Finally updating with more than just a picture.

This will be a long one.. so watch out. this is a school related one, spring break blog is coming.



Disclaimer: Some things are repeated from the last post because i wasn't sure if i had said them or not

A few weeks ago, we had "Family Fun Night" During Family Fun Night, I feel as though the teachers I work with are finally seeing me as a peer. The other second grade teachers took my opinions and insight and we really collaborated. They gave me actual lessons to teach to the parents. This is important because as a student teacher, parents do not always understand my role in the classroom. I was able to share some of my teaching methods. It was so important because I feel as I am no longer simply seen as a helper in the classroom, but an actual teacher.


During tutoring last week, I was helping some of my student practice counting money. One of them in particular had a break down during class because she was so frustrated and was struggling. So, I brought some fake money to tutoring in the dorm. I told my students they only had to do a few problems. As soon as I saw they were starting to get it, they were free to go. I really did not want to force them too much. The student who was struggling the most was there the longest because she “wants to get a 100%.” This made me feel good because she really wanted my help.

One Saturday one of the women who worked at the dorm invited us to go with her to her niece’s first birthday party. This was a great experience to have the opportunity to meet other people. We were able to see the grandfather give a prayer before we ate. We also helped put shiskabobs together for the meal. While there, we also had the opportunity to meet most of her family. After the Grandfather said the Prayer, before we ate, we all drank from the same glass of water this was particularly interesting to me because in the Jewish religion we do the same thing with a glass of wine. I was able to see a part of the religious aspect of Navajo culture. I also had a conversation about religion with another staff member and after talking to the residential director, I learned that the Navajo Religion and the Jewish religion are very similar.

Going horseback riding was a definite highlight even though I was so sore afterward. It had been many years since I had gone horseback riding, but it was a great way to talk to others and just relax while doing something almost new. I also got to enjoy an open landscape down in a canyon, which was amazing to see. During this time, I learned about how to groom a horse, which is just fun to know, and how horses are great at reading people. Personally, I really got to see how much I can enjoy something that I haven’t done in years; it is something that I might want to do even when I am back as a way to relax. Additionally, I really liked seeing the openness and the beauty the world had to offer of an almost untouched landscape. This is something that I might only be able to see here.

About few weeks or so before this, I went finishing with a family that works at the school. It was a great way to socialize with adults outside the school setting. I had some very nice conversations with one of the women about our families. This also opened the doors for other activities. Going on this outing setup the leaping pad I needed to help myself feel involved with people in Shonto. As I started to get the mid-semester blues, this pulled me out of my funk and helped me feel like I was doing something. It got me to really stop feeling sorry for myself. It was my first time fishing, and I caught a fish, one of the high school teachers cooked it for me, and it was amazing. (it was trot)


Before I left the classroom last week, I started my students on writing letters, they now have pen-pals in the 6th grade. I think this is a great way for them to learn on both a social and academic level. I just hope that my host teacher will keep up with this as I am now working with the reading Coaches, on a reading program I am not too found of. Leaving the classroom is a disappointment to me. As frustrated as I sometimes get, I really am going to miss the students and working with them. As I move into my reading placement, I feel like I might spend more time working with assessments and staff development. I will really miss working with the students and seeing the gains they make. I do not feel like I will get to see the classroom aspect because I will be so focused on assessments, especially as AIMS testing approaches; the school is extremely worried about that right now, so it is where most of the attention in being placed.
The AIMs( Arizona's Standardized test.. same thing as ISTEP or the Proficiency test) testing is a major issue in the school right now. There are a bunch of students in mandatory tutoring from 330-520 after school, which is such a long day or those kids. We have also received emails from the administration telling us to teach to the test. Meaning the teachers need to take time out of their normal instruction and teach the students what is on the test, and that's how they will spend the day. this is so important that the school passes the test (and makes AYP) because of school politics(which i will not get into on here). The test is in two weeks, so for the next week or so everything at the school be about this standardized test the third through 8th graders are taking. i can say much more but i don't want to get onto my soap box.


This is just fun....
Desert sand blowing in the wind

Desert sand blowing in the wind
Blowing in my mouth, hair and eyes.
It never seems to go away
For which I do despise.

Desert sand blowing in the wind
A peaceful calm as I hear your voice sing
over the playground and through the leaves
until I see the destruction you can bring.

Desert sand blowing in the wind
Sweeping up the floors is an endless chore
You always seem to come back no matter what I try
Whenever I turn my head, it seems you are even more.

Desert sand blowing in the wind
With your quiet beauty it seems to me,
That I can never complain of your color,
Your feel, but I think we will still disagree.

Desert sand blowing in the wind
It seems it seems I will never love you
Until you stop blowing in my eyes, hair and mouth.
For this is painful, you know it’s true.

Desert sand blowing in the wind
We will learn to tolerate
For being covered with sand from head toe.
Has become our unknowing fate.



Nikki- I replied to your questions in a comment on the post.

this was taken just outside my dorm..

Also... Over Valentines day weekend. I met up with the other female students and we went to Vegas. This was a great treat and was a nice way just to get out of everything here. It was a bit of a shock going from the nothingness here, to everything there. But it was nice to take a break from being Miss Bergsman for a weekend and really just enjoy myself.

First of all my adviser from IU came out to visit all of the student teacher. He told me that I am doing very well with the teacher aspect of my experience I just need to get more involved in the culture and the community. And this past week I have done that, The Personal secretary and her husband (the Dean of students) took us fishing. and i actually caught a fish! one of the High school teachers went with us, he made the trot for us. it was amazing, i have really missed fish around here and it was soon good.

Our Adviser took us to Dine College where we had the chance just to talk to our peers and learn from each others experiences. we also went had the chance to talk to the president of the college. we found us as we were getting lunch we kind of stuck out (who would have thought). After that we went camping in Canyon De Chelly, this was so much fun, we just relaxed talked and hung out the way normal college students would. I feel like we all broke away from being who we are and are stuck in Teacher mode so often. the only real downfall was how cold it was, we froze most of the night. but it was nice b/c us girls packed into one tent body warmth was needed. even our instructor who had a single tent decided it was too cold so he jumped in the tent with the boys. Also that night night we had a Rez dog and cat join us. well steal our food, the cat literally stole a hot dog out of the package to eat it. even though we froze it was still a great time and yet another way to get to know the people I am out here with.

We also went with some of the dorm students to see Sherman Alexi (who is a Native American author), talk at NAU. this was really funny, he talked about his life on the Rez, it was great to be back on a college campus and here college humor when I had to make everything PG living in the dorm and always being with students. Also the dorm counselor invited us to go to her mother to help her out. This can help us complete some of the project requirement that i need to do out here.

Lastly, the middle school S.S teacher is beginning to teach us to make fry bread. This is a traditional staple for Native Americans, it is so bad for you but it taste so good.

I am also heading into my last two weeks in the classroom before I start my reading practicum. I am really going to be sad to leave my class, it will be interesting to see how the reading program works from the other side considering how it goes against everything that i have learned.


for those of you who want to know a little more about the curriculum here is an essay that i wrote for my class back at IU.

The curriculum for the Shonto Preparatory School reading program is extremely standardized, which is failing to fit the needs of all the students. It is second for the second year for the Reading Mastery, which is a scripted reading program that the students often repeat after. The teacher it is very mechanical in the way they interact with the students. In general, this bores the higher achievers while the lower students have no idea what is going on. In addition to not satisfying the learning need for most students, many of the stories are not culturally relevant to the students. They read some stories about a tugboat and speedboats which some of the students might not have prior knowledge of to be able to connect to the story. There is very little cultural focus. I feel that so much more can be done, especially because these students have a culture rich with stories. If the students had the opportunity to read these stories in an educational setting, they could possibly be more emotionally involved and connect to the story better to comprehend it more. Furthermore, connected to their reading program is DIBBLES. The DIBBLES assess reading speed and very little comprehension. It serves as a benchmark to see where students fall and the amount of help they need. Yet it does not truly say what kind of help they need. The formative assessment does nothing but label the students and take away from the other languages they might know. Students are simply assessed on how fast they read without truly knowing the content of the text. In other subjects, there is no immersion in Bilingual education. According to the Navajo Nation standards, students learn better if they learn their second language as well. Yet schools do not use immersion practices to raise student achievement. In the other subject areas teachers have more free range to fit the needs of their students. That was they can bring in culture as they see fit and make things relevant to their daily lives, which makes students understand it more. The reading program is the only subject that is very strict on how it is implemented. I feel that the students’ needs should guide the curriculum rather than the standards. I understand the importance of standards, but they should serve as a guide rather than the whole lesson. There is such a strong focus toward reading, but the reading program only reaches the middle of the spectrum of children. To reach all children, students should be divided by their needs so we as teachers could work with those students who may need individual help. I just feel the reading program takes away from the individual.

Sorry everyone who has been reading this, I have just been super busy and haven't had the tune (or energy to make a new post. So to update everyone this might be a super long entry.

Well, first things first I have taken over most if not all of the instructional responsibility. so that is a new thing added to my plate. However I am still unable to use methods that I know might help the students. The reading program is so scripted the students are robots just repeating words and telling simple responses. Only a few of the students seem to really understand what is going on; the others just mouth along. The administrators say teachers should differentiation however, it is impossible because all the students are doing the same thing. It is a disappointment because I feel as though I am the teacher and have control over everything but this one thing.

There was a slight discipline problem in my classroom, I decided that I needed to do something to stop this problem. At then end of one day I asked all the children to write down what they thought was the most important rule that everyone needed to follow. I then typed out all the rules they told me and we talked about them. I told them these are the rules that they created. From there I asked them what they thought the consequence should be, they came up with very good consequences such as sitting alone, writing a note home, then talking to administrators. This is significant because I feel that it gives my students ownership over their rules and it also helps my students see someone who is there to help them, help themselves. It also should me as a facilitator not a dictator in the classroom. And it seems to be working really well, the students seem to be okay with writing a note home and telling their parents what they are not doing right.


With Tutoring from 6-9 things get frustrating, especially when we are with the boys. The boys react to us than the girls; we switch off tutoring the boys and the girls depending on the night. When we are helping the girls, they are all ready for us to help them. They come to us for help before we have the opportunity to ask them. It is great that they are seeking the help they know they need. However, with the boys we have to pull them away from whatever they are doing - watching TV, playing violent games on the computer - and force them to do their work. Some of the Dorm staff had to call over to the girls’ dorm because the boys lied and said they had no homework. It disappoints me because it makes my job, which is to help them, more difficult, and I feel like I am being a horrible person by trying them to get their work done.

Song and Dance- There was a Song and Dance fundraiser at the school. The idea of the song and dance originated from a ceremony that would go on until a bonfire would go out. At these ceremonies, people would dance in a circle around bonfire; the same way they danced around the table. It was very weird because the person that were announcing picked us out and asked us whom we were. The announcer also started to explain things in English for us; I guess we kind of stuck out. Overall, this was very interesting to see, although at first we were not sure what was going on. I really enjoyed seeing the traditional dresses along with hearing the Navajo singers, even though I did not understand what they were singing about. It sounded really awesome.


One of the highlights of past two weeks is when my class tried to give me a clan my first clan is salt. My cooperating teacher is the one who indicated it, but I told them that I wanted them to create clans for me then teach me how to say it. The Clan system is very important to Navajo relate to one another, everyone has four clans, your moms clan (your first clan) your second clan (your dads) and then your Maternal grandparents and your paternal grandparents. (i think that's write).

The Dorm students attended a Storytelling, as part of their culture night. We heard an elder, Jesse Daisy tell a story of the coyote and winter tradtions. Before he spoke, Dr. Yazzie explained about oral tradtions and word of mouth. He described the coyote as someone who teaches you and will help give balance in life and something that will try to trick you. I was unable to understand the speaker
however, he used his hands a little to give emphases to things he was saying.

Some people, will try to say anything to get something from people they see as an outsider. I was at Bashas (A grocery store), and someone asked me about my sweatshirt, it was the Cultural immersion sweatshirt, so I did not think much about it. However, he then said he was going to Gallup and needed a ride, he also asked for some money. I told him I could not help him and walked away.

Just to let you all know i made it so anyone can comment now!