Writing About Nature

School Description and Location

I teach at Monument Valley High School (MVHS) in Kayenta, Arizona. I am the only Foreign Language teacher who teaches the Navajo Language 1 and 2 courses at the high school level. These courses are offered to students in grades 9 – 12.

Navajo students applying to the Chief Manuelito Scholarship especially for those who are planning to attend a post-secondary institution after graduation are required to complete 1 credit of Navajo Language and a 0.5 credit of Navajo Government prior to their high school graduation.  Each year, about five to fifteen students take the Navajo Language courses for this scholarship.  Currently we have five students recognized for this award from Monument Valley High School of Kayenta, Arizona.

Kayenta (known in Navajo as To dineeshzhee’, which is translated as “water” for To and dineeshzhee’ for “fingers”) is located in the northeastern corner of Arizona and is 26 miles south of one of the natural wonders of the world which is a sacred ground according to the Navajo people called Monument Valley (known to Navajos as Tse bii’ ndzisgaii, translated as Tse which is “rock”,  bii’ means “among” and ndzisgaii is “clearing or stretches of treeless areas”). There are three public schools under the Kayenta Unified School District, which are: Debbie Braff Elementary School (kindergarten to 4^th grade), Baker Middle School (5^th to 8^th grades) and Monument Valley High School (9^th to 12^th grades).  The Kayenta Community School is a boarding school serving dorm students and day students (kindergarten to 8^th grades) under the Bureau of Indian Education.

The population of Kayenta is 5,227 according to the 2023 U.S. Census estimates.  Kayenta is the only town on the Navajo Nation that has a municipal-style government which is called the Kayenta Township. It is managed by a five-member elected town board and a township manager.  Kayenta Chapter is represented by some elected delegates who belong to the governing body of the Navajo Nation Council.  Meetings are held with the chapter members to maintain interest in community planning. Kayenta Township serves as a local government, and it provides events for the community.  Kayenta has six fast food places, three restaurants, one grocery store, one hardware store, a Navajo arts and crafts enterprise, a movie rental place, three hotels, ten churches, a bank, an auto parts store, and three gas stations. 

Kayenta Unified School District’s mission statement is as follows in English:

It is the individual’s responsibility to attain a successful life.  Thinking, planning, learning, and working together.  This is what we want for you.  Through guidance, we   will get there together.³

The time spent during the Pandemic did not help with the district’s reading scores.  This is an area that schools across the Navajo Nation had to tackle and teachers had to do more work to rebuild their content and extra-curricular courses, especially in reading.  Until the Navajo Nation received coronavirus (CARE) relief funds, internet access was very minimal, and students were unable to communicate with the school district. Teachers and district leaders had to create the means for communication with these students and during this period, students’ scores in reading went down. Each school within the Kayenta district had to implement a program to revive the reading scores.

The high school in Kayenta during the 2022-2023 school year was given several professional growth training lessons and implemented a program called Beyond Textbook Curriculum Framework, which is an online resource created by the Vail Unified School District to improve student achievement through proven teaching and learning frameworks.  This program is one way that the high school is moving forward to improve their low reading scores and incorporate their writing skills.