-JW

The fall Community-School meeting was held in the gym starting at 4:30 pm. Principal Steve Sammons welcomed the Elim community members, Aniguiin students and staff. He started the meeting with an overview of the school improvement plan, including details of who is involved and how the plan is formed. Steve stressed that tonight was another part of the on-going effort to seek community input into the school improvement plan.

Dianna Gharst presented a powerpoint on the teacher and student use of the pacing guide and the DART system. Derek Moses was the student narrator on the presentation. Community members got to see firsthand the process used to record and report student progress.

After the presentations, Principal Sammons asked the community, Aniguiin staff and students to all help in a brainstorming session involving 4 broad categories of school improvement.  After the session, each group was asked to prioritize by selecting the top issues or ideas (denoted by the number of asterisks* after each entry).  The following notes document the categories and community responses in each of the four focus areas.

ACTIVITIES

*arts and crafts
*Elder teachers – esp. home ec. For students who are caught up on work ***
*Funding for starting something new in the school – where would they come from?
*Cultural center
*Carving (wood and ivory)
*Sewing
*Making bread
*Using resources around us ***
*Prom/dances
*Dance class
*Lip sync
*Field trips (hot springs,etc.)
*Construction
*Christmas plays
*Sell/raffles to fundraise for materials
*More Little Dribblers
*Cultural Day
*Outdoor School
*Game Nights ***
*Movie Nights
*Walking to Next Creek for end of the year picnic
*Storytelling
*Small Engine Repair
*Citizenship – recognizing kids who are doing well (lock-ins, etc.)
*Young helping elders at home – chores, errands, etc.
*Job shadowing in the community

ATTENDANCE

*Enforce curfew
*Earlier curfew
*Go to bed earlier
*Fun activities before school – ex. Gym or computer lab
*Incentives for attendance – ex. Pizza party, end of year attendance bigger prizes – iPods, gameboys, etc.
*Consequences at home

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

*At the first of the year, community members can invite teachers and staff over for social activities – just to visit with no strings attached
*Get the community and new and old teachers to participate in a Polar Bear Swim
*Bonfire in the fall
*Adult Game Night (esp. volleyball) ****
*Little Dribblers practice during PE
*Rolodex of local experts **
*Mini carnival **
*Community bazaar of local handicrafts **
*Eskimo dancing to tell local stories ****
*City league
*Open classrooms during the day by inviting parents into the classrooms at the beginning of the month
*Elder storytelling – students write the stories *****
*New teachers should visit local offices. Find a local friend to get information about our village.

CURRICULUM

*School district stick to one program
*Life Skills – learning the cost of living, etc. *****
*Concerns for multi-age classroom and questions on how it is working.
*Expectations of students outside of school – too much homework? Too little homework?
*Good reports in some areas, but not in all content areas – hear it from child
*Boy’s and Girl’s Club – Power Hour ***
*21st Century Tutoring
*Cultural Awareness ******
- What is there? (gather, hunt, fish)
- Art (carving, sewing, making tools)
- Subsistence calendar (yearly) – what you get year round
- How to prepare and preserve foods
- Figuring out your Eskimo name – where it came from, who they are named after and what it means

*Match Career Skills to skills needed for jobs in Elim (Job Shadowing) ***
*Community volunteering an hour a week to teach skills teachers cannot *****

What we Learned / Areas of Focus – based on community input in the four focus areas, we will try to develop programs in :

*Elders as teachers – having students write stories based on Elder knowledge

*Eskimo Dancing – with the focus on telling local stories

*Game Nights

*Life Skills – learning the cost of living, etc.

*Life Skills – community volunteers – one hour per week

*Cultural Awareness – subsistence activities and a calendar

*Career Skills – job shadowing in Elim

PO Box 29

Elim, Alaska 99739

907-890-3021