God Save The Queen('s Lessons)

 This weekend, I split my time between enjoying a wonderful outing with some of my colleagues in the region of Port Perry and working on creating a timely resource to help educators in Ontario.

Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history, died on September 8, 2022. She is the Queen of Canada, unlike the fake Romana Didulo (you can read about Didulo in this article by the Vancounver Sun - I never thought my lesson on "Queen Folly of Canada" would have a real-life equivalent).

It can be tricky to adequately address any topics of significance in school in September. Educators are still trying to establish routines, develop rapport with their students, and determine what levels the students are currently working at so they can adapt their lessons accordingly. I always found that my Orange Shirt Day efforts were insufficient because I was unable to properly introduce the joy and achievements that are part of various Indigenous cultures before launching into the atrocities committed against them when explaining residential schools.

Despite this reality, the current Minister of Education for Ontario, Stephen Lecce, released a letter on September 15 demanding that Ontario schools ensure that the day's learning on September 19 (the day of Queen Elizabeth's funeral) address the contributions and legacy of the British monarchy. This was, in my opinion, a bit of an unreasonable request. School boards processed this information and shared it with their site administrators on Friday, September 16, leaving just a weekend to come up with activities. It may be a federal holiday, but Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta schools are still open for business.

This is where I'm proud to be part of a responsive subject association. Members of the Association for Media Literacy started a Google document and brainstormed different suggestions for educators to use to attempt to recognize this event. I'm pleased to report that the finished product is available on the AML website, at https://aml.ca/monarchy-as-media-ideas-for-addressing-queen-elizabeth-iis-death/ We could have included a lot more entries into the subject matter - we didn't even touch on patriotic monarchy songs like God Save The Queen or oaths of Canadian citizenship that now sound different - but considering the limited time we had to compile this resource, it's a decent contribution. Hopefully there are many opportunities for critical examination, regardless of the age of the learners.

 

Photograph taken by Julian Calder for Governor-General of New Zealand, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 Media literacy is such an important knowledge and skill set, especially in today's climate. It's startling to see on the OCT website that there is currently only one provider of the Media Part 1 Additional Qualification course (and it is offered by AML). I highly recommend taking this course. This particular AQ is offered by a non-profit organization, not a university, so it needs a minimum amount of participants to enroll so that it is financially feasible to run. The fall 2022 session runs October 13 - December 15, 2022. More information can be found at https://aml.ca/professional-development/additional-qualifications/  I hope many people will consider taking the course.