Day 1

As we were driving into Shonto and through the western portion of the United States, I realized how beautiful the untouched landscape is. I saw many new things for the first time; I was saw tumbleweed, cacti, wild horses and sheep in a forest. Something that I found to be interesting was the “cow crossing” and “horse” crossing signs; I typically see deer crossing signs not the other wild life. additionally the landscape it self is completely different; growing up in the Midwest I am used to seeing lots of tall trees and green grass, and in the winder time tons of snow, (well at least in Cleveland). Here there is some snow (although apparently they never get this much). In addition, I am not used to mountains; you can see mountains form almost any direction. The people around here are also extremely friendly; as I was walking through the school I teachers would walk up to me and introduce themselves, asking if I was the IU teacher. This is different from other schools I have been to because for the most part they are used to having IU teachers working in their school district. Overall, during the first day on the Reservation I have felt a lot like home, every person that I have ran into has been both very accommodating and welcoming. However, because of the lack of any surrounding stores, I have not been to any yet so I could not compare them to the ones that I am more familiar with.

Adaptations:

Expected Adaptations:
Waking up early! I have always been one of the people who likes to sleep, I am having to adapt to waking up earlier and going to bed later, because of the amount of activities and work I have to do.

Using basal readers fully within the curriculum, I knew that the school world be using basal readers, from what I saw on my first almost all of the activities have been out of the basal series. I am not that familiar with using them fully. I have only used them as supplemental activities.

Being more proactive: throughout my first day, I had to be more proactive, some people did not know that we were coming, so I had to be proactive about what I was needed and what I wanted to do. For example, the kitchen staff did not know that we were coming. So we jumped in the first night and helped out in the kitchen.

Baths rather than showers- Another, simple adaptations I have had to make was not having an actual shower.


Unexpected:
Formal lessons: The lesson that were taught within the class were very formal. The students would all read aloud in a big group, and then popcorn read. This was something very new to me because the in typical American culture we value how the individual learns. There was very little differentiation with the instruction even though there were some students who were obviously struggling. In addition, there was not a time limit on when the students were done, it seemed as thought they had all day to complete assignments as long as they were turned in by the end of the day.

Not being able to jump into conversations-, I have been one of the people who will jump into conversations to be part of the group. However, I cannot do that here because of the fact that I might not know what they are talking about because it could be something cultural.

Not necessarily being called by name: While working in the classroom, I noticed that the students would call me and my cooperating teacher “Teacher” rather than out given names. I think this is a cultural norm, after talking to Alanna.

There is little coddling to students: Another thing I noticed in the teaching methods they are more blunt to the students, there are some students who are obviously struggling and they are not protected at all, it was a lot of “you need to get better.” this was a major shock to me.


Felt accepted: Within the classroom setting I felt as though I was excepted as a teacher, when my cooperating teacher let me teach a full group lesson while she completed assessments that she did not get done during break. The children seemed attentive to the lesson at hand, although they were still distracted because it was their first science lesson, and they had gotten new books. Another way I felt included in the school was while I walking around the school, I had many teachers introduce themselves to me some of them even stopped me in the hallway. I really felt as though I was part of the schools community, everyone I talked to was extremely excited to see us there, at the same time many of them joked asking us way we came out there. These were the other teachers in the school and some of the administrators. In addition, while helping serving dinner, it seemed that I had a healthy raptor with the staff. One of the workers even said that he would pull us out of the elementary school to help them. While serving out food, we joked with the kitchen staff about making a mess and not always putting the food right on the tray. The woman next to me kept putting the potatoes where the cheese should have gone, it became a joke that I would not tell anyone. After working in the kitchen as we were cleaning a few students were still eating, these fourth graders asked us all sorts of questions about what we were doing, they asked where we were living when we told them that we were in their dorm they were excited. They asked us if we could come help them with their homework later (so we did). The children really seemed to like the one on one attention that were able to provide.


Felt like an outsider: It is hard to pinpoint a time when I did not feel excepted; it seems that most of the staff members are very happy to have us here. There are times when I just felt as though I didn’t know what to do, it was times like that when I did not feel completely excepted. However, once I made myself be a little more known I felt better about what I was doing out here. There was one time when I mentioned something as a heard part of a conversation, and it was a cultural thing, (about throwing the siblings in a cold bath when they bring home a new sibling). I did not feel excepted because I was not sure what they meant, but after it was explained to me I understood a little more. Other times, I have had teachers speak Navajo to one another, while I am standing there, this simply makes me feel like an outsider because I have no idea what is going on.



Other: Tim this part is for you…. Whenever we mention your name everyone is so excited, they all remember you. I told some of the teachers that you will be here in February and they want to see you.
On my first day of teaching I was put to work, I did a full group lesson in science. It was the classes first lesson in science for the year! This was surprising but I was up the challenge; it was one of those moments that made me feel like a real teacher. I also noticed that in the classroom, there is less individual instruction, I feel as though the students did a lot of worksheets, and activities right out of a basal reader. At times I feel like the teacher was reading a script.
I was also surprised by how many white teachers are at Shonto, I thought that more of the teachers would be Navajo.