NDNAEU & SB 2304 9 minute version

[Music] senate bill 2304 it was a bill that was passed with bipartisan support i’m so proud of the legislature for taking that action you know thanks to them for making sure that they understand the needs of our north dakota students many of our teachers across the state might be a little nervous about well there’s a new requirement on them how might they go about making sure that they are doing what they’re supposed to do and doing what the legislature has asked them to do so the north dakota essential understandings has been a work in progress and because we’ve been working on it for the last seven years there are over 150 exemplar lessons that teachers can access right now we have over 350 video clips of elders from across the state from all of our tribes that will act as resources for our teachers to use and most importantly those video clips and those exemplar lessons they’re already aligned to our north dakota social studies standards so senate bill 2304 requires all public and non-public schools to include native american history in their curriculum and this is a bill that i think has been long time wanted and coming for especially for our native american students and families it requires in fourth and eighth grade that they include native american curriculum in their history and then also at the high school secondary level we’re excited about it there’s a lot of excitement around the state from our families from students from educators wanting resources to use to help them meet this requirement of the senate bill 2304 something that we did collaboratively was create our north dakota native american essential understanding team of champions it’s a mouthful but it we just call them the champions and you know the ideology behind that was to scale teachers up teachers and other staff administrators ourselves skill us up so that we were able to provide support within each of our buildings and so when we came to schools and asked them if this was something that they wanted the teachers were hungry for it you know they want to learn how to connect to students from different cultures specifically indigenous students i think the exposure of culture in the classroom is a is a wonderful thing the north dakota native american essential understandings provide a fantastic framework for teachers to use to begin conversations not just with uh people of native culture but also i mean it opens it up to all cultures and it and it starts bridging gaps between being non-native to the native community but also to we have some students from africa that have transferred in we have students from haiti that have transferred in and it’s just been fantastic to see them talk about similarities and differences between their cultures and then the primarily white students talk about how well we have a lot of similar aspects in our cultures too so it definitely opens up that conversation this is a whole foundation for you to start from it’s like a living document right we can add to it we can edit it we can you know you can teachers can teach it at their own level add what they want to and it’s just a good foundation for everybody you know so the questions are coming and they’re like well how do we utilize that and i don’t feel comfortable yet and i was like you don’t have to feel comfortable you know you’re just learning it just like we are you know but it’s but the thing is the big thing is it’s there so when we found out about the essential understandings that was just a beautiful gold mine of resources when our native students feel culturally included and accepted it benefits everyone not just our native students and our teachers have embraced that they have asked meaningful tough questions of themselves of our district of their practice and so we’re beginning to see a real shift in um how they approach their lesson planning i’m very excited i’m i’m glad that we’re taking out we’re taking this further i know that teachers are probably a little bit apprehensive and anxious at the same time being in the classroom and seeing our indigenous students connecting to the curriculum connecting to the content and specifically connecting to the resources that are the essential understandings it was it was phenomenal and the feedback that we got from teachers saying that student you know was usually pretty quiet and they really came out of their shell they were collaborating with peers they were engaging in the material they were speaking up they were sharing from their personal experience it was just really something beautiful to see that this could be every student’s reality within the classroom you know with the senate bill being passed this is going to help us talk about those or our true history that isn’t in the textbooks right now and uh we’ve built this team of champions with the teachers that are really wanting to learn more about our indigenous culture and helping with these lessons so now there’s there’s a little bit of comfort level with some of our teachers to be able to share these lessons and that’s that’s where we come in you know to be able to connect with them and assist with those lesson plans so it’s so it’s been a work in progress but uh a beautiful one because you know once you see uh the lessons that are being taught and the questions that are being asked by our students and in that need and that want not only from our native kids but also our non-native kids that are in the classrooms you know because they’re like you know i didn’t know i didn’t know this i didn’t know you know it’s really important that we get this out so now that we have that senate bill and our teaching of our elders website to be able to build this and kind of lead the way and you know at that the department level we don’t create curriculum but we do create and have resources that could be used as a framework for teachers and school leaders to develop and assist in their own creation of their curriculum so as our teachers enter into the fall and ask the question how might i be able to make sure that the students that i’m teaching are learning about the tribes in north dakota i don’t want them to think that they’re alone in this there are exemplar lessons that are ready to go there are video resources that are ready to go and we’re not stopping there the essential understandings is moving into another phase where there’s professional development that we’re planning there are teams of champions that have already been established across the state that have been doing this work for many years not because they had to but they knew that it was important for their students and so as teachers who may not have been diving as deeply as they have wanted to know that they’re not alone that they can access their partners they can attend professional development we will have a host of resources and professional development opportunities at our indian education summit this summer and we will continue that professional development for our middle school and high school teachers through a new professional development opportunity that we’re developing and they just need to get in contact with us at the department of public instruction lucy fredricks is the point of contact here i’m sure many of our teachers already know her but if not please contact us we’ll get you connected with the things that you need to know most importantly we just really want our teachers to know that there are existing resources that will continue to fill that resource bank continue to fill those exemplar lesson plans that are ready for you to use in your classrooms across the state [Music] do [Music] you