ELA

Math

Science

Social Studies

On this site, you will find resources shared or created by teachers and/or paraprofessionals as they are working for Bering Strait School District. As we bring more intentionality to integrating our students' cultural background into their learning, this site was created as a resource to support that work. The work posted here is not commissioned from consultants or experts whose full time job is to create or modify curriculum. This is the work of educators in our district who have made an effort to make the curriculum more accessible to our students by incorporating slight modifications to existing curriculum that bring in the local context and background knowledge of our students. Please feel free to use these resources as is or for ideas on how you can to do the same type of work in your own classroom.

Our goal is not to re-write all curriculum to the local context. Instead, we want to watch for those assignments where we digress from the learning objective to give background knowledge for students to be successful. There are three things to consider when deciding what to modify. The first is whether or not the context is impeding the learning of the students. The second consideration is the amount of time, effort and skills needed to make the changes. Finally, we want to keep in mind the balance between local relevance and exposure to the world beyond our villages. In all instances, take care to ensure the modifications do not change the learning objective. To be successful, teachers are encouraged to approach cultural integration by unit rather than by lesson. Set short term and long term goals for integrating local culture into your lessons.

To maintain an organizational structure for easy use and browsing, this site is managed by the Coordinator of Cultural Programs. The work can be shared in any format (narrative, alternate worksheets, charts, etc.) or in any program (Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Pages, PowerPoint, etc.) To ensure the original work is not unintentionally modified in the live site, all resources will be posted in pdf format. The Coordinator of Cultural Programs will share a copy of the original document for any would would like to use it as a starting point to personalize any resource.

Resources are labeled referencing the program and grade level for ease in searching and retrieval. With the expectation that many adapted resources may be created, the site where resources are created will also be included. Bering Strait School District is quite diverse with three geographic subregions: St. Lawrence Island, Seward Peninsula, and Norton Sound; three distinct indigenous languages (Akuzipik, Yup'ik and Inuit), six major dialects, not to mention the dialects between and within each village; great variance by population (largest schools with 220-250 students, larger schools with 170-200 students, medium schools with 80-125 students, small schools with 40-65 students, and one tiny school with about 25 students. Knowing which sites adapts the resources allows teachers to seek first among those that might be most relevant and gives some credit to those that share the resource without adding the pressure and anxiety that may come with including the teachers' names. When work is done with multiple sites during in-services or working weekends, the site code is replaced with WW (for Working Weekend.)

Once again, please be kind rather than critical. Resources are shared by veterans and by new teachers, by homegrown teachers and by teachers who just moved here, by teachers with masters degrees in specific areas and by para-professionals with a high school diploma. We have a wide range of contributors on each end of the continuum when it comes to teaching experience, education, local knowledge as well as everywhere in between. As the needs of village are different, so are the needs of each class and each student. None of the resources are proclaimed to be better than others for all circumstances but serve as culturally responsive resources to make the content more relevant and accessible to our students. Enjoy using them as is or as inspiration for creating additional resources for your site or particular class. I hope you also consider sharing your creations, so they can be added to this site.