Academics

Educator Profiles

Abby Arquero

Social Studies
HS Academics
Cochiti/Kewa

I graduated from Ft. Lewis College with a B.A. in Secondary Education. I completed my Master’s in Education Administration at UIUC and my Teacher Certification for the state of New Mexico with an Endorsement in Social Studies and currently hold a Level 3 Administrative License. I worked at SFIS from 1985-1994 and then taught Social Studies at Bernalillo High School. I later became a Student Teacher Supervisor and Novice Teacher Mentor in Bernalillo until I became the Director of Indian Education for the Bernalillo Public Schools. I served as Principal of Tesuque Day School for a year before returning to the classroom at SFIS in 2006.
At SFIS, I teach New Mexico History and Native American History. NM History is a required course and conveys to students the history of the state, including early and current challenges, Indigenous peoples, newcomers, the environment, and the future of New Mexico. In NA History, I teach from our experiences as Native Americans regarding federal Indian policy, sovereignty, challenges and the cultural prosperity of Indigenous people in the Americas. I also direct a cultural exchange program where students travel outside of their communities for exposure to different peoples, cultures and geographies. I believe that travel experiences and exchange are the ultimate learning experiences. Some students for the first time, will fly in an airplane, some students have never been out of state and are given this opportunity. In all planning stages, students are included. The actual exchange is between Gawenni:io/Kawenni:yo School, an Iroquois language immersion school in Six Nations, Canada, and SFIS. Our hosts provide us with experiences that include learning the history of the Six Nations, visiting with community people like elders and school children, and participating in the ceremonial doings, and our students return valuing their language and culture more highly.
Our core values are intrinsic, a part of our community and they should relay themselves to the school community and into mainstream society. The SFIS core values are given beliefs that this is our destiny, the road to becoming an individual that grows up and learns what is defined for them—as respectful individuals, participating, providing service to community so we can exist as a family through our culture. Identifying the core values, pulling them out, runs the risk of separating them from what has always been a part of us, part of our educational philosophy. In the classroom, when I connect my students to their traditional Indian names as an introductory activity and sharing a lesson about themselves with the class, this gives them a sense of being grounded in this particular class because we start out with their identity first. And kids are so ready to show their Indigenous identity because it is a worldview—that name recognition is not only defined on paper or in introductions in class, but they can relate it to the cosmos.
My passion is children and their unknown destinations. I want to be part of their life’s road and share with them lessons that I’ve learned to make their lives easier so that they become knowledgeable about reality, preparing them for a positive life experience. I’ve come full circle as an individual at SFIS, as a staff member, mother, grandmother, community member, and as a professional who gives back to the community because who I am today as an educator was provided in the past to me by SFIS mentors, like Jim Moffitt, Joe Abeyta and Linda Goldman. I was provided with the opportunity, just as I am trying to do for our students today.