4 NOVEMBER 15,2007
Smoke Signals
n
W' h ...
.. X , v. . . -1
Courtesy of Education Department
Left, Tribal Elder Juanita Schlappie was in costume for the
Elder Halloween Ball held at the Tribal Community Center
on Saturday, Oct. 27. Some other Halloween activities
around the Tribal campus included a fall carnival held in
the Tribal gymnasium. Above, college intern Cristina Lara
helps Dillon Larson and Mary Johnson pick out a prize
while, lower left, Raven Harmon fishes for a prize while
Rilee Mercier (right) and Lihui Whitebear watch from
behind a shield of blankets. Below, a community bingo
tournament was held at the Elder Foster Care Housing
on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Tribal Elder Val Grout assesses her
Photo by Toby McClary bingo card during the tournament.
V
''"Hutu,
: XL i
I f 7 M M4 mm tff I Vlt 1
A I". 1: 4, -lt . ',
Courtesy of Education Department
Photo by Toby McClary
Harp varies teaching styles during math class
MATH continued
from front page
classes garnered enough interest
to meet the college's enrollment
criteria.
"It's great to have Tribal members
taking college credit classes here at
CTGR," said Trinity Minahan, Edu
cation Division academic adviser.
"It will be record attendance for a
college credit class through Cheme
keta if the participants in the class
complete. It's a record for a math class
here at Grand Ronde and one of our
largest college credit classes ever."
Although many would think
spending 210 minutes every Tues
day night learning math would not
be exciting, Harp says he breaks up
his teaching styles between lectures,
homework reviews and activities.
He said the once-a-week schedule
also has attracted more students
than offering the course over two
weekday nights for a shorter time.
Virtually all of the students either
live or work in Grand Ronde and the
average student's age is 30.
"A few are just out of high school,"
Harp says. "Most are returning stu
dents, working toward an associate
degree."
Two students are taking it as
their last class before earning
enough credits for a degree.
"They've kind of dodged that
math bullet until the very last
class," Harp jokes about the pos
sible mathophobes.
Harp said he likes teaching re
turning students because they are
more mature and sophisticated.
"They're self-disciplining as
well," Harp said.
If one student becomes a distrac
tion, usually the rest of the stu
dents bring that unruly person in
line, leaving the instructor free to
concentrate on teaching.
So far, everyone is passing.
"There's a really good internal sup
port structure in the classroom,"
Harp says. "Mostly, everyone knows
everyone else." That familiarity also
has helped Harp remember every
name since he knew most of the
students before the class started.
The class started Sept. 25 and
runs through Dec. 4, at which time
students will either have to have
completed a term paper on their
favorite mathematician or teach an
application they learned.
"That way it's not entirely calcula
tion and problem-solving based," Harp
said. "It's one of the few times when
students haven't complained about
having to write a paper. They'd rather
do that than solve the problems."
Harp said that the Education
Division is hoping the success of
the Math 105 class will become a
springboard to finding other courses
that will attract full enrollment in
Grand Ronde.