At the end of each school year, I like to look back on my year’s instruction and think about my successes and how I’d like to see my teaching grow in the next year. One area that I’m consistently looking to grow each year is incorporating indigenous culture and history into my curriculum. I want indigenous culture to be alive and present for students, not something long ago, no longer relevant and disconnected with the past.
Last week, I was sitting down with my sons watching Expedition Unknown. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a show led by an archeologist on a hunt for missing treasure, artifacts and uncovering parts of history. The host, Josh Gates, is over-the-top enthusiastic about finding a broken piece of a vase and a tiny coin. Eventually, the enthusiasm wears off on you. On the episode we watched, Josh was hunting for the burial grounds of Mayan leaders, the snake kings. This time, I was the excited one. Glyphs! Stela! Deities! The whole episode is really engaging and instructionally purposeful.
Cue brainstorming! How do I take this ancient ruin and bring it to life for my students? How do I make it current, and relevant? After some exploration of my own, I found awesome dances, poetry, art and more being carried on by living generations of Mayans. Here’s just some of the engaging culture I found. I put this living culture in an awesome virtual field trip for my students. The field trip uses Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Arts and Culture to study the past of the Mayans alongside the present. To save you all some time, I’ve put my virtual field trip up on TpT. Get it here!
manzanaparalamaestra.blog 