Interview · South Dakota · Cheryl Medearis · OSEU 4
Themes: Kinship & family, Storytelling & oral tradition, Education & learning, Values & generosity, Community & responsibility, Listening & observation, Children & young people, Humor & play
Learn About questions
How is the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota sense of community unique?
How is the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota sense of family or kinship unique?
How does a sense of community or relatedness impact learning in the classroom?
How might the classroom community needs of native students mirror and differ from those of non-native students?
Learn From questions
(deep listening, information
Have you ever experienced a deep sense of community as a student or as a teacher? How was that created?
What experiences have you had in classrooms or workplaces with very little sense of community? How did that impact learning or productivity?
What have you done in your classroom that connected students with their families in some way? What were the successes? Were there some particular problems that arose? How did you deal with them?
Have you ever had one of your own children or grandchildren in your classroom? What did you learn from that?
Have you ever had siblings or close relatives as students in the same classroom? What are the particular benefits or challenges of that situation?
Transcripts
Addressing OSEU 4 with Cheryl Medearis
Watch this interview on YouTubeOne of the most important things to me as an educator and to work with future educators and to work with in-service teachers is to help them understand that sense of community and what is kinship. And maybe we're not related by blood, maybe your students are and aren't, but to build that strong community of learners and for students to go back and know who their relatives are and to understand who their families are.
And that's a real struggle in this day and age with families that are separated and split and children's names are changed in the court has had a devastating impact. So we have to really think about how we have students go back and know their story. I think that's one of the most powerful assignments that students have done in our class is write your story, tell your story. I do that as part of the class that I do... and it's like, oh really? And then as they get into it, it's a very happy time. There are a lot of tears shed.
They share that and they say, how would you do that in your classroom of third graders or fifth graders so that they can safely tell their story? Maybe not orally, maybe on paper, maybe in a play that they... that we all need to be proud of where we came from. So it's, again, a very important piece of building that community of learners and a safety net for all of us to feel within that understanding.
Resource text
Learn ABOUT Learn FROM
(deep listening, information) (deep sharing, transformation)
1. Howis the Lakota, Dakota, Nakotasense 1. Have you ever experienced a deep sense
of community unique? of community as a student or as a
2. Howis the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota sense teacher? How was that created?
of family or kinship unique? 2. What experiences have you had in
3. How does a sense of community or classrooms or workplaces with very little
relatedness impact learning in the sense of community? How did that
classroom? impact learning or productivity?
4. How might the classroom community 3. What have you done in your classroom
needs of native students mirror and that connected students with their
differ from those of non-native families in some way? What were the
students? successes? Were there some particular
problems that arose? How did you deal
with them?
Have you ever had one of your own
children or grandchildren in your
classroom? What did you learn from
that?
Have you ever had siblings or close
relatives as studentsin the same
OSEU 4: INTERVIEW WITH CHERYL MEDARIS classroom? What are the particular
WoLakota Project . : :
L benefits or challenges of that situation?
Some indexed text was extracted from scanned material. Check the original source for exact wording and spelling.
Source materials
Supplied transcript document. Text preserved as supplied; spellings and transcription uncertainties have not been corrected.
Additional source transcripts
Addressing OSEU 4
Addressing OSEU 4 with Cheryl Medearis
One of the most important things to me as an educator and to work with future
educators and to work with in-service teachers is to help them understand that sense of
community and what is kinship. And maybe we're not related by blood, maybe your
students are and aren't, but to build that strong community of learners and for students
to go back and know who their relatives are and to understand who their families are.
And that's a real struggle in this day and age with families that are separated and split
and children's names are changed in the court has had a devastating impact. So we
have to really think about how we have students go back and know their story. I think
that's one of the most powerful assignments that students have done in our class is
write your story, tell your story. I do that as part of the class that I do... and it's like, oh
really? And then as they get into it, it's a very happy time. There are a lot of tears shed.
They share that and they say, how would you do that in your classroom of third graders
or fifth graders so that they can safely tell their story? Maybe not orally, maybe on
paper, maybe in a play that they... that we all need to be proud of where we came from.
So it's, again, a very important piece of building that community of learners and a safety
net for all of us to feel within that understanding.