South Dakota

mmmmmmmmmmmk I'm not really sure how to use this, but that's ok. Anyways, South Dakota was a lot of fun. We spent almost 3 weeks on the Rosebud Indian reservation. There was 20 of us (18 Hope students and 2 professors). I worked in a 2nd grade classroom at one of the Todd County Elementary schools. The reservation has a really high poverty rate, so working with those 2nd graders was a lot different than any school I had worked in before. The kids all came from broken families, many of them have seen a lot of gang violence /domestic abuse, and they all have lots of other issues that they come into school with. No one really has any internal motivation--the high school has a 70% drop out rate, so it is really hard for teachers to get their students excited about school because 's they don't want to be there at all. However, I loved being in the schools and the kids enjoyed me being there. We went on a field trip one day which was a lot of fun (I'll try to figure out how to add some pictures :) ).


Other than working in the schools we took some time to learn about the culture and also to be tourists. Some Lakota Indians came and talked to our group about their traditions and stories. It was neat to hear about some of their traditions and beliefs, many o them were very different from anything that I am used to. They also took us around the reservation and showed us some places. As far as being tourist goes... we went to Custer State Park, The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wall Drug (the biggest drug store in the world hah) They were all very cool. I think my favorite was the badlands. We got out of our huge vans to walk around the badlands for a while.

ok .. now to try and add some photos :)

Laurel and I at the World's ONLY Corn Palace. haha.... it was pretty awesome... i guess :)

The Badlands. It's hard to get a good photo of them because I feel like they are so much cooler in person.

My 2nd graders on the field trip to Mammoth site (a site where they find a lot of mammoth bones) and Evan's Plunge (a water park with water from hot springs).

Half of the Hope Group!

a waterfall (sideways) in Niobrara, NE

Mount Rushmore

What is currently completed of crazy horse. It was started in 1948 but is not being worked on right now becuase they don't have enough funding. So far the face is completed. The picture below is what the sculpture will eventually look like. When it is done, it will be the biggest monument in the world.

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