So we had a huge initiative after our Iñupiaq Learning Framework was adopted and a lot of it was done around UBD, understanding by design. And it was focused on ensuring that we had curriculum that aligned with, you know, what the state requirements and federal, you know, national standard requirements for teaching. But they were all written with a local place based, perspective. And so same concept, same understanding, same goals. Um, but for kids it's like this aha moment for them. Like one teacher for example at our preschool level, they were having the hardest time helping their kids understand counting, just counting to 10 and so she had this aha moment when they were on the bus dropping kids off at the end of the day and they were all counting the tuttu - the caribou. And she was like, what better way to count than count caribou. So she made a unit called “Tuttu to 10” and they count caribou, you know, instead of trying to follow the numbers or counting sheep.

What if we would have more time with our kids? ..that's really where learning starts. It's with our kids. And you know, when you think about the time in the boarding schools, they took away the kids from the families, from the parents, from the communities, and it kind just stayed, it kinda stayed the same way, but different in a way. But I think we just have more time with our kids to teach, be able to teach them everything that we know.

You gotta make everything relevant. And it seemed like athletics was the thing, the common denominator and being a former basketball player at the high school, college level and the coach up there for many, many years, it was easy to get to know kids. You know gym, morning, afternoon, evening. But then once you develop that common ground, then you can have the deeper conversations and get to know them better and kind of talk 'em down of why you're not going to Duke on full ride basketball scholarships. So let's just get that off the table. What are you willing, what are you able to do in the meantime to ensure that you're academically eligible? And I'll tell you this, we had a group of boys from seventh grade to 12th grade that they would not have graduated high school, had it not been for basketball. And I wasn't the boys coach at that point, I was the girls coach. But these five, now maybe about eight or nine boys, they set the groundwork for the future generation or the coming generation of young boys. Cause when I first got here, the girls were graduating high school. Native girls were. The boys weren't. And after that group of boys, it really flip flopped to where now young boys are staying and graduating high school. And I think athletics is a huge thing. But then that also is the segue into developing deeper relations with the kids and getting a chance to get to know them on a more, I'm not gonna say personal level, but not teacher-student surface level. But you know, now they're not afraid to talk to you about their home life. Things that they're worried about, issues and things like that. And so that to me, I think that basketball is the, at least in the villages, that's the common denominator. It just is.

So he is doing an elective class on, it's intro to philosophy we're talking about Western philosophers. So you have a bunch of Native kids sitting in this classroom, they've chosen this class and they're eating it up, right? So that's a model right there, they chose it. Either they like [the teacher] or he sold them on the idea and learning about Socrates and doing some of these kind of philosophical like problems. They're fascinated by it. So being in a Native in school isn't learning about only Native things, right? It's actually more feeling comfortable being exactly who you are and who you want to be and then starting to be introduced to new things and new kind of strains of thought and stuff like that.

I know if you know your own history, you will be successful no matter where you go, you know, your own people, your own history, you, if you wanna go to Chicago, go to Chicago...once you have your own foundation where you come from, you could exist anywhere in the world. You could take what you know to that world.

I struggled with embracing my culture in high school because students belonging to minority groups often became targets for bullying. I was a shy student and felt I had to hide my Alaska Native heritage to fit in. My insecurities, and the feeling of not belonging, held back my willingness to learn and hurt me academically. Embracing all cultures, especially Alaska Native students, will help the youth of the future to feel confident and reach their educational goals.