Developing gifts & talents of all Tuba City district students <br><br>

Tuba City Unified School District is the largest Native American school district in Arizona. It is currently composed of seven schools with a brand new alternative school for grades seven through 12 being added to its building roster this 2003 school year, which will make eight in total.

Tuba City district also has the longest running history of Hopi and Navajo reservation education success. It has serviced the entire grade levels of kindergarten through 12 on a continuing basis since it started its operation in 1956.

With more than 500 employees and 3,000 students in is care, TCUSD must stay on top of not only the latest policy and education law changes, but also the most current trends in education ideas, concepts. Most importantly, the district looks at how these teaching styles affect its largely Native American student population, which is about 95 percent of the total student make-up.

Tuba City district administration also holds the Arizona reservation record for contracting advanced degree Native American administrative staff to operate and administer its schools.

Out of the total of 16 top administrative heads, only one is non-native, and most of these administrators are from the surrounding Hopi and Navajo reservation area.

TCUSD makes extra efforts to recruit its own high school alumni from graduate and undergraduate universities to work in the district, proving that they stand behind their word when the governing board or administration tells its TC high graduates to “go get your degree and come back home to work for us.”

Many TC district staffers are second and third generation TC High alumni.

Culture and language

Culture and language is extremely important here and that is factored into learning practices for Tuba City Unified starting with TC Primary all the way through TC High.

Culture and language hold the history, oral tradition and native value system that is the backbone for not just TC students but for the staff that is in charge of teaching and accelerating their students to academic and over-all life success.

Successful teaching at TCUSD becomes more than book and classroom skill because it must also consider Navajo and Hopi tradition and custom so that the final student graduates understand their duty to community service.

Global sensitivity and bi-cultural, bi-lingual appreciation is a large part of that, and the education given at TCUSD shows how that will propel them, along with finely honed math, science and English writing skills, into the next century.

Enrichment model

TCUSD recently held a Principal’s Retreat in Phoenix to go over the game plan for the entire district’s implementation in this next school year of what is called “Developing the Gifts and Talents of All Students.”

Based on a concept developed by Joseph S. Renzulli called the School Enrichment Model (SEM), it is the idea of talent and education development that seeks to identify and serve a broad range of talent potential in all students.

Accompanying this SEM is the use of a strength assessment guide called the Total Talent Portfolio, which helps to focus attention on student interests and learning-style preferences as well as strengths in traditional subjects.

Many students who have not been formally categorized or tested as gifted are treated and nurtured as such, utilizing the SEM concept, raising the bar on current student academic expectations. The majority of these so-called average students have consistently risen to the occasion to, not just meet, but exceed to a much higher standard.

Students in TC district will be given the opportunity through the SEM to develop their own natural talents that are sometimes ignored in an ordinary classroom setting.

TCUSD believes that its students have the potential to, not only meet required state and national testing standards, but to far exceed them by challenging their minds to problem solve creatively, utilizing Socratic thinking and allowing them to go past the past linear and sequential school processing that has dominated most education institutions.

TC district recognizes that native students are not just practical learners but highly creative learners, and this SEM concept will allow that final success to show.

TCUSD has long recognized that if there is any single, unifying characteristic of today’s schools, it is a characteristic of resistance to change and that the only way that that growth can happen is to bring more effective teaching practices into the already existing school setting.

Districtwide focus

The SEM model is based on special programs for high-ability students. TCUSD recognizes that each student in its district is “gifted and talented in his or her own individual way” and is confident that it will see success at the end of this 2003 school session.

The SEM approach reflects a democratic ideal that accommodates the full range of individual differences in the entire student population, and it opens the door to programming models that develop the talent potentials of many at-risk students—those who are often excluded from anything but the most basic curricular experience.

Giftedness and talent cannot be measured in I.Q. scores or other measures of cognitive ability alone. TC district recognizes that all native students are brilliant and need to be nurtured as and taught as such.

TCUSD Associate Superintendent Dr. Harold G. Begay, nationally noted neuro-science researcher, is spending much time and effort to make this districtwide effort work for its students.

Dr. Begay has stressed that teachers and administrators look beyond surface appearances and look for giftedness in native students by looking for the following talents: listening skills, tolerance, patience, memory skills, interpersonal skills, awareness/sensitivity, strong spirituality, abstract thinking, musical or artistic talent, high motivation to learn, reflective thinking, leadership, responsibility, adaptability and ability to work in harmony.

These are talents are in every one of your children. This is the district where those talents will be supported through the SEM model.

Principal of TC High Adelbert Goldtooth is excited about implementing this SEM model in his building.

“The idea that all of our students will be taught in a gifted mode even if they have not been categorized formally as such will benefit all of us,” Goldtooth said. “The major benefit being that we move away from what is considered a deficit model and start to challenge what they already know.

“My own personal challenge with my staff and students is how do I facilitate their learning rather than just teaching them.”

Principal of TC Junior High Richard Grey reflectively added, “All students have gifts that need to be appreciated and challenged. The enriched learning, opportunities and practices are practical when implemented by flexible teachers we already have on staff.

“We search out parallels when it comes to varied cultures or situations, allowing us to go beyond state or district interests, then we can truly and genuinely facilitate and support learning in the best interests of our kids.”

For more information on the enrichment model and what Tuba City dstrict is doing, contact Associate Superintendent Dr. Harold Begay at 928-283-1210 or Rosanda Suetopka Thayer, office of public relations at 928-283-1072.

(Rosanda Suetopka Thayer is Director of TCUSD Public Relations.)

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