Aimee Cree Dunn
English, M.A.
Teaching Portfolio
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
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Teaching is about empowering connections: between the students themselves, between the students and the instructor, between the students and the material, between the students and our human society, between the students and the rest of the beautiful world of which we are a part.
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The art of teaching carries within it the art of creating a nurturing community capable of embarking together on the semester’s journey of uncovering knowledge, skills, and understandings. In this approach, educators act more as facilitators and guides, offering materials and the knowledge of a lifetime to aid students in their education...
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Courses Taught
Technical Writing
INDIGENOUS STAR KNOWLEDGE
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A small campfire. Friends and family. Crickets singing in the meadow. A sky of stars.
For untold millennia, the night skies have fascinated us. Valuable observations and interesting stories were developed all over the world. Yet in the early 20th century, scientists decided Western constellations would become Earth's standard. There are numerous additional ways to see the stars, however. I created this course to help acquaint others with this Indigenous knowledge
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In this course, students combine fieldwork with the use of online skylabs, lecture and discussion to learn about Anishinaabe constellations and star stories, ancient observatories around the world, and more.
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PHOTO: www.weatherandsky.com
Indigenous Star Knowledge
SACRED GROUND: NATIVE PEOPLES, MOTHER EARTH & POPULAR CULTURE
Stories have been an integral part of human culture since time immemorial. They give us insights, teach us skills, explain the world, help us understand ourselves, and give us dreams for which to strive.
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The films, novels, art, and music of pop culture are all modern expressions of this age-old storytelling tradition.
I created this discussion-based course as a study of contemporary pop culture, to explore the stories it tells us about our relationship to the land, the visions it carries for how we could relate to the land, and how, in exploring these concepts, the works attempt to reflect Indigenous environmental values, philosophies, and science.
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IMAGE: from Alpha film promotional materials
Sacred Ground:
Native Peoples, Mother Earth & Popular Culture
TECHNICAL WRITING
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From writing an office memo to developing a grant proposal for a local currency project, clear and concise writing is a skill that takes time and practice.
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In this course, students utilize writing workshops, instructor guidance, and personalized topics to become familiar with the craft of technical writing.
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Webpage design, PowerPoint construction, and elements of graphic design are also included to enhance learning of the craft while developing complementary, marketable skills.
College Composition
Although the foundational aspects of writing, such as grammar and essay construction, are covered throughout the course, we focus on three main aspects of the craft: writing research papers, crafting argument essays, and honing critical thinking skills.
The goal is to enhance each student's writing skills no matter their level and to personalize the student's experience in class as much as possible.
College Composition
Awesiinh: Wild Animal Relations
Our animal relatives live out their lives side-by-side with our own, yet often our contemporary lifestyle keeps us too preoccupied to notice. My goal was to create a course that helps us re-cultivate those old relationships
Drawing on the various skills and philosophies of Indigenous science with a focus on Anishinaabe stories, we combine fieldwork, circle-based discussions, film, traditional stories, and anecdotal sharing to become more deeply acquainted with our wild animal relations.
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COUGAR PHOTO: Unknown
Wild Animal Relations
Awesiinh:
Kinomaage: The Earth Shows Us the Way
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Based on Ojibwe Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and recent studies in Western botany, I developed this course to deepen students' relationships with the land, particularly the forests of the Northwoods in Anishinaabe Akiing, and the botanical communities here. Every class meeting is a forest immersion field trip into the wilds of Anishinaabe Aki. Through these forest immersion class meetings as well as nature journaling and assigned readings from Ojibwe TEK and Western botany, students leave the course with a deeper relationship to this northern forest and traditional Anishinaabe ecology.
The Earth Shows Us the Way
Kinomaage:
Online Courses
​As part of the NASSOPP grant project, I converted all the courses I developed for Northen Michigan University's Center for Native American Studies into online courses, both synchornous and asychronous, using Zoom, Moodle, and VoiceThread platforms.
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At the heart of each course is the Virtual Firesite. Drawing on traditional Anishinaabe teachings regarding ishkode or fire as at the heart of a community, the Virtual Firesite functions as a gathering place for the class to engage with lecture, readings and films, and each other.
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PHOTO: Unknown
