Making Connections
A warm welcome back to a new school year! I hope each of you had an enjoyable summer break and are ready to engage the children in a nurturing and educationally rich 1environment, filled with wonderful classroom activities.
images It is hard to believe that several weeks have already gone by since we had the opportunity to share in celebration at the Fourth Annual - 4D Summer Institute. Many events were highlighted during this year and I would like to briefly reflect on a few.
- Student Activities - Ms. Katrina Coker and Dale Waseta, 4D Partners provided the children with a nurturing environment. Comments by students suggest that this is an ideal component of any major institute and/or educaitonal gathering. Students walked away from the SI with such skills as building and troubleshooting computers; video development and editing; interviewing or as one suggested Journalism skills.
- BigMountain Express - What a treat to have Buddy BigMountain join us for this year's celebration. The interest level of seeing all involved was powerful. Buddy's unique way of utilizing Native American storytelling within a curriculum context was at the heart of his presentation. Thanks to Mr. BigMountain and his wife Diane for their generous donation of a one of a kind marinette and for sharing some time with us. Buddy has asked that the project use 'Floyd Proud Bear' for fund raising efforts that will benefit the project and the children involved. Soon the world will be able to capture an image of 'Floyd Proud Bear' on the 4D website. Check the website for future postings.
- Dr. Eric Jolly's opening address to all of us hit right at home with the message of the importance of including a child's culture in daily activities by simply tapping into the expertise of community. The value of bridging home and school will lend itself to empowering children to reach for their dreams. We are reminded that it takes all of us to involve ourselves in a child's education to make that person a whole individual so they can visualize the world with the minds eye!
What a treat for our program to obtain the first round of copy's of Dr. Cajete's new book, 'Igniting the Spark (Brain, can't remember the rest of the book's title). The message in the book also conveys the idea of bringing to the center of classroom actvities the culture of the individuals we are instructing. With a little effort in being creative with the practices we use and the activities we provide to children, we are empowering native children to see the world in a very special way. This in turn impacts a positive view of living in two worlds.
Who can forget the evening with Vicent Craig. Humor is so important to the process
A very important part of the success of the summer institute comes from behind the scenes. The coordination of the institute is a collaborative effort of the 4D main office staff and partners. The main partner involved in this effort is our host, the Haskell Indian Nations University. This involves many aspects of communicating and working with the staff and students at HINU. Our Four Directions Project office and partners would like to extend very special words of gratitude for all their hard efforts of working behind the scenes to make this the best institute ever. Your work is not overlooked and we greatly appreciate all you have brought to the project.
In continuing our efforts there is much to celebrate and to look forward to. As you read through the newsletter you will see many of those special efforts and upcoming activities. As you all are aware of, this is our last year of the project. We would like to make sure that we provide our generous grantees with the commitments we promised. It will take all of us to work towards this effort of highlighting the progress of the project and it's impact on the education of Native Children. We would like to remind all of you to keep an eye out for upcoming information and request from the main office in regards to this effort. I would like to close with a few words expressed to me by our Superintendent here at the Laguna Department of Education, Mr. Gilbert Sanchez: 'In everything you do with the project always take some time to reflect on whether or not these activities will benefit the children....if it is a direct benefit to the children, then you know that you are on the right road'. I hope all of you are inspired with these words and take time to reflect on all that you do for our children!
I wish each of you a wonderful school year and hope to see you soon. :)
Drusishats
Shelly Valdez
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