Language and Culture Staff

Hannahville's primary teaching team for Potawatomi language, culture and history consist of four full time instructors -- with one of these individuals also serving as the department's language and culture program coordinator.

The teaching team serves students in grades K through 12 at the Hannahville Indian School - Nah Tah Wahsh PSA. The team is also responsible for providing language education for the pre-K programs and adult education.

Two additional staff members round off the teaching team by promoting the integration of technology and media resources to meld with the language curriculum. The new curriculum now integrates rich and interactive media resources such as video lectures, vocabulary lessons supported by audio, and online flash-based vocabulary games and quizzes posted to our language website. Other media resources include an 18 week online language course, a storybook section with lessons that focus on all language learning components of individual stories, and a verbs resource section. A more recent enhancement to language education for the Middle and High School students is the new Digital Language Lab. All media resources are electronically archived for the department as well.

Gloria Wandahsega

Bosho.....My name is Gloria Wandahsega. I am an elder, enrolled in the Hannahville Potawatomi Tribe. I am the Culture Coordinator/Potawatomi Language instructor at the Hannahville Indian School - Nah Tah Wahsh PSA. I live on the reservation with my grandson, Justin Sagataw, who has been living with me since the age of seven. I have four grown children and eight grandchildren.

At the school, I work with the FACE Program children, Toddler Headstart and the Elementary students up to the fifth grade. We are currently doing a project with the students that we call the Language Train.

This project is onging. It works well and the children enjoy it. I give grades 1 through 3 five new words on a ticket. Along with that we use some coloring sheets and also have incentives when they learn the words. Kindergarten students get a ticket with just three words and coloring sheets with incentives.

This job is time consuming, but very enjoyable. I continue to take Potawatomi language classes myself. This is something I will continue to do to further my knowledge of my language.

Cindy Burns

Bosho. My name is Cindy Burns. I am one of the Language/Culture instructors at the Hannahville Indian School. I'm married and have three children -- two of them live in Wisconsin and the other lives at home with my husband and I. We moved from Wisconsin to Hannahville two years ago.

I can tell you -- it is a hard task to learn our language. Yet I'm learning and teaching what I'm learning to the children in our community. I am proud to be part of the effort to revitalize our traditional Potawatomi language.

Like my mother told me -- "No matter what happens, keep on going." That's what I do. I keep going. I keep learning and teaching.

Juanita Sjoholm

Bosho -- Juanita Sjoholm ndeznekas. I am from Hannahville. I have lived here all my life. I have three sons and two daughters who also reside in Hannahville. I also have nine grandchildren, ages one year to 16 years old.

I have worked in the school system since my graduation from Bark River-Harris. I have worked mainly with grades K through 3. I enjoy working with children.

In November of 2005, I was hired to work for the Culture and Language Education department as a Language/Culture Teaching Aide working with grades 4 through 12. It was a new experience working with High School students. Then in August of 2007, I was assigned as an instructor for grades 6 through 12.

Learning the language is also a new experience for me. I have taken a language class online with Jim Thunder three days a week, and continue other language lessons. I also get help from my co-workers -- Lori, Gloria and Cindy. I look forward to learning more of the Potawatomi language.

Lori Boulley

Bosho, Lori Boulley endeznakas, Rapid River ntotth bya. I am an Odawa enrolled with the Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. I lived in Rapid River for the past 18 years and raised two daughters. I have studied the Ojibway Language intermittently throughout the years. The conversion from the Ojibwa Language to Potawatomi Language has been challenging, but I’m having fun learning and teaching. I have worked in most of the school districts in the area over the past eight years.

For the past year I have been working with the Language/Culture and History Staff at the Hannahville School, developing the Potawatomi Language curriculum. We have come a long way in a year. This year we have added a Potawatomi Language Workbook that is working out great with the High School students. I work primarily with Grades 6-12, but substitute in the elementary when needed. It’s wonderful to see young children learning their traditional language. I’m happy to be a part of this revitalization project.

Dawn Hill

Bosho, nin noswen Dawn Hill. Bark River ndotth bya.* I live with my husband and eleven-year-old daughter who is a student at the Hannahville school. I also have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and one grandson.

In July of 2005, I was first asked to join the Potawatomi language education team as a consultant to assist with integrating technology into the language program and in October 2006 I was assigned as the ANA Language Program Coordinator. Since the fall of 2005, the team has established a long-distance video conference language class with Forest County and launched this web site as a language learning tool -- adding new content weekly. In addition, we have developed a new language curriculum to align with Michigan's World Languages content standards and benchmarks, particularly at the high school level.

In planning our curriculum, we chose to include the Project Based Learning (PBL) model as a program component because it provides students with real-life, hands-on learning experiences. This student directed approach encourages students to take on a larger role in the content of their own education. The first Culture Project Based Learning (CPBL) activities were implemented in the second semester of the 2005/2006 school year. The focus of those activities were to seek an understanding of "What Is Lost When a Language Dies?" A full report on CPBL activities will be posted in the Culture Education section.

Finally, the Culture and Language Team has established a Digital Learning System Language Lab in the school. This dream has become a reality through a three-year ANA language grant awarded on September 30, 2006.

Eric Janofski

Hello, my name is Eric Janofski and i have had the pleasure of working with the Culture Staff here at Hannahville during this active time. We have been recording audio and brainstorming on the best ways to use our new language lab and website resources with the students.

So far we've come a long way and I hope that the progress we make will be felt by many generations to come.

My favorite part of my job so far has been working with the website. Website design and develpment has been my focus in the past few years and I am thankful that I have a job that allows me to work with websites and language. In college I had the opportunity to study French for 4 years and it is amazing how much I can apply my language studies to the learning and teaching of Potawatomi.