STEPS Alaska Updates
Stepping Up for Alaska's Youth!
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Creating More Equitable Schools Together
Recent circumstances and events, including the Corona Virus and consistent violence against people of color, have brought inequities and injustices into focus.
Alaska has its own history to reconcile from the bombardment of Alaska Native communities to the abuses experienced within the Bureau of Indian Affairs or mission-led boarding schools. This historical trauma was experienced within the living memory of this generation, and has had a lasting impact on Alaska’s students and families.
While our schools look different today: a kindergartner’s mouth will not get washed out with soap for speaking her Native language and physical punishment is no longer allowed in the schools, racism and inequities still persist. Students have reported hearing and being hurt by comments like, “You’re a credit to your race,” which can send messages about low-expectations for that person, her family and her culture. and damaging students’ ability to learn. The brain responds to experiences of racism just as the brain does to other forms of trauma by increasing cortisol levels and short-circuiting the learning processes. There are also structural inequities and mindsets that impact students ability to feel safe, connected, represented and prepared for the educational system.
STEPS partners have been working to improve conditions for learning by addressing racism through equity policy reviews, anti-racism training and by promoting culturally responsive teaching practices. Each of the strategies has been tailored to meet the needs and build on the strengths of the local community. The strategies have centered on key steps to addressing racism in Alaska’s schools: understanding the history, the impact on learning, and how to do things better.
Understanding the history:
Many Alaskan educators recognize that the history of Alaskan Native people has not been included in standard history books, or when it does appear, it may be a sugar-coated version. The Chatham School District is addressing this omission by including Bombardment Day in their school calendar and curriculum. Over the summer the Sitka City and Borough Assembly voted to work with the Sitka Tribal Council and Sitka Historical Society to move a statue of Russian colonizer Alexander Baranov from the center of town to a museum where it can be viewed with more historical context. Honest conversations about these traumatic historical events and racist policies is an important step to addressing inequities that persist today.
Understanding the impact on learning:
Zaretta Hammond is nationally respected for her work linking brain science to the impact of racism using cultural strengths and patterns of thinking to improve education outcomes. This year a handful of STEPS partners have had the unique opportunity to work with her to develop a deep understanding of how the brain works so that the why of culturally responsive teaching becomes second nature. Fortunately, Zaretta has made this information accessible to everyone through a number of books including Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.
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In Juneau the school district asked the Haa Toóch Lichéesh (Together We Believe it is Possible) Coalition to provide anti-racism training for all staff at each of its thirteen school sites as well as the school board. The trainings were challenging, emotional, and transformative, in large part because teachers and staff were able to hear from neighbors, parents, and former students about how racism within the school setting has affected them.
Understanding how to do it better:
The Juneau School District anti-racism training didn’t just focus on the history and impact of racism in our schools; School staff reflected on the content, worldview, and teaching practices used within their schools and classrooms. The team also offered concrete and constructive tips for teachers and staff. Key themes were to listen to students and their families, look at the data, and intervene when something feels wrong.Teachers play an especially important role in stepping in as allies. Tina DeAsis-Wright with the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition reflected that if teachers had intervened when they heard racist remarks “perhaps I would have learned to hate racism instead of hating myself.”
In Sitka, several organizations worked together to offer the Haa Tuwunáagu Wooch.een Yís (for Healing Our Spirit, Together) Racial Justice & Equity in Southeast Alaska online speaker series over the month of September. Keynote speakers highlighted the importance of critically examining Sitka’s history to understand how the past connects to the present, defined leadership as listening and practicing patience, and reminded participants of the importance of taking care of ourselves, our community, the environment, and culture. The free training was sponsored by the University of Alaska Southeast- Sitka Campus Title III grant project, Sitka Tribe of Alaska Social Services Department, SEARHC, with support from the Sitka STEPS Grant, the Sitka Health Summit, and Pathways Coalitions and are available free at: https://tinyurl.com/justicevision. As a follow-up to the series, the community is planning monthly conversations to examine the systems and structures that perpetuate injustices in Sitka. Sitka's Pathways Coalition also established a policy to identify and develop policies to promote equity at various levels in the community.
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Trauma Engaged Schools Inservice with Chatham & Hoonah
Many school staff that work with students that have experienced trauma understand how learning is affected by trauma. If students who’ve experienced trauma (intense, prolonged and/or multiple adverse experiences) encounter stress in the classroom, they will not be able access their higher level thinking brain as their thinking responds in such a way that they either act out or disengage depending on how they tend to respond to stress.
To create more equitable schools, the five STEPS school districts and community partners are working together on trauma-informed planning and coaching for school staff and also working on school-wide trauma engaged practices that directly impact students, are being carried out in all five school districts. With pandemic related stress, this work is more relevant than ever.
Before schools reopened this fall, Chatham and Hoonah City Schools districts decided that this year they needed to prepare staff for the return of students. Students and staff had experienced sudden closures, pandemic stress, and drastically different learning environments. They wanted to both provide support to their teachers for knowledge and practices to help their students deal with the stress but also to be able to work more effectively as a team during such adaptive times. All staff participated in the inservice and had a chance to consider the importance of relationships, a common understanding of trauma, and common language.
The inservice provided staff some practical tools to systematically evaluate and consider ways they are building relationships with students and working to understand student needs during these times. The trainings also included some simple ways to integrate some small, bite-size ways to regulate themselves which they could also share and teach their students.
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While school openings have varied, from in-person to distance learning, what has been consistent is that our staff and teachers are doing a lot to support each other and their students. The trauma- engaged practices are helping mitigate the stressful impacts of the coronavirus "normal" and have helped school staff in every subject area, in each teaching delivery model.
To learn more about some of the SEL practices and tools, please check out the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development’s Transforming Schools web page with links to the framework, toolkit, e-modules (online trauma courses) and registration for the Trauma toolkit webinars at this link https://education.alaska.gov/apps/traumawebtoolkit/new-framework-page.html. The Trauma toolkit webinars are held each Tuesday from 3:30 – 5:00pm. Prior sessions have been recorded and available to view.
AASB’s Heather Coulehan and Lisa Worl supported the trauma engaged and SEL work within STEPS and Culturally Responsive Embedded Social Emotional Learning districts. They are available to support administrators and trauma Champions to develop plans, provide trauma informed resources, host peer learning community meetings and trauma engaged schools inservice trainings. lworl@aasb.org or hcoulehan@aasb.org
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Hydaburg City School District: An Approach to Culturally Responsive Schools
Camille M. Booth, M.Ed., MSW
Assistant Superintendent
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At Hydaburg City School District (HCSD) our entire certified staff is engaging in an independently led book study using Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. We kicked off the study at our beginning-of-the-year inservice and will be reading through the book, reflecting, and discussing strategies and processes throughout the year. We are particularly focusing on the Ready for Rigor Framework.
Each teacher received a copy of the book and we have designated ample professional development time throughout the year for discussion and deep dives into equity in the classroom. During our kick off, each staff member participated in examining their own cultural lens and how that might impact teaching.
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Teachers completing a gallery walk of cultural lens posters
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Teachers working together
Tree as reflection of cultural lens
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Additionally, we at HCSD, are committed to engaging in community-based cultural learning. We are fortunate to have a Haida culture bearer and language speaker on staff. Ben Young, leads our staff in learning ten Haida phrases that teachers may use to encourage and support students.
Ben modeled strong teaching strategies as he taught the Haida phrases. We reviewed these phrases daily, studied using a quizlet, and finally Ben completed an informal assessment with the staff as learners on the final day of inservice. Ben agreed to help language learners on staff review these phrases and support new Haida language learning throughout the school year.
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Ben Young gesturing as he teaches Haida |
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The Haida phrases we learned are:
- Háw’aa: Thank You
- Húu ‘Láagang: Good job. Good effort.
- Áang: Yes.
- Gáa’anuu: No.
- Dámaan agán hl Ḵíng: Take care of yourself.
- Áyaa: I don’t know.
- Díig hl tlaad: Help me.
- Háws dáng Hl ḵíngsaang: I will see you again.
- Áa uu tláan Gíidang: All done. That’s all there is.
- Agán hl Ḵ’alaagáadaa: Do your best, be persistent, be strong.
- Tajgwíig: Welcome, come in.
We also collaborated to determine the core of how we, as a learning community, will work together throughout the year. Our core propositions are
- Engage in learning opportunities.
- Build each other up.
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Honor self, others, and place.
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Youth Leadership Institute
November 6-8
For districts and students
AASB is proud to empower youth voice virtually through this year's Youth Leadership Institute. This year's event will provide students with distance and community leadership opportunities. Districts and students will get the following from participating:
- Workshops on leadership and advocacy
- Digital story creation on impact of Covid on student learning, and solutions that help
- Digital story creation on postsecondary supports for college students
- Opportunities to share student experiences with school board members and superintendents at the Annual Conference
Student registrations cost $285 per student or $1500 for 6 students. Districts are also asked to provide students with a supportive adult to help ensure connectivity and access to devices.
To find out more about the conference reach out to cplesa@aas.org.
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Trauma Engaged Tools: Transforming Schools Webinar Series
Tuesdays, September 15-December 1
3:30 – 5 p.m.
For school district staff, school board members, and families
Get familiar with the “Transforming Schools Toolkit,” an online companion guide to the “Transforming Schools: A Framework for Trauma Engaged Practice in Alaska,” released in 2019. Join AASB and the Department of Education and Early Development on Tuesday afternoons for discussions focused on the resources available in each of the toolkit’s 11 sections.
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NEA: October-vent
October 6-20
NEA members
NEA members are invited to join the October-vent, a month-long series of 40 virtual training sessions. Session topics include family partnership, Alaska Native Education, Anti-Racism/Equity, and Trauma Engaged Schools.
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Updates and Opportunities from Sealaska Heritage Institute
Baby Raven Reads
Sealaska Heritage Institute received funding to continue Baby Raven Reads in Angoon, Craig, Hydaburg, Juneau, Klawock, Petersburg, Saxman, Sitka, Wrangell, and Yakutat. If you live in a continuing community, please complete this annual survey to be entered to win a prize!
With this new grant SHI will also be able to expand programming in Haines/Klukwan, Kake, Ketchikan and Metlakatla! Families with Alaska Native children ages 0-5 in these communities can enroll here.
Several positions for Community Liaisons are also open and posted here. Fall programming is starting with a mixture of outdoor and virtual events and community calendars are coming soon.
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