Reuben Seidl

Patient Care in the Field

An individual’s quality of life is extremely important to the overall health of a community. Apart from the personal distress experienced when one member is sick or hurt, there is a huge cost in use of resources and energy to the group as a whole. As such, medicine and healing are impressively important to all cultures from around the world. Southcentral Alaskan Native groups were/are no exception. The lesson that I am designing would help students from 9th-12th grade learn about and use some traditional medicine from the various Alutiiq and Dena’ina tribes of Southcentral Alaska. This lesson could be easily manipulated to serve in biology, chemistry, life science, medical-based, or history classes. The depth and rigor of coursework could also be altered to suit different class needs. This lesson could serve as a 1-2 day crash course, or it could be increased to span several weeks as needed.

The essential question that the students would be investigating is, “How were people of a specific region cared for prior to the arrival of western medicine?”

Several books have been written on different cultures’ traditional medicine and are readily available through libraries, colleges, and online. One in particular that stands out to me is Medicinal Flora of Alaska Natives by Ann Garibaldi. A .pdf is available through

http://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/botany/medicinal-flora-alaska-natives/.

One, of many, activity that I am interested in having the students attempt is to let them problem solve and collaborate on the care of a patient using traditional medicine. After learning about several different methods of patient care, the students would have to determine what the best method of care would be for different cases. A follow-up activity with this exercise could be to have the students then come up with a care plan for the same using modern medicine to see if there are any similarities or differences to the two approaches.

Come on, give me that CRT!-updated 6/23

Culturally responsive teaching is a multifaceted approach to education that takes into consideration the importance of an individual’s culture. In CRT, several strategies are employed in order to emphasize and experience various cultures. Bringing in community involvement, grounding the lesson in a specific place, and setting up all of the students for success are some of the features that help contribute to effective CRT.

Paula Savikko shared with us many different strategies that could be used to bring the students’ education to be focused on Place. Field trips, outdoor science experiments, and community involvement were key to her style of education. I think the most powerful tool she used was in getting the students involved in the community and the community involved in her students. The involvement from the students by making fliers and public service announcements allowed the students to feel like there was a purpose to the tasks they were being asked to do. I have no doubt that this increased most of the students’ confidence, and it may have given them the courage to take on more challenges in the world around them. The involvement from the community also showed the students that they had the support from several different people. It was not just their parents and teachers that wanted them to succeed, but it was their neighbors, friends, community leaders, Elders, politicians, and local celebrities that all took part in the growth of the student. Imagine how awesome it must have to feel as if you had an actual impact on the community as a young teenager, and that the community was rooting for you!

Though we saw CRT examples in science and math classes, combining different disciplines to allow different students’ talents to shine is necessary in CRT. English classes can be used to write short stories or poems depicting science or math lessons. Songs and pictures could be created by students to help understand and learn about complicated cycles and processes with biology and chemistry. History classes can be used to help put different scientific discoveries into context for a specific time period and region. As CR teachers, we are not only expected to teach within our own disciple, but we are expected to combine different subjects in order to teach the students in a more holistic fashion.

David Katzeek said something that really touched me. I do not have the direct quote, but it was something along the lines of, “it is food to the Spirit when we acknowledge, accept, and respect another being”. I believe that this statement gets at the core of CRT. Without appreciating the history that an individual brings to the table, we, as educators, fail that person. We fail to acknowledge their history, we fail to accept them for who they are, and we fail to respect the core of their being. When we fail to be a CR teacher, so much is lost in the classroom. And the things that are lost may never be able to be recovered.

Scott came to class a few days ago and gave his lesson on combining a large lesson plan with several disciplines as a way to make the tasks and activities more relevant to a larger number of students. His lesson was very well organized and showed a variety of ways to use CRT in the classroom. However, the biggest takeaway from his lessen was a much simpler idea.

Almost in passing, Scott mention and recommended that we should try and shadow a student for an entire day. I had never thought of this idea before, but I think it could be an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience. All of us have been out of high school for at least four or five years, and many are more removed than that. Following a student for a day would allow us to see many different teaching styles, experience the monotony of sitting in class, and feel the excitement and anxiousness of being in a new situation. If nothing else, this type of experience could open our eyes and make us more cognizant of what the student sees while sitting in their desks. I fully intend to try and work this into my internship in the fall.

Featured image from http://www.livescience.com/images/i/20946/i02/cool_image_colored_proteins.jpg?1318450243

Artifact

The artifact that drew me in was a small ivory carving in the likeness of a whale. The figurine is from the Cape Prince of Wales area, which is the most western part of Alaska. This area was the home of a small Inupiat subset known as the “Kiŋigin”. The time of origin for the whale was not available at the museum, which left me curious.

Growing up, my father had a lot of small animal figurines from Native artists. He displayed these pieces proudly around the house, and I remember playing with them as a child. My favorite piece of the collection was a white whale that looked very similar to the figure displayed in the museum.

Not knowing the time period that each of these two whales were made, several questions came to mind. Did the figurine have a mechanical or functional purpose? Was is simply a piece of art, or a toy for a child? Were they originally sacred or have a symbolic nature? Or did the whale figurines come about as a means for the Natives to earn money from foreign traders? If anyone has any input, I would love to know.

Whale Figurines 11-A-3191 courtesy of Alaska State Museum – Juneau

http://museums.alaska.gov/asm/asmhome.html

Understand Control

The Elders that enlightened us with their stories today were overflowing with an abundance of knowledge and wisdom. Selina caused me to physically feel the importance that a specific language has for a culture. David emphasized the importance of instilling confidence in students, as we may be the only ones to do so. Both of these messages stuck out to me, but the nugget of gold that had the most impact came from Linda.

Linda described an image of a bisected circle that had an individual (myself) on one side and everyone else on the other. The image represents just how much control we, as a single unit, have. The only things that I am able to control are the words, messages, actions, and ideas that are on my side of the circle. I cannot decide what others are going to receive, nor what they are going to send back my way.

This idea is incredibly valuable, especially in education. I had the privilege last year of being a substitute teacher for a high school, behavioral special ed class, and this message of a person’s agency in integral in the students development in understanding how to maintain control. A large number of their behavioral problems arise from the student not feeling like they have any control and are being misunderstood. By showing and explaining the things that the student has power over, I have witnessed huge improvements in the behavior or many students. The picture is a great visual representation of this idea, and I plan to have it hanging in every one of my classes.

I am From – Reuben Seidl

I am From… – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

Through this process of writing about where I am from and how influential “Place” may be, one key component sticks out. Place is fluid. There were several different origins and foundations that popped into my mind when I was trying to determine what I was going to focus on. I thought of the growth and knowledge and love from my family in Alaska. I felt the absence of understanding of my family in Indiana/Ohio. I envisioned fun times in Colorado and Spokane. The wide range of places that I thought of made me realize that I am not a product of one place, but rather many distinct Places.

The use of technology is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s world. One of our roles as educators is to prepare and expose our students to the materials and tools available so that they may have the greatest opportunity to succeed in this ever-changing world. I especially like technology that is multi-dimensional and easily manipulated. Haiku Deck is a great example of the type of technology that I love. I fully intend to use this program to create presentations for new and difficult concepts that are often “sticking points” for students. I can only imagine how much straightforward the Citric Acid Cycle of DNA synthesis would have been with this program instead of having all the steps laid out on one or two pages.