A heartfelt thank you...

Hello everyone,
I hope your break is going well. I think I'm finally starting to recover from our big final event.
I wanted to send a thank you to everyone that helped make the project such a success. I had a list of people to thank at the end of our evening, but at the last minute changed my mind. (It would have been long winded because there are a lot of people to thank.)

Thank you Bev Schell for helping with the treaty content. Thanks for giving of your time to help us get through all that curriculum. Without your help our students would not have had a solid foundation of knowledge for poem building.

Thank you to Dianne Goulet, Patrick Brennan and Deb Johnson for willingly going along with this massive project. Your trust in my abstract vision means a lot to me. Thank you for your collaboration and willingness to share your ideas, talents, and work. Thank you for your encouragement and support when I thought I was losing my mind. :) Also Deb, thank you for bringing Ross's truck  to help us all haul our stuff to the Broadway Theatre and back. I know that it's not really my thank you to give - but thanks everyone for building all those boards and racks, and bringing all of your student work to the Broadway. It was a massive amount of work, but didn't it look good?

Thank you to Robb Horner for coordinating the masks and teaching some of the art lessons. Thank you for arranging for guest speakers and field trips. Your help with these projects and guests helped the kids to connect their learning to something real and tangible. Thanks for also helping us haul the displays to and from the Broadway Theatre, as well as picking up supplies and things that were needed - your help made things run smoother.

Irma Dormuth, thanks for all of your help and patience through this project. I know that there were times when you had no idea what was going on, and you kept everything together, running smoothly in spite of whatever we needed or were sending to the printer. :) You kept track of the supply part of our budget and helped to get our artists and guests paid. Thanks for typing the program and printing things we had trouble sending to the printer ourselves. We appreciate you tremendously.

Thank you Darren Fradette for your support and confidence in us. Thanks for kicking in the funding necessary for us to meet to plan this project. Thanks for your willingness to help in anyway possible, and for all of the things that you do behind the scenes that we don't see, but make our jobs run smoother.

Delvin Kanewiyakiho, thank you for taking the time to help us connect to your parents. Their afternoon with us was insightful, inspiring, and a horrific look into your mother's past. Your mother, particularly, had a huge impact on all of our students. They were deeply moved by her story and her influence could be heard in MANY of the students' poems. Please thank your parents for speaking to our students. Let them know that their contribution was beneficial in helping our students connect their learning to real people.

Amanda Murray, thank you for your willingness to jump on board with our project. The kids enjoyed the dance, and your influence helped some students incorporate movement into their performance. I was moved by your quality and level of teaching and I would love to have you come and work with our students again. (Maybe a project for next year? :)

Dan Gallays, thank you for taking the time to video record the performance. Your support on this project has been unwavering. You've allowed me to bombard you with details and ideas right from the start. I'm sure that you'll be happy to have your wife back now that the project has come to an end. Your kind words and encouragement have been my fuel.

Adam Daniel, thank you for your collaboration, energy and enthusiasm. If it weren't for your collaborative nature, this project would not have happened. It was your idea to add the spoken word element to this project. Without your influence, some other kind of project would have happened, but for sure not THIS project. I owe you a debt of gratitude.

Thank you to the Mendel Art Gallery. Thank you to all of the talented staff who took our students on tours and helped our kids to see that art gives a voice to the artist, to injustice, to the past.... Thank you for all of the cool art projects and inspiration. The grafitti boards, the Mandalas, the identity art - they were all fantastic and such a powerful experience for our children. So much learning can take place through art, so thank you for helping our kids to learn more, and see that they have the power of creation and creativity within them.

Finally, to our artists, Nicole Almond and Kevin Wesaquate. What can I say? This has been a life changing experience for me, and for many others. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for speaking out about injustice, and then sharing that skill with our students. I was impressed from the first class all the way through to the end. During the final performance I was moved to tears several times by the powerful words that were coming from our kids. You instilled in them a sense of confidence, and on such a massive level. The next day at school my quiet Filipino students were noisy and loud! I heard Raymond barking like a dog at the end of the day! I might actually get to really know some of our quietest students now because they have grown in confidence and may actually start acting like themselves. Preston's mom told me that he decided to dress up for our big night and he didn't care if anyone else was. He also said he's going to dress up more often at school. Instilling that kind of confidence in our students, and that level of acceptance is rare. You played an enormous role in that, so thank you, thank you, thank you!



Thank you to the Saskatchewan Arts Board for your support in the form of the TreatySmarts grant. This program is supported via a partnership between the Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture, and the Ministry of Education. Without the funding to bring in local artists, a project like this cannot exist. Connecting our children to art is of the utmost importance. Art is sometimes overlooked as a powerful learning tool. It's important for schools to have access to grants like these so that we can access local artists who help facilitate learning through the arts. If you happen to be reading this blog and would like to know how you can obtain an ArtSmarts or TreatySmarts grant, please contact Risa Payant at the Saskatchewan Arts Board. She can help you explore opportunities for the 2013-2014 school year.  You can reach her by phone at 306-787-4659.

I had an abstract vision for how this project would unroll and unfold. I knew it had the potential to be a good project, but without the help and enthusiasm of all of you, it would never have become what it was. I've been working on video editing, and I am moved to tears every time I listen to the poems. I still find it shocking that we pulled it off. I think this is one of those rare times where we really made a huge impact - a difference. It can't be measured on a standardized test because what those kids accomplished, and what they gained, can't be seen on a test. It will be noticed in the way the kids treat each other, the way they chose to be in this world, and the confidence they feel in themselves. The final performance was a bit surreal for me. To see this all unfold and become a success was such a gift. Thank you again everyone. You helped to make a difference.

Have a great break everyone!

-Jen