Hi. My name is Lara H, I am from here in Rapid City, I
graduated from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and I am 2011 Teach
For America corps member. Growing up here in rapid I saw some strong inequities
between Native American people and myself. While riding the bike path I often
saw older native men sleeping under bridges, and I heard many racist jokes.
This greatly disturbed me and I knew that I wanted to change things. I saw
education as a means to create more opportunities as a solution.
When I first moved to Mission there were definitely some initial
challenges! I saw many misbehaviors in my classroom that I soon learned could
be attributed to my significant lack of confidence on the part of my students
in their ability to do math. My classroom also had a variety of ability levels,
from kids who could scarcely subtract to kids who were essentially ready to
move on to the next grade. Attendance was another huge issue. At any given time
about 1/3 of my class might be missing.
A specific student that I struggled with is William. When
William first came to my class he was a lovely child who always wanted to work
hard and please his elders. He is a boy just a little taller than me, with the
sides of his head shaved and a long braid down the middle. He does horseback
archery with his uncle, who is a security guard at the school. He is a fairly
traditional young man. However, after the first few weeks of school, William
changed. He began being disruptive in class and refused to do his work. A few
days later I found out the explanation for these sudden changes. William had
joined a gang.
I realized that in order to overcome these challenges that I
needed to set ambitious goals, not only for William, but for all my students.
For my class I set a goal of 80% mastery for our class average at the end of
the year, which is great level mastery. This is important for my students
because for them it is the difference between life and death, prison and
college, poverty and enough. For William, his auntie and I together decided
that our goals for him were that he would have an A at any given time in my
class, and that he would behave as a role model for other students.
Because these goals were so ambitious, I knew that I would have
to increase my own investment and effort for the success of my students. I
began differentiating my lessons in order to meet their varying levels of
ability. I now stay after school every day in order to provide extra
instructional time. And, in order to get kids to stay after school, I had to
begin calling home to get parent’s permission. Soon enough families were
inviting me to partake of their sacred inipis, go horseback riding, and join
them for dinner. Becoming part of the community had a positive effect on my
relationship with my students. They began to realize that I really am invested
in them and this paid off in the classroom.
This year has been phenomenally rewarding and challenging.
William now does his classwork and not only isn’t disruptive, but also keeps
other kids in line. He doesn’t have an A yet, but I know he is invested because
I handed out grade sheets yesterday and scolded him for getting a B. A few
minutes later I overheard him telling his friends, “She got mad at me for
getting a B because she thinks I can do better.” In class overall, I have seen
my attendance rate increase and misbehaviors are significantly down. My kids no
longer dread math class but are excitedly answering and asking questions. Our
class average is currently only at 65%, but I have seen many individual
students make years of growth, and I believe that we can still achieve our goal
of 80% mastery by May.
Working on the reservation with my 98% native student population
has been one of the biggest challenges and blessings of my life, and I know
that it is making a difference in my students lives as well. A mother of one of
my students cried during parent teacher conferences when she told me that her
son came home and said to her, “Mom, I think I can do this.”
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