Guest Bloggers – Page 50 – St. Joseph's Indian School

Preparing students for their sacred day

Richard and his Lakota (Sioux) students. — Richard reading a book to the kids!

In a little over two weeks, on Sunday April 15, we will be having 21 students receiving the sacraments of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

It is an exciting time in their lives and a somewhat sad time for me as this will be the last time I prepare students for this sacred day. I will be leaving St. Joseph’s Indian School at the end of the school term.

I have been here for almost ten years and in those years have served in various roles, including teacher and houseparent. I have tried to bring passion, dignity and laughter to each different job I have done, but the time has come to bring in new blood and new ideas.

I have always believed in going out when you are on top and not clinging to a job because it is safe and secure. We see that often in sports, where athletes hold on for dear life to their career, even when they can no longer be an asset to the team. I am proud of the work I have accomplished here at St. Joseph’s and walk away with my head held high and, most importantly, with the love and respect of our students.

I will be moving to sunny Palm Springs, California where an earthquake lasts only thirty seconds, as opposed the three day blizzards we have here!

As I let the Spirit guide me, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I must say, I have enjoyed doing this blog and am glad so many of you have responded so positively to what I have written.

God Bless you all – Richard

Matter, adaptations and model volcanoes

As we enter the 4^th quarter of the 2011-2012 school year, I reflect upon the objectives we have covered in my 6^th-8^th grade Science classes. My students have done an outstanding job in the classroom and the Science lab; however we still have many more topics to cover in our last nine weeks. There will be many more activities completed this quarter to conclude the school year.

My 6^th graders will wrap-up their units on matter and energy and move into motion. This should be a great unit involving lots of fun activities. I am in need of stop watches for many of the lab activities as the students will be studying their own motion. Hopefully, the weather cooperates and we can do most of these assignments outdoors.

The 7^th grade continues with their exploration of Life Science, delving into natural selection and adaptations. These lessons contain some exciting group work. In one of the labs we will be demonstrating the importance of the opposable thumb by having the students tape their thumbs to their index fingers and attempting to perform daily tasks such as cutting a circle and writing their name. The students will also be required to complete the tasks with their thumbs so we can have a good comparison of differences. I will try to remember to take some pictures and post them on my next blog.

Eighth graders have started to look forward to their 8^th grade graduation ceremony. There are many great activities and opportunities during these last few weeks of school, not to mention we must continue our journey in the classroom. The 8^th graders continue on with their study of Earth Science, delving into volcanoes and earthquakes. They are already looking forward to creating their own model volcanoes. It should be fun and messy, but more importantly interesting and informative.

Thanks once again for all you do as donors to St. Joseph’s Indian School. Your generosity is so very important to maintain the day to day status quo of this wonderful educational and residential facility. You are greatly appreciated.

Thank you – Sarah

Goal completed: we walked 10,000 laps!

Hello everyone, this is Mike from the William Home (4^th and 5^th grade girls). It is hard to believe, but we have started the fourth quarter of school here at St. Joseph’s Indian School!

The last time I was here I told you about the William Home and their walking. Well, we made our goal of walking 10,000 laps with a day to spare. The girls did a good job of getting their laps in and finishing what they started. 10,000 laps is equal to 500 miles.

As we set our sights on the last quarter of school we are also preparing to take a day trip with the girls. We are very excited about going to Sioux Falls. We will visit the zoo and the Washington Pavillion to see the science exhibit and the I-Max Theater.

The weather has also allowed us to get some outside play time, and softball season will be starting in the next couple of weeks.

We hope you are all enjoying our blogs as much as we enjoy keeping you up to date on the things we do at St. Joseph’s!

5th graders learn about their own Native American culture

Ironically, the 5^th graders are assigned a unit about People of the Plains as a part of their curriculum. This always leaves me scratching my head because my class, Native American Studies, is pretty much all about the People of the Plains. From the time the kids begin in first grade and go on up to eighth grade, they will have learned many concepts about our beautiful Lakota (Sioux) culture.

Native American children learning about their culture. — The kids were so interested in their Lakota (Sioux) culture.

To begin, I asked the students to make a KWL chart. This is a chart that lists what you know (K), what you want to know (W) and lastly, what you learned (L). Thanks to this process, I was able to tailor the lessons so I didn’t teach something they already knew about. I was able to directly show and discuss actual artifacts from our classroom and the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center on campus.

Some questions they had were about tools, weapons, clothes, food, games, tasks, horses, dogs, child rearing, medicine men, moons and medicines. We learned from the internet, class discussions and by viewing and touching many items at the museum. Visiting the museum was their favorite activity. They touched bones that were used for painting, cutting, sewing, scraping and working. They also learned how paint was made, how items were decorated with porcupine quills, eagle feathers and buffalo parts that were used for practical uses. For example, the buffalo bladder was used as a water carrier, the skin became blankets and the tail was used as a fly swatter.

After the unit was finished, I reflected on how I am really thankful to have this unit. It gives the kids a chance to ask questions about what they want to know and it gives me an opportunity to teach and talk about some different, awesome avenues of our Lakota culture.

Rec Center activities

Our last Enrichment night before spring break with the Afra and Dennis Homes (first through third-grade girls) was filled with the sound of the bat hitting the ball. We were inside playing whiffleball!

First, we had the girls throw and catch to warm up and improve those skills. Then, we played a game of whiffleball. The girls really were hustling and the score was close all the way to the end! Thanks to Sherry, Christine, Peter and Mike for all their help and cheering.

The boys from the Rooney and Speyer Homes (sixth through eighth-grade boys) tried their hand at a Hot Shot contest, which is a basketball shooting game. The first two rounds were one minute long and the top six shooters from each home played a third round of 30 seconds.

The Championship Round came down to Kyle and Jeremy, who each won a prize as the top shooters from their homes. After 1 minute and 30 seconds of shooting, Jeremy finished on top 30 – 18. Many thanks to Nate and Tony for keeping score, Mark for keeping the clock and Brian and Sue for cheering the boys to do their best!

Next week, when everyone is back from spring break, we will get back in the swing of Enrichment night. Hopefully, we will be outside playing t-ball and softball!

Mark and Andy

High school life

Hello again from the Carola Home. This is a busy time of year for our high school students wrapping up the last quarter of the school year while preparing for next year and beyond. The boys and girls must balance their classes, sports, donor luncheon trips, college trips, jobs and spending time with their families and home. This can overwhelm some of our students and they may begin to struggle with keeping up with their homework and grades.

One of our freshman boys was selected to attend the Cultural festival later this month. Four of our boys are attending the college trip to Southeast Tech. Three of our boys were selected to go on the upcoming donor luncheon trips to Oklahoma City and New England. Being selected for things like this encourages our students and proves to them that they can make it – that they can become a Junior, a Senior and a Graduate!!

A couple of St. Joseph's Indian School's kids on the honor roll. — These boys have worked hard at maintaining honor roll all year.

This year our Carola boys have done an amazing job. Most of our 8 sophomores and two freshmen have seen their grades only rise. Some have been on the honor roll all year, while others have come closer than ever before. One started the year with a GPA below 2.0 and he may make the honor roll this time. Yah!!!

This week the 1^st -8^th grade homes at St. Joseph’s are on their Spring Break, leaving our Chamberlain high school students seeing what real life is like. In the real world, life goes on even when you can’t be included because you must work or go to school.

The boys love going to the Dude Ranch. — Campfire, hot dogs, Missouri River and smores. The boys were in heaven!

While the younger homes are away, however, the older kids do play. We took our boys to the Dude Ranch (a local spot that offers public access to the Missouri River), where they built a campfire and cooked hotdogs. We also invited the other homes to come out and share SMORES…YUM!

The rest of the week is all about basketball. The high school homes are celebrating the Chamberlain Cubs going to the state basketball tournament in Sioux Falls. Thanks to donor support, the homes are able to go to the State championship games to support their team. GO CUBS!!!

Chamberlain Cubs boys basketball team. — Good luck Cubs!

The St. Joseph’s High School students are traveling to Sioux Falls for the State Basketball Tournament to support their Chamberlain Cubs basketball team.

#24 is the senior and #2 is the junior forward injured in the first game of the district tourney, both from St. Joseph’s Indian School and both mentioned here in Claire’s blog.

Your friend April,
St. Joseph’s Indian School houseparent

Building relationships

Hi everyone! LaRayne here, St. Joseph’s Native American Studies teacher.

I recently teamed up with Sherry, one of our counselors, to oversee St. Joseph’s eight week inter-city basketball program.

Sherry and I were blessed with being able to watch some relationships being built between our St. Joseph’s Indian School girls and the girls from the Chamberlain community. We had 31 total girls take part in the fun and 16 of those were St. Joseph’s girls. We had four teams which were named after four WNBA teams: Charlotte Sting, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics and the Minnesota Lynx. The Lynx have a connection to St. Joseph’s through a church in Minnesota.

Not only did the girls get to build relationships as a team on the basketball court, but also in other areas. During the second week of the program, Sherry and I created a fun night of team building skills, games and activities along with a fun meal and a swim in the pool on our campus. The girls continued to build relationships while playing a game they really love – basketball. The community and campus come together for a great cause. Our referees and coaches were all from the community as well as St. Joseph’s employees and family members.

The last week of inter-city encompassed two all star games (one for the younger and one for the older girls) and another hour in the pool to finish the program.

Sherry and I look forward to building this program in the years ahead so that when our students from St. Joseph’s attend the public high school, they will see familiar faces at high school and will have built some relationships that will last for years to come.

Region Champions

Ahhh! Basketball playoffs! They are the best! Tuesday we got to watch the Chamberlain Cubs pull off an exciting upset win over the Eagle Butte Braves to take home the Regional Championship. St. Joseph’s took a fan bus to Pierre, South Dakota to support the Cubs, and several staff and homes caravanned along as well.

Everyone seems to like something different about going to a basketball game. Some of our kids just like to hang out and socialize with friends. They don’t even seem to know that a game is going on. As long as they get their giant dill pickle and blue Powerade from the concession stand, they are set.

Some of our kids (and staff/parents) watch the game but still don’t know what is going on. They like to make helpful suggestions like, “Put in [insert kid’s name]!!” Or, if the kid is already in the game, “Go! Score! Win!”

It doesn’t really matter that he is playing defense, after all.

In every crowd there are people who actually know what is going on. They know the difference between a block and a charge. They know a steal from a foul and whether that pivot foot travelled. They keep stats and holler out useful suggestions,

“Watch your follow through! Keep your head up!”

Of course, sometimes there is a debate as to whether the people “in the know” are the ones in the stands, or the men in the stripes out on the floor. This is a good time to go to the concession stand.

I personally like to join the cheerleaders. I have three in my home. Most days I see them wandering the halls, swinging their arms and muttering cryptic phrases like “Eat ‘em up Cubs.” Or beat ‘em up? Team ‘em up?

You would think I would have figured out the cheers by now … but no. The Cub Mascot is also a St. Joseph’s student, and his houseparent shares my confusion. For now, we have decided that the words to the fight song are simply “Na na na na nanana,” at high volume.

Chamberlain Cubs team pictures. — Who doesn't love basketball? Congratulations!

The best part of this game? Several of our St. Joseph’s students are from Eagle Butte, so visiting with friends and family was wonderful. Somebody got to play with an adorable baby niece with big pink cheeks. Sigh.

Oh, and watching our 6 foot senior go up and get his Regional medal.

And our junior forward, injured in a game last week, getting carried out on his teammate’s shoulders so he could cut down the game net. Priceless.

Did I mention that we won? And that we’re going to state?

What’s your favorite part about high school basketball?

Prayers for Fr. Steve

Dear Benefactors,

I have been asked to give you a brief up-date on Fr. Steve Huffstetter, SCJ and his health situation.

A week ago, on February 26^th, he went to Mitchell with one of the High School Boys’ Home for a movie and dinner. When he got back later that night his stomach began to act up and he had flu-like symptoms.

On Monday morning he was still feeling the effects and visited with the nurses here on staff at St. Joseph’s. They looked him over and suggested that he needed to go to the local hospital to be checked out. I drove him up mid-morning.

He called about noon and said they were admitting him. It seems there was blockage in one of his intestines, caused by a piece of scar tissue from his operation last year. He was hooked up to an IV and later in the week had a tube to help drain his stomach.

The Doctor kept close watch. Towards the end of last week things began to take a positive turn. The medication produced good results and surgery will not be needed. He is still on the IV, but is now taking some liquids and soft food. The Doctor kept him in the hospital so he could observe how Fr. Steve’s body reacted to the intake of food. Fr. Steve’s spirits are up and he will be coming home this afternoon – he is especially looking forward to having some good things to eat.

This notice is not sent to worry you, but to bring you up-to-date on how things are going with Fr. Steve.

Sincerely,

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ
Chaplain
St. Joseph’s Indian School
Chamberlain, SD

Youth group raises money for their community

Some of the boys here at St. Joseph’s are part of a group called the Explorers.

Over the past few years, this group has raised over $60,000 towards charitable giving in the local communities!

This year’s group has donated money to those battling cancer in and around the community of Chamberlain.

A large amount of the money comes from doing chores like raking leaves for community members who have a hard time getting around … or simply would rather have someone else do it.

The latest thing the Explorers did was go to Pierre, South Dakota and spent the day doing various educational activities in our State Capital.

The day started with a tour of the Capital building. We then went to the State Crime Lab, which the boys really enjoyed because of the shooting range. Obviously, the boys couldn’t do any shooting, but they enjoyed watching the officers shoot.

After the Crime Lab, we went back to the Capital and meet with Governor Dennis Daugaard. The day ended with the Explorers being introduced on both the House and Senate floors of the Capital, where they received standing ovations for their work in the community!

While the day was educational for all the students, I think the highlight of the day for the kids was the buffet at the Pizza Ranch. Below is a picture of the boys enjoying themselves the restaurant.

Houseparent Nate

Native American boys eating at Pizza Ranch. — The boys really enjoying themselves the restaurant after a full day!