One Day Teach For America Alumni Magazine

From the Field

The Roads Less Traveled

Tanya Giesbrecht (New Mexico ’05) decides to stay and teach for a third year on a Navajo reservation.

The Roads Less Traveled

After exploring the Navajo reservation where she taught, Tanya Giesbrecht decided there was still more to teach—and learn

By Tanya Giesbrecht (New Mexico ’05)

A few months into my first year teaching at Baca/Dlo’ay Azhi, a tribal community school on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, I decided to step outside my classroom—a white box juxtaposed against towering mesas and expansive grasslands.

My plan was to make home visits to enlist the support of my students’ parents and encourage them to read with their children. Following a hand-drawn map scribbled by a parent on a scrap of paper, I turned off County Road 51 and began winding my way through a flat maze of rutted dirt roads.

On the reservation, nature is an integral part of life and learning.

Soon, I came upon a group of trailers and spotted two of my students, cousins Andrew and Trai. They were tossing a basketball through a rusty old rim affixed to an unwired telephone pole. I called them over and found out Andrew’s mother was not home.

I turned to leave when Trai stopped me. “Do you want a tour?” he asked. I was a little surprised—Trai was the one always falling asleep in class. “Sure!” I said gamely, and started off behind them.

I soon met the family’s goats, horses, sheep, and a renegade turkey. We jumped on the trampoline while they told me stories from their childhood. Andrew spoke of riding his horse across the open plains, and Trai recalled his visit with a tribal medicine man.

Trai then leaned toward me. “Do you want to see something special?” We walked over to a small dwelling behind Andrew’s trailer. Trai explained that the structure was a hogan, a communal Navajo house where traditional ceremonies are performed. He, Andrew, and their cousins had built the hogan for their family last summer. Trai took on the authority of a historian, articulating in great detail the materials and construction methods they had used.

When he came to the front door of the hogan, he stopped and gazed out onto the landscape. In traditional Navajo homes, he said, the door is positioned to face the rising sun so one can be awakened by the beauty of nature. As I looked out to the land, I realized that a new understanding was being awakened inside me, that I could experience learning from unexpected places.

'The Navajo believe that all learning follows a cycle encompassing explanation, interpretation, application, and self-knowledge,' says Giesbrecht (exploring the plains with her students).

The Navajo believe that all learning follows a cycle encompassing explanation, interpretation, application, and self-knowledge. When I signed up for Teach For America, I knew it would be a life-changing experience. I did not expect it to be career-changing. I had full intentions of attending public health school after my two-year commitment. However, as I worked through my graduate school applications, I found my heart stirred by the lessons of Trai, Andrew, and the many other students and families in the community. They had taught me about a world larger than the box of my classroom.

Now a desire has awakened within me to apply that knowledge toward creating an educational experience that is reflective of the land, culture, and students I serve. Riding through the “rez” in a truck and cowboy hat, a stack of hand-drawn maps on the seat beside me, I will venture onto nameless roads for a third year.