Educators in Juneau, Hoonah, Angoon and Hydaburg eligible to apply
Nov. 12, 2015
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is sponsoring a free workshop for educators on the connection between math and formline design.
The class will be taught by master Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley, who worked on the monumental house front in the Walter Soboleff Building. The house front is a masterpiece and one of three monumental pieces installed at the facility. Boxley was also the juror for SHI’s 2014 Juried Art Show and Competition.
SHI has sponsored a math and culture program in recent years to teach math concepts through Native art practices, said SHI President Rosita Worl.
“We have found that when students learn math through a culturally relevant activity, they get it. The concepts which often seem so abstract become concrete,” Worl said. “They are learning and they don’t even know it because they are having fun.”
One of the goals of the program is to increase knowledge of teachers in Tlingit cultural traditions, protocols and art and to show how those practices affect mathematical learning.
The workshop is open to art and math educators from the Juneau School District, Hoonah City Schools, Angoon Schools and Hydaburg Schools. A stipend will be paid to participants who complete the three-day course, and SHI will pay travel expenses.
The workshop is scheduled 5:30pm-8:30pm, Dec. 3-4 and 9:30am-3:30pm, Dec. 5 at the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau. Educators who want to participate should contact Jackie Kookesh at jackie.kookesh@sealaska.com. The math and culture program, Opening the Gate, is funded through a grant from the Alaska Native Education Program.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private, nonprofit founded in 1980 to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska.
CONTACT: Rosita Worl, SHI President, 907.463.4844
