Rock Point has an entire art class specifically devoted to airbrushing... School staff would probably first think about the vandalism that could result in teaching the techniques that are also needed to be a good graffiti tagger. But hey, the kids love the form and the teacher is great at it. After removing the lockers from the school (because none of the students used them for anything beyond just being garbage receptacles), the teacher now has a bunch of canvas space for his own airbrush murals... and possibly also space for kids to display their work if they get good enough. For now, however, the advanced set of kids will be working car airbrushing and detailing in a new course offered this year. Personally, I think its a great idea and really tugs on the interest that many boys may have for art -- that is, decorating their wheels or even someone else's.
I got to start to trace/outline and shade my own canvas of Taz, the cartoon character and take it home as a memento of the last day's visit. I felt comfortable back in an art class: I think I've become too used to digital art renderings. I even joked with the teacher that my brain started thinking about and calculating the Photoshop settings that I would use for the strokes and found a disconnect with that information once I tried to put my physical, as oppsed to virtual, hand to the test.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Teaching current events
Walking into school today, I was asked if I wanted to teach a lesson on the Russian invasion of South Ossetia / Georgia this last August, 2008. First, I went over the geography of the region. I had been warned about the possibility of the kids having a narrow world-view... So, I was definitely up to the challenge; having been across the Atlantic a few times, this was pretty exciting for me.
I had only a few minutes to prep. I started by explaining the geography. The day before, I had been in the Geo class with Robin and Emily,frantically helping students one-on-one with reading maps. I then read the article aloud to the class, explaining the significance, step-by-step. We summarized, and then I handed out the article and realized that I should have done that from the get-go. I assigned students to small groups to answer a chunk of the worksheet, each assigned question had to do with asking about either the article itself or the importance of the event.
Finally, so that everyone got the answers, I talked about how a strong knowledge of current events (and thus, journalism) revolves around talking (or interviewing) people. So, from the groups, I selected an interviewee/expert who would stay in place as the interviewers would rotate for the rest of the hour, trying to share the information and getting all the details. In practice, I thought this would give the students a feel for how news can travel by just word of mouth. They hesitated with getting up at first, but once they finally got moving, their interest/enthusiasm seemed to accelerate.
With a few minutes left, students finished with their work and putting on their backpacks, I had them form two lines to summarize the main idea of the conflict. One side was to form the Russians and the other Ossetia, and before anyone could leave, a couple leaders from each side had to give me their side's interpretation of the events. The bell rang, they left, but fortunately some with smiles on their faces for having gotten energized with the activity.
In reflection with the classroom teacher, we both agreed I did talk too much from the get-go. That has a problem I have been aware of, and I need to just set a countdown timer for myself and treat my opening remarks as if I were in an impromptu speaking event on high school speech team... that way, once I went over time, I would at least know if I disqualified myself (in this case, from the interest of my students) by the time I was done talking. Otherwise, I enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed trying to add some context to the events and trying to break down the motivations. The kids definitely showed me that they got my message when they picked up the 'punchline' of the lesson intro to explain why they were lining up in their lines as class ended: land = money.
I had only a few minutes to prep. I started by explaining the geography. The day before, I had been in the Geo class with Robin and Emily,frantically helping students one-on-one with reading maps. I then read the article aloud to the class, explaining the significance, step-by-step. We summarized, and then I handed out the article and realized that I should have done that from the get-go. I assigned students to small groups to answer a chunk of the worksheet, each assigned question had to do with asking about either the article itself or the importance of the event.
Finally, so that everyone got the answers, I talked about how a strong knowledge of current events (and thus, journalism) revolves around talking (or interviewing) people. So, from the groups, I selected an interviewee/expert who would stay in place as the interviewers would rotate for the rest of the hour, trying to share the information and getting all the details. In practice, I thought this would give the students a feel for how news can travel by just word of mouth. They hesitated with getting up at first, but once they finally got moving, their interest/enthusiasm seemed to accelerate.
With a few minutes left, students finished with their work and putting on their backpacks, I had them form two lines to summarize the main idea of the conflict. One side was to form the Russians and the other Ossetia, and before anyone could leave, a couple leaders from each side had to give me their side's interpretation of the events. The bell rang, they left, but fortunately some with smiles on their faces for having gotten energized with the activity.
In reflection with the classroom teacher, we both agreed I did talk too much from the get-go. That has a problem I have been aware of, and I need to just set a countdown timer for myself and treat my opening remarks as if I were in an impromptu speaking event on high school speech team... that way, once I went over time, I would at least know if I disqualified myself (in this case, from the interest of my students) by the time I was done talking. Otherwise, I enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed trying to add some context to the events and trying to break down the motivations. The kids definitely showed me that they got my message when they picked up the 'punchline' of the lesson intro to explain why they were lining up in their lines as class ended: land = money.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Jam-Packed Thursday
I think the lack of sleep and the excessively large intake of caffeine over the past few days has finally caught up with me. Today was just as enlightening and exciting as the last few days but I did not have the energy for it. So, because Emily has given a good overview of what we did today in the school and Robin detailed our after-school adventures, I’ll just add in my own personal insights/experiences rather than reiterating everything.
Like yesterday, I spent today exploring the school and other classes rather than staying in the same reading classroom that I spent Monday and Tuesday in. Robin, Emily, and I discussed the teachers and classes we had already seen last night and gave each other recommendations of classrooms to visit. I was a little concerned at the end of the day yesterday that I wouldn’t have time to see everything else today, but things went really well and I saw some neat stuff. The Navajo class was quite an experience; like Emily said, we couldn’t really understand anything, though the teacher did take a few moments to explain to us, in English, what was going on. I had been hoping to hear more spoken Navajo from the students and can think of a variety of reasons why I did not (first week of classes, nervousness in a small class, etc.). Also, I wonder if the students in these Navajo classes are really on the same page as their peer group. After talking with the teacher that I worked with on Monday and Tuesday about her family and experience growing up, I learned that the students at Rock Point come from a variety of backgrounds with respect to language. Some households still speak predominantly Navajo at home, others speak English, and some promote a combination of the two. Though the elementary program now does Navajo immersion, some of the current high school students did not go through it (as it is a more recent development). So, I wonder how the Navajo classes handle such a range of fluency with students. I would have liked to speak with the teacher about this, had we had enough time.
I adored the health class that we observed this morning. Our main motivation for going was that we had seen the teacher coaching the boys’ basketball team on Tuesday night and noticed how enthusiastic she was. The classroom was no exception to this enthusiasm, and she did a great job of getting the students involved in the discussion by relating the topics to the girls. My favorite part of the discussion was about gender identity. The teacher explained that women have the autonomy that they do in Navajo culture because they are not viewed as inherently female and males are not viewed as entirely male. Rather, each individual is the product of his/her mother and his/her father and is thus half his/her mother and half his/her father, thus recognizing no gender difference between a male child and a female child. I really loved this perspective and how enabling it must be for individuals to break out of typical gender roles.
The geography class that we attended (twice today) allowed for the most classroom involvement on our parts. The students were doing an activity that involved transferring information from a handout to a blank map of Europe. I was really hesitant to help at first (as my knowledge of geography is severely lacking) but it was a good reminder of how to handle teaching information that I am not confident about. I also was reminded of another weakness of mine: when I find a student that significantly needs my help (i.e. if I walk away, he/she will be immediately lost again), I find it impossible to walk away. This wasn’t too big of a problem today because there were enough people to help other students (the classroom teacher, Emily, myself, and Adam during one of two periods), but it will definitely be a problem when I have my own classroom and is thus definitely something to keep at the forefront of my mind and work on. Regardless, it was really rewarding to take a break from observing all day and actually interact with and help the students.
I won’t say too much about airbrushing, as Emily already has. The teacher was really great and patient with the students and made sure that they really knew what they were doing. For example, he had them practice taking the equipment apart and putting it back together with their eyes closed to really get familiar with it. I had never seen airbrushing before and thought it was awesome that Rock Point offers it, along with welding, weaving, web design, Navajo, etc.—all things that I would never have gotten to experience in high school. It really drove home the point that this school isn’t somehow primitive because it is on a reservation. Rather, it is just different (in a lot of good ways!).
My lack of energy had me contemplating a nap after school. However, over a wonderful lunch of Navajo tacos in the home ec room hosted by the teacher that I had worked with on Monday and Tuesday, we made plans for a guided climb of Rock Point and then do a group dinner in Kiva Hall, both hosted by this same teacher. I was really delighted that we made these plans because this teacher had been somewhat quiet the first day I worked with her. It helped me to remember that her behavior wasn’t standoffish or unfriendly but just that she needed some time and encouragement to become comfortable with us in the school. The walk over to Rock Point was really nice and gave us an opportunity to learn a lot about the school and this teacher’s experiences growing up on the reservation. Personally, I was pleased with my climb; I got far enough up that I didn’t feel cowardly but stopped before I felt too stupid. The spot we were climbing on was very narrow and very high up, so falling off the side could not end well. Also, the part I got to was a small stretch of nearly vertical climb, and the only spots on which I could step were wet with snow/ice, so I definitely didn’t feel safe climbing any higher. It was frustrating because I was so close to the top, but I reminded myself of the lack of cell phone service and how far away the nearest hospital was, and then felt immediately better about my decision to climb down.
After our climb, we were rewarded with a warm, homemade dinner of mutton and corn stew with (dun dun dun…) FRY BREAD! I can’t claim to have loved the mutton, but I was proud of myself for trying it and was plenty full and satisfied after eating my fair share of fry bread. Afterwards, we went over to the open gym and watched Adam and Brandon play some basketball with some students, some former students, and some adults. It felt good to attend another after-school function and show the students that we truly are interested in what they are doing.
Tomorrow is our last day. Robin managed to convince Mark into letting one car stay behind so that we can stay for the entire day’s classes and he can get a jump start on laundry, cleaning, etc. I’m unsure what exactly tomorrow will entail; Terri and Carol stopped by and warned us that a lot of the students and teachers will be missing for most of the day due to a far away game for basketball. Hopefully we’ll still find plenty to do. It feels like forever since I was home but it also feels like we just got here. I’m sure tomorrow will be full of mixed-emotions.
Like yesterday, I spent today exploring the school and other classes rather than staying in the same reading classroom that I spent Monday and Tuesday in. Robin, Emily, and I discussed the teachers and classes we had already seen last night and gave each other recommendations of classrooms to visit. I was a little concerned at the end of the day yesterday that I wouldn’t have time to see everything else today, but things went really well and I saw some neat stuff. The Navajo class was quite an experience; like Emily said, we couldn’t really understand anything, though the teacher did take a few moments to explain to us, in English, what was going on. I had been hoping to hear more spoken Navajo from the students and can think of a variety of reasons why I did not (first week of classes, nervousness in a small class, etc.). Also, I wonder if the students in these Navajo classes are really on the same page as their peer group. After talking with the teacher that I worked with on Monday and Tuesday about her family and experience growing up, I learned that the students at Rock Point come from a variety of backgrounds with respect to language. Some households still speak predominantly Navajo at home, others speak English, and some promote a combination of the two. Though the elementary program now does Navajo immersion, some of the current high school students did not go through it (as it is a more recent development). So, I wonder how the Navajo classes handle such a range of fluency with students. I would have liked to speak with the teacher about this, had we had enough time.
I adored the health class that we observed this morning. Our main motivation for going was that we had seen the teacher coaching the boys’ basketball team on Tuesday night and noticed how enthusiastic she was. The classroom was no exception to this enthusiasm, and she did a great job of getting the students involved in the discussion by relating the topics to the girls. My favorite part of the discussion was about gender identity. The teacher explained that women have the autonomy that they do in Navajo culture because they are not viewed as inherently female and males are not viewed as entirely male. Rather, each individual is the product of his/her mother and his/her father and is thus half his/her mother and half his/her father, thus recognizing no gender difference between a male child and a female child. I really loved this perspective and how enabling it must be for individuals to break out of typical gender roles.
The geography class that we attended (twice today) allowed for the most classroom involvement on our parts. The students were doing an activity that involved transferring information from a handout to a blank map of Europe. I was really hesitant to help at first (as my knowledge of geography is severely lacking) but it was a good reminder of how to handle teaching information that I am not confident about. I also was reminded of another weakness of mine: when I find a student that significantly needs my help (i.e. if I walk away, he/she will be immediately lost again), I find it impossible to walk away. This wasn’t too big of a problem today because there were enough people to help other students (the classroom teacher, Emily, myself, and Adam during one of two periods), but it will definitely be a problem when I have my own classroom and is thus definitely something to keep at the forefront of my mind and work on. Regardless, it was really rewarding to take a break from observing all day and actually interact with and help the students.
I won’t say too much about airbrushing, as Emily already has. The teacher was really great and patient with the students and made sure that they really knew what they were doing. For example, he had them practice taking the equipment apart and putting it back together with their eyes closed to really get familiar with it. I had never seen airbrushing before and thought it was awesome that Rock Point offers it, along with welding, weaving, web design, Navajo, etc.—all things that I would never have gotten to experience in high school. It really drove home the point that this school isn’t somehow primitive because it is on a reservation. Rather, it is just different (in a lot of good ways!).
My lack of energy had me contemplating a nap after school. However, over a wonderful lunch of Navajo tacos in the home ec room hosted by the teacher that I had worked with on Monday and Tuesday, we made plans for a guided climb of Rock Point and then do a group dinner in Kiva Hall, both hosted by this same teacher. I was really delighted that we made these plans because this teacher had been somewhat quiet the first day I worked with her. It helped me to remember that her behavior wasn’t standoffish or unfriendly but just that she needed some time and encouragement to become comfortable with us in the school. The walk over to Rock Point was really nice and gave us an opportunity to learn a lot about the school and this teacher’s experiences growing up on the reservation. Personally, I was pleased with my climb; I got far enough up that I didn’t feel cowardly but stopped before I felt too stupid. The spot we were climbing on was very narrow and very high up, so falling off the side could not end well. Also, the part I got to was a small stretch of nearly vertical climb, and the only spots on which I could step were wet with snow/ice, so I definitely didn’t feel safe climbing any higher. It was frustrating because I was so close to the top, but I reminded myself of the lack of cell phone service and how far away the nearest hospital was, and then felt immediately better about my decision to climb down.
After our climb, we were rewarded with a warm, homemade dinner of mutton and corn stew with (dun dun dun…) FRY BREAD! I can’t claim to have loved the mutton, but I was proud of myself for trying it and was plenty full and satisfied after eating my fair share of fry bread. Afterwards, we went over to the open gym and watched Adam and Brandon play some basketball with some students, some former students, and some adults. It felt good to attend another after-school function and show the students that we truly are interested in what they are doing.
Tomorrow is our last day. Robin managed to convince Mark into letting one car stay behind so that we can stay for the entire day’s classes and he can get a jump start on laundry, cleaning, etc. I’m unsure what exactly tomorrow will entail; Terri and Carol stopped by and warned us that a lot of the students and teachers will be missing for most of the day due to a far away game for basketball. Hopefully we’ll still find plenty to do. It feels like forever since I was home but it also feels like we just got here. I’m sure tomorrow will be full of mixed-emotions.
Busy Thursday!!
Today, I felt really connected to some people in the school.
I talked with Branden and the junior high math teacher he had been observing for the week during their prep period 2nd period. We talked about the AIMS test, how the students have changed over the years, and the community being bilingual. I really respect what the teacher has to say – I saw his interview for the video last spring and I thought he had a lot of great things to say. I went and observed his math classes third and fifth period, and he asked me to introduce myself. He asked me some leading questions about Chicago in front of the class (“Tell them about the Sears Tower!” “What’s the Magnificent Mile like?”), and the students seemed very interested. It felt like a nice change compared to the high school kids, who put on this air a lot that they are too-cool-for-school.
Students worked in groups to complete worksheets on absolute value (third period) and scientific notation (fifth period). Branden and I walked around and worked with groups. I discovered THAT I LOVE MATH. It felt very rewarding because I knew the concepts very well, and I was able to explain it to the students in several ways. I think I really helped them out, and that was a great feeling. One student was very shy – it was clear that she was having trouble with the concept but had resorted to copying off a group members answers. I walked her through it a few times, and although she was hesitant, she completed the worksheet on her own!!
During passing periods, a student in the high school English class and who had invited me to the drumming practice stopped me in the hallway. He asked me to be in the English class on Friday to help him with his advertisement. I of course said I would be there (and felt so great! He wanted my help!).
The security guard whom Alyssa and I had met yesterday in the principal’s office called me out of a class and invited us all to the home economics room during lunch for Navajo tacos that his wife was making!!! I was so excited. AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS. It was really nice to share a meal with everyone. I felt very honored that they took the time to make us lunch. We agreed to go hiking up to Rock Point after school, and the security guard and his wife offered to make us mutton stew for dinner, which we gladly accepted.
The security guard’s wife, (awkward without using names), two of her boys, and a special education aide led us to Rock Point. There are two ways to get up – one involves climbing, the other involves a path. She led us up the climbing way (against the security’s guards prior advisement), and it was steep and crumbly that Emily and I stopped halfway up the climb, and Mark and Alyssa stopped a little further up. I’m sure Alyssa can explain better the verticalness of the rock we were expected to climb!!
The four of us walked around the rock while everyone else climbed on top. It was quickly getting dark and they were still up on the rock. Mark panicked (a little), and we met them back on the other side as they were climbing down. When we arrived, the security guard was there with his minivan and kids, and flashlights! He said he had seen our figures on top of Rock Point when the sun was getting lower and knew that he should come and help. He’s such a cool guy! He was really looking out for us. Everyone made it down okay, and we hiked back home.
Mark warned us about mutton stew and that it would taste gamey and bland – but I think most of us liked it! It was steamed corn and mutton chunks in a broth. The security guard and his wife brought four of their five kids – so it really felt like a family dinner.
Following dinner, we went to the boy’s open gym night (7-9 Tuesdays and Thursdays, girl’s open gym Mondays and Wednesdays at the same time! What a great idea to keep kids active and busy) and watched Branden and Adam play basketball with students and staff. It was fun and relaxing.
Tomorrow is our last day, and again, I can’t believe that the week has gone by so quickly. I feel like we just got here…
I talked with Branden and the junior high math teacher he had been observing for the week during their prep period 2nd period. We talked about the AIMS test, how the students have changed over the years, and the community being bilingual. I really respect what the teacher has to say – I saw his interview for the video last spring and I thought he had a lot of great things to say. I went and observed his math classes third and fifth period, and he asked me to introduce myself. He asked me some leading questions about Chicago in front of the class (“Tell them about the Sears Tower!” “What’s the Magnificent Mile like?”), and the students seemed very interested. It felt like a nice change compared to the high school kids, who put on this air a lot that they are too-cool-for-school.
Students worked in groups to complete worksheets on absolute value (third period) and scientific notation (fifth period). Branden and I walked around and worked with groups. I discovered THAT I LOVE MATH. It felt very rewarding because I knew the concepts very well, and I was able to explain it to the students in several ways. I think I really helped them out, and that was a great feeling. One student was very shy – it was clear that she was having trouble with the concept but had resorted to copying off a group members answers. I walked her through it a few times, and although she was hesitant, she completed the worksheet on her own!!
During passing periods, a student in the high school English class and who had invited me to the drumming practice stopped me in the hallway. He asked me to be in the English class on Friday to help him with his advertisement. I of course said I would be there (and felt so great! He wanted my help!).
The security guard whom Alyssa and I had met yesterday in the principal’s office called me out of a class and invited us all to the home economics room during lunch for Navajo tacos that his wife was making!!! I was so excited. AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS. It was really nice to share a meal with everyone. I felt very honored that they took the time to make us lunch. We agreed to go hiking up to Rock Point after school, and the security guard and his wife offered to make us mutton stew for dinner, which we gladly accepted.
The security guard’s wife, (awkward without using names), two of her boys, and a special education aide led us to Rock Point. There are two ways to get up – one involves climbing, the other involves a path. She led us up the climbing way (against the security’s guards prior advisement), and it was steep and crumbly that Emily and I stopped halfway up the climb, and Mark and Alyssa stopped a little further up. I’m sure Alyssa can explain better the verticalness of the rock we were expected to climb!!
The four of us walked around the rock while everyone else climbed on top. It was quickly getting dark and they were still up on the rock. Mark panicked (a little), and we met them back on the other side as they were climbing down. When we arrived, the security guard was there with his minivan and kids, and flashlights! He said he had seen our figures on top of Rock Point when the sun was getting lower and knew that he should come and help. He’s such a cool guy! He was really looking out for us. Everyone made it down okay, and we hiked back home.
Mark warned us about mutton stew and that it would taste gamey and bland – but I think most of us liked it! It was steamed corn and mutton chunks in a broth. The security guard and his wife brought four of their five kids – so it really felt like a family dinner.
Following dinner, we went to the boy’s open gym night (7-9 Tuesdays and Thursdays, girl’s open gym Mondays and Wednesdays at the same time! What a great idea to keep kids active and busy) and watched Branden and Adam play basketball with students and staff. It was fun and relaxing.
Tomorrow is our last day, and again, I can’t believe that the week has gone by so quickly. I feel like we just got here…
Navajo basketball
After a guided tour/hike/climb up to the Rock Point and a very welcome home-cooked Navajo dinner, Brandon and I got to see what we could put together against the pick-up games at the gym. I had a lot of fun. Probably embarrassed myself in front of all my companions. But it was good to run a court again, especially with a crowd that enjoyed every moment of the game. (These games were very unlike the old-man basketball I got used to playing with my dad's crowd.) Maybe I need better shoes?
It cannot possibly be Thursday already.
Today was a stellar, A+ day. Great. Day.
Alyssa and I decided to pair up like she and Robin did yesterday to try to see some classes we'd missed earlier in the week. After chatting with the principal first hour about the possibility of observing a kindergarten class in the elementary building (which I'm doing tomorrow, and I won't be able to speak English (or speak at all, really) for an hour - eek!), we headed off to check out a 7th grade Navajo class. The class was very small (5 students, 3 of which will probably be switched out of the class because they actually took it last semester), but it was really interesting to sit in on a class that we couldn't really understand. (Side note - and sorry for all the parenthetical asides - it reminded me a little bit of when Prof. Clift had Vahid teach us a lesson in Serbian. I didn't really know what was going on, but I did pick up on physical cues and tone of voice. It was interesting.) The lesson for the day was about how to address different people based on their relationship to you. Relationships are traced through four clans: your mother's, your father's, your maternal grandfather's, and your paternal grandfather's - in that order. The teacher had the students compare their clans to their classmates' to figure out how they would address each other, and it was really cool. They joked that one student was another's grandfather, or that two were brothers. I don't know a lot about the clans, but I think I'll work on finding out more.
Next we observed a girls' health class taught by the very dynamic boys' basketball coach. Her enthusiasm transferred to the classroom, and it was neat to see her interact with the girls, a very different audience than her varsity boys. They were learning about heredity and the impact of environment on well-being, so the recognition of Navajo culture played a large role in the lesson. She talked to the girls about how living in an open space (as opposed to a city) and a non-gendered society (as opposed to patriarchal Anglo society) affects their identity. They also talked about traditional types of food, several of which we got to sample later today! But more on that later...
We saw a couple more social studies classes taught by the same Anglo teacher I talked about yesterday. The students were working on European geography, and they were very demanding of our attention (which was just fine with me). They'd watched a movie about Europe and filled out a worksheet, and their task was to take the information from the worksheet and combine it with a map from their textbook to create a map of their own. They were having a really hard time putting everything together, but luckily, we were there to help!! I love the students in eighth grade, and I really enjoyed some one-on-one time with them. (I'm leaning more and MORE toward middle school. I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.)
Finally, we had the opportunity to observe an airbrushing class, part of the art program. The art teacher was voted Teacher of the Month for January, so we were eager to see what he did, and we weren't disappointed. First of all, the school offers airbrushing as an elective - how cool is that??? The students were really into it. Also, we found out that the art program is very successful, and for the past four years, a large Native American student art convention in Phoenix has chosen artists from Rock Point to advertise its programs. Super cool.
At lunchtime we had a special treat - Navajo tacos!!! One of the security guards we befriended invited us to eat lunch that his wife, a teacher we've worked with at the school, had made in the home ec. room. Navajo tacos might be my new favorite food. They consist of fry bread topped with chili/refried beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. DELICIOUS. We were so focused on our gratitude for this meal that we were taken aback when our new friends offered to take us to Rock Point (THE rock point, like the pointed rock formation) and make mutton stew for us for dinner! We have friends!!! Yay! So all in all, it was a delightful lunch.
After school, we went to Rock Point. Kind of. We started climbing the rock, and Robin, Alyssa, Mark, and I decided that it seemed like a bad idea for us to continue. The path was slippery and completely vertical. EEEEK. But some of our group forged ahead and reached the summit while we walked around the beautiful scenery below. We returned to Kiva Hall (the dorm where we're staying) for some mutton stew (which was quite good!!) and fry bread (which I could definitely eat with every meal every day for the rest of my life). The generosity we experienced today was really astounding. We have met some incredible people, and I'm so grateful for that.
Also, Robin is seriously considering the possiblity of teaching here, and when she talked to the principal and executive director about it, they were VERY eager to have her. To be honest, I'm definitely not ruling out a job here. I'm still 80% for urban education, and I think that's where I'll end up, but that social studies teachers' words keep resounding in my brain - the reservation DOES have all of the academic challenges of the inner-city without the severe behavioral problems. However, it's also extremely secluded from the people most important to me. And there's no drama or theatre arts...so. I think I might still pick up some paperwork, just to be on the safe side. I do really like it here.
...and I'm already dreading many goodbyes tomorrow...
Alyssa and I decided to pair up like she and Robin did yesterday to try to see some classes we'd missed earlier in the week. After chatting with the principal first hour about the possibility of observing a kindergarten class in the elementary building (which I'm doing tomorrow, and I won't be able to speak English (or speak at all, really) for an hour - eek!), we headed off to check out a 7th grade Navajo class. The class was very small (5 students, 3 of which will probably be switched out of the class because they actually took it last semester), but it was really interesting to sit in on a class that we couldn't really understand. (Side note - and sorry for all the parenthetical asides - it reminded me a little bit of when Prof. Clift had Vahid teach us a lesson in Serbian. I didn't really know what was going on, but I did pick up on physical cues and tone of voice. It was interesting.) The lesson for the day was about how to address different people based on their relationship to you. Relationships are traced through four clans: your mother's, your father's, your maternal grandfather's, and your paternal grandfather's - in that order. The teacher had the students compare their clans to their classmates' to figure out how they would address each other, and it was really cool. They joked that one student was another's grandfather, or that two were brothers. I don't know a lot about the clans, but I think I'll work on finding out more.
Next we observed a girls' health class taught by the very dynamic boys' basketball coach. Her enthusiasm transferred to the classroom, and it was neat to see her interact with the girls, a very different audience than her varsity boys. They were learning about heredity and the impact of environment on well-being, so the recognition of Navajo culture played a large role in the lesson. She talked to the girls about how living in an open space (as opposed to a city) and a non-gendered society (as opposed to patriarchal Anglo society) affects their identity. They also talked about traditional types of food, several of which we got to sample later today! But more on that later...
We saw a couple more social studies classes taught by the same Anglo teacher I talked about yesterday. The students were working on European geography, and they were very demanding of our attention (which was just fine with me). They'd watched a movie about Europe and filled out a worksheet, and their task was to take the information from the worksheet and combine it with a map from their textbook to create a map of their own. They were having a really hard time putting everything together, but luckily, we were there to help!! I love the students in eighth grade, and I really enjoyed some one-on-one time with them. (I'm leaning more and MORE toward middle school. I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.)
Finally, we had the opportunity to observe an airbrushing class, part of the art program. The art teacher was voted Teacher of the Month for January, so we were eager to see what he did, and we weren't disappointed. First of all, the school offers airbrushing as an elective - how cool is that??? The students were really into it. Also, we found out that the art program is very successful, and for the past four years, a large Native American student art convention in Phoenix has chosen artists from Rock Point to advertise its programs. Super cool.
At lunchtime we had a special treat - Navajo tacos!!! One of the security guards we befriended invited us to eat lunch that his wife, a teacher we've worked with at the school, had made in the home ec. room. Navajo tacos might be my new favorite food. They consist of fry bread topped with chili/refried beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. DELICIOUS. We were so focused on our gratitude for this meal that we were taken aback when our new friends offered to take us to Rock Point (THE rock point, like the pointed rock formation) and make mutton stew for us for dinner! We have friends!!! Yay! So all in all, it was a delightful lunch.
After school, we went to Rock Point. Kind of. We started climbing the rock, and Robin, Alyssa, Mark, and I decided that it seemed like a bad idea for us to continue. The path was slippery and completely vertical. EEEEK. But some of our group forged ahead and reached the summit while we walked around the beautiful scenery below. We returned to Kiva Hall (the dorm where we're staying) for some mutton stew (which was quite good!!) and fry bread (which I could definitely eat with every meal every day for the rest of my life). The generosity we experienced today was really astounding. We have met some incredible people, and I'm so grateful for that.
Also, Robin is seriously considering the possiblity of teaching here, and when she talked to the principal and executive director about it, they were VERY eager to have her. To be honest, I'm definitely not ruling out a job here. I'm still 80% for urban education, and I think that's where I'll end up, but that social studies teachers' words keep resounding in my brain - the reservation DOES have all of the academic challenges of the inner-city without the severe behavioral problems. However, it's also extremely secluded from the people most important to me. And there's no drama or theatre arts...so. I think I might still pick up some paperwork, just to be on the safe side. I do really like it here.
...and I'm already dreading many goodbyes tomorrow...
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Day 3 (and I'm in love with Rock Point)
Another great day! I can’t believe it’s Wednesday evening and half of our time here has already passed. I don’t want to think about it this way. I feel like I am just beginning to figure out this school and community – in the broadest and most basic sense – but still enough that I feel invested. It was yesterday that I found myself already slipping into a ‘we’ when talking about Rock Point. Example: “We totally smashed Rough Rock last night in the game”. Is this bad? I’m surprised (maybe) about how connected I feel to this place. I’m falling in love. Can I please stay?
Alyssa and I first switched teachers today. I was working with junior high students in a Read 180 classroom. There was substitute in the class for the day, but she seemed to know what was going on. She serves as the sub for both elementary, junior high, and high school. She had me work with students at a reading station (students rotated halfway through the period from one station to another). They had workbooks with a reading passage and some questions. I had absolutely no idea what steps these students took to complete these passages (self-directed or teacher-driven? Read out loud, silently, or both? Go over their written answers or have them simply turn them in?) How much prompting did these kids need? I didn’t want to under or over estimate their intelligence.
I asked the five students I was working with to show how they worked. A lot of them looked at their books, in their laps, or at the ceiling. It was a slow start, but we eventually got through it. Halfway through the assigned passage for group, I found the teacher’s manual with guiding questions and directions for the teacher! The second group went a little more smoothly. A lot of the students were hesitant to answer questions I posed, but they were willing (and very good at!) reading the paragraphs from the passages out loud.
Alyssa and I went to see the principal, Terri, for third and fourth period. She was trying to figure out scheduling issues with Carol and an assistant. She welcomed us into her office (and let us have some delicious creamer for our coffee?) and we talked with Jarvas, the security officer and Terri’s right-hand man. Jarvas had been a chaperone this past spring with gifted and talented students as they took a trip to New York City. We shared stories of our respective trips, since I had been there for the first time myself this summer. He also told us about his growing up in Rock Point. I have a feeling he’s very well-respected by students and teachers alike in the school. He was very easy to talk to and I hope we have more opportunities to talk with him! Terri invited us out to dinner tomorrow to Mexican Water to have a Navajo specialty – fry bread! I can’t wait to go and have a chance to talk with Carol, Terri, and others who might come in a more casual setting.
Alyssa and I went to go see a little bit of the Navajo drumming during lunch, and then we headed back to eat lunch in our temporary living quarters. We found Mark with Sam and Janet Bingham, two prior colleagues of Mark’s when he worked at Rock Point.
I couldn’t believe these two people were standing in front of me. Sam and Janet had been the two major forces of Between Sacred Mountains, a book about the people, culture and land of Rock Point, compiled by teachers and community members of Rock Point in the eighties. The teacher I had been working with had given me this book Monday to look at, and I had brought it home with me to show my peers. I had been very impressed with their work and I couldn’t believe I WAS TALKING TO THEM!!
Sam and Janet both had a background in journalism and wrote several books about the area while they were here. A lot of the time in their presence was spent listening to Mark, Janet, and Sam talk about their time working here and students they had heard recent news about. It was so cool to listen to them tell stories about students and the way that the school was before and how many steps forward the school has taken in creating better educational opportunities.
Sam then talked to Alyssa and I about the work (research and practice) he had done here and in Africa (!!) about overgrazing of the land and how it destroyed possibilities of successful livings off of livestock. His work, although it focused on environmental science and geography of the land in technical terms, directly related to issues that the Navajo here were having about maintaining income through livestock. It was really fascinating. I wanted to ask Janet and Sam a million questions about their experiences at Rock Point, what brought them here, and about their life in Africa, but they had to get going as they were off to visit a former student or teacher of Rock Point by Albequerque. They said they would be back tomorrow, so hopefully I might have a few minutes to ask them questions then.
After that, Alyssa and I went to another teacher’s class for seventh period. He’s a teacher that I recognized from editing the video last spring. He teaches social studies classes. What’s really interesting about his career at Rock Point is that he is a white man who has been at the school for five years, which is quite a long time for an Anglo teacher to be at this school. We watched his class and then talked with him into eighth hour, as he had the period free. It was cool to talk with him about his experiences as an outsider of the culture but as an integral part of the school community. He, too, talked about lacking social connections that he used to have, and this is something that he really misses. This is truly the one thing that is a downside for me personally in thinking about working on a reservation. I have such a fear of loneliness working in a situation like this. I feel like I would need more opportunities to meet people – not a city, necessarily, but something like Champaign-Urbana. Maybe I’m being naïve, but I honestly don’t think the issue would be being in a community with only a handful of white people and mostly Navajos. It’s only my third day here as a visitor and I feel like I’ve already made some promising connections to staff and students here. Is a blooming and busy social life a sacrifice I’m willing to make for one or two or five + years? This is probably one of the toughest questions of my life that I’ll have to consider.
I should head to bed. Another day of observing a variety of classes tomorrow! Alyssa and I have a list of teachers and classes we would like to observe. I hope it works out.
Alyssa and I first switched teachers today. I was working with junior high students in a Read 180 classroom. There was substitute in the class for the day, but she seemed to know what was going on. She serves as the sub for both elementary, junior high, and high school. She had me work with students at a reading station (students rotated halfway through the period from one station to another). They had workbooks with a reading passage and some questions. I had absolutely no idea what steps these students took to complete these passages (self-directed or teacher-driven? Read out loud, silently, or both? Go over their written answers or have them simply turn them in?) How much prompting did these kids need? I didn’t want to under or over estimate their intelligence.
I asked the five students I was working with to show how they worked. A lot of them looked at their books, in their laps, or at the ceiling. It was a slow start, but we eventually got through it. Halfway through the assigned passage for group, I found the teacher’s manual with guiding questions and directions for the teacher! The second group went a little more smoothly. A lot of the students were hesitant to answer questions I posed, but they were willing (and very good at!) reading the paragraphs from the passages out loud.
Alyssa and I went to see the principal, Terri, for third and fourth period. She was trying to figure out scheduling issues with Carol and an assistant. She welcomed us into her office (and let us have some delicious creamer for our coffee?) and we talked with Jarvas, the security officer and Terri’s right-hand man. Jarvas had been a chaperone this past spring with gifted and talented students as they took a trip to New York City. We shared stories of our respective trips, since I had been there for the first time myself this summer. He also told us about his growing up in Rock Point. I have a feeling he’s very well-respected by students and teachers alike in the school. He was very easy to talk to and I hope we have more opportunities to talk with him! Terri invited us out to dinner tomorrow to Mexican Water to have a Navajo specialty – fry bread! I can’t wait to go and have a chance to talk with Carol, Terri, and others who might come in a more casual setting.
Alyssa and I went to go see a little bit of the Navajo drumming during lunch, and then we headed back to eat lunch in our temporary living quarters. We found Mark with Sam and Janet Bingham, two prior colleagues of Mark’s when he worked at Rock Point.
I couldn’t believe these two people were standing in front of me. Sam and Janet had been the two major forces of Between Sacred Mountains, a book about the people, culture and land of Rock Point, compiled by teachers and community members of Rock Point in the eighties. The teacher I had been working with had given me this book Monday to look at, and I had brought it home with me to show my peers. I had been very impressed with their work and I couldn’t believe I WAS TALKING TO THEM!!
Sam and Janet both had a background in journalism and wrote several books about the area while they were here. A lot of the time in their presence was spent listening to Mark, Janet, and Sam talk about their time working here and students they had heard recent news about. It was so cool to listen to them tell stories about students and the way that the school was before and how many steps forward the school has taken in creating better educational opportunities.
Sam then talked to Alyssa and I about the work (research and practice) he had done here and in Africa (!!) about overgrazing of the land and how it destroyed possibilities of successful livings off of livestock. His work, although it focused on environmental science and geography of the land in technical terms, directly related to issues that the Navajo here were having about maintaining income through livestock. It was really fascinating. I wanted to ask Janet and Sam a million questions about their experiences at Rock Point, what brought them here, and about their life in Africa, but they had to get going as they were off to visit a former student or teacher of Rock Point by Albequerque. They said they would be back tomorrow, so hopefully I might have a few minutes to ask them questions then.
After that, Alyssa and I went to another teacher’s class for seventh period. He’s a teacher that I recognized from editing the video last spring. He teaches social studies classes. What’s really interesting about his career at Rock Point is that he is a white man who has been at the school for five years, which is quite a long time for an Anglo teacher to be at this school. We watched his class and then talked with him into eighth hour, as he had the period free. It was cool to talk with him about his experiences as an outsider of the culture but as an integral part of the school community. He, too, talked about lacking social connections that he used to have, and this is something that he really misses. This is truly the one thing that is a downside for me personally in thinking about working on a reservation. I have such a fear of loneliness working in a situation like this. I feel like I would need more opportunities to meet people – not a city, necessarily, but something like Champaign-Urbana. Maybe I’m being naïve, but I honestly don’t think the issue would be being in a community with only a handful of white people and mostly Navajos. It’s only my third day here as a visitor and I feel like I’ve already made some promising connections to staff and students here. Is a blooming and busy social life a sacrifice I’m willing to make for one or two or five + years? This is probably one of the toughest questions of my life that I’ll have to consider.
I should head to bed. Another day of observing a variety of classes tomorrow! Alyssa and I have a list of teachers and classes we would like to observe. I hope it works out.
Navajo Culture Club - pow-wow practice after school
I am sitting in on an after-school meeting of the Navajo Culture Club at the invitation of one of the high-school-age members who has been only outgoing and friendly towards me. In this classroom, with a window open and a cool winter breeze following the sunshe into the room...this is how to experience Navajo singing. Tuning to the AM radio stations could not possibly give you the sense of community that is formed by more than ten young men surrounding a pow-wow drum, uniting in a smother reverberation that echoes through my chest.
The sponsor of the Navajo Culture Club at Rock Point (also the teacher who I've been following most of the week), has brought in a college buddy who traveled across the country to experience pow-wow drumming in tribes across the country. He first introduced his experiences with the pow-wow drum and then continued speaking about song and drum in a very inspirational way. Song and drum gave him a new perspective on his life when he was in college. And he knew (whether from talking with the sponsor or just knowing some of the kids perviously) that the kids there needed an outlet. (As I mentioned before, many of the kids involved with the Navajo Culture Club felt left behind by the rest of the school culture that is so dominated by an attitude of success being linked to athletic prowess.) The guest explained the releases that song and drum grant him; he works out negative emotions and energy with the music. He spoke about the respect that tradition and tales demand for a drum. Finally, he encouraged everyone to take up a mentor if they want to be serious about life -- the drum cannot be the only outlet, and sometimes one needs another person to guide you back on track to being yourself.
This was not the first time that I had heard mentors stressed in the school. Many of the teachers act as mentors since the school only has a counselor for a couple days of the week. But I also get the sense that mentorship serves as more than just guidance in schooling and learning about music. While I can not really get any closer to any of these relatinoships, I still get the sense that mentoring is a valued cultural experience for people here, even more so than what I see in my own schooling and culture/lifestyle. I certainly look up to people and have role models, but I see more people here talking openly about their statuses as mentee to an influential person/mentor in their life. Certainly, there seems to be more pride and appreciation for this relationship than I have seen in the time I have spent building a career or a hobby.
The speaker finishes his introduction with the thought that once they gather for pow-wow, there is not longer any sense of 'I'. There is only the 'we' he says in Navajo first and then in English.
He sits down amidst the circle of young men, looks at them and then adds one more note about pow-wow. He says that as collective musicians using one drum, their voices are also not individual. Each voice has a place, no matter how high or low, resonant or soft. No matter what their relationship before walking into the room, they should be ready to sit next to the person who best compliments their own voice so that the compilation sounds as one.
The circle begins to drum. Then the song erupts. And they continue with either smiling their enthusiasm, with focus across their singing faces or with a look of being at a higher place in their minds, without any distractions from school or home.
As the 5 p.m. mark approaches, the sponsor teacher tells the guest that the kids have to catch buses home. The kids jokingly (but I suspect simultaneously seriously) suggest that they should practice in the guest's or the sponsor's garage this weekend.
I saved my favorite comment for last. In the midst of the playing, everyone took a break for a breather and the guest said very casually that the drum not only meant being and working together, but also that he expected to eat well at any occasion for pow-wow. Honestly, what could go better with good music?
The sponsor of the Navajo Culture Club at Rock Point (also the teacher who I've been following most of the week), has brought in a college buddy who traveled across the country to experience pow-wow drumming in tribes across the country. He first introduced his experiences with the pow-wow drum and then continued speaking about song and drum in a very inspirational way. Song and drum gave him a new perspective on his life when he was in college. And he knew (whether from talking with the sponsor or just knowing some of the kids perviously) that the kids there needed an outlet. (As I mentioned before, many of the kids involved with the Navajo Culture Club felt left behind by the rest of the school culture that is so dominated by an attitude of success being linked to athletic prowess.) The guest explained the releases that song and drum grant him; he works out negative emotions and energy with the music. He spoke about the respect that tradition and tales demand for a drum. Finally, he encouraged everyone to take up a mentor if they want to be serious about life -- the drum cannot be the only outlet, and sometimes one needs another person to guide you back on track to being yourself.
This was not the first time that I had heard mentors stressed in the school. Many of the teachers act as mentors since the school only has a counselor for a couple days of the week. But I also get the sense that mentorship serves as more than just guidance in schooling and learning about music. While I can not really get any closer to any of these relatinoships, I still get the sense that mentoring is a valued cultural experience for people here, even more so than what I see in my own schooling and culture/lifestyle. I certainly look up to people and have role models, but I see more people here talking openly about their statuses as mentee to an influential person/mentor in their life. Certainly, there seems to be more pride and appreciation for this relationship than I have seen in the time I have spent building a career or a hobby.
The speaker finishes his introduction with the thought that once they gather for pow-wow, there is not longer any sense of 'I'. There is only the 'we' he says in Navajo first and then in English.
He sits down amidst the circle of young men, looks at them and then adds one more note about pow-wow. He says that as collective musicians using one drum, their voices are also not individual. Each voice has a place, no matter how high or low, resonant or soft. No matter what their relationship before walking into the room, they should be ready to sit next to the person who best compliments their own voice so that the compilation sounds as one.
The circle begins to drum. Then the song erupts. And they continue with either smiling their enthusiasm, with focus across their singing faces or with a look of being at a higher place in their minds, without any distractions from school or home.
As the 5 p.m. mark approaches, the sponsor teacher tells the guest that the kids have to catch buses home. The kids jokingly (but I suspect simultaneously seriously) suggest that they should practice in the guest's or the sponsor's garage this weekend.
I saved my favorite comment for last. In the midst of the playing, everyone took a break for a breather and the guest said very casually that the drum not only meant being and working together, but also that he expected to eat well at any occasion for pow-wow. Honestly, what could go better with good music?
So much to say... in a good way! (I love unintentional rhymes.)
These last two days have been infinitely better than Monday. I spent all of Tuesday in the same classroom that I was in Monday. Luckily, without having to be pushy, I got to be involved in the class. The teacher kept up with the stations format but let me work with a few students from the reading group during each period. The first group I had was three eighth grade students who had all read the same book already but had scored less than 70% on the computerized quiz. We read the text aloud as a group, alternating reading a paragraph each. My teacher had told me / suggested that I read aloud to them because many of the students are below grade level to the point where they spend so much time struggling with phonetics that they cannot even attempt comprehension. For this reason, I read longer chunks to the students than I required them to read and I also modified my approach with my latter classes. In some instances I told them I would read aloud until the desire struck one of them to take over reading, at which point they were free to interrupt me and read aloud for the group. Surprisingly, a few kids actually read a decent amount when given this option. However, I found the most effective thing that I could do was to stop every page or so for discussion. Some groups were stronger readers than others and some texts were harder than others (and, unfortunately, the strength of readers and the level of texts did not correlate), so the amount of discussion and success of discussion varied. I did have several moments where students clearly did not understand something on the first read-through and a few simple leading questions or another read-through got them to go “Oh! ____ is happening!” So that was really great. I also had a few instances of students working with me and still having time to take the quiz in the same class period, which meant that I got to see how they did… they went from failing scores to a 90-100% range.
The only really frustrating part of the set-up was the fact that it was supposed to be station work and they were only supposed to spend twenty minutes reading with me and then move on to the computers to take the reading quizzes. Because, as I already explained, the levels of texts and levels of readers were kind of all over the place, some readings and groups took ten minutes to get through the text, whereas others took forty-five minutes. I felt like I had to rush through the process a few times so that students could take the quiz, but I didn’t want to sacrifice a successful read-and-discuss procedure so that they could rush to the quiz and not do so well… but I also wanted them to take the quiz that day, while the material was fresh in their mind, and not have to put it off until the next day. Conundrum. I also felt pressure from the teacher to speed them through it… I think she and they are used to just reading through something without discussing and thus underestimated the time required to get through the reading successfully. Regardless, it was a really great day. I was so grateful to get to work with the students personally after my first alienated day. The students were also much friendlier and willing to engage with me than I expected. I think Mark’s experience, while valid, is outdated enough that the preconceptions I got from discussing things with him made me overestimate the cultural barrier that I would encounter here. Some students joked with me and even asked me questions about myself. Like I said, it was great.
Today was great in an entirely different sense. Robin and I decided to get out of the one-classroom-all-day approach. It had been productive for getting to know the students better and for being able to help out, but it also had given us a very limited view of the school. The teacher I had worked with previously was absent, so today was actually a rather opportune day to get out and explore. I spent the first two class periods observing the teacher that Robin had worked with. The class was high school English (I saw 10th and 11th grade) and they were working on that same advertising assignment that Robin detailed in her last blog. I found it interesting to see how much the teacher emphasizes the Arizona state standards in her classroom; she started the class period with the pertinent standards written on the board and verbally informed the students and myself of what standards they would be addressing that day. During the first class, the principal (Terri Everett) stopped in to wish the students good luck with the start of the new semester. After she left the room, I followed her into the hallway and had a brief talk with her, in which she invited me to her office to chat and gave me some recommendations for classes to observe. Robin and I ended up going to her office third hour, where we were met by Terri, Carol, and Jarvis (he is a security guard here and wonderfully friendly… he told us some lovely stories about how the building we are staying in is haunted). We ended up staying there for a lot longer than anticipated (two whole periods) but had some really great conversations. We also got an invitation to go out to dinner with Carol and Terri tomorrow, so that should be really great. We then went and caught a bit of the traditional Navajo drumming practice, which was really neat.
From there, Robin and I took an unintentionally long lunch. We came back to the building we’re staying in to make sandwiches and ran into Mark, who was deep in conversation with two former Rock Point teachers who are also visiting. I’m sure Robin will write more about this so I won’t try to ignorantly explain it, but they are kind of celebrities in the Navajo journalism world. We got to listen to (and somewhat participate in) a really interesting conversation between them about the degradation of land out here. Again, I’ll let Robin do the topic better justice. Afterwards, we went to see a Sociology class that was really interesting. Again, I’m glad I got to see classes other than the one I was in the first two days. Because of the Read 180 program, my experiences in that classroom were pretty structured and repetitive. It was nice to see another class that, while traditional, involved discussion and student participation. Robin and I stayed afterwards to talk with the teacher and he gave us a really unique perspective on working here. As an Anglo teacher in a Navajo school, he put to rest some of our previous assumptions about an insurmountable cultural divide. He’s done some really innovative things here and explained to us that this type of school is a really great place to start out at and an opportunity to teach yourself to teach.
ALSO. Robin and I stopped in a classroom to ask a teacher if we could observe him tomorrow (we have a whole list of recommended teachers and classes to see tomorrow) and met a woman who is a Rock Point parent and also works in the special education department. She told us that her son spoke about us last night and said we were so helpful and he wished we could stay!!! After two days here, we were so surprised/delighted that we had made enough of an impression for a student to speak of us that way. Sigh. Moments that remind me how much I want to teach.
There’s a lot more I want to say… but this is already long and I am wiped out. Perhaps another post later tonight when all the other topics of importance come flooding back into my head? Perhaps.
The only really frustrating part of the set-up was the fact that it was supposed to be station work and they were only supposed to spend twenty minutes reading with me and then move on to the computers to take the reading quizzes. Because, as I already explained, the levels of texts and levels of readers were kind of all over the place, some readings and groups took ten minutes to get through the text, whereas others took forty-five minutes. I felt like I had to rush through the process a few times so that students could take the quiz, but I didn’t want to sacrifice a successful read-and-discuss procedure so that they could rush to the quiz and not do so well… but I also wanted them to take the quiz that day, while the material was fresh in their mind, and not have to put it off until the next day. Conundrum. I also felt pressure from the teacher to speed them through it… I think she and they are used to just reading through something without discussing and thus underestimated the time required to get through the reading successfully. Regardless, it was a really great day. I was so grateful to get to work with the students personally after my first alienated day. The students were also much friendlier and willing to engage with me than I expected. I think Mark’s experience, while valid, is outdated enough that the preconceptions I got from discussing things with him made me overestimate the cultural barrier that I would encounter here. Some students joked with me and even asked me questions about myself. Like I said, it was great.
Today was great in an entirely different sense. Robin and I decided to get out of the one-classroom-all-day approach. It had been productive for getting to know the students better and for being able to help out, but it also had given us a very limited view of the school. The teacher I had worked with previously was absent, so today was actually a rather opportune day to get out and explore. I spent the first two class periods observing the teacher that Robin had worked with. The class was high school English (I saw 10th and 11th grade) and they were working on that same advertising assignment that Robin detailed in her last blog. I found it interesting to see how much the teacher emphasizes the Arizona state standards in her classroom; she started the class period with the pertinent standards written on the board and verbally informed the students and myself of what standards they would be addressing that day. During the first class, the principal (Terri Everett) stopped in to wish the students good luck with the start of the new semester. After she left the room, I followed her into the hallway and had a brief talk with her, in which she invited me to her office to chat and gave me some recommendations for classes to observe. Robin and I ended up going to her office third hour, where we were met by Terri, Carol, and Jarvis (he is a security guard here and wonderfully friendly… he told us some lovely stories about how the building we are staying in is haunted). We ended up staying there for a lot longer than anticipated (two whole periods) but had some really great conversations. We also got an invitation to go out to dinner with Carol and Terri tomorrow, so that should be really great. We then went and caught a bit of the traditional Navajo drumming practice, which was really neat.
From there, Robin and I took an unintentionally long lunch. We came back to the building we’re staying in to make sandwiches and ran into Mark, who was deep in conversation with two former Rock Point teachers who are also visiting. I’m sure Robin will write more about this so I won’t try to ignorantly explain it, but they are kind of celebrities in the Navajo journalism world. We got to listen to (and somewhat participate in) a really interesting conversation between them about the degradation of land out here. Again, I’ll let Robin do the topic better justice. Afterwards, we went to see a Sociology class that was really interesting. Again, I’m glad I got to see classes other than the one I was in the first two days. Because of the Read 180 program, my experiences in that classroom were pretty structured and repetitive. It was nice to see another class that, while traditional, involved discussion and student participation. Robin and I stayed afterwards to talk with the teacher and he gave us a really unique perspective on working here. As an Anglo teacher in a Navajo school, he put to rest some of our previous assumptions about an insurmountable cultural divide. He’s done some really innovative things here and explained to us that this type of school is a really great place to start out at and an opportunity to teach yourself to teach.
ALSO. Robin and I stopped in a classroom to ask a teacher if we could observe him tomorrow (we have a whole list of recommended teachers and classes to see tomorrow) and met a woman who is a Rock Point parent and also works in the special education department. She told us that her son spoke about us last night and said we were so helpful and he wished we could stay!!! After two days here, we were so surprised/delighted that we had made enough of an impression for a student to speak of us that way. Sigh. Moments that remind me how much I want to teach.
There’s a lot more I want to say… but this is already long and I am wiped out. Perhaps another post later tonight when all the other topics of importance come flooding back into my head? Perhaps.
And it just keeps getting better.
After two very busy days, it's time to recount my adventures again.
I don't think I had any astounding revelations during the day yesterday - my teacher was still administering assessments (this time, writing), so the classes were pretty calm. As in any middle school classroom, there were several students per group who decided they just weren't going to do the work, or at the very least, they weren't doing anything until the last ten minutes of class. I heard my teacher raise her voice for the first time when she reprimanded an antsy student. A couple classes finished the assessment early and we got to work on similes and metaphors in poetry, and I got to help with some group work, which was really nice. I feel like the students warmed up to me, and I enjoyed some one-on-one time with them.
I got a chance to witness a Navajo drumming practice during lunch yesterday, and IT WAS SO AMAZING. Some high school boys in a cultural after-school club have really taken to the traditional music, and it was so neat to watch them practice. My teacher shared with me that ceremonial music is dependent on the time of year, and that the winter ceremonies, which the boys had performed, are her favorite. I'm glad I got to see it, and I'm hoping to learn more about it tomorrow and Friday.
Last night we traveled to Rough Rock for both the boys' and girls' basketball games. I'm proud to say that we easily won both games by large margins, and it was so fantastic to see the students outside of the school. The teamwork displayed was really incredible, and it's clear that the team thrives as a group, not as the result of one or two superstars. Other spectators were very kind and friendly to us - word must have gotten around that we're here. The family next to us chatted with me about how we liked Rock Point, where we were from and what we were doing, and then the father proceeded to share some photos of the family pets - newborn Chihuahua puppies - with me. It was really nice to converse so casually.
Today was an eventful day at school. Testing was finally done, so we did a lot of work in each class with graphic organizers/pre-writing strategies and we continued talking about similes and metaphors. The students were split into groups again (my teacher commented that she's found that it's the only way she can get them to talk), and I was busy all day helping them through their work. I LOVED IT. I think my teacher does a really great job of guiding the students, many of whom are struggling in her classes, through some difficult material. I also noticed today that although my teacher does all of her instruction in English, when she is making an off-handed comment or gently reprimanding a student, she does so in Navajo. She noted later that most of the students can comprehend Navajo, but they have a hard time speaking it (exactly like me with Spanish!!), so she tries to expose them to it in little ways at often as possible.
Both the school's principal and the executive director of the school popped into the classroom today, to say hello and see how things are going. The principal gave the students a beginning of the semester "pep talk." My teacher said that the administration is very present in the school, which I think is really cool. I never would have gone to my principal, or any other administrative member, for help in high school. They stayed in their office and didn't have a lot of contact with students unless they were in trouble. It's really nice to see an environment in which the administration knows and cares about every student.
I got the chance to talk candidly with my teacher during her free period today, and I learned a lot about Rock Point and its students. The vast majority of graduating seniors go on to either a 4-year or a community college. Very few students stick around after graduation. In fact, very few people stick around Rock Point as adults. My teacher said she is one of a relatively small number of people from Rock Point who are now raising their own families here. Out of the 13 children in her family, only she and four other siblings returned here after college. Many residents move to larger cities, such as Phoenix or Tempe, and many others move to other reservation towns. There is a great deal of mobility here, which also contributes to academic and behavioral problems. It is hard to teach a group of junior high or high school students who have attended several other schools, picking up different skills along the way and missing others in the process. Rarely are two students at the same level with the same knowledge because they've experienced so many different curricula. However, on the plus side, the drop-out and truancy rates are virtually non-existant. My teacher has noticed a large drop in the number of students who fluently speak Navajo. She said that three years ago, every high school senior was fluent, while now the rate is less than half. Interestingly, the last tenth grade class to pass the AIMS test was also the last class who spoke Navajo fluently. It supports research that suggests that students with fluency in their native language, rather than proficiency in two "native" languages (i.e. Navajo and English, Spanish and English), ultimately perform better academically.
I also had the opportunity to observe a junior high history class taught by a white teacher who has been at Rock Point for five years. He found a really neat interactive website all about Shay's Rebellion, and he created a guided activity for the students to explore the site and find out more about the event. In between helping them research, we chatted a little about where I was planning on going with my career. I mentioned that I was looking to go into urban ed., and he compared the reservation schools to inner-city schools in a way I definitely see now but hadn't thought of before. The reservation offers all of the academic challenges of the inner-city - displaced students, low literacy levels, English language learners, etc. - but without any of the behavioral issues. He said he thought that it's a great place to get your footing as a teacher before you enter the big, bad inner-city...true? Food for thought. (Mom and Dad, don't freak out, I probably won't move to a small town in Arizona with no cell phone service. But I have to weigh my options, you know...)
I don't think I had any astounding revelations during the day yesterday - my teacher was still administering assessments (this time, writing), so the classes were pretty calm. As in any middle school classroom, there were several students per group who decided they just weren't going to do the work, or at the very least, they weren't doing anything until the last ten minutes of class. I heard my teacher raise her voice for the first time when she reprimanded an antsy student. A couple classes finished the assessment early and we got to work on similes and metaphors in poetry, and I got to help with some group work, which was really nice. I feel like the students warmed up to me, and I enjoyed some one-on-one time with them.
I got a chance to witness a Navajo drumming practice during lunch yesterday, and IT WAS SO AMAZING. Some high school boys in a cultural after-school club have really taken to the traditional music, and it was so neat to watch them practice. My teacher shared with me that ceremonial music is dependent on the time of year, and that the winter ceremonies, which the boys had performed, are her favorite. I'm glad I got to see it, and I'm hoping to learn more about it tomorrow and Friday.
Last night we traveled to Rough Rock for both the boys' and girls' basketball games. I'm proud to say that we easily won both games by large margins, and it was so fantastic to see the students outside of the school. The teamwork displayed was really incredible, and it's clear that the team thrives as a group, not as the result of one or two superstars. Other spectators were very kind and friendly to us - word must have gotten around that we're here. The family next to us chatted with me about how we liked Rock Point, where we were from and what we were doing, and then the father proceeded to share some photos of the family pets - newborn Chihuahua puppies - with me. It was really nice to converse so casually.
Today was an eventful day at school. Testing was finally done, so we did a lot of work in each class with graphic organizers/pre-writing strategies and we continued talking about similes and metaphors. The students were split into groups again (my teacher commented that she's found that it's the only way she can get them to talk), and I was busy all day helping them through their work. I LOVED IT. I think my teacher does a really great job of guiding the students, many of whom are struggling in her classes, through some difficult material. I also noticed today that although my teacher does all of her instruction in English, when she is making an off-handed comment or gently reprimanding a student, she does so in Navajo. She noted later that most of the students can comprehend Navajo, but they have a hard time speaking it (exactly like me with Spanish!!), so she tries to expose them to it in little ways at often as possible.
Both the school's principal and the executive director of the school popped into the classroom today, to say hello and see how things are going. The principal gave the students a beginning of the semester "pep talk." My teacher said that the administration is very present in the school, which I think is really cool. I never would have gone to my principal, or any other administrative member, for help in high school. They stayed in their office and didn't have a lot of contact with students unless they were in trouble. It's really nice to see an environment in which the administration knows and cares about every student.
I got the chance to talk candidly with my teacher during her free period today, and I learned a lot about Rock Point and its students. The vast majority of graduating seniors go on to either a 4-year or a community college. Very few students stick around after graduation. In fact, very few people stick around Rock Point as adults. My teacher said she is one of a relatively small number of people from Rock Point who are now raising their own families here. Out of the 13 children in her family, only she and four other siblings returned here after college. Many residents move to larger cities, such as Phoenix or Tempe, and many others move to other reservation towns. There is a great deal of mobility here, which also contributes to academic and behavioral problems. It is hard to teach a group of junior high or high school students who have attended several other schools, picking up different skills along the way and missing others in the process. Rarely are two students at the same level with the same knowledge because they've experienced so many different curricula. However, on the plus side, the drop-out and truancy rates are virtually non-existant. My teacher has noticed a large drop in the number of students who fluently speak Navajo. She said that three years ago, every high school senior was fluent, while now the rate is less than half. Interestingly, the last tenth grade class to pass the AIMS test was also the last class who spoke Navajo fluently. It supports research that suggests that students with fluency in their native language, rather than proficiency in two "native" languages (i.e. Navajo and English, Spanish and English), ultimately perform better academically.
I also had the opportunity to observe a junior high history class taught by a white teacher who has been at Rock Point for five years. He found a really neat interactive website all about Shay's Rebellion, and he created a guided activity for the students to explore the site and find out more about the event. In between helping them research, we chatted a little about where I was planning on going with my career. I mentioned that I was looking to go into urban ed., and he compared the reservation schools to inner-city schools in a way I definitely see now but hadn't thought of before. The reservation offers all of the academic challenges of the inner-city - displaced students, low literacy levels, English language learners, etc. - but without any of the behavioral issues. He said he thought that it's a great place to get your footing as a teacher before you enter the big, bad inner-city...true? Food for thought. (Mom and Dad, don't freak out, I probably won't move to a small town in Arizona with no cell phone service. But I have to weigh my options, you know...)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
RPCS Day Two (A Great Day!!)
We just got back from the basketball game at Rough Rock! About a 45-60 minute drive from Rock Point, we arrived at the end of the junior varsity boy’s game. We saw the end of that game, the varsity girl’s game, and the varsity boy’s game. WE WON ALL OF THEM!! It was a lot of fun to watch. It was really clear that Rock Point worked AS a team during the games – they definitely played off of each other and had great communication in a matter of seconds during the game. There were definitely a couple star players on every team, and I recognized a lot of the team members from the classes I had been observing (which was so great!!)
Probably an obvious side note, but besides one or two white teachers who were attending the game from Rough Rock, we were the only white people there. I felt a little uncomfortable for the fact that all six of us sat together in a clump on the bleachers. I know the focus was most definitely not on us, but I did feel like we were bringing a little more attention to ourselves sitting all together. A good thing about the game was that the man sitting next to Emily heard about us from his student at the school and said it was great that we were there. That was an awesome feeling when I heard that.
Today was a better day in the sense that I feel like I made some connections with students and took initiative in the classroom. I stayed in the same classroom and observed the same teacher. All her classes were still working on the advertising assignment. Some good things about today included a few students calling me by name to ask a question about the assignment and a couple students asking me to read their persuasive paragraph to make sure they were good enough. That was really great!! Instead of just sitting at the side of the classroom and observing, I decided to take a more active role and tried to motivate students to complete the assignment. I asked them questions about their advertisements (or the lack thereof) and walked around to observe what students were doing.
There were also several new students who hadn’t received the assignment, so I explained the assignment individually in hopes that by one-on-one explaining, they would feel more motivated to do the assignment that period. I don’t think it necessarily had that response, but I did get to meet some students, work on my explaining skills, and I think it showed that I cared what they were doing. I met one student who had a drumstick, and he told me that he was a member of the Navajo Culture club. They practice during lunchtime, and he invited me to come see it.
I felt so honored to be there during their practice. Students only get 30 minutes for lunch, and the boys that are part of the drumming either eat very quickly in the first 5-10 minutes of lunch and come practice, or they don’t eat lunch at all. The Navajo drumming is one large drum, four feet diameter and about two feet off the ground, with four to seven boys surrounding it. They sang tribal songs and played the drum together. It was so beautiful. It was so cool to see some of these boys who I had seen uninterested in English class be committed to this traditional cultural practice. It showed a new side to some of these students for me.
The principal of the school had made an announcement about us over the school intercom, saying ‘student teachers’ who were visiting for the week were there to help, and students are encouraged to seek their help and ask them questions. I think because of this school welcome, more students were receptive to us in the school. Quite a few students said hello to me in the hallway, or nodded their heads in recognition. It was…amazing. I felt less like an observer today and more like a participant in the education of these students.
Tomorrow Alyssa and I plan to explore the school more and observe different teachers. I’m excited to see some different classrooms, teaching styles, and students.
Probably an obvious side note, but besides one or two white teachers who were attending the game from Rough Rock, we were the only white people there. I felt a little uncomfortable for the fact that all six of us sat together in a clump on the bleachers. I know the focus was most definitely not on us, but I did feel like we were bringing a little more attention to ourselves sitting all together. A good thing about the game was that the man sitting next to Emily heard about us from his student at the school and said it was great that we were there. That was an awesome feeling when I heard that.
Today was a better day in the sense that I feel like I made some connections with students and took initiative in the classroom. I stayed in the same classroom and observed the same teacher. All her classes were still working on the advertising assignment. Some good things about today included a few students calling me by name to ask a question about the assignment and a couple students asking me to read their persuasive paragraph to make sure they were good enough. That was really great!! Instead of just sitting at the side of the classroom and observing, I decided to take a more active role and tried to motivate students to complete the assignment. I asked them questions about their advertisements (or the lack thereof) and walked around to observe what students were doing.
There were also several new students who hadn’t received the assignment, so I explained the assignment individually in hopes that by one-on-one explaining, they would feel more motivated to do the assignment that period. I don’t think it necessarily had that response, but I did get to meet some students, work on my explaining skills, and I think it showed that I cared what they were doing. I met one student who had a drumstick, and he told me that he was a member of the Navajo Culture club. They practice during lunchtime, and he invited me to come see it.
I felt so honored to be there during their practice. Students only get 30 minutes for lunch, and the boys that are part of the drumming either eat very quickly in the first 5-10 minutes of lunch and come practice, or they don’t eat lunch at all. The Navajo drumming is one large drum, four feet diameter and about two feet off the ground, with four to seven boys surrounding it. They sang tribal songs and played the drum together. It was so beautiful. It was so cool to see some of these boys who I had seen uninterested in English class be committed to this traditional cultural practice. It showed a new side to some of these students for me.
The principal of the school had made an announcement about us over the school intercom, saying ‘student teachers’ who were visiting for the week were there to help, and students are encouraged to seek their help and ask them questions. I think because of this school welcome, more students were receptive to us in the school. Quite a few students said hello to me in the hallway, or nodded their heads in recognition. It was…amazing. I felt less like an observer today and more like a participant in the education of these students.
Tomorrow Alyssa and I plan to explore the school more and observe different teachers. I’m excited to see some different classrooms, teaching styles, and students.
Teaching Photojournalism at Rock Point (Day 2-4)
[This post has been a collection of thoughts and reflections over the past three days (2-4) at Rock Point. As a writer, I realize the length of the post, but I hoped to give the most perspective on the my teaching experiences without breaking up the posts.]
I fought hard today against a group of students who seemed to be unresponsive. But, one story struck a chord with them that prompted their interest.
On the fist day (Day 1) in the journalism classes, I was offered the opportunity to present a lesson about my experiences as a photojournalist. The journalism teacher here wanted me to show some of my work and talk about the trade (or, in my case, the hobby).
The first journ class of the day (Class one) did not meet yesterday because of a need for homeroom meetings to get new schedules out. I got only ten minutes to present the small, outdated portfolio that I actually have online. I felt very awkward talking about my work, especially knowing that pride in one's accomplishments in this culture is generally looked down upon. This was not what I wanted to teach... that is, I did not want to teach about myself. But, on day three here I was finally able to present to them the short lesson I had prepared.
[Check out the lesson plan I developed and then download the photojournalism powerpoint that I prepared.]
Class B (day 2):
I had prepared a full lesson for the two afternoon classes who met in-class yesterday and who already knew who I was and what I was doing in their classroom. I put together a PowerPoint that hit the essentials of being a photojournalist. I collected some links of photographers' projects that I thought I could really talk about, because I had either worked with the photographer personally, followed the story with them 'behind-the-scenes' as the project developed or I had thought had a really important national impact. My plan was to give an overview and ask the students to discuss what they saw, what can they tell about the story with just a picture, etc.
Turned out (as I had seen in other classes), the kids were not vocal with their thoughts. I shifted gears quickly, having them write their reflections down on paper. For the mainstay of the period, I had chosen a very emotional story published by the LA Times, called, "Marlboro Marine". (If you have not ever watched the story, I highly suggest it.) In the middle of my introduction to the story, I realized that I should ask the students to do something that they were already comfortable the day before. So, I asked them to write downt four adjectives that would describe the Marine pictured on the title slide. We watched half, and then I asked them to cross off the words that did not seem to fit this one, specific Marine. Everyone had a word to change that described him. I felt further rewarded when I had them write about whether the story was important and who should be seeing it.
Class C (day 2):
I fought hard today against a group of students who seemed to be unresponsive. But, one story struck a chord with them that prompted their interest.
On the fist day (Day 1) in the journalism classes, I was offered the opportunity to present a lesson about my experiences as a photojournalist. The journalism teacher here wanted me to show some of my work and talk about the trade (or, in my case, the hobby).
The first journ class of the day (Class one) did not meet yesterday because of a need for homeroom meetings to get new schedules out. I got only ten minutes to present the small, outdated portfolio that I actually have online. I felt very awkward talking about my work, especially knowing that pride in one's accomplishments in this culture is generally looked down upon. This was not what I wanted to teach... that is, I did not want to teach about myself. But, on day three here I was finally able to present to them the short lesson I had prepared.
[Check out the lesson plan I developed and then download the photojournalism powerpoint that I prepared.]
Class B (day 2):
I had prepared a full lesson for the two afternoon classes who met in-class yesterday and who already knew who I was and what I was doing in their classroom. I put together a PowerPoint that hit the essentials of being a photojournalist. I collected some links of photographers' projects that I thought I could really talk about, because I had either worked with the photographer personally, followed the story with them 'behind-the-scenes' as the project developed or I had thought had a really important national impact. My plan was to give an overview and ask the students to discuss what they saw, what can they tell about the story with just a picture, etc.
Turned out (as I had seen in other classes), the kids were not vocal with their thoughts. I shifted gears quickly, having them write their reflections down on paper. For the mainstay of the period, I had chosen a very emotional story published by the LA Times, called, "Marlboro Marine". (If you have not ever watched the story, I highly suggest it.) In the middle of my introduction to the story, I realized that I should ask the students to do something that they were already comfortable the day before. So, I asked them to write downt four adjectives that would describe the Marine pictured on the title slide. We watched half, and then I asked them to cross off the words that did not seem to fit this one, specific Marine. Everyone had a word to change that described him. I felt further rewarded when I had them write about whether the story was important and who should be seeing it.
Class C (day 2):
You can't always rely on technology. I had flawless internet service in the first session, but then just when we passed the 2-minute mark of the "Marlboro Marine" story, the buffers stopped working. I had a very interested and engaged set of students. Part of their enthusiasm must be their previous experience in having taken the journalism class the previous semester.
Class C (day 3):
The class reassembled the next day and I pulled the Marlboro Marine story from another website - Mediastorm.com, a well-recognized website which collects multimedia stories from photojournalists - where the buffer seemed to work better.
While the presentation loaded, we checked out some photos that I took from the Rock Point basketball game the night before. The kids got a kick out of seeing their friends in some freeze-frame action. I later used this enthusiasm to drive a writing assignment (on day 4 for all the classes), asking them to write a summary paragraph of the game.
Class A (day 3):
The class I missed on the first day gave me another chance to present to them other people's work that I have been following. Now, without the projector equipment that I used the previous day, we had to crowd around my laptop. At first, I did not really think that I could pull off the talk I had planned, nor could I actually show them the photo stories in a format that they could all see...
I was taken aback, however, when I had most of the class engaged. Perhaps the proximity created a more personal atmosphere or maybe they knew where I was coming from, having already heard about my work. The first set of students might have even been disengaged because I fell into the PowerPoint drone-lecture mode, and this closer atmosphere put them more on the spot. Anyway, I had the students talking about the photos! And not only that, but they were also very quick to pick up their paper and pencils and start responding to the writing prompts I gave them. This was a class that had no background in journalism and really had no reason to come to the second day of class with high interest and ready to participate. I was really blown away. Some tech worked to help (thank you Mac screen zooming). Other tech failed, leaving me to yet again search for another way to show the "Marlboro Marine" story.
Another bit that comes to mind that may have made the experience a little more wholesome for the kids was humor. I brought my SLR camera in and talked to them about how uncomfortable you can make people with cameras that size. In order to describe the power of photos, I made up a little anecdote about either a city mayor (or, in their community, the chapter president) maybe falling asleep during a meeting. The photo can show you more than the story can: maybe the person is drooling, sleeps with his mouth open or otherwise making a funny face while sleeping -- the scene can be better set by seeing even some of the other officials trying to go about the meeting while he is snoozing. Some of the kids started looking up to take a chuckle at that, and I think it was then that I had pulled them into the lesson. So, my lesson for today: anecdotes for icebreakers or even context-builders.
Class C (day 3):
The class reassembled the next day and I pulled the Marlboro Marine story from another website - Mediastorm.com, a well-recognized website which collects multimedia stories from photojournalists - where the buffer seemed to work better.
While the presentation loaded, we checked out some photos that I took from the Rock Point basketball game the night before. The kids got a kick out of seeing their friends in some freeze-frame action. I later used this enthusiasm to drive a writing assignment (on day 4 for all the classes), asking them to write a summary paragraph of the game.
Class A (day 3):
The class I missed on the first day gave me another chance to present to them other people's work that I have been following. Now, without the projector equipment that I used the previous day, we had to crowd around my laptop. At first, I did not really think that I could pull off the talk I had planned, nor could I actually show them the photo stories in a format that they could all see...
I was taken aback, however, when I had most of the class engaged. Perhaps the proximity created a more personal atmosphere or maybe they knew where I was coming from, having already heard about my work. The first set of students might have even been disengaged because I fell into the PowerPoint drone-lecture mode, and this closer atmosphere put them more on the spot. Anyway, I had the students talking about the photos! And not only that, but they were also very quick to pick up their paper and pencils and start responding to the writing prompts I gave them. This was a class that had no background in journalism and really had no reason to come to the second day of class with high interest and ready to participate. I was really blown away. Some tech worked to help (thank you Mac screen zooming). Other tech failed, leaving me to yet again search for another way to show the "Marlboro Marine" story.
Another bit that comes to mind that may have made the experience a little more wholesome for the kids was humor. I brought my SLR camera in and talked to them about how uncomfortable you can make people with cameras that size. In order to describe the power of photos, I made up a little anecdote about either a city mayor (or, in their community, the chapter president) maybe falling asleep during a meeting. The photo can show you more than the story can: maybe the person is drooling, sleeps with his mouth open or otherwise making a funny face while sleeping -- the scene can be better set by seeing even some of the other officials trying to go about the meeting while he is snoozing. Some of the kids started looking up to take a chuckle at that, and I think it was then that I had pulled them into the lesson. So, my lesson for today: anecdotes for icebreakers or even context-builders.
Class A (day 4)
Since this was specifically a broadcast class, I pulled some instances of broadcast writing fitting into an audio slideshow from the DailyIllini website. The DI pulled this off pretty well for a couple football games, and again I used the multimedia presentation to teach -- using the story format to help illustrate how to write a sports story.
Collected responses:
After watching the full presentation of the "Marlboro Marine", I asked the groups to write about whether or not they thought this was an important story and why. Their responses/reflections showed a couple sparks of interest in the story. Summaries of the writing follow:
- They thought the story really dove "deep into the mind of a veteran" who could not find a solution to to the feelings he had for killing.
- America needs to know what happens to people who return from war and that many of our veterans are still fighting for us long after their duty has been served.
- One student revealed that he/she planned to follow his/her family's footsteps of enlisting in the armed forces and that knowing what could happen in war to him/her or his/her family was important.
Reflection
I was worried about was putting the kids on the track of believing that the marine's story was reflective of all people who served our armed services. I realized after the first day that I needed to add a disclaimer to viewing human interest pieces, because, like anything, you cannot assume that one person's story reflects on everyone's experience. Judgment can be passed very easily by associating a story with someone's look (or even vice-versa). I stressed the point the next day that he was only one soldier, with one story and that not everyone dealt with such troubles. Otherwise, I liked teaching the three classes about photojournalism and more specifically, multimedia journalism. I found myself really excited about collecting the directed responses to the "Marlboro Marine" presentation. As always, I love reading student writing.
Monday, January 5, 2009
RPCS Day One
As Mark would say…Holy frijoles!! Today was an experience, for sure. Some good, some repetitive, a little uncomfortable, and most of it interesting. I’m writing this opener after I’ve finished the post and realize I feel unable to capture my day, my thoughts, my impressions. Something I will definitely work on this week. This might mean I need more time to process before writing.
The teacher I observed today, and will probably continue to observe for the rest of the week, has been working at Rock Point and Rough Rock Demonstration School for 24 years.
I started to hear some of her life story today. She first attended school when she was nine, and she didn’t know how to write in Navajo and she didn’t have an English name or any English language acquisition. She said school was very difficult for her and she was teased a lot. Her parents sent her to a diverse high school off the reservation, which she is so grateful for, even though she continued to be teased.
The “Aha!” moment she related to me today was when she had to read Romeo and Juliet in high school. It was so challenging for her to comprehend the language, but she was too embarrassed to let on that she didn’t know what was going on. Her brother told her to get La Farge (she commented to me, how did my brother know this name? Maybe it was sent from God, a sign), and she went to the library and found Oliver La Farge’s Laughing Boy, which is the Navajo version of Romeo and Juliet!! She looked at them side by side and by doing this, was able to get through Romeo and Juliet.
This was how she succeeded through school – taking the material and making it her own. This, she says, is the basis of her teaching at Rock Point. She takes the material from textbooks and other resources and uses them as is, but in explanations, she uses Navajo examples.
Throughout the day, my teacher gathered for me a pile of books to look at about Navajo culture and history, Rock Point community, and stories that were written in both Navajo and English. It was great! I spent some of my time in her classroom looking at these books, and will continue to look at them this week. Some of them are her own personal books and some of them she uses in the classroom.
Here are some specific things I observed today that at first may seem or appear negative (and ashamedly so, there were times in the day when I found myself judging), but are not necessarily problems or deficiencies of teachers, students, or the community, but are certainly different than from what I’m used to. To preface these comments, it’s necessary to remember that this was the first day back from classes since winter break and students were getting new schedules, and getting reacquainted with school routine.
Students talk throughout the whole period, even when the teacher is talking. This is very different from what I’m used to! I’ve had the expectation as a student and as an observer that talking when you are not supposed to or when the teacher is talking is inappropriate and disrespectful. This seems to be a cultural tendency, because my peers experienced this same behavior.
Students casually address teacher by first name, and I often heard “What’s up, [teacher’s name?” This I liked. I didn’t find it disrespectful (in most cases).
Some students were friendly and interested in why I was there, others confused. In some periods I sat down in an empty seat and talked to the students around me. The students in the morning were much more talkative and responsive. When introducing myself, one jokingly asked “Where’s Illinois”? and after looking at some of the books about Rock Point, a couple students asked me what I had learned. Mostly students avoided talking to me and nobody asked me any other questions, but I think that’s typical of any high school class (I know that in the same position, I never asked the student teacher any questions I didn’t have to).
I spent some time in the school library looking around during my teacher’s prep periods. It’s a rather small library but has a lot of great material. There’s a whole wall dedicated to an “Indian Collection”, which has academic books, non-fiction books about land and culture, novels, and student-written work. After spending about a half hour looking around, I asked the librarian about bilingual books and she pulled some from the Indian collection. She also showed me four storage boxes of materials that the school used to use as curriculum guides, readers, and student-written publications in both Navajo and English. I was able to get through one box today, and am very excited to continue looking through them as the week goes on. A lot of the materials were written in the mid-1960s and the ‘80s.
One of the materials in the box today that was particularly interesting was a 4th-grade unit on “The Land I Live In” focusing on Navajo terrain and landscape, with a focus on having students realize that they live in a beautiful place. It was created by the Dine Department of Education and the College of Education at the University of New Mexico in the 1960s. To date the curriculum, one of the objectives for one of the beginning lessons is “To have a great time”.
My teacher taught the same lesson to all six of her classes (one junior high class, and sophomores, juniors, and seniors), and the ‘bell-ringer’ activity ended up taking the whole period in all classes, and will probably extend into tomorrow (even though there were several activities following the bell-ringer activity on the objective chart for the week). The teacher gave directions on the assignment at the beginning of class and then left the rest of the period for students to work on the assignments. The assignment was split into two parts. First, the students had to match a type of celebrity (famous race car driver, aging cowboy star, Miss America) with an appropriate product they might advertise (cars, vitamins, cereal) on a worksheet. Then, students had to create their own advertisement using a celebrity and a product (it could be one from the worksheet, or one that they create on their own) on construction paper, and write a persuasive paragraph describing their product.
It appeared to me that some students were slow to start and did not finish, and others just used the magazines that were available as examples as a way to pass the time by flipping through multiple magazines casually. I would have done things differently, mostly having to do with scaffolding the assignment, and withholding the magazines from students until they had planned their own advertisements.
This post is way too long. I’ll end with a question I will continue to try and figure out this week: are the students self-directed or are they lacking direction?
The teacher I observed today, and will probably continue to observe for the rest of the week, has been working at Rock Point and Rough Rock Demonstration School for 24 years.
I started to hear some of her life story today. She first attended school when she was nine, and she didn’t know how to write in Navajo and she didn’t have an English name or any English language acquisition. She said school was very difficult for her and she was teased a lot. Her parents sent her to a diverse high school off the reservation, which she is so grateful for, even though she continued to be teased.
The “Aha!” moment she related to me today was when she had to read Romeo and Juliet in high school. It was so challenging for her to comprehend the language, but she was too embarrassed to let on that she didn’t know what was going on. Her brother told her to get La Farge (she commented to me, how did my brother know this name? Maybe it was sent from God, a sign), and she went to the library and found Oliver La Farge’s Laughing Boy, which is the Navajo version of Romeo and Juliet!! She looked at them side by side and by doing this, was able to get through Romeo and Juliet.
This was how she succeeded through school – taking the material and making it her own. This, she says, is the basis of her teaching at Rock Point. She takes the material from textbooks and other resources and uses them as is, but in explanations, she uses Navajo examples.
Throughout the day, my teacher gathered for me a pile of books to look at about Navajo culture and history, Rock Point community, and stories that were written in both Navajo and English. It was great! I spent some of my time in her classroom looking at these books, and will continue to look at them this week. Some of them are her own personal books and some of them she uses in the classroom.
Here are some specific things I observed today that at first may seem or appear negative (and ashamedly so, there were times in the day when I found myself judging), but are not necessarily problems or deficiencies of teachers, students, or the community, but are certainly different than from what I’m used to. To preface these comments, it’s necessary to remember that this was the first day back from classes since winter break and students were getting new schedules, and getting reacquainted with school routine.
Students talk throughout the whole period, even when the teacher is talking. This is very different from what I’m used to! I’ve had the expectation as a student and as an observer that talking when you are not supposed to or when the teacher is talking is inappropriate and disrespectful. This seems to be a cultural tendency, because my peers experienced this same behavior.
Students casually address teacher by first name, and I often heard “What’s up, [teacher’s name?” This I liked. I didn’t find it disrespectful (in most cases).
Some students were friendly and interested in why I was there, others confused. In some periods I sat down in an empty seat and talked to the students around me. The students in the morning were much more talkative and responsive. When introducing myself, one jokingly asked “Where’s Illinois”? and after looking at some of the books about Rock Point, a couple students asked me what I had learned. Mostly students avoided talking to me and nobody asked me any other questions, but I think that’s typical of any high school class (I know that in the same position, I never asked the student teacher any questions I didn’t have to).
I spent some time in the school library looking around during my teacher’s prep periods. It’s a rather small library but has a lot of great material. There’s a whole wall dedicated to an “Indian Collection”, which has academic books, non-fiction books about land and culture, novels, and student-written work. After spending about a half hour looking around, I asked the librarian about bilingual books and she pulled some from the Indian collection. She also showed me four storage boxes of materials that the school used to use as curriculum guides, readers, and student-written publications in both Navajo and English. I was able to get through one box today, and am very excited to continue looking through them as the week goes on. A lot of the materials were written in the mid-1960s and the ‘80s.
One of the materials in the box today that was particularly interesting was a 4th-grade unit on “The Land I Live In” focusing on Navajo terrain and landscape, with a focus on having students realize that they live in a beautiful place. It was created by the Dine Department of Education and the College of Education at the University of New Mexico in the 1960s. To date the curriculum, one of the objectives for one of the beginning lessons is “To have a great time”.
My teacher taught the same lesson to all six of her classes (one junior high class, and sophomores, juniors, and seniors), and the ‘bell-ringer’ activity ended up taking the whole period in all classes, and will probably extend into tomorrow (even though there were several activities following the bell-ringer activity on the objective chart for the week). The teacher gave directions on the assignment at the beginning of class and then left the rest of the period for students to work on the assignments. The assignment was split into two parts. First, the students had to match a type of celebrity (famous race car driver, aging cowboy star, Miss America) with an appropriate product they might advertise (cars, vitamins, cereal) on a worksheet. Then, students had to create their own advertisement using a celebrity and a product (it could be one from the worksheet, or one that they create on their own) on construction paper, and write a persuasive paragraph describing their product.
It appeared to me that some students were slow to start and did not finish, and others just used the magazines that were available as examples as a way to pass the time by flipping through multiple magazines casually. I would have done things differently, mostly having to do with scaffolding the assignment, and withholding the magazines from students until they had planned their own advertisements.
This post is way too long. I’ll end with a question I will continue to try and figure out this week: are the students self-directed or are they lacking direction?
In response to Emily....
I tried to write this as a comment to Emily's post but I can't seem to get the computer to let me. A lot of things are blocked by the school's wireless network.
Anyways, the following is supposed to be a response to Em's most recent post:
So even though we discussed this all already, I should have read yours prior to posting mine, because we overlapped a bit AND your post reminded me of a few things I wanted to talk about.
Yes, I noticed the first name basis too. Thought that was odd. I also noticed that in my junior high reading classroom, ALL of the text on the classroom decor was in English. I was surprised that it didn't integrate both English and Navajo. I know Navajo is focused upon in the lower elementary grades and English is stressed in the upper grades, but I would think they would get to a point where both are represented simultaneously? The only Navajo I saw was in the school's mission statement.
Also, my teacher said that they got a new SPED teacher recently and that some students were being pulled out because they were having a LOT of difficulty participating at all in the Read 180 program. Not sure why our information contradicts. Perhaps we're confused?"
Also, I forgot to mention that we met Terri Everett today. Terri is the Rock Point high school principal and was one of Mark's major contacts in organizing this trip. She stopped by our multipurpose room (where we are sleeping/living this week) and introduced herself and offered her assistance with anything we might need. She was really nice/friendly and I'm looking forward to talking more with her later this week.
Anyways, the following is supposed to be a response to Em's most recent post:
So even though we discussed this all already, I should have read yours prior to posting mine, because we overlapped a bit AND your post reminded me of a few things I wanted to talk about.
Yes, I noticed the first name basis too. Thought that was odd. I also noticed that in my junior high reading classroom, ALL of the text on the classroom decor was in English. I was surprised that it didn't integrate both English and Navajo. I know Navajo is focused upon in the lower elementary grades and English is stressed in the upper grades, but I would think they would get to a point where both are represented simultaneously? The only Navajo I saw was in the school's mission statement.
Also, my teacher said that they got a new SPED teacher recently and that some students were being pulled out because they were having a LOT of difficulty participating at all in the Read 180 program. Not sure why our information contradicts. Perhaps we're confused?"
Also, I forgot to mention that we met Terri Everett today. Terri is the Rock Point high school principal and was one of Mark's major contacts in organizing this trip. She stopped by our multipurpose room (where we are sleeping/living this week) and introduced herself and offered her assistance with anything we might need. She was really nice/friendly and I'm looking forward to talking more with her later this week.
First Day Impressions....
We arrived at Rock Point early yesterday evening and got set up. I won’t go into lots of details from yesterday because I feel like today’s events are a little more pertinent to this blog. We woke up at six something, braved the curtain-less showers, and walked outside to the main building of the school around 7:45am. We had a list of teachers that had communicated to Carol that they’d be willing to have us in their classrooms, so Mark walked us to their rooms, introduced us, and left us each in a different classroom. I was placed in a reading classroom for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The school uses a program called Read 180, which is made by Scholastic. The teacher I was observing has the students work in two of three stations each day: computer, table, and reading. The computer station has six computers equipped with headphones. The students use the Read 180 software to do a variety of tasks: read a passage aloud into a microphone, type out words that the computer audibly dictates, correct misspellings in a passage, etc. I noticed that all the students were pretty self-motivated and engaged when working on the computer. The reading station is pretty self-explanatory; students read silently and choose their texts from a classroom library that is organized by skill level. The table station varied a little bit between the grade levels but essentially consisted of a reading passage that the students would read aloud in a circle (one paragraph per student) focusing on specified keywords. I talked with Emily about the program, as she was already familiar with it, and she felt pretty strongly against it. Her main reason is the same one that I found immediately apparent today: lack of real interaction between students or between teacher and student. I’m still curious about how effective the program is otherwise in boosting reading levels, developing vocabulary, improving spelling skills, etc.
Emily, Robin, and I talked a lot about the atmosphere in the classrooms that we observed: how the students acted (toward each other, toward the teacher, and toward us), how the teachers received us, how classroom management was handled, etc. We seem to have noticed a pattern that should maybe be attributed to cultural differences and not our individual teachers. It seemed like classroom management was not a huge problem but, at least the impression I got, was that it was due to the students non-tendency to take advantage of their teachers rather than the teachers’ strict enforcement of rules. My teacher seemed to use eye-contact in the way that we use proximity. She didn’t need to move closer to the students, verbally acknowledge their behavior, or even glare at them. Rather, a few glances in their direction, as a way of saying “yes, I see what you are doing,” seemed sufficient and effective.
I was only really introduced and involved in the classroom during one period. Accordingly, those students were really friends and said hello to me. During the other classes, I felt really invisible. I thought it was odd that, though I got a few curious glances when the students first walked in, they completely forgot I was there afterwards. Granted, they didn’t know who I was or why I was there. But other in other instances of observing classrooms (and in my own memories from high school), unexplained guests usually get quick glances from students throughout the period.
I’m hoping to be more involved tomorrow. We haven’t decided if we’ll be in the same classrooms all week or rotate to see a larger variety of things. Either way, I think I’ll spend at least one more day in the classroom that I was in today. I reiterated to the teacher that I’d love to be involved but also don’t want to be burdensome to her in any way (I do NOT want to come off as pushy in her classroom) and, though she was hesitant, she mentioned some one-on-one or small-group tutoring possibilities. We will see.
I have lots more to say but am exhausted and will leave more for tomorrow’s post. I am REALLY looking forward to the basketball game tomorrow. I hear they have fry bread there, which I have yet to try and really is an essential Navajo experience. Can’t wait.
I’m also hoping for some productivity tonight, since I spent a lazy evening last night watching Wall-E and looking at Adam’s wonderful photography of our trip thus far.
Miss you, Illinois world. Not too much though.
Emily, Robin, and I talked a lot about the atmosphere in the classrooms that we observed: how the students acted (toward each other, toward the teacher, and toward us), how the teachers received us, how classroom management was handled, etc. We seem to have noticed a pattern that should maybe be attributed to cultural differences and not our individual teachers. It seemed like classroom management was not a huge problem but, at least the impression I got, was that it was due to the students non-tendency to take advantage of their teachers rather than the teachers’ strict enforcement of rules. My teacher seemed to use eye-contact in the way that we use proximity. She didn’t need to move closer to the students, verbally acknowledge their behavior, or even glare at them. Rather, a few glances in their direction, as a way of saying “yes, I see what you are doing,” seemed sufficient and effective.
I was only really introduced and involved in the classroom during one period. Accordingly, those students were really friends and said hello to me. During the other classes, I felt really invisible. I thought it was odd that, though I got a few curious glances when the students first walked in, they completely forgot I was there afterwards. Granted, they didn’t know who I was or why I was there. But other in other instances of observing classrooms (and in my own memories from high school), unexplained guests usually get quick glances from students throughout the period.
I’m hoping to be more involved tomorrow. We haven’t decided if we’ll be in the same classrooms all week or rotate to see a larger variety of things. Either way, I think I’ll spend at least one more day in the classroom that I was in today. I reiterated to the teacher that I’d love to be involved but also don’t want to be burdensome to her in any way (I do NOT want to come off as pushy in her classroom) and, though she was hesitant, she mentioned some one-on-one or small-group tutoring possibilities. We will see.
I have lots more to say but am exhausted and will leave more for tomorrow’s post. I am REALLY looking forward to the basketball game tomorrow. I hear they have fry bread there, which I have yet to try and really is an essential Navajo experience. Can’t wait.
I’m also hoping for some productivity tonight, since I spent a lazy evening last night watching Wall-E and looking at Adam’s wonderful photography of our trip thus far.
Miss you, Illinois world. Not too much though.
Culture Shock?
What. a. day.
But what an exciting day.
We arrived in Rock Point last night and started work at the school bright and early this morning. Rock Point Community School is...a lot like many of the schools I've worked in? Well, in some ways, anyway. Let me explain.
When I walked into the junior high English classroom, students were catching up after two weeks away from school. I heard conversations about New Year's resolutions and football games, and everyone spoke English. The class was split into pretty distinct social cliques, like pretty much any other middle school class I've seen. On the walls, there were posters with the parts of speech and types of punctuation, and there was a diagram on the board of the five elements of plot structure. Pretty typical. However, once the day began there were some small, but very distinct, characteristics of the Navajo school that made it different from anything I'd seen before.
First hour was a class meeting where the eighth graders briefly discussed fundraising plans to take a class trip at the end of the year. Each class is assigned two basketball games to run the concession stand, but rather than buying concessions in bulk and keeping the proceeds, each family donates items like hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, candy, and - get this - ingredients for fry bread (flour, shortening, and oil). I'm excited to seek out fry bread at the basketball games this week. :) The class advisor talked to the class about their eighth grade promotion (graduation?), and reminded the students that they needed to finish their traditional outfits soon. How cool is it that every student, boy and girl, is required to make their own traditional garments?? SO COOL.
The rest of the day was filled with administering practice tests to prepare for AIMS (the Arizona standardized test) and to give the teacher a better idea of what she needs to work on before testing in late March. Soooo I didn't get to see a lot of instruction, but I did get to observe some student behavior. In the morning, the kids weren't too talkative, and they intently worked on their tests. My soft-spoken teacher didn't give them very much direction, but they didn't take advantage of her, either. Behavior was managed very nonchalantly in this classroom, which is definitely not what I'm used to. We've noticed that all of our teachers have similar management styles, so maybe it's a cultural difference. We'll have to ask Mark.
I was really fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with my teacher during one of her free periods, and I learned a lot about the school and about bilingual education, which is what I'm hoping to discover more about this week. All the teachers in the junior high and high school are referred to by their first names, which I noticed right away. She brought it up, assuming that I had, and when I asked why, she laughed and said she wasn't sure. She's also taught at the elementary level, where she was referred to formally by her last name, and she was the Navajo teacher at the high school, where she was greeted by her clan name. She was caught off-guard when she started at her current position, but she said that she has bigger battles to fight, so she'd respond to whatever the kids call her. The school is very strictly inclusive, and all of my teacher's classes have several students with IEPs. Each teacher is reponsible for turning in lesson plans with accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities. My teacher noted that this is especially challenging in her older classes, which seem to be the farthest behind overall. Her seventh graders are on level, for the most part, but her ninth graders read at about a seventh grade level. So, not only is she making universal accommodations for an entire class, but on top of that, she has to make more modifications for specific students with additional difficulties.
I was really excited to talk to my teacher about Rock Point's bilingual program, and fortunately, since she was the Navajo teacher and has children in the elementary program, she was very knowledgable about it. I did a research paper last semester about English-only policies in public schools (which I'm very against). I found that California and Arizona (where Rock Point is!!) both have state-wide English-only policies which give students one year in an ESL program before they are immersed in the general classroom, regardless of their ability to speak or comprehend English. Foreign languages are strictly prohibited within the school's walls (outside of ESL and foreign language classrooms) in the entire state. I looked at the state learning standards to back up these laws, and while California does have specific standards for English language arts, Arizona's standards talk only about language in a very non-specific manner. How hypocritical for them to have an English-only policy then, right?? My teacher shared that her brother used to teach in a neighboring community, Window Rock, which always does very well on standardized tests, unlike many of the reservation schools. However, the Arizona state board is irritated because the school uses only Navajo in instruction, but their argument is that the standards don't specify that instruction must be in English, so they follow the standards in Navajo. It was a perfect example of what I'd argued in my paper!! Yay!!!
I think that's about all I have to say. I'm so excited to see what my teacher does tomorrow, when she's teaching, not testing.
But what an exciting day.
We arrived in Rock Point last night and started work at the school bright and early this morning. Rock Point Community School is...a lot like many of the schools I've worked in? Well, in some ways, anyway. Let me explain.
When I walked into the junior high English classroom, students were catching up after two weeks away from school. I heard conversations about New Year's resolutions and football games, and everyone spoke English. The class was split into pretty distinct social cliques, like pretty much any other middle school class I've seen. On the walls, there were posters with the parts of speech and types of punctuation, and there was a diagram on the board of the five elements of plot structure. Pretty typical. However, once the day began there were some small, but very distinct, characteristics of the Navajo school that made it different from anything I'd seen before.
First hour was a class meeting where the eighth graders briefly discussed fundraising plans to take a class trip at the end of the year. Each class is assigned two basketball games to run the concession stand, but rather than buying concessions in bulk and keeping the proceeds, each family donates items like hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, candy, and - get this - ingredients for fry bread (flour, shortening, and oil). I'm excited to seek out fry bread at the basketball games this week. :) The class advisor talked to the class about their eighth grade promotion (graduation?), and reminded the students that they needed to finish their traditional outfits soon. How cool is it that every student, boy and girl, is required to make their own traditional garments?? SO COOL.
The rest of the day was filled with administering practice tests to prepare for AIMS (the Arizona standardized test) and to give the teacher a better idea of what she needs to work on before testing in late March. Soooo I didn't get to see a lot of instruction, but I did get to observe some student behavior. In the morning, the kids weren't too talkative, and they intently worked on their tests. My soft-spoken teacher didn't give them very much direction, but they didn't take advantage of her, either. Behavior was managed very nonchalantly in this classroom, which is definitely not what I'm used to. We've noticed that all of our teachers have similar management styles, so maybe it's a cultural difference. We'll have to ask Mark.
I was really fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with my teacher during one of her free periods, and I learned a lot about the school and about bilingual education, which is what I'm hoping to discover more about this week. All the teachers in the junior high and high school are referred to by their first names, which I noticed right away. She brought it up, assuming that I had, and when I asked why, she laughed and said she wasn't sure. She's also taught at the elementary level, where she was referred to formally by her last name, and she was the Navajo teacher at the high school, where she was greeted by her clan name. She was caught off-guard when she started at her current position, but she said that she has bigger battles to fight, so she'd respond to whatever the kids call her. The school is very strictly inclusive, and all of my teacher's classes have several students with IEPs. Each teacher is reponsible for turning in lesson plans with accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities. My teacher noted that this is especially challenging in her older classes, which seem to be the farthest behind overall. Her seventh graders are on level, for the most part, but her ninth graders read at about a seventh grade level. So, not only is she making universal accommodations for an entire class, but on top of that, she has to make more modifications for specific students with additional difficulties.
I was really excited to talk to my teacher about Rock Point's bilingual program, and fortunately, since she was the Navajo teacher and has children in the elementary program, she was very knowledgable about it. I did a research paper last semester about English-only policies in public schools (which I'm very against). I found that California and Arizona (where Rock Point is!!) both have state-wide English-only policies which give students one year in an ESL program before they are immersed in the general classroom, regardless of their ability to speak or comprehend English. Foreign languages are strictly prohibited within the school's walls (outside of ESL and foreign language classrooms) in the entire state. I looked at the state learning standards to back up these laws, and while California does have specific standards for English language arts, Arizona's standards talk only about language in a very non-specific manner. How hypocritical for them to have an English-only policy then, right?? My teacher shared that her brother used to teach in a neighboring community, Window Rock, which always does very well on standardized tests, unlike many of the reservation schools. However, the Arizona state board is irritated because the school uses only Navajo in instruction, but their argument is that the standards don't specify that instruction must be in English, so they follow the standards in Navajo. It was a perfect example of what I'd argued in my paper!! Yay!!!
I think that's about all I have to say. I'm so excited to see what my teacher does tomorrow, when she's teaching, not testing.
Day 1: Navajo culture gives new meaning to school community
Few things can be said about the first day back from a two-week winter break, but I do have some good first impressions of Rock Point School.
I spent much of my morning in Navajo literacy / social studies classrooms taught by a Rock Point graduate. He told me about his education here and how some of the more culture- or hands-on-based courses disappeared after he left. He now teaches in the same hallway where he took classes on silversmithing and saddle upkeep, but where basket weaving and pow-wow dancing were offered courses. These days, such courses seem to have been replaced by classes focused more on literacy and cultural history, or technology-based courses. However, the school has been encouraging these 'traditional' cultural skills or activities as after-school enrichment.
A Christmas performance on the day before the break really impressed the community, according to the teacher who sponsored the Navajo Culture Club's show. He said that some students' behavior and attitudes toward school have been turned around since their involvement in the after-school group; the access to the traditional culture must give kids a greater sense of purpose or belonging in the school community. Other teachers I asked about the performance commented similarly, saying that most of those students fell into the thought that the could not do much.
Perhaps the first major lesson that I can take away from today is that a teacher here cannot expect much consistency in their students' exposure to Navajo language, cultural knowledge or traditions anymore. So many students are being influenced from off the reservation (through television, video games or DVDs). The language abilities of students in the junior high levels (7th & 8th) do not set any solid expectations for what students will know walking into a class that is supposed to be conducted in Navajo and supposed to give them a sense of Navajo 'identity', so to speak. Many students have transfered in and out of schools on the reservation (most of the time with family moves). Others have been exposed to 'white' schools off of the reservation and have returned to the reservation schools with no Navajo linguistic knowledge. There is certainly more mobility here than I expected: families do not stay planted in their communities or even on the reservation, for that matter.
To reach the kids, the teacher has developed assignments for students to trace and learn about their clan statuses. Navajo trace themselves back to four original clans that identify themselves with a color, an animal 'protector' and a set of personality characteristics that go along with the interpretation of the animal's characteristics. Most of the kids, when asked to introduce themselves in class today had little or no knowledge of their family origins or clan status. When speaking of last semester, the teacher told me that once he gave the kids access to a knowledge of their ancestry, some of the the kids took on new identities, displaying new sparks of enthusiasm. Parents, grandparents and other family members became very involved in family tree projects or clan research. So, again, (as we have been learning throughout our pre-service careers) access to students' culture drives student motivation and participation.
I spent much of my morning in Navajo literacy / social studies classrooms taught by a Rock Point graduate. He told me about his education here and how some of the more culture- or hands-on-based courses disappeared after he left. He now teaches in the same hallway where he took classes on silversmithing and saddle upkeep, but where basket weaving and pow-wow dancing were offered courses. These days, such courses seem to have been replaced by classes focused more on literacy and cultural history, or technology-based courses. However, the school has been encouraging these 'traditional' cultural skills or activities as after-school enrichment.
A Christmas performance on the day before the break really impressed the community, according to the teacher who sponsored the Navajo Culture Club's show. He said that some students' behavior and attitudes toward school have been turned around since their involvement in the after-school group; the access to the traditional culture must give kids a greater sense of purpose or belonging in the school community. Other teachers I asked about the performance commented similarly, saying that most of those students fell into the thought that the could not do much.
Perhaps the first major lesson that I can take away from today is that a teacher here cannot expect much consistency in their students' exposure to Navajo language, cultural knowledge or traditions anymore. So many students are being influenced from off the reservation (through television, video games or DVDs). The language abilities of students in the junior high levels (7th & 8th) do not set any solid expectations for what students will know walking into a class that is supposed to be conducted in Navajo and supposed to give them a sense of Navajo 'identity', so to speak. Many students have transfered in and out of schools on the reservation (most of the time with family moves). Others have been exposed to 'white' schools off of the reservation and have returned to the reservation schools with no Navajo linguistic knowledge. There is certainly more mobility here than I expected: families do not stay planted in their communities or even on the reservation, for that matter.
To reach the kids, the teacher has developed assignments for students to trace and learn about their clan statuses. Navajo trace themselves back to four original clans that identify themselves with a color, an animal 'protector' and a set of personality characteristics that go along with the interpretation of the animal's characteristics. Most of the kids, when asked to introduce themselves in class today had little or no knowledge of their family origins or clan status. When speaking of last semester, the teacher told me that once he gave the kids access to a knowledge of their ancestry, some of the the kids took on new identities, displaying new sparks of enthusiasm. Parents, grandparents and other family members became very involved in family tree projects or clan research. So, again, (as we have been learning throughout our pre-service careers) access to students' culture drives student motivation and participation.
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