This past March, Jenny, Omar, and I presented at the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association conference in the Wisconsin Dells. Our session, called “Supporting Education Act 31 in Your Library and School”, had two objectives. One objective was to share the TLAM story with a new audience: school librarians, teachers, and administrators. We believe the values that drive the TLAM Project serve as a great model for a public education audience, with a focus on building relationships and culturally relevant practices.
Our second objective was to share a tiered purchasing plan document originally created by Katelyn Martens and me, which provided print and digital materials to Support Education Act 31. Katelyn and I presented a first draft of the packet for the 2014 Wisconsin Indian Education Assocation conference in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We asked for comments and suggestions, and with new materials and a nudge from the UW-Madison School of Education, Jenny and I revised the purchasing plan this Spring.
So what is ACT 31? The following is from the tiered purchasing document: “Briefly, Act 31 requires all students and teachers within the state of Wisconsin to receive instruction on the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the American Indian nations and tribal communities in Wisconsin.
This includes the statute 118.01(2)(c)(7. and 8.), which states “each school board shall provide adequate instructional materials, texts, and library services which reflect the cultural diversity and pluralistic nature of American society.”
We had a small turnout to our session, and everyone was really engaged in the topic! After sharing the TLAM story and the tiered purchasing plan, we had a discussion about next steps — where do we go from here? There were some great ideas, including:
-starting a virtual community of educators and librarians to support each other around Act 31;
-traveling and offering professional development on Act 31 to Wisconsin districts;
-creating a webinar that shares information about TLAM and the tiered purchasing plan; and
-continuing to present at educational conferences like WEMTA.
Since then, we’ve created a Facebook and Twitter community, and plans for a webinar are in the works. If you are reading this and would like us to visit your school district to provide a professional development workshop, please contact us!
Below is a list of all the resources from our session. Thanks for tuning in!
Robin
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To see the slides from the presentation, visit: http://tinyurl.com/SupportingAct31
To see the digital (and evolving) copy of the “Supporting Wisconsin Act 31 in your Classroom or Library” curriculum and library material packet, visit: http://tinyurl.com/SupportingWisconsinAct31
And please, join us in continuing the conversation about supporting Wisconsin Act 31 by joining our Facebook community called “Wisconsin Librarians and Teachers Supporting Act 31” here: facebook.com/groups/SupportingAct31
and our companion Twitter page: @SupportingAct31