E-Learning - full steam ahead

I am learning as I am teaching.

There are several platforms currently being used as online tools and more are certain to appear in the near future. I have been working through Zoom, Meet and Team. In the past, I have presented through Skype.

The pandemic struck and we are all trying to do our share at making the world a better place. I wear a mask. I practice social distancing. I am making an effort at lessening my carbon footprint on the environment by staying and sharing from home.

In the past few weeks,web presentations have proven effective.


1. I have worked with an entire community; students, staff and parents. Feedback..."Amazing as always. So passionate. Very well received. Have tweeted it out. Let's chat again next school year. Meegwetch."  

2. I have worked with individual classrooms in both English et en francais. 

Students seem to be enlightened to see my workplace, my shack. I have been sharing my flutes and stories that relate to some of the artifacts that I have picked up over many years. 

                                                                                                                       
And I have, of course, been reading from my books. In many ways, being here at home is allowing me a more personal and inspirational message be it about mental health, individual gifts, the need for and the pleasure in reading and of course, Indigenous traditions and values.     

3. Professional development. I have worked with teachers who are seeking support in teaching Indigenous content. My passion remains reading so I rarely, if ever, speak to professional groups without touching on literacy/reading. Feedback...

"I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am to have had you connect with our staff. I had been reflecting on why I reached out to you, and how I felt that you would be the perfect fit on our journey as educators to better understand how to weave Indigenous ways of knowing and learning with our focus on recognising strengths, unique gifts and talents and knowing your values. I listened and acknowledged the 'signs' that this was the right path....and it was!

The presentation was informal, organic and you were able to showcase your gifts as 'storyteller' while providing our teachers with excellent examples and knowledge. 

I hope we are able to continue our work together, I am excited about future connections with staff AND our students and families!

Again, thank you for today, for your stories, for sharing and building our confidence!"

Teachers, administrators and parents, go here for my webinar fees. If you have questions, email or call my agent Chris Patrick at 866 786 4237.

                                                                                                      

Raven's Great Light Show - a reading...

We Learn from the Sun

I don't even know where to begin.

We Learn from the Sun is being launched June 9th and will be available from that day forward. It is being published by Medicine Wheel Education, Victoria, B.C. Simply said, this book is...wow... https://medicinewheel.education/

This wow is not so much in response to the book itself although it is honestly wow.

This wow is directed at the unprecedented energies a group of young, passionate publishers have invested in producing and publishing We Learn from the Sun. Medicine Wheel has created a book that I am convinced will be a game changer for primary children.

"This richly illustrated book by Metis writer David Bouchard and Metis illustrator Kristy Cameron, weaves together Woodland style paintings with a rhythmic poem about the spiritual lessons that we can learn from the Sun and the seven sacred teachings."  Goodreads 

My book, The Seven Sacred Teachings with the same artist, Ojibway Metis Kristy Cameron, is a best seller that is being used extensively and effectively in classrooms across Canada.

This new book focusses on the same teachings only in this book, we have created text and imagery meant for younger readers. Youth, both Indigenous and  non-Indigenous, should be introduced to the spirituality of Indigenous people everywhere. These teachings are recognized and accepted world wide. Not religion. Spiritual guidance.

"We Learn from the Sun is an Indigenous rhyming poem based on his best selling book Seven Sacred Teachings. A Teacher Lesson Plan and Resource Guide accompany the book. It's a beautiful poem with colorful illustrations about the Seven Sacred Teachings to be learned from the sun." 49th Shelf
'

Medicine Wheel Education wanted to help educators and parents build on the teachings so they included a teacher lesson plan and resource guide. Check it out on their website.

Good  luck.

Reach out to me if you need me. I will always be here for you.

www.davidbouchard.com   

Raven's Great Light Show

I honestly don't know what role Leprechaun plays in Irish culture, but like most, I have heard it said that Leprechaun sits at the foot of the rainbow with a pot of gold.

It was that that got me to thinking.

I had just recently returned ftom a trip to the Arctic filled with stories and dreams.

One of the most exhilerating experieces I had had was being in the front row watching the spectacular show of the Aurora Borealis - the Northern Lights.

Like many, I listened and I dreamed. I heard stories and I let my imagination run wild. When it was over and done: Raven's Great Light Show.

As I always do in creating my books, I meshed what I had seen, heard and dreamed. Mixed in with it all was Leprechaun sitting at the bottom of the rainbow. Whether or not Leprechaun was responsible for the rainbow I didn't know but in my mind, Raven was totally responsible for the Northern Lights and that was the story I would tell.


Next came a partner/an illustrator. Keep in mind that most of my partners are not illustrators but fine artists. What I needed was one whose work perfectly typified the Northern Lights. Enter Jasyn Lucas:

I reached out to this amazing Oji-Cree from Thompson, Manitoba. Illustrating a book would be new to Jasyn but he was all in. The rest is history... 

Thank you Vidacom Publication https://www.vidacom.ca/ for producing such a beautiful book. 

A Pandemic and a New Direction

I have lived through the tragedy of Canada's residential schools. I saw the start and end of the Vietnamese War. I was here when the Kennedys and Martin Luther King were assasinated. I experienced the break up of the Soviet Union, the taking down of the Berlin Wall and I saw the twin towers fall in 9/11. I was here when appartaid ended in South Africa and when the US elected Barack Obama, their first black president. I was one of the many shocked as the US elected Donald Trump their president. I have lived through many things.

Today' pandemic is as world changing as any I have seen.

This pandemic will have some major and lasting effects on my personal and on my professional lives.

As I write this in mid-May, ready or not, the world seems to be on the verge of reopening. It will  reopen with severe restrictions. It will reopen but likely not ever be the same. Change is usually good and in this case, good might come of it.

For certain, this new reality will affect what I do and how I do it.

I accept the need for change and have already embraced it.

My friend/manager/partner Chris Patrick and I have  decided to aggressively attack remote-learning.

We have already hosted two webinars that were both well attended.

What we will attempt to put in place is a programme by which I can go on doing what I have done for the past 20 years only working from home. The carbon footprint I have left on the environment during years of travel will be greatly diminished. Through remote-learning, I will reach many more students, educators and parents because travel, hotels, etc...are expensive. And finally, I will be in a better position to customize what I do to a greater extent.


I picture my reading with kids, sharing ideas and answering questions remotely in classrooms from kindergarden to post secondary.

I am ready to start sharing with teachers through staff meetings and pro-d as well as parents durinig PAC meetings or parent conferences.

I will, of course, continue to make myself available in person as this type of presentation is not going to disappear.

Change is a-comin' and we are embracing it for all the good things it offers.

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Nothing as strong as Motherly Love

Over the years, I have learned that some things are factual. This is one of them. There is no love as powerful as a Mother's love.

And now, I have found a perfect school built on Motherly love, a school for new and expecting mothers, the Louise Dean School in Calgary, Alberta.

Over the past twenty years... I have presented on different continents and in several countries, provinces...cities and reserves. I have met and worked with countless communities and no where and at no time have I found a situation that exuded unconditional love as did my experience at Louise Dean in Calgary.

I am struggling with just how to describe the
school/community so I will use text from their website and pictures taken by Allison Orpe, the Assistant Principal at Louise Dean. Thank you Allison.




 Louise Dean School is a specialized Grade 9 – 12 education program for pregnant and parenting teens. Raising children can be difficult at any age, but becoming a parent before having the chance to finish high school presents a unique set of challenges for a teen mom.  Louise Dean is a compassionate and caring community that provides every young woman on campus with a comprehensive support system including physical and mental health care, child care, and a quality education as they move into their new role of family and community leadership.



The setting I found  myself in was to say the least unique; a gym filled with young moms and expecting moms, educators and of course children...young, very young, active and beautiful children.

In the gym with chairs against the walls and mats covering the floor, I spoke about the strongest love in the world, the love a Mother has for her children. I spoke of Mother Earth from whom we come and to whom we will return. I shared a creation story and a few Trickster Tales. And my listeners were amazing! Their hearts were open. Their minds were sharp. They wanted to listen and to learn for the betterment of their babies. Nowhere could a speaker find a better audience in spite of the fact that, on several occasions, various toddlers would approach me with open arms expecting if not demanding that I pick them up. How could any grandparent not oblige and do so with the greatest pride of having been invited to love them. If my stories were not enough of a hit with the kids, my flutes were. I went down on one knee and dropped any notion of not having anyone touch my flutes (which for health reasons we flute players usually do). 

Louise Dean is a magical refuge for many in need. It is a sanctuary that does what all schools should do, offer hope and guidance. 

Twenty years ago, during my last years in active school administration, our mission statement stated ...We are a sanctuary for students, parents and educators that will recognize and build on every person's gifts. Louise Dean brought it all back to me sugar coated in the deepest and best our world has to offer, a Mother's love. 

                                                         

Trust, Truth and Reconciliation

Truth and Reconciliation has numerous road blocks to overcome. One of these is what I am coming across daily; educators are worried about the potential repercussions of being truthful with their students.

I have come across another, being slandered by a twitter troll.

Someone tweeted that I was not Metis, that I was using my Metis status for financial  gain. This occurrence is worth sharing in order to highlight the reality of dishonest trolls on social media and to call on all Canadians to join in the fight for social justice.

I began writing about 25 years ago. I did well with two of my early books, If you're Not from the Prairie (on McLean's list of the top 20 Canadian children's books of all time) and The Elders are Watching. These successes opened the door for what became more books and a few awards. One was Voices from the Wild, published by Raincoast in Canada and by Chronicle out of San Francisco. I was the first and the only Canadian to win the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award awarded for the single best book of poetry to come out of the US in any one given year. I then wrote a series of five books on China, a few more on the prairie (my homeland), a few children's books and two books on reading. These two allowed me the freedom to begin conference work and school visitations.

What is key in this is that my first decade of writing was my most successful and that that was before I learned about and recognized my Metis background. My most successful days as a writer were prior to acknowledging my Metis lineage.


Somewhere along my journey, I did what so many Metis do. I sought to learn about my family's history.

I was quite sure that I had Native blood. Bouchards have been in Canada for 400 years. Merciers have been here as long. I wanted to know who they were so that I might keep their names alive. I wanted to honour those who live in me and who go on living through me.

I would accomplish this by learning where they had lived and died and by coming to  know something of their struggles. Today, I honour the man shown here, the man after whom I was named, my Grandfather Pierre Mercier.

What I came to learn was amazing. You can imagine how excited I was to learn that  my Chippewa Grandfather Pierre Charbonot had signed the Menominee Treaty of 1848. In signing that treaty, he gave up his rights to his land and was forced to leave Bay Settlement and travel west. So they moved to Minnesota, then to South Dakota and finally to Saskatchewan.

I came to learn all this after I hired a genealogist from Green Bay because I knew my family had lived around the Great Lakes.

Showing here is a letter that this genealogist wrote after accumulating legal documents going back to my Ojibwa Grandfather and my Osage grandmother.

Back to the troll/tweet. I heard through one of my publishers that a social media troll had tweeted that I was not Metis and was claiming Metis heritage for financial gain.

A person unknown to me had tweeted that, twenty years ago, I had been denied membership to the Metis Nation of BC.

I went to her Twitter page and asked her why she hadn't reached out to me before her posting.

I wrote that I had indeed been denied membership to the MNBC, something that happens to many seeking membership. I explained that MNBC told me I needed  more proof of my ancestry. I explained (to this stranger) that I had hired a professional genealogist whose word no one would dispute. Had she reached out to me before posting, I would have gladly shared the information showing my ancestry. I quickly started to understand that she didn't care about the truth but merely sought to defame me. She didn't acknowledge my messages or the letter authenticating my Metis lineage.

This was my first and only encounter with a social  media hater. I knew they existed but here was one at my doorstep. Where this would lead was not terminal but it was unfortunate.

The publisher who had heard about this posting cancelled my newest book and removed me from her list of Indigenous directors. She informed me that some retailers had been told about this posting and were concerned enough not to buy our books. These were people who had not read her tweet but had heard from others, others who had picked up on her hate and had unscrupulously spread the gossip.

I reached out to my lawyer who referred me to another lawyer who referred me to yet another. In order to sue for libel, a person has to put up around $50,000. The lawyers  I spoke with all assured me that this was a case I would win however, I simply didn't have that kind of capital.

Nothing has come of this. These trolls continue doing what they do.

Life goes on. However, there is something to be learned from it.
In order for the recommendations for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to succeed, we are all going to have to courageously do our share. I will have to fight this fight. Educators will have to  stand up and call out trolls and haters. They are quite obvious in their messages. Publishers are going to have to be strong in what they are doing. It is so easy to turtle and look away.

Social Media is often not a medium that brings people together as it was created to do. It can be and is being used as a platform that hurts and tears people apart.

If you hear anyone spreading hurtful lies or gossip, call them out. Those who spread gossip are as guilty as the source from which the gossip originated.