(quiet footsteps) - I don't think anyone has as gorgeous as a morning walk as I do.

It's really something else.

(calm music) Well, they still ask me about once a month if I'm leaving.

And not only the students, but the custodians, the other teachers.

Morning.

Because of the turnaround.

I think that's how often people left.

They offered to take all my years of experience and offered me 70,000 for those years.

I never thought that I'd hit 70,000 ever in my life as a teacher.

(calm music) (children talking) - We're not keeping teachers in the south.

And the question is why.

You know the principals, the superintendent, we got together and we did a session with the tribes with both Navajo and the Ute tribe and Hopi.

And we said, what's going on?

What can we do to help?

You know, what do we need to do to support you as teachers?

Not just native teachers but non-native teachers who support our native students.

(car door shuts) - You know, the challenges really lie around high levels of poverty.

We have high levels of absenteeism, illness, the remoteness is an issue.

All the buses roll in and those kids, they've probably already been on that bus anywhere from a half hour to as much as an hour and 45 minutes already on the bus.

All the way around there's a higher complexity to educating in these areas.

- And I try to be really upfront with people so they know this is what it's like.

We're located on the Navajo Nation so you're not gonna be able to own a home or rent a home.

You are gonna live in teacher housing.

But you have to plan ahead for anything you need to buy.

You can't just run to the store and get it.

Yeah, if you wanna see a movie, you need Amazon Prime.

No.

(calm music) Now, you know, we've hired three QTIP teachers for this year with combined work experience of 60 years.

It's actually worked really really well for us so far this year.

- This job was more of a challenge.

So I wouldn't just be in the classroom, being a teacher.

I have a lot more responsibilities.

So it kind of felt to me like a normal progression in maybe my career choice.

I was worried that I wasn't gonna be good enough.

Seriously.

Land and becoming farmers.

Was there anything in there that you questioned?

That you don't understand?

- What's that word?

- Immigrant.

- Immigrant.

Would you go get us a dictionary or two over there please?

- To go to a country of which one is not a... - Consistency creates trust.

So if our students start seeing that year teacher's gonna be there next month, the following month, the year, in the end, you know, you have some well-rounded students they're saying, you know, "I can take the leap."

"I can jump and know that I'll be okay."

That's one thing that I would really like to see for my community.

- To gain the trust of the students was my first and most important job.

And once they started believing that I was gonna be here every day then it became much easier.

But there was a while there that I felt like are they ever gonna warm up to me?

- I've taught at a lot of schools where you close your door and I'm the fourth grade teacher and what goes on out there doesn't really affect me in here but this school's different.

This school, we work together and it's pretty awesome.

I feel like maybe I was needed here.

- It's a different philosophy, a different feeling that's happening.

So I think bringing the QTIP teachers in and changing, you know, that culture of the school, that support that's available is really helping retain other teachers as well.

I mean, our school has been one of the highest turnover for teachers in the state, but amazingly enough, right now we only have one teacher that is planning on leaving.

- When the students ask me if I'm gonna be here next year I tell them, "I'm not leaving" and I'm gonna cry, sorry.

'I'm not leaving until one of you take my job."

And so I think that my goal here is to see that these kids grow up and take over their school.

And they're the teachers and they're the administrators.

They're the next generation.

(calm uplifting music)