Thanks to a tribal college in Montana, American Indian students with disabilities are benefiting from the enhanced teacher training. Salish Kootenai College (SKC) is designing and delivering professional development to 40 teachers, pre-service teachers, and educational professionals to enhance the health, wellness, and educational opportunities for American Indian (AI) children with and without disabilities and their families.
At the heart of Iḷisaġvik College’s Restorative Teachings project is the desire to nurture and support meaningful connections between early childhood students, their families, and the community as a whole. It is through these connections that knowledge of language and culture, love, respect, and compassion are passed from one generation to the next.
The Achieving the Dream (ATD) program helps networking colleges to improve student success by providing a menu of services to its colleges, including technical assistance, leadership, data coaching, and more. In addition, ATD hosts an annual DREAM conference where more than 2,000 leaders from 200 community colleges across the country gather.
The fellowship’s goal is to promote environmental sustainability in tribal communities that leads to systemic change. The research component of the fellowship is designed to create research projects that are meaningful and relevant to the students’ tribal communities by improving community environments and the health of tribal people. By educating tribal communities about environmental issues and working together as a community, tribal communities can build and utilize better land and resource management systems.
At Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) traditional Ojibwe teachings which portray the family as a part of the framework that honors the individual and the collective groups to which the individual belongs. Throughout the year, Migiziinsag (Little Eagles), an early childhood program for four-year-old children, engages by incorporating aspects of indigenous early learning, Anishinaabe language, cultural ceremonies, nutrition and physical activities. The “Family Fun Event Planning Framework” embraces four areas:
A new guide for educators titled Teacher Education Across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies, and Social Justice, edited by Emery Petchauuer and Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University Press, 2017) shares successful teaching practices and teacher education programs from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) across the country.
On a blustery and bitterly cold December night Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Early Learning Center (ELC) welcomed families and community members to celebrate traditional plants and foods of the Coast Salish culture. In spite of the winter’s chill, the event was an amazing success, with nine enrolled ELC families and eight families from the Lummi community represented.
Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, Co-Director of the American Indian College Fund’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and Senior Program Officer of Tribal College and University Early Childhood Education Initiatives, shared that cell phones are no longer merely communications devices, but are tools to access and exchange multiple sources of information. Parents must consider these factors while strategically monitoring and guiding children’s use of these tools.
President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz of the Denver-headquartered American Indian College Fund to a key Administrative post on the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences.
Boozhoo (hello) from all of us here at the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC). Fall is upon us and as the leaves begin to change colors we are making some changes in our early childhood education programs as well. KBOCC has teamed up with our on-site Migiziinsag (Little Eagles) Great Start to Readiness Program to launch our Restorative Teachings Initiative entitled Abinoojiinh Waakaa’igan (A Child’s House).
