| - | 1998-99 TEACHERS OF NATIVE AMERICAN LEARNERS TONAL - MIT2000 |
| Summer
1998 |
I
attended
several Faculty Development Summer Institutes Fumie and Heissen started working teaching Spanish, babysitting and cleaning buildings (and driving). It is an important piece in the curriculum that Sonia and I devised for them. We have spend very few summers in the U.S. we have taken every opportunity to travel to Peru and expose our children to our culture. I would say, it has been very successful so far. The trick has been to give up the apartment at the end of the academic year, pack everything up and store it in a storage room. Direct our mail to a friend/s house and leave. Every time we have come back we have been lucky to find another apartment the very same day or next day. Our children are very attached to their friends and our relatives in Peru. I can now say that what happened to Richard Rodriguez (Hunger for Memory) will not happen to them. |
| Fall
1998 |
MIT2000
- From order to chaos. Constructing a student-centered MIT program. Using constructivism in MIT. Freire is right, the oppressed ones have to realize their own state of oppression before they can move to gain freedom. Students who needed structure couldn't take the idea of going to chaos while we all deconstructed their idea of order. In order to make the move to chaos, the whole faculty team had to believe in the idea; it was incredible to witness the building of a community powered mostly by students themselves (after weeks of agony). The risk we took was very high, a couple of students couldn't handle chaos and left the program at an early stage. Later on three students had to leave the program for personnal reasons (two of them kept in touch with us through out the year). |
| Winter
1999 |
MIT2000 - From chaos
to commitment The only kind of traditionally structured classes happened on saturdays when high school and elementary school students from the Gen Why project acted as instructors in the computer labs to teach/learn with out MIT students. The community dedicated time to understanding a NA philosophy on teaching/learning. When the Makah whaling issue became a big deal, students moved to praxis in different ways. Most of their reactions demonstrated their deep understanding of Freire's ideas. A couple students were interviewed on TV and they presented a precise, clear and strong position. Faculty then was invited to talk about the MIT 2000 program at a conference for teacher educators form the South West. We responded that since this is a student-centered program, it is students who have the authority to speak about MIT2000, and they went to form a panel. There is a video of their excellent presentation. |
| Spring
1999 |
MIT2000
- From commitment to consciousness Our community spent time moving assessment to the center in the student-centered approach to education. Speaking of education for extinction, I always thought that to find the furniture in the Longhouse arranged in rows is disrespectful to Native Americans and, to students and faculty who have made the move from a teacher-centered paradigm in education to a student-centered approach. I always share with students the idea that furniture in the Longhouse should normally be arranged in either a large circle or in several small circles ready to do seminar or group work. In this way, the Longhouse would be sending a message conected with a philosophy on teaching and learning. I have been in 4 different MIT programs now. I can't find a way to make comparisons, each one has been extremely successful in their objectives, and each one has had its own personality. This is what makes this teacher education program so unique. I hope we will continue trying to teach music instead of just teaching to play the piano over and over. Heissen graduated from CHS Fumie finished Marshall MS Alice attended kindergarten classes at Hansen Elementary School. |