Students dressing up in Ms. Mary's classroom after school

Photos courtesy of
Rick Novitsky
"Grandpa Ranger Rick"

Three Sister's Garden

Students working with wild rice

School Board member,
Allan Aubid

Ms. Bridget's class in the computer lab

The lunchroom on pajama day

Students dressing up in Ms. Mary's classroom after school

FALL LEAF WALK
A beautiful fall day, the students gathered and went on the annual fall colors walk. Staff from the Tribal DNR and State DNR (Grand Portage State Park) joined forces with parent volunteers to lead the students. Fish drove everyone up to Mineral Center where they walked on the Rengo Road and enjoyed the beautiful changing colors along the traditional maple ridge. Mr. Logan, Grandpa Ranger Rick, Mr. Fish (our bus driver) and Heather Hoagland volunteered to walk with the students, teachers and paras! Eveyone returned from the walk with collections of leaves, smiles on their faces and a tiny spring peeper frog! The frog is now gone and has been replaced by a ten inch garter snake that one of the students brought into the classroom. With a little help from Grandpa Ranger Rick, the students figured out that the snake will eat angle worms. The tiny snake did escape once or twice. Ms. Jacki loved that they found the snake under her desk. Mr. Keith is housing the snake in his room - now that it has a secure lid.

The First Day...

The first day of school began with Bob Swanson presenting the staff with a packet of cultural and meaningful materials, including cedar, sweetgrass, tobacco and sage. Ms. Sherri shared flowers with the staff and a written message to the staff and school board reminiscing about the beginnings of our new school, reflections and reminders about the mission of Oshki Ogimaag , thoughts about our students and their first day and an important Miigwech for the opportunity to share in this mission.

Once the children were all settled in their classroom, I let go a few tears for the love I have for these children and happiness for their opportunity here with incredible, talented, caring, motivated and enthusiastic teachers as well as all the amazing, loving, concerned staff who are here every day to help make their school day positive and provide the absolute best learning environment possible. This includes making sure they arrive on time (Fish!) and making sure they enjoy their breakfast before the school day begins (Jeanne!) At 11:00, the students were able to watch President Obama's speech. Although it seemed it was too long for the majority of our students, the staff tried to point out the important message of the speech - that despite many challenges students face, they control their own destiny, and by working hard, even if that means failing and trying again and again, YOU CAN SUCCEED. It WILL take hard work. It may mean failing and TRYING AGAIN... and AGAIN.... and AGAIN! Everyone, every student has something that they are good at, something to offer others. We, the staff at Oshki Ogimaag, are here to help you find that gift if you haven't found it already. We are here to help in any way you need.   Miigwech to all!
Ms. Heather

Photos courtesy of
Bob Swanson