Our sixteen-day journey to the Navajo Lutheran Mission School (NMLS) has ended, at least for now. Six Knox College students—Ashley, Carly, Derek, Eileen, Michael, and Sarah—went with Diana and me to work with the NMLS teachers, students, and staff for two weeks. This partnership was highly appropriate because in many ways Knox teacher candidates are missionaries as well, missionaries for the liberal arts. As researchers such as Arthur Levine and Linda Darling-Hammond have noted, many teacher preparation programs are polarized in one of two camps. On the one hand, the normal schools stress endless methods courses, where teacher candidates are kept in a teacher preparation ghetto where they focus almost exclusively on pedagogy. On the other hand, programs such as Teach for America believe that young college graduates can be dumped into classrooms with nothing more than a BA and a box of chalk and then be successful. At Knox, we take a different path. We believe that our teacher candidates should be advocates for children, experts in subject matter and instruction, and missionaries for the liberal arts. Much as we endeavor to do with them, we hope our teacher candidates will provide their students with the skills, information and ability to function independently that they will need to flourish in any endeavor. Diana and I are extremely proud of Ashley, Carly, Derek, Eileen, Michael, and Sarah because they not only understood this, but ably taught this to the teachers with whom we worked.
Our visit was more rewarding because of the warm welcome we received from the outstanding teachers at NMLS, Sharon, Lark, Jolene, Pauline, and Eileen, and by the principal, Felicita. Not only did they open their classrooms to us, but they showed us how to make Navajo fry bread and tortillas and shared several meals with us. This better than anything else demonstrated their deep understanding of how a learning community works, focusing as it must on the development of a learning environment where all are accepted, respected, and comfortable with each other. Dr. Lynn Hubbard and Deborah Hubbard, respectively the executive director and pastor of the Navajo Lutheran Mission, supply vision and leadership for NMLS was contagious. Since NMLS serves Navajo students exclusively, Lynn and Deborah have made it a priority to provide students with an education that respects their Navajo heritage and that will allow them to flourish in the world at large. As with most endeavors, the trip was successful because of the quality, work ethic, and enthusiasm of the individuals involved. All involved made the great progress we all made possible.
After putting on an intense and productive week-long workshop for professional education (while being immersed in Navajo culture and lifestyle), escaping to Canyon De Chelly for a weekend to hike in nature’s beauty with a variety of European foreigners, and a manual-labor-esque two days of moving, organizing and discarding teaching materials and furniture it was finally here: the first day of school.
I woke up at 6:45 am and got ready for the day. I walked over to the school just after seven. When I arrived there were tables but no chairs set up for the students to eat breakfast. Sarah, Eileen and I set up chairs as the first students arrived via their morning bus ride. It was nice to see the school in action. Just days ago we were sitting in child-sized chairs at dusty tables, giving presentations about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and such, with workers painting the walls around us, I-pods cranked up so that we heard “Notorious Thugs” from our seats across the room. To see this very same room beautifully painted, organized, and full of young children eating and eager to meet their new classroom teachers for the year just days later really made me feel good. It was a nice sight.
After breakfast, all of the teachers took their new students in single file lines to their classrooms. My current designation (“P.E. man”) had me walking from room to room, observing and assisting when needed in each of the classrooms. It was exciting to see the NLMS teachers in action. As if they had just flipped a switch, they were now in “teacher mode.” I was very impressed with their work. They were in their element; artists of pedagogy at their finest. I envy their classroom management skills, and my hope is that when I teach I can somehow emit the same passion and excitement that I witnessed from them today.
Moving from class to class helping different students and leading whole classes in physical education every hour or so afforded me many entertaining and comical experiences. There are times when children are so intelligent that they are finishing your sentences, and there are times when you have no idea what is going on in their little minds. One exchange of words that stuck with me after today occurred while I was helping out in the 1st grade class. Ms. Pettit had two different books about animals, and was inquiring about some of her students’ interests in animals. When she asked, “Do you guys like the animals on this book?” a student replied, looking about the room “I like these walls.” To me it was classic. To the child -- I’m sure he was thinking about something I wouldn’t have understood. Children’s minds are amazing. They think and learn and absorb so much. It’s a pleasure just to be able to observe them as they process information and think about ways to use it. Little kids are fun.
One student ties another's shoes at recess.
Five P.E. sessions, teaching a writing lesson to 3rd and 4th graders, and miscellaneous assistance in other classrooms led me to the end of my school day. I was helping out in the 5th and 6th grade classroom (after secretly chugging the left over coffee in the teachers lounge alone – yeah it was that kind of day, and no I’m not ashamed) when Ms. Holiday, the 5th and 6th grade teacher, realized she didn’t know when to have her students clean up and head for the buses. I walked across the lawn, ehh red sand and rocks, and to the front desk at the main building. I got back to the 5th and 6th grade classroom and it was time to send students home. All of our members of the Knox College Professional Education Development Team helped sort out the madness that was loading the buses. After we made sure that each bus had the little faces of the children listed on the bus list on the correct corresponding bus, I sent them on their way.
Mike, Eilene, Carly, Sarah and Ashley all rode on the bus with the students. I had already made a different and previous commitment to the football coach of the high school across the highway on the other end of town. I met him the day before, when Mike and I went for a jog across town to watch them practice. That day there were three of his players present for practice. Just three. We watched as he instructed them to do a variety of conditioning drills. I had some man-talk with the Navajo coach, you know, high school football, NFL, weightlifting programs… Somewhere along the line he stated that he’s the only coach and doesn’t really have a lot of help out there. That was all I needed to hear. I jumped on the opportunity to attend the rest of the practices that I could make, (which was unfortunately just two, since we are leaving on Friday) agreeing to help him out, pass on some of my knowledge, talk some football and participate in drills and help motivate the players. Anyway, today I went to football practice instead of riding on the buses with everyone else. This time there were six players at practice, and three more showed up but couldn’t participate until they had their physicals. I ran drills and conditioned with the player for about an hour and a half, also chatting with the coach in between drills. Coach Alvin explained to me that the team averages 20 – 25 players, but some still need physicals and many are still working summer jobs to help support their families. They play 8-man football down here, which is foreign to me outside of the Arena League. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can from Coach Alvin about offensive and defensive schemes in 8-man. I had a lot of fun at practice. I had a great day overall. A fine start to the school year.
We live in an era when many who have never been teachers, such as Arne Duncan and Michael Bloomberg, have assumed positions of authority over educational policy. Certainly it is a great thing that education is an area of intense interest to so many. It is frustrating too, however, that those who lack professional experience so undervalue and disparage the knowledge of classroom practitioners. The two weeks here at the Navajo Lutheran Mission School (NLMS) have impressed upon me how much those who teach children every day know about learning, management, child development, and flexibility than do many of those who sit in judgment of them.
NLMS serves approximately 70 students enrolled in Kindergarten through the sixth grade. We are staying in single-level apartments adjacent to the school. On Monday night after dinner, we spotted a black chicken running around the grounds. We had not seen the black chicken before, and she did not seem at home here at the school. I wonder how Arne or Michael would deal with her? One of the aspects of teaching that many on the outside do not understand is the vast amount of time teachers have to spend dealing with situations that are totally out of their control but which negatively impact the learning environment and must be dealt with before learning can occur. The black chicken represents the unexpected, the unanticipated, and the unplanned for occurrence that occurs multiple times a day. Educational reformers need to beware of the black chicken, since she is not going away.
Being from the Midwest, I had never seen a real sandstorm until today. I had danced to Sandstorm plenty of times, but Friday’s sandstorm was a whole lot different. After spending the day working on science methods with the teachers, at 3:30 p.m. we left for Chinle, a small city about 45 miles south of the school. What to me looked like a thick brown fog reduced visibility substantially, and the mesas on the horizon which we were able to see so clearly the day before looked like dim red shadows in the distance as the swirling sand distorted them. At one point during the drive, the sand was so thick that our visibility was reduced to about 15 feet.
Canyon de Chelly (pronounced ‘duh shay’) was a sight to behold. Many people who have seen both the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly hold the view that Canyon de Chelly is just as aesthetically beautiful, if not more so, than the Grand Canyon. After hiking around the expansive canyon for several hours this weekend, I am not surprised. And what is even better about Canyon de Chelly is that the mainstream tourist crowd has not yet discovered it, leaving it much more pleasant than I imagine the Grand Canyon would have been on an August weekend such as this one. Interestingly, many (if not most) of the tourists staying at our hotel were from European countries.
Behold the beauty of Canyon De Chelly.
Derek, Eileen, Sarah and I had the good fortune to have an amazing Navajo hiking guide Sunday morning. Reavis, 20 years old, reveled us with stories of growing up in Canyon de Chelly, as well as stories of the history, culture, and geology of the land. He showed us hieroglyphs of the ancient people who had lived there thousands of years ago, as well as the ruins of the cliff-dwelling Anasazi indians. At one point during the hike someone asked him about the Navajo creation story, and he proceeded to give our group a 45-minute account of what the Navajos believe. A great storyteller, we were in awe he told us the story that his grandfathers had told him. I have always heard about native Americans and their connection with the land, now I can say that I have seen this philosophy first-hand.
Monday morning and afternoon was a busy time for us as we helped the teachers transform their classrooms from dirty, dusty rooms with clumps of furniture all over the place into something that discerned a classroom. We did everything from moving desks, tables and chairs from one room to another to scrapping the paint off of students’ desks to mopping. Ah yes, the glory work of being a teacher.
This evening, we hiked up a mesa called Rock Point. Rock Point is the highest point of altitude in Rock Point according to Patrick, a Navajo who was on the hike with us. From the front of the mesa it appears nearly impossible to reach Rock Point, since the front of it is basically a cliff on a 90 degree angle. However, our friends knew a back way, which, though it was not necessarily simple, was a way which we could climb the 250 foot peak without rocking climbing equipment. A stray dog and friend of ours, whom we have named “Trouble,” was even able to make the trip with us. Looking down at the world, everything seemed so small. The four mile run that I had done in the morning looked like it had covered hardly any land at all; cars appeared to be driving at a snail’s pace. Rock Point rocks.
Diana had asked me to present on differentiated instruction, so on Thursday I decided to introduce Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences as an introduction to this. Gardner suggests that traditional definitions of intelligence are limited insofar that they fail to recognize the multiplicity of talents and suggests extending those to include other more specific manifestations of intelligence such as verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic, visual/spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential. Verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences are those that are traditionally valued by schools, represented by strong reading, writing, analytical, numeracy, and reasoning skills. Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence refers to those who incorporate movement and hands-on experiences into learning, while visual/spatial learners are typically very good at mentally visualizing and manipulating objects. Learners who are musically intelligent display great sensitivity to rhythms, sounds, tones, music, and other auditory stimuli. Interpersonal and intrapersonal learners are those who exhibit high degrees of sensitivity to the moods, motivations, temperaments, and feelings of others or themselves. Naturalistic intelligence encompasses those with great sensitivity to nature and the ability to nurture and grow things, while existential learners display a high degree of skill in reflecting on philosophical questions about life, death, and ultimate realities.
Going over this was good review for our students, who will be student teaching in a matter of weeks. It also, I think, was beneficial for the Navajo teachers, some of whom were unfamiliar with multiple intelligences. Too often schools operate on a deficiency model, where teachers and administrators focus on what students cannot do and try to “fix” them. Gardner opens up a whole new way of looking at students and defining “achievement.” Rather than concentrating solely on what students cannot do, a multiple intelligences approach also explores those areas where students exhibit strength and interest. The Navajo Lutheran Mission School (NLMS), with its emphasis on nurturing ability and sustaining the whole child, is an ideal setting for such an approach. Rather than rewarding just those children who achieve in traditional areas (e.g., verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical), the theory of multiple intelligences asks teachers and students to identify individual areas of accomplishment and potential needs. Each student possesses all nine intelligences, although one or more is usually dominant. By appreciating his or her own learning profile, each student becomes more accepting of classmates who may struggle in certain areas. When developing a community of learners this is key, as students become more willing to assist others as they understand that they too have areas where they are not as strong. As usual, the Knox students were great in working through this rather theoretical material, and they and the NLMS teachers worked to develop lessons that would incorporate several of the intelligences. More attention was given to naturalistic and interpersonal intelligence than with groups I have worked with before, which was rewarding and exciting.
Knox professors and students with Navajo teachers on naturalistic intelligence.
Derek and I have been trying to learn at least a few words in Navajo while we are here. This has not been an easy task. There is a reason that during WWII Navajos were used as codetalkers, and all that they had to do was speak their native language. Linguistically speaking, many of the sounds have no English equivalents. Nevertheless Derek and I have learned a few key words:
ya’at’eeh – hello. bilagaana – white man. bilasaana – apple. The similarity between these two words might be due to the fact that the white man introduced apples to the Navajos. k’e – kinship. The ‘k’ here is what’s called a guttural sound…good luck pronouncing that one. l\ii- horse. I put a slash between the ‘l’ and the ‘i,’ but that is just because the true notation for this word does not exist in Microsoft word. Also a guttural sound which involves saying the ‘ii’ through your nose and moving your tongue in a way that I can only equate to a slurp.
Impressive that we have learned so quickly, I know. What is not impressive, however, is our pronunciation of the aforementioned words. We have already received numerous laughs from the Navajos, in particular when attempting the word ‘l/ii.’
Today, we had the other teachers and staff over for dinner, as Diana was making a surplus of chicken soup for us to eat. Pauline and Sharon showed Ashley and Eileen (two Knox students) how to make fry bread, a staple food of the Navajo culture. Its ingredients include only flour, baking powder, vegetable oil, and salt.
Sharon shows Sarah the finer points of making frybread.
I inquired to Felicita and Sharon as to the precise importance of fry bread in their culture. This led to an interesting discussion about gender roles in the Navajo Nation. Felicita had the following to say: “It is said that when a boy takes a girl home to his mother, she will judge her skill at making fry-bread. If she makes good fry bread, then she is useful and she should stay. If not, she should go.” Of course this led to an inevitable discussion of the flipside of the coin. Felicita had this to say about boys: “My Grandfather always told me to bring home a man who was strong and wise, and I think this is good advice. A man should be useful and not just sit around the whole day.” Sounds sensible enough to me.
Chatting it up with the teachers.
We continued chatting with the teachers for another half hour or so before they had to leave. We let our curiosity flow, asking them whatever questions came to our minds about Navajo culture. They informed us of many interesting things. For example, it is not bad luck if a black cat crosses your path but it is if a coyote crosses your path, especially if the coyote is traveling north. And you should never point at a rainbow, because that would be extremely bad luck, and would put a slash through the rainbow. I think I’ve done that quite a few times. Whoops. And you must never talk about tornados. Science classes have to get a special dispensation from an elder in order to talk about them in school. Looks like this is going to be a first-hand experience in culturally appropriate teaching. I just hope I don't accidentally reference whirlwinds in class...that could be bad.
One of the coolest things about being here in Navajo Nation is how accepting and tolerant the people here are. As soon as we arrived we were warmly welcomed, and shown our apartments which were already better furnished than we had been previously told and for which we were prepared. After we unpacked and settled in, Mike and I decided to take a walk to survey the exciting new territory. In just minutes a Grand Prix stopped and a Navajo couple (noticing we looked somewhat un-native to the area) asked if we were lost. We assured them that we were alright, and they offered their help if we needed anything. As we thanked them, they invited us to an “esquaria ceremony.” Of course we didn’t know what that even meant, so I abruptly asked what it was. We were told that it was, “you know, boom-boom-boom and dancing! A great time.” Mike and I were flattered, as well as surprised, that these gracious and accepting people were already inviting us to see and participate in their culture. We waved as they drove on, and although we headed back to the apartment and did not attend the ceremony, we were introduced to just how kind the Navajo people really are.
Teaching is always an adventure. There are certain constants that are the same wherever one teaches—learning standards, curriculum, and (most importantly) children. But the Navajo Lutheran Mission School really seeks to nurture a community of learners where all children are valued and where all members of that community, be they administrators, staff, or faculty, play a part in the children’s development. In establishing this sort of a school culture, Felicita and the other teachers have gotten the most fundamental aspect of schooling right. In order for students to learn, they must feel that school is a place where they are valued, safe, and loved. Once this atmosphere has been established, then we can move on to areas where we can determine where the students are academically and how we can best move them forward.
The schoolhouse that is home to NLMS's community of learners.
My initial reaction to the teachers and staff at the Navajo Lutheran Mission School has to do with issues of respect. I tremendously respect them as individuals who are hard working and who happily put in 12-hour days engaging in professional development activities while concurrently setting up their classrooms for the upcoming school year. I respect the loving, nurturing atmosphere that they have established for the children they serve and also for each other. I respect the single-minded devotion to making life better for the children they teach.
I also am very proud and appreciative of the Knox students who have come here with Diana and me to work—Ashley, Carly, Derek, Eileen, Michael, and Sarah. Each of them has prepared binders, lessons, handouts and other materials for the teachers here and presented four hours or more on the materials they worked on. This was all done very professionally and in an engaging and polished manner. What great students we have at Knox, and how proudly they understand the issue of the positive difference the Knox family can make when engaged with the community, whether in Galesburg or elsewhere.
Six Knox College Educational Studies students along with two professors awoke this morning for the first day of two weeks in Rock Point, Navajo Nation, located in the northeastern corner of Arizona. We are working for two weeks with teachers and staff at the Navajo Lutheran Mission School, a K-6 school that serves approximately 70 students. Derek and I slammed down a couple of bowls of toasted oats cereal and a banana each, and headed out of our flat (pictured below) to the schoolhouse, which is located approximately 40 feet from our door. For the first week we are here, we are putting on a summer workshop for the school’s Kindergarten through sixth grade teachers as well as two teacher aides and the bus drivers. Our goal is to provide the teachers with strategies, advice, and activities that will aid them throughout the school year.
We started off the day with some get-to-know-you activities for us and the Navajo schoolteachers. Very quickly I realized that the teachers we were going to be dealing with were part of an extremely tight-knit community who were focused on one goal: giving their children the best education possible in order to create future opportunities for the students and therefore the Navajo community in the future. Even the two bus drivers Yvette and Lenora were present, taking pride in the role that they were playing in helping the students.
The staff of the Navajo Lutheran Mission School that we met today was entirely female. Felicita, a tiny but sharp Navajo woman with two masters degrees, is the principal. Sharon, who has about two years of experience, teaches kindergarten. Lark, who teaches 1st grade, has a plethora of experience teaching at a variety of grade levels. She is the only belagana, or white woman, teaching at the school. Jolene, who teaches 2nd grade, has a year or two of experience teaching. Pauline teaches both 3rd and 4th grade, and as soon as I met her she was proud to tell me that 100% of her 3rd graders met AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) last year. The 5th and 6th grade teacher was not yet there today. We were told nonchalantly that she “would probably be here soon.” We initially wondered how a school could still be hiring on the first in-service day, but we would soon learn that the atmosphere here would be much more laid back than the suburban and small-town public school environments to which we have mainly been exposed.
I've decided to put the real world on hold for a couple of years and do something that some say is potentially more life-changing than making the cut for Jersey Shore Season 2: the Peace Corps. I'll be serving in Paraguay as an Early Elementary Education Adviser until May of 2012.
