Jieni LIM (301167464)

Educ 471- Summer 2014

Prof. Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 11 July 29, 2014

In Week 11 class on July 22, 2014, Team BOSS presented one of Josephs curricular
culture, sustaining indigenous traditions. There were three activities that facilitated a deep
learning experience for me. First was the circle we were asked to form in the middle of the
classroom, and several people were asked to step out from the big circle, and some were
instructed to step out more than one or two steps from the original circle. When my peers,
who were initially standing next to me in the circle, were gone, I started to feel a little
insecure and lost connection from others, not only physically but also emotionally. I like the
idea of forming circle, because not only does it represent many values found in Indigenous
cultures, (social ties, family closeness, and harmony), in my own cultures, a circle also
represents unity, completion and connections. Not only is it a cultural-related idea, many
times in the classroom settings, students were asked to form a circle for discussions, games,
sports etc. The second thing that I gained significant insight was sharing our familys name
and origins with other peers in the circle, this is my first-time experience of saying out aloud
my parents names in a public setting. Even though I could hardly remember any information,
but after going around by sharing our family backgrounds, I felt sort of a sense of closeness
with others without explicitly interacting with them. It is an interesting way of getting closer
or getting to know about one another without sharing about yourselves, but about your family
backgrounds. The third thing I learnt from the activities was the family tree activity. It is
interesting to see the pattern or structure of the family tree column is in the shape of circle
with me as the central part, instead of the hierarchical top-bottom style (shape of plant
roots with a lot of branches) of family tree and me embedded somewhere in the tree-rooted
form of branches. Overall, I think this presentation was awesome because they did not just
start off by presenting about what happened with the indigenous groups in the past, and we
should sustain and embrace their cultures and traditions. I like the ideas of creating real
Jieni LIM (301167464)
Educ 471- Summer 2014
Prof. Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 11 July 29, 2014

experiences for participants to experience particular cultural practices that the Indigenous
groups will do, such as forming circle, sharing family history with peers etc.