Introduction

My name is Kelly Silk and I have worked in education for 5 ½ years as a teacher in Great Falls, MT. This year I am a 4th grade teacher to 16 amazing students. I have also worked as a reading intervention teacher at Whittier for grades K-6. Whittier elementary is in the heart of Great Falls. The school serves a predominantly Native American student population who come from historical trauma. As an enrolled member of the Standing Rock tribe I have a special place in my heart for teaching Native American students. Currently this school year I am a survival model and I am not an active member with the local union. I am hoping as the pandemic improves that I will be able to serve the union in an active way.

Connecting with TLI

Growing up on 3 different Indian reservations in the state of Montana I am acutely aware of white privilege in the state of Montana. When I decided to become an educator, I was thinking of historical family trauma that has impacted previous generations. I am the first generation to attend a public school. My family has a long history of attending boarding schools. My father attended a boarding school on the reservation and both of my grandparents attended boarding schools as well. While my father graduated high school my grandparents did not graduate. Graduating in 1996, many of the students that I have graduated with are now caught in a cycle of poverty and addiction. Many of the male Native American students I went to school with have since died as Native American men do not typically live long lives on the reservation. As an educator, I realize how much historical trauma has affected the lives of countless Indigenous people even today. I have had the honor of working specifically with Native American students and their families for the past few years. I continue to witness the damage that historical trauma is still inflicting on Indigenous families today during the pandemic. With my Capstone project, I want to educate individuals within the school and the community about historical trauma and poverty and how it continues to impact our Native American students today.

At the beginning of TLI, I either pre emerging or emerging at each of my four competencies listed below. I say this because I realized that there is injustice within the educational setting but I did not have the vocabulary to be able to say what I have watched progress over my time in the classroom. TLI has given me a vocabulary in which I can better communicate the social inequalities that exists within public school settings. While the pandemic school year has been stressful, people are open to conversations about systematic racism and bias.