The 2nd Week

Today is Sunday! We have a three day weekend this summer thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr. I read "Happy Birthday Martin Luther King" to my students on Friday because I wanted them to know why they didn't have school Monday. Some of them thought it was because the snow was melting and it was getting muddy or they were going to have a snow day again, it was very cute. They were very interested in the story and asked a lot of questions. The students also had a half day on Friday for parent teacher conferences. We also had them Thursday night and about 5 parents/grandparents/guardians came. On Friday about 5 more came, which was actually a good turn out according to my teacher. It is more common for hardly any one to show up for a student, because people are working or don't have a way to get to the school. It was very nice to meet who takes care of my students and see what home life they come from. A lot of students live with their grandparents, some live with uncles, or older siblings. The students who are at the most risk who really need help did not have parents come in to the school, which was hard for me to see. Our students are on the edge of learning how to read and if they can't read by the end of the year they can not move on to second grade and will be retained. The students don't hardly any new or great children's books that I want to read to them for read a-louds. So we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.
This weekend Heather and I decided to meet up with some other student teachers that live in Many Farms which is about an hour and a half south-east from Shonto. We drove through there to get to Shonto, so it was easy to find. Before we got together with the other girls we went to explore Canyon de Chelly in Chinle which is right next to Many Farms. It is a beautiful canyon with ancient Anasazi ruins deep in the walls of the canyon and large rock formations that amaze you! At each overlook you drive to there are vendors selling their work to tourists. They make jewelry, pottery, and etchings on rocks. It was hard to get to see the outlook because they wanted to show you every piece they made :) But they also offered information about the outlooks that the average person wouldn't know. We found out that you can only walk down into the canyon if you have a Native with you because it is disrespectful it you do it alone. I included some pictures, but of course they don't really show how beautiful it really is. I can't imagine what the Grand Canyon looks like after seeing these other amazing canyons!
After that we found the other girls and we went to the high school basketball games. Sporting events are usually very popular around here, especially basketball. Before we got to the game our friends explained to us that the team Many Farms was playing a team from St. John's a Mormom school, a team off the reservation. The team was all white and the were called the St. John's Redskins(!). They had a huge charter bus that had a huge picture of the sterotypical Native American man with the head dress. When we started watching the girls play we could already see the tension, but mostly it was from the St. John's team. Apparently at another school some students were throwing rocks at the charter bus and it is a known thing that St. John's is the most hated team by the reservation kids. So wow! It was so interesting to see one side of the bleachers filled with white Mormoms in nice clothing and expensive uniforms and the other side with Navajo's in more run down clothes and older uniforms. I could tell that one side looked happy and was having more fun than the other :) We were sitting with our Navajo friends which got some interesting glances from the other team. The Many Farms girls did lose, but not without a fight. It was a great game! The only thing the other team had was height and that is what helped them win in the end. So after the game we walked out to the parking lot to see the huge charter bus sitting there. One of the girls decided to take a picture of it just to show other people and a high school boy from St.John's starts yelling at her. He starts saying things like yeah that's right isn't it an awesome bus, we have big screen T.V.s, isn't that a great picture on the side of the bus. Of course I was shocked at the kid and one of the girls let him have it, but you could tell already how this boy felt about Native Americans. That was my first time seeing that and it really shocked me. We all talked about it for a while after words just because we couldn't wrap our heads around it.
Besides that we did have a great weekend and it was nice to compare schools with each other. One of the student teachers at Many Farms already wants to stay and teach next year because she loves it! I could tell she really enjoyed it and has already found a home there. It was good to see everyone doing well, but we still haven't heard from the boys living in Kayenta. We hope they are good!
Also I am looking forward to the inaugration! We are going to watch it in the dorms with all the students Tuesday night, they all love Obama here. Mom has sent me a package that should be here on Tuesday so I can enjoy banana bread while watching. :)