• IWillBeHeard

    The Native American Education Program works directly with the Native American students enrolled within the Amphitheater public schools. NAEP's goal is to ensure that the academic remediation or social intervention needs of our Native American students are met in a timely and efficient manner as to prevent major negative events in the future. An Advisor/Tutor is available for direct academic tutoring, social and behavioral advising, and as a cultural resource to the student and you, the teacher. This also includes making home visits with the family or as a referral source for the student should they have needs beyond our office’s capacity.

    Referring a student

    If you need to refer a student, please complete a Native American Student Referral Form and send it back to our office via district mail. You can always access this form on our website under "Overview - Forms". If you have any questions about our program services, please do not hesitate to contact our office. We look forward to working with you to ensure the academic success of our Amphitheater Native American students. 

    What services are offered for the Native American students in my classroom?

    • Individual Academic Tutoring - Students who are referred for academic tutoring are assigned a tutor that will visit them at their school, up to 2 to 3 times per week. The tutors make contact with the referring teacher to ensure that the teacher's recommendations and concerns are addressed. Strategies that are based in Native American pedagogy may be utilized during tutoring sessions to promote academic success, unless parent requests otherwise.
    • Individual Mentoring - Counseling and mentoring strategies that are based in Native American pedagogy are used by the tutors.
    • Family Communication and Intervention - Staff from our office can make home visits and nurture positive dialogue to meet the needs of the student. Follow up visits are implemented to foster continuity.
    • Referral Services - Our staff can make referral to agencies that address food, clothing, health, housing, and legal issues.
    • Academic Events - Our office strives to recognize academic achievement by the student. We are also proponents of long term goal setting and will hold events to assist students and their families focusing on educational planning beyond high school. This could be college, technical school, certificate training programs and on the job training programs.

    Teacher's Guide to Teaching Native Students

    The Native American Education Program compiled the following "Teacher's Guide for Teaching Native Students" a few years ago to aid our district teaching staff in understanding and becoming familiar with our Native culture.  The Guide will also assist teaching staff in working with our Native students.

    If you would like to have a cultural presentation or a discussion on a Native topic/issue for your students, the diverse staff is available to come to your classroom.  Please contact our office for any questions. 

    Other important information for teaching students about Native American Heritage is listed below. The NAEP encourages you to implement these resources into your classroom to help educate ALL students on the most accurate rich heritage of Native American people.  

    Free Curriculum Downloads

    Tribal Lands Curriculum: The Indian Land Tenure Foundation provides free Indian land tenure curriculum for all educational levels. Head Start & K-12 Curriculum. Lessons of Our Land is an interdisciplinary Indian land curriculum designed to align with existing state standards and is adaptable to include the history and culture of the region’s Indian nations.

    Social Studies Curriculum: Meaning of Home Youth Media Curriculum: This curriculum integrates the Digital Media Arts Club model that the Public Media Corps has already developed, as well as the Standing Bear’s Footsteps standards-based Social Studies curriculum to broaden its reach beyond after-school and community groups and into the classroom as well. The curriculum, in implementation, will allow Native (and non-Native) youth to respond to the question: “What is the Meaning of Home?” through carefully crafted media responses.

    Virtual Teaching Materials

    Virtual Bead Loom: Native American beadwork is a great source of mathematics based on four fold symmetry. This website provides mathematical concepts used in creating beadwork designs, as well as a cultural background. The website also provides software to create virtual traditional loom designs for Grades 1-12. The Math tutorial game using graphs is a great way for your students to improve their math.

    Navajo Rug Weaver: Weaving is a long-time tradition of Navajo history and culture. By looking at the intricate designs Navajo weavers use in making their rugs and blankets, the website highlights the math principles used. It also provides a link to Navajo Rug Weaver software, where students can create their own Navajo-inspired rug designs.

    Engineered Ecosystems: Before colonization, Indigenous groups had established principles that kept humans and nature intertwined in complex but balanced relations. In this website you can learn more about the Indigenous tradition of engineered ecosystems, and create your own hydroponics system with electronic sensing to keep the system in balance.

    Indigenous Knowledge and the Physical Sciences: Every culture has some knowledge about the physical laws of the universe. In this website you will learn about the wealth of physical science knowledge that can be found in Native American traditions. We will see that Native knowledge systems make less use of numbers, but still have deep insights into how physical laws work, and ways of approaching them that can be better for people and the planet.