Teacher Narrative Renee Kurbis

Roots My Beginnings - I grew up with my family in the Qu’Appelle Valley, shaped by my education at Rocanville School and the farm life I was immersed in. From a young age I was drawn to the outdoors, spending hours riding my horses and exploring in the valley. I always loved school and felt supported to work hard and do my best. Growing up on a farm was a lived lesson in the value of hard work and creating a connection with the land we lived on and that supported us.

Sprouts Looking Out - As I neared the end of high school at Rocanville School, I began to look out into the world and consider what my place in it would be. As my dad worked at the potash mine, I was eligible for and earned a PCS Scholarship for the University of Regina in Grade 12. With this privilege, I was eager to begin post-secondary education and sciences like Biology and Chemistry intrigued me. In the end, I followed the advice of my English teacher and applied to the Faculty of Education, choosing a more gender-accepted field of study with majors in English and Social Studies. My learning at the University was the beginnings of my identity as a teacher.

Trunk A Foundation - I began my teaching career as a Grade 9 teacher at Swift Current Comprehensive High School in 2003. This first position as a full-time teacher formed the basis of my identity and role as a teacher. I taught in this position in a very traditional, teacher-centered way as was modelled for me in my own education. Although my classes were lecture-based, I learned during these early years that forming relationships with students was the foundation for all teaching and learning. I focused on getting to know my students in a big high-school setting, and including the natural world in their learning whenever I could.

Branches Building and Branching Out- By 2010, my husband and I had built our own family and had welcomed our third son into the world. The beginnings of our family tree were in Swift Current, but we felt a calling to bring our family north, to the forests and the lakes. In 2010 my husband accepted a job in Prince Albert and we moved our young family away from the open prairies. Our family would continue to grow and learn in our new home in Choiceland, with the Northern forests on our doorstep and the chance to teach our sons to connect with the natural world. In 2011 I began teaching at William Mason School.

Leaves Source of Life - William Mason School is a K-12 school with 150 students in the small town of Choiceland, Saskatchewan. I am beginning my sixth year of teaching at this school which has come to feel like a family to me. Teaching in a small-town school has taught me about community connections and given me the chance to teach almost everything from Grade 1 to Grade 10. Like the leaves on the tree capture the sun’s energy to give life to the tree, I feel like the students and staff at WMS give me an energy to work at building the best school we can.

Bark My Outer Shell - During my 2016 summer courses in our Community-Based Masters’ of Education program I learned about my social identities and how they have influenced my life through privileges and oppressions that I had never before considered. My social identities form an outer shell of group belongings that society ascribes different values to. These group belongings have shaped who I am as a teacher. With my new lens of anti-oppressive education, I am ready to examine these social identities for myself and with my students. Davidson, E. & Schniedewind, E. (2006), p. 205.

Spirit Epistemology “Knowledge and creativity have their source in a person’s inner being and in their personal journeying and thinking.” Cajete (2000), p. 102 The Mystery - In a story told by Willie Ermine, I learned that all people, and indeed all parts of Mother Earth, were given three gifts from the Creator: Strength, Compassion and Mystery (or Spirit). It is through Willie Ermine’s teachings that I have begun to explore and wonder about the spiritual connections of the natural world and learning and knowledge as spiritual experiences. I have experienced the deeply personal nature of learning in this Master’s program and it has opened my eyes to seeing the learning of my students in a new light.

These are the many influences and experiences that have brought me to this point in my teaching and learning journey; just as a tree is an interconnected being of roots, branches, leaves and spirit, so too is my role as a teacher connected to the many parts of my identity. I feel gratitude that my learning journey has brought me to this Masters’ of Education program and the people I have built connections with. I am ready to continue exploring learning that is connected with the natural environment, reflective of each student's’ personal learning journey and challenges social structures that are oppressive. As our province begins the task of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens, I feel that the role of education will be powerful. If my teaching and learning can be shared for positive social change, I am following the right path.

My Teaching Tree “Accept your particular life, the whole of it; then celebrate it with joy, your connection to it, so you can then give back, return through sharing, all that has been given to you.” Cajete (2000), p. 89

References Cajete, G. (2000). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Clear Light Publishing. Davidson, E. & Schniedewind, N. (2006) Open Minds to Equality. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools Ltd.