My name is Kathleen, I am the Principal at St. Joseph’s Indian School here in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Our school is composed of Native American children in grades one through eight. The students’ day runs from 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM.
During the course of the week their studies include, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, mathematics, science, social studies, computer, art/music, religion and Native American studies. The class sizes run from nine to fourteen students. We have additional staff for the classroom teachers to further individualized student learning. They range from teachers aides, reading and math specialists, occupational, speech, and physical therapists.
Every day we live our motto: to teach and serve, receive and learn.
Our goal is to help each individual Lakota child reach their potential and to address any difficulties they may have academically. Each student has an academic file which tracks progress and identifies what strategies are being used to help the student achieve. Students that are noted as ‘intensive’ receive multiple services. ‘Strategic’ students receive help in specific areas and ‘benchmarked’ students are challenged to exceed their goals.
This week, five of our students in grades 3-8 competed in the Regional Spelling Bee and our eighth student came in third place. Later this month, we will have our eighth grade girls attend a day-long workshop dealing with math, science and engineering projects.
My name is Shana and I’m the Director for the High School Program here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.
I’m in my fourth year here at St. Joseph’s Indian School and we’ve seen many positive changes and improvements in our program during these years.
The girls basketball team just finished up a successful season and one of our St. Joseph’s students was co-captain of the team, she’s a senior and her last game was very emotional as it’s one of her first good-byes during the end of her senior year.
Tonight is our boys District basketball game with our Chamberlain High School rival Crow Creek. The homes are all excited and ready to go cheer our team as well as our St. Joseph’s Indian School boys who play on the varsity team. I just left our high school learning center and the students there were busy trying to get some homework done before they left for this evenings game. They were full of smiles and warm welcome, which is not always the case when students are doing homework.
Our houseparents recently attended our student’s parent teacher conferences at Chamberlain High School and then our students enjoyed a four-day weekend. Many of our homes scheduled their home skiing trip for this long weekend, but due to blizzard conditions had to postpone their ‘family vacation’. There were some disappointed students and staff, but it’s better to be safe than sorry on our South Dakota roads during the winter.
The homes are trying to find another weekend for skiing. Prom is fast approaching and some of the girls have already picked out their dress, this is always a fun weekend and Chamberlain High School has a post prom party to ensure it’s also a safe weekend. There is never a dull moment in our high school program for our Lakota youngsters!
Hi, my name is Julie, I am the Clinical Services Director at St. Joseph’s Indian School. I supervise the Clinical Department which includes the Family Service Counselors, Prevention Coordinator and Family Liaison. I also oversee the Health Center.
Some activities that we have going on this time of year are the FAST (Families and Schools Together) program and our Spring Sobriety Celebration. Our FAST program is an eight session program of family meetings that provide a “Circle of Support” for student success in school, home and community. The goals of this program are to improve family functioning, promote child success in school, prevent substance abuse by the child and family, reduce the stress that parents and children experience from daily life situations and promote healing through culture.
Last year’s spring Sobriety Walk at St. Joseph's Indian School.
The Spring Sobriety Celebration will be held in April. This celebration includes a sobriety walk that all of the students take part in, a dinner and a speaker and/or presentation of some kind. We also have a t-shirt design contest that the students can enter and the winner gets their design put on the sobriety t-shirts that the students are given to wear for the celebration. The celebration promotes a drug-free lifestyle.
Greetings once again to all of you who have a special place in your heart for St. Joseph’s Indian School. As Fr. Steve is away for some meetings and another donor luncheon, he has asked several of the staff here to keep you informed of what is happening on campus.
I just got back from the airport in Sioux Falls, South Dakota picking up one of our college SCJ’s who is on Spring Break. As he has been out to St. Joseph’s before during the summer when very few students are around, he desired to come and see the program in action. He’ll be helping out as a student aide and will help with our Home Prayer program in which each of our 19 homes are visited for the purpose of a prayer service based on a selected theme. This month we were reflecting on self-control.
Yesterday, I had the chance to go with St. Joseph’s Indian School’s principal and the victors of St. Joseph’s spelling bee to the Corn Palace Regional in Mitchell, South Dakota. The students were broken up into class groups. This is the first time St. Joseph’s students have been entered into the program that ends at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. Some went out on first or second words, others went deeper into the competition and our 8th grade student won third place. For being a first time endeavor, we are very proud of all those who competed. They set the bar high.
We got back from Mitchell with time to spare, so we got to help officiate in the Chamberlain Chamber of Commerce basketball tournament. This tournament is offered for 4th, 5th and 6th grade teams from the local areas around the state of South Dakota. St. Joseph’s hosted the 6th grade boys and our team earned 4th place. The championship game went into overtime and was won literally on a last second lay-up that brought victory to a team from Spearfish over the Chamberlain Cubs team. Our recreation staff was happy to help since it gives people from around the state the chance to see our school and find out about what we have to offer here at St. Joseph’s. Many kind comments were made about our gym facilities, which your generosity makes possible. Thank you.
The wanbli - eagle - is a winged symbol for the Lakota (Sioux) people.
All the grade school students had the chance to take part in a bald eagle presentation put on by the Minnesota Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. They brought over four birds to show our students—a red tail hawk, a peregrine falcon, a horned owl and a magnificent bald eagle. The presenter shared insights into their lives and capabilities, then answered a wide variety of questions from our Native American students. It was an impressive sight since several of the birds have special significance for the Native American people. It was also pointed out how the birds are being affected by the use of chemicals for farming and lead for fishing. Read more about bald eagles on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s website.
The last bit of good news this weekend is that another of our high school graduates received word about being accepted at the University of Minnesota-Morris and receiving a scholarship. Two other graduates also found out they will be attending the schools of their first choice, so is this selection the first choice of the student involved. We congratulate them all.
May the Great Spirit bless and keep you all safe and healthy this upcoming week.
All for this week, but I’ll be in touch again next Sunday since Fr. Steve will still be away. May the Great Spirit bless and keep you all safe and healthy this upcoming week. If anyone wants snow, we have lots to share since we got hit again Saturday morning.
I hit the road for the next 11 days, and spent much today wrapping up things in the office as best I can before traveling.
First, I travel west to California, where a group of us from the business office have been invited to attend a planning retreat that starts on Monday. I’m going a few days early to visit my aunt and cousins in the area.
When that’s finished, I head east to Waukesha, near Milwaukee Wisconsin, for donor appreciation luncheons. I will be back in the office March 8.
In the meantime, I’ve asked some of our staff to be guest bloggers, and give you a different perspective in the coming days. I’ll fill you in more when I return.
Burnt toast set off the fire alarms in Central Offices and got our attention as we were just settling in for our morning meetings. We all passed the impromptu fire drill. Several of our staff are on the volunteer fire department, and once everyone had cleared the building, they checked things out and quickly determined the threat was past, and we all went back to work. A fire could break out most anywhere on campus and it was a good reminder to be prepared.
Fr. Steve, William and Tray at a donor luncheon earlier this year.
I practiced with LaToya, one of our Lakota high school girls who will speak to donors in the Milwaukee area about her experiences at St. Joseph’s Indian School. The high school boys for the next trips in April and June were also selected, so I stopped by their home to congratulate them and answered their questions.
The students are very excited to get to visit a different part of the country and experience something different from what they’ve know and experienced in South Dakota. One of St. Joseph’s Indian School’s mottos a few years ago was, “The World as a Classroom”. Travel and meeting new people stretches their horizons and their understanding of the world. And for me too!
PS – for schedules and more information about attending donor appreciation luncheons, please visit: http://bit.ly/cyor7m.
This morning our principal stopped in to discuss our priorities for next year in hiring specialist teachers, since we had some turnover last year. Do we add to our Lakota studies program? Can we find replacements for our Music teacher or Personal Living Skills teacher who have taken jobs elsewhere?
We have so much that we want to teach our children in need, but only so many class periods in the day to do it. We even talked about possible electives at the end of the school day or offering some Saturday lessons. It is a hard balancing act.
God never promised trying to reach out to people in need would be relaxing or easy.
Most days are fun and delightful here, but some days are heavy and draining. This afternoon, I fielded a call from an alumni who was having lots of personal difficulties and was very depressed, struggling to find reasons to keep going.
After that, I met with a disabled person who is in danger of losing his apartment. Then it was a trip to the law office to try to straighten out complicated legal issues we’ve been working on for a long time.
At day’s end, I felt tired and had a tension headache. God never promised trying to reach out to people in need would be relaxing or easy. That’s just part and parcel of the call to ministry.
Another cold weekend at St. Joseph's Indian School.
Interstate 90 was closed in South Dakota from Chamberlain–west 150 miles– to Wall, and many of our students who went home for the weekend couldn’t get back. Our facilities crew did a great job of plowing our parking lots and roads, and we were able to open school on time. I stopped in the classrooms this morning, and found them to be missing a few students – 44 absent in all, about a fourth of our elementary school. By day’s end, the roads were clearning up and I saw many families dropping their children off at their homes away from home.
One of our 4th grade girls was in the Dean of Students’ office, which meant she was having some problems and was acting up in her classroom. We have cubicles in there for students to study at while calming down. This student preferred to sit on the floor, behind a door, almost hidden from view. She was supposed to be working on the South Dakota state map, identifying Native American reservations, towns, and natural formations but she didn’t have much focus. I didn’t try to deal with the behaviors that landed her there, or scold her in any way. I just tried to be as kind as I could, knowing that she has worries and struggles in her family. We talked about a safer subject – the geography she was working on, and she again found the interest to continue her project. The teachers, counselors and houseparents will talk over how to work through the things that are bothering her.
We got about 10 inches of powdery, blowing snow. Interstate 90 is closed for 150 miles going west in South Dakota. Our maintenance crew has been out plowing; keeping the roads on campus open to allow us to still get around. It was however, easier to travel on foot rather than in a vehicle. Our chapel had the usual crowd for mass, since all our students are here anyway, and just had to walk a block or two.
That’s part of being in community.
After church, I didn’t have any other scheduled activities and I climbed the snowy hill back home for a true day of rest. As the snows continued, you couldn’t go anywhere anyway. I’ve always liked a good snow day, once everyone is safely where they need to go. I read, made some phone calls, exercised and prayed. I don’t often get bored, but try to make my most out of the time given. To be sociable I watched TV with Fr. Dominic for a while. Hockey and golf were on, two sports I never watch on my own. But that’s part of being in community, trying to take interest in what other people are interested in, making small talk and enjoying the time together. When Fr. Anthony got back from a home prayer the three of us played some cards before calling it a night.
Our school assembly room hosted a good crowd of students and their families as part of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Children (RCIC) retreat.
We’re working with a few older students, but mostly a lot of 2nd and 3rd graders. They gravitate toward the hands on activities best of all. I enjoyed the presentation by our principal Kathleen, and Steve, the 4th grade teacher, that compared the gifts of the Holy Spirit to different treats that the students then helped to pass out. In my presentation on the symbols of baptism, the youngsters were fascinated by the baptismal font and crowded around it in a human chain to feel the water and rub into their hands the olive oil I passed around. I don’t think any of them will qualify as distinguished theologians by the time they finish the program, but they have such good hearts and intentions. I hope we do give them a solid basis of faith they can grow into.
We had planned to go through the Rite of Enrollment tomorrow morning at mass, but we changed plans on the fly due to a blizzard predicted for tomorrow. We worried families would get stuck here or on the road when the snow started to fly. We decided to hold a prayer service at the end of the retreat. I called the homes around campus and most of the other students on campus showed up in a sign of support. The families were able to take part and still make it home safely and not worry about tomorrow.
20 children kids wrote their names in the Book of Enrollment. 6th grader Zooey broke her arm and had surgery, so her houseparent Frank stood by her side and did the writing for her.
The four homes with 1st-3rd graders all had several children involved in the retreat. We ordered pizzas, and the homes each brought fruits, vegetables and deserts! We sat down for a festive meal after it was finished. It gave all our staff more time to visit with and get to know the families.
