Academics

Educator Profiles

Michael Begay

8th Grade Social Studies Teacher
MS Academics
Dine

I am an alumni of Santa Fe Indian School, the Class of 1991. I received my Associates degree from Haskell Indian Nations University and met my wife of 10 years, in Lawrence Kansas. Go Jayhawks! I then received my Bachelors of Arts in United States History, from Ft. Lewis College in Durango Colorado, where I also did the work for my teaching certification.

I’ve had a variety of jobs since I graduated from SFIS. I worked for nine years at Sandia Casino, where I was a Bingo caller and the assistant manager of the bingo hall. Then I left for Kansas, during that time I got married and moved back to my hometown of Crownpoint, New Mexico. There I was a financial aid technician at Navajo Technical College. After I earned my teaching certificate, my first experience teaching was at a small grant school near Crownpoint, Borrego Pass School, home of the Mountaineers! I went from teaching 12 eighth graders at Borrego Pass, to teaching 95 eighth graders at SFIS.

I teach 8th grade social studies at SFIS, and I love passing on what I’ve learned and relating it in a way students can understand. I love that look of discovery and understanding when they finally realize, “That’s the reason why!” I like giving people information that they otherwise wouldn’t know – the odd/unique ways of knowing why something is the way that it is and miscellaneous tidbits of knowledge. That’s me, I’m that guy that remembers unusual and miscellaneous tidbits of history.

Why do I teach at Santa Fe Indian School? It’s my home. I grew up here, my sister went to school here, and other than my actual home, this is what I think of being at home: The dorms, the faculty, the old buildings of SFIS Campus. I lived at Crandall, ate at Teba’s, and graduated in the Paolo Soleri– all of these old and new places makes this place special for me. This is my other home, my SFIS home.

For me, tradition is the most important core value. Without tradition we as Native Americans would cease to exist. It’s what makes this school so special, the way that we honor our traditions and infuse the teaching of who we are into our SFIS curriculum. The fact that we still want to preserve it, enhance it, and develop it to fit our academic and indigenous worlds – that is what makes tradition the most important core value of SFIS.

Besides my family, my passion is learning something new, I can always learn something new, I love having history surprise me. Another passion is the love of the music of my generation, I’m a Nineties Rock/Heavy Metal kind of teacher. History is about our stories and here at SFIS, our stories will live on. That is enough about me without getting too sentimental!