New Standards

This year, new English Language Arts Standards are put into place.  The newest twist from the old standards to the new standards include Minnesota Indians - I'm not quite sure why they are not worded as Minnesota Native Americans - but the standards say Indians...

  These standards are to be implemented this year in my classroom:

7.5.9.9
8.5.9.9
7.7.9.9 
 8.7.9.9 
11.4.9.9
11.9.1.1 
11.12.6.6

You can find the exact wording of the standards here:

 http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/EdExc/StanCurri/K-12AcademicStandards/index.htm

Mostly the Department of Education has noticed a lack of knowledge about the plight of Minnesota Objibwe and Dakota - Why they don't word it that?  I'm not sure, but as I researched lesson plans for these standards I've learned a lot about Minnesota History that I hadn't paid attention to before. 

Jason and I took the girls to Itasca last week to research Native American perspective in Itasca - I hadn't thought of the perspective that even though Schoolcraft was given credit in finding the headwaters of the Mississippi when, in fact, he had a Native American guide who helped him find it.

We saw Burial Mounds and wild rice.  I was just realizing that I didn't even know what I didn't know yet.

Last night, I came across a Minnpost article by Paul Udstrand.  University of Minnesota students have made an effort for us to understand the Dakota War of 1862 and the ramifications it had and has on Dakota and Objibwe even to this day.  The article gives a link to a documentary on YouTube - written and produced by these students.  For an amateur documentary, An Overdue Apology gives a lot of great information.