Skill Instruction 1 Relevant & Responsive Skill Instruction

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- We want to thank all of you for

joining us today for this Skill Instruction

Toolkit session.

My name is Janet Johnson,

I work for the Lower Yukon School District

and one of the jobs that I held

- my position at our district was the

CRESEL coordinator.

CRESEL stands for Culturally Responsive

Embedded Social Emotional Learning.

And through the work that I've done,

I've learned a great deal about

cultures around the world and

this early summer I did a book study

with Zaretta Hammond,

Culturally Responsive Teaching

and the Brain.

And I really like this graphic that she

put together that describes culture

in three different levels.

Surface culture, shallow culture,

and deep culture.

The examples of what is observed

in surface culture are things like regalia,

types of food, music, games, art, etcetera.

But when we get into the shallow

and deep culture, we begin to see the

unspoken rules, the beliefs, and norms.

So things like concepts of time,

eye contact, verbal communication.

And in deep culture we see genuine behaviors

such as decision-making.

How does one come to make a decision

that has a life-lasting effect.

Concept of self, group identity, spirituality,

our relationship to nature and animals.

And so in the work that I do,

and in cultures across Alaska,

the indigenous values relating to

Social-Emotional Learning are found in

the shallow and deep culture.

And so when LYSD got involved with CRESEL,

it was really clear to me that the Yup'ik values

already contained the SEL competencies.

When our school district started the

school year with student subsistence days.

To incorporate Social and Emotional Learning

into our schools, LYSD came up with

a CRESEL vision statement that binds

and nurtures the wisdom of our ancestors

to the youth, empowering and preparing

them to live and learn successfully

through the teachings and values of

Yup'ik traditions, Yugtun language,

and Yuuyaraq, through taking care of

each other, helping one another,

having respect and being connected

socially, spiritually, and physically.

And so we tried to incorporate the CRESEL

vision into our behavior and discipline

programs, in the CHAMPS program,

and through academics.

So much of what we do during subsistence

involves shallow and deep culture behaviors,

thinking and being.

The district tapped into the social and

emotional wellbeing of students by

starting the school year with student

subsistence days that were left - are led by

paraprofessionals and community leaders.

The goals of the subsistence days were to

recognize and empower the strengths

among the youths through subsistence

activities such as fishing, moose hunting,

berry picking, camping, are a few examples

of what happened.

Another goal for the student subsistence days

was to introduce the local culture to

the teachers by inviting them to participate

in selected subsistence activities

of their choice.

Although there were many benefits that

came from these two weeks of subsistence,

the most valuable one was the relationships

that were established in teachers, students,

parents, and community members.

When school opened in September,

the students in LYSD were eager to see

their teachers and talk about their experiences

with the culture and subsistence.

Much of the activities that were captured in

pictures and videos were shared

in the classrooms and referenced in

reading, writing, and math lessons,

as well as classroom management

and discipline strategies.

And it worked -- it went so well that our

district is planning on doing that again

next year and build upon how we

started this year.

And just seeing the pride in our students

was evident that starting the school day

with a focus on Yup'ik values, on Social

and Emotional Learning was the way to go,

especially after schools shut down during

this pandemic and trying to regain the trust

of our students in the school setting,

this was a great way to start the school year.

I've included self awareness, respect, and

social awareness competencies in the picture.

This is a picture of a group of students that

had gone out camping out on the coastline,

and they were enriched with -- and taught,

reinforced the self awareness competency

through thoughts of ways to better

themselves during their low time,

thoughts of family, how they can improve,

you know, their relationships,

thoughts of preparing the birds, fish,

marine animals caught,

thoughts of connecting spirituality,

so it's a calm and peaceful time when

we connect with the land, weather,

and being out in the wilderness.

Students had learned so much about

respect for land, water, air, weather directions,

fish, birds, marine animals,

and they worked real well together

through cooperation, sharing, caring,

story telling, and humor.

So it's a fun time to be out there for them.

And so far, in today -- as of today,

the relationship between the teachers

and the students is still growing strong.

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