Hello from Kamloops!
I'm up in Kamloops, British Columbia, attending the BCTF Summer Conference. Tomorrow the Aboriginal Education Advisory Committee will be meeting with the Local Contacts for Aboriginal Education (teachers from various locals around the province) for our annual meeting to both introduce and train new contacts and new committee members as well as take on some training or other work that we are interested in exploring and how it will benefit Aboriginal students and Aboriginal teachers as well as further the cause of Aboriginal education.
As it is listed as a "Discrete" Day, I think it means that I can't really talk about the agenda, but I am excited to get to see the new faces of new advocates, as well as some of the familiar ones.
I can say that Aboriginal Education in BC feels at risk. Whether that is true or not, I cannot really say for sure, but that uneasy feeling is there. I have commented on this in more depth in previous posts on both positive issues and negative ones.
I also wanted to say that this is my final full meeting as Chair of the Aboriginal Education Advisory Committee. While I will be opening our September meeting, it is at that time that I will conduct the election of the Chair whom will carry the Committee into the 2011-12 school year. I am only serving notice here on that, so if you are expecting a deep, thoughful reflection on my accomplishments and my failures, you are out of luck.
I will do that later, when my term is complete ;)
I will still be on the Committee, of course. I did want to say that it has been an honour and a privilege to work with an extraordinary group of teachers, all of them dedicated to improving the world of Aboriginal children.
I remember the first time I stepped down as chair of a committee that meant a lot to me. I remember feeling rushed to fill in the new chair and worried about whether I had done enough before leaving. At the end of the day, though, it taught me to be generous with knowledge and in any position always behave as though I am training my successors. Who is the new chair? I also remember it felt good to be relieved of the responsibilities at the end of the term :)
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