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Native American

Education Program

Newsletter

Keep Teachers Teaching Event This year, NAEP staff participated in the 4th Annual Arizona Keep Teachers Teaching Bowling Tournament. This nonprofit, “specifically helps with teacher’s personal and Professional Development financial needs”. The day was filled with a chance to network with other educators, Armed Forces men and women, and sponsors.

We didn’t bring home the trophy but, we had fun.

Issue: 5 January/February 2018-2019

Mesa Public Schools

Contents: Pg 1 A message from the NAEP Program Specialist, Esther Nystrom Pg 2 Kerr Elementary Student Highlights Pg 3 Kerr Elementary Highlights & Adams Elementary Guest Speakers Pg 4 Adams Elementary Guest Speakers and Highlights & Webster Elementary Student Highlights Pg 5 Whitman Elementary Orchestra Students Pg 6 Whitman Elementary Twins Day & Whittier Elementary Family Valentine Pictures Pg 7 Whittier Elementary Families Pg 8 Carson Junior High Native American Club Pg 9 Big Brother Big Sisters & Dobson High School Mid-Year Grad and ASU Recharge pictures Pg 10 Dobson High School NAU Campus Visit pictures Pg 11 Dobson High School Fundraiser and String Games pictures Pg 12 Dobson High School String Games pictures Pg 13 Dobson High School Social Event Flyer & Whittier Elementary String Games Pg 14 Mtn View High School Student Highlight & Whitman Elementary STEM Pg 15 Red Mtn High School Christmas Adopt a Family pictures Pg 16 Red Mtn High School Culture Presenter pictures Pg 17 Red Mtn High School Native American Club Pg 18 Westwood High School Pow Wow Flyer Pg 19 January Family Culture Night Pg 20 Public Meeting Notice

Pg 21 Calendar of Events

NAEP Staff at Family Culture Night with Miss Indian World

Hello Families and Friends,

The Native American Education Program is working to meet the unique academic and cultural needs of our students. As we continue to fulfil our responsibilities, I would like your input on how to better serve our Native American student community by filling out our Parent/Guardian survey. I look forward to reviewing the feedback and presenting it at the Public Meeting on March 26th, 2019 at 6:00 pm in the Student Services Center, Grand Canyon room.

May blessings be sent your way,

Esther Nystrom NAEP Program Specialist

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Alex Torres

The Kerr Orchestra had a wonderful performance Tuesday night! They did a great job, Mrs Ragno inspired us with the work her students presented to us that evening. Way to go Kerr Coyotes you certainly put us in a Holiday mood, along with all the Young Ladies dressed up and hair curled, the Young Men in their suits. I had a Howling Great Time!!

Kerr had their Spelling Bee and Wow! The students had to stand in front of three judges and spell the word on TV so the whole school could watch. All were cool under that pressure and did a fantastic job! Then it came to last two Oh the suspense as they spelled the final word... Serenity did an amazing job and she is the runner up and still has to study in case. She is with her parents and a relative. Hooray! Kerr Coyotes are number 1!!

Genisys Sandoval, orchestra

Mariana Sloan plays with the 5th grade orchestra. A smart beautiful young lady.

Eric Lee, Kerr Christmas orchestra student

Serenity getting information about the spelling bee. She did an awesome job with her spelling, 2nd place and still has to practice words just in case. Awesome Job Serenity!

Serenity with her family who cheered for her with 2nd place trophy!! Serenity will back up the 1st place winner if she is unable to compete - she is practicing her spelling words, she is not done yet.

Kerr Elementary ---Bernadine Talahongva NAEP Instructional Assistant

Faith Renteria, orchestra student

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Reggie and Kiara another pair of smart and beautiful young ladies, playing in the 5th grade orchestra.

Kadence Lone, 4th grade orchestra

Just a note to the Kerr Coyotes Band they did an awesome job! Unfortunately, my camera did not capture the students playing, Sorry Jasmin I don't have your picture playing with the band for 6th grade or for the others. Thank you for your gift of music during the Holidays! Keep up the good work and Thank You Mr Garcia for an Awesome performance by your students. Go Kerr Coyotes!

Adams Elementary Gloria Dodge

NAEP Instructional Assistant

The young lady in the blue t-shirt is Tanya Yazzie. Mrs. Yazzie is an archeologist who works for the Gila River Indian community. She spoke on a lot of math. l x w =area. Great information for students to consider for future reference. The students are of all tribes. Those who have earned it get to eat lunch there as well. Great job, our students enjoyed the topic and discussions.

Adam's Elementary has guest speakers who come to room 44 to inspire our Native American students. For the month of February was U of A med

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Atreyu White and Zoey Brady celebrate their Perfect Attendance

for 2nd semester here at Adams Elementary. \ Good job!

Adams Elementary

This is 1st grader Raylene Dawes. Raylene enjoys school and reading. On this Valentine's day, she made a beautiful card for her mom. She even added a poem she likes. Great job Raylene and keep up the good work.

Webster Elementary

Blackhawk Dodge of the Navajo Tribe/Mexican. He attended Booker T. Washington and Dobson High School. He covered the subject of going to college. SAT and other important exams. He showed the students how to figure their GPA. He talked about Biology and being a chemist. He shared the story of Chief Manuelito of the Navajo Nation. He told the students, "If you remember only one thing from today, remember Chief Manuelito. This wise Chief knew in his heart that to survive in this modern world it’s going to take education. Not just college but trade schools, etc. He knew what was good for the people behind him". The students enjoyed hearing all about college life and medical school.

Gloria Dodge NAEP Instructional Assistant

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Whitman Elementary Mica Begody, NAEP

Instructional Assistant

My Daughter Miss Elayna Salyers is in Mr. Christian's 5th Grade class. She is so ambitious and has a way of making you smile whenever she is in your presence. Elayna really enjoys being outdoors, anything from picnics to hiking, camping, horseback riding and or just being out with the family for some fun in the sun at the lake. Music is definitely a passion of hers that has been so empowering and that has inspired her to play the Violin....very Beautifully I may add. She has such a wonderful personality and a heart of gold that never goes unnoticed. Not only I, but our whole family is very proud of this amazing child, No amount of words can express how proud I am to be her Mom and to see her thrive in Happiness.

submitted by: Proud Mom

Selina Kavoka

Gavin Seletstewa

Kylee Joe

Jordan French & Alayna French

Aubrey Slim

Ava Toddy

Monkell Klitso

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Whitman Elementary Mica Begody

NAEP Instructional Assistant

Twins Day at Whitman

1st photo: Jessica, Miley & Zoe

2nd photo: Evony & Kai-yah 3rd photo: Joleen & Joslynn 4th photo: Lia Norton & friend

Whittier Elementary Tiffany Berry

NAEP Instructional Assistant

Valentine Family Pictures

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Whittier Elementary Tiffany Berry

NAEP Instructional Assistant

Valentine Family Pictures

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With each passing month Carson's Junior High Native American Club is thriving with excitement and acceptance of one another while the larger part of the Carson's student body slowly becomes aware of the wide diversity of its pupils of the school and the rewards of becoming aware of one another.

Some the activities that were done for the Fall of 2018 were learning to how to use ones cell phone to enjoy holograms, watched Japanese anime and had discussions on the themes that related to Native Americans, made a traditional wind maker and talked about how the ancients used it to communicate with others at great distances, made a wooden craft basketball game for the holidays, celebrated Rock Your Moc Day by wearing turquoise ribbons and encouraged students in the classroom to ask those wearing it what it meant, and the club cleaned a vacant lot near the school of over growth and unwanted dumped items that have accumulated over the years.

Carson Junior High

What are Carson Native Clan Club members saying about the club:

"It's fun to be with people that you can trust and eat and laugh with."- B Wesley

"Wow! The club makes you feel like home. The activities are creative and they make you think."- I Chavez

"I loved helping clean up the empty lot, it made me feel good."- E Martin

“White decorating and putting stamps on the wind maker I made a huge connection to life, the pictures and symbols of the stamps that were available reminded me of many good memories that I had forgotten about. Now I can use those happy times when I’m feeling down.” – H.Saenz

"This is the best club Iv'e been in, its all ethnic people all having lots of fun"- J Smith

"It's a lot of fun, it teaches you a lot of stuff. The holograms was awesome!"- M Aamdhuuh

"If your shy, it’s a great club to bring out your talents, come to the place where all the action is at."- T Salazar

"It’s good to be Native American and share my thoughts with others in the group"- A Greyhart

What will 2019 Spring Semester bring to the students of the Native Clan Club at Carson?

Carson Native Club is run by Roger Lyman and Randy Jarvis.

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Dobson High School

Emerson Elementary & Westwood High School Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Program

--Bobbi Nez

On 11/6/18, recently crowned Miss Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) Audri Mitchell visited the Big Brothers Big Sisters after school site based mentoring program at Emerson Elementary. Audri shared about her new role as Miss CRIT and encouraged the continued pursuit of both formal education and cultural knowledge. Audri, also a former little sister in the BBBS mentoring program, shared about her own experiences in the program. Thank you Audri for visiting our program and being an excellent role model, especially for our youth!

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Dobson High School

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Dobson High School

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Dobson High School

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Whittier Elementary Tiffany Berry, NAEP Instructional Assistant

Guest speaker Mr. Johnson, NAEP Home School Liaison, came to our school to teach the 5th and 6th graders about string games and the story behind it.

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Mtn View High School

Rudy Pattea, junior at Mountain View High School, member of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, is the son of late Randall Pattea and Rosanna Garcia, competing as one of the nine decathletes on the Toro Academic Decathlon Team. The 2018-2019 Curriculum Theme is “The 1960s; A Transformational Decade.”

According the the website, the Academic Decathlon affords scholars similar public recognition and status that has traditionally been afforded outstanding athletes and has three main objectives:

1. to foster intellectual competitiveness;

2. to broaden academic horizons;

3. to promote the ability to communicate

effectively.

The Academic Decathlon is a ten-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students. Just like its ancient Greek counterpart, the Academic Decathlon consists of ten events; success doesn’t come from being the best in a single event, it comes from mastering ten varied skills and disciplines. Every Academic Decathlon competition, whether it’s a regional, state or national final follows the same format. Students compete in art, economics, essay, interview,

language & literature, mathematics, music, science, social science, and speech. And teams compete in Super Quiz, the public quiz-show-style culmination of each competition.

During the 2019 IV Regional Competition, held at Red Mountain High School, February 8th & 9th, Rudy received a first place medal in Arts, second place medal in Music and third place medals in Literature and Speech, as well as receiving a third place medal for highest scores in all ten events. The Toro team placed third overall in the regional competition and advance to the State Competition, March 8th & 9th at Hamilton High School.

Whitman Elementary

Whitman Elementary STEM night.

The students were excited to participate in Whitman's STEM Night. Scarlett Nystrom, Chief Science Officer, and Robotics team worked their robots at the FIRST LEGO League State Championship Tournament. They did a great job and we are proud of their success!

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Red Mountain High School

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Red Mountain High School

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Red Mountain High School

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Westwood High School

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Family Culture Night

2018-2019 Miss Indian World, Taylor Susan, was our guest presenter at January 15th Family Culture Night. Taylor Susan is citizen of both the White Mountain Apache Tribe and Walker River Paiute Nation. A graduate of the University of Arizona with her bachelor’s degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Law and Public Policy and obtained two minors in chemistry and theatre. While attending the University of Arizona, Taylor held the title of Miss Native American University of Arizona 2014-2015 and was a former Miss Indian Arizona 2015-2016.

Next Family Culture Night April 16,

2019

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March 8 End of 3rd Quarter 11-15 Spring Break 23 Westwood Pow-wow 26 NAEP Public Meeting and PAC Meeting April 5 Dobson Social Event 16 Family Culture Night 19 No School 24 Native American Honor Society Induction May 8 Graduating Senior Celebration, Westwood High School 23 Last Day of Classes June NAEP Summer Reading Program NAEP STEM Family Culture Nights

More information to come on

June activities!

Visit our website at www.mpsaz.org/naep. Fill out the NAEP survey, let you voice be heard. Results will be shared at the March 26th Public Meeting.