TakingITGlobal

C O N N E C T E D N O R T H : A J O U R N E Y O F T R A N S F O R M AT I O N & W E L L- B E I N G 24 Students Students are at the heart of Connected North. Well-Being is achieved through the engagement with content and people that reflect both a familiar and expanded view of the world, deepening their understanding and connection to both. The Connected North curriculum is designed to create engagement across a variety of topics. To date, more than 4,700 sessions focused on Well-Being were delivered across the network of schools to students. Of these, more than a quarter of the sessions focused on issues of culture, language and identity promotion. These lessons serve as a bedrock for many of the other topics to build on. Students experience lessons that reflect the ancestral traditions and practices of their community such as language, hunting/gathering, art, and other forms of expression. By engaging elders and other traditional knowledge keepers, students gain appreciation for their cultural history and can help frame their own identity and individual and as a member of a tribe, clan, community, nation, country, and social group (e.g. youth) together. By emphasizing how students are connected to these different identity structures with culturally relevant content, Connected North promotes relationships, diversity of perspectives about the world, and introduces them to role models who can guide them along their journey of Well-Being. Connected North provides a shared experience of learning that connects the instructor/facilitator with students and the teacher in the classroom in the North. By creating a two-way dialogue between the site in the South and classrooms in the North, Connected North is expanding the interconnections and networks of support for students. Social interconnections can prevent or reduce feelings of isolation, increase networks of support, and expand perceptions of possibility for students by illustrating opportunities, fields or activities that were previously unknown to them and unavailable in their local community. Exposure to people and content from leading institutions of science, culture, art, and culture provides students with new resources – skills, tools, and connections – that they can draw on to develop their career plans and apply to their lives. This can change students' perceptions of what is possible for their lives and communities and inspire new ways to think about their prospects for a healthy life. Students are also provided a means to learn new skills and practice those skills within the classroom context, increasing their sense of accomplishment, competence, and belief in themselves.

• Cover