferable to college or university transcripts.