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Network Sites in the Southwest  Almost 200 students, community members and teachers gathered near the flattop mesas and burgundy-stained desert mountains of Glorieta, New Mexico on April 26-27 to participate in the Rural Trust's Southwest Regional meeting. Led by Southwest steward José Colchado, the meeting used the theme of "What Lies Ahead" to encourage Rural Trust network sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and southern California to learn from each other and together define the future of rural education in the Southwest. During three, one-hour sessions over the two-day meeting, the group split into three strands -- students, community members/parents, and teachers/administrators. The strands were designed to give participants a chance to meet with others serving in similar roles in their communities, get to know and learn from each other, and together make a commitment to apply what they learned from others at the conference to their home communities. The youth strand concentrated on encouraging student leadership. The Ojai Valley Youth Foundation (California) led the students through a variety of exercises to improve their leadership skills and beliefs. Site visits to Pecos Schools and the Santa Fe Indian School on the first day of the conference enabled participants to view and acknowledge the subtle -- and sometimes noticeable -- differences among their schools. The Pecos Independent School District is working to become the first dual language school district in the nation. With the understanding that learning both languages at a time gives students a considerable advantage, the district starts its students learning Spanish and English in first grade. Of the district's 850 students, 90 percent are Chicanos, nine percent are Anglos and one percent are African American or Native American. Conference participants were treated to special presentations all around the school. Some visited with Mrs. Ortiz's first grade class, and watched as they performed time-honored songs and dichos (Spanish traditional sayings with morals) learned in Spanish, English AND sign language, making her students trilingual. Seeing firsthand how schools deal with diversity in the Southwest enabled one teacher to apply what he saw to his own school. "He said that he was committing to going back [to his school] and helping black youth become as connected to their culture as he saw Native Americans and Hispanics connected to theirs," said Colchaldo. Serving 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Indian School is a residential school for Native American students. Conference participants heard from student presenters about school environmental projects and watched their PowerPoint presentation they designed, followed by tours of the school. In the evening, a traditional Pueblo meal was served while the crowd enjoyed line dancing by the senior citizens from Santa Domingo Pueblo and a performance of the Pueblo Buffalo Dance by the Santa Clara Young Dance and Drum Group. The dance and drum group started when a four-year old boy became concerned about Native children forgetting their culture and traditions. Now ten, he leads the drum group of youth ages four to 13. After a second full day of workshops and another evening of song, dance and pi¤ata battling, the meeting concluded with the sharing of thoughts about the meeting. At the final strand, participants wrote letters to themselves to reaffirm their commitment to act on what they had learned from the presentations, and from each other. In six months, those letters will be sent out to all participants, as a reminder of what they learned. "We had a wonderful and rich exchange of ideas about how people are changing the way students learn. It always amazes people how diverse the Trust's work is, depending on the local needs and interests of the people in a particular community. The participants worked hard to gather ideas which they could take back to their own communities. And, they also played hard dancing, singing and sharing the Native American and Mexican cultures of the southwest," concluded Colchado. Events | Services | Newsroom | Contact Us | Search © 2003 The Rural School and Community Trust 
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