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Smokey Trujillo

Fine and Practical Arts
HS Academics
Cochiti and Taos Pueblos

My name is Joseph G Trujillo Jr. but everyone knows me as Smokey. I have my B.S. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of New Mexico with a Minor in Math and a Minor in Physics from my Engineering days when I served in the U.S. Navy. I trained as an Electronics Technician to work on Satellite Navigation systems, HF, VHF and UHF Communications, and Surface Search Radar in the Navy. I am currently a Level II Secondary licensed teacher and am almost done with my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico Highlands University where I am a member of Phi Etta Kappa Honor Society. I am certified A+ Computer Technician and also can teach Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (with MEMS). I have served on the Faculty Advisory Board as the only High School instructor invited, of the MATEC council of ATE centers, which are nationwide.
I have taught my whole life wherever I have been, which includes the Navy. But formally I have mostly taught here at SFIS for the past 17 years. On occasion, I also teach Robotics Camp during the summer at the National Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque. Before teaching at SFIS, I worked in the dorms as a Residential Advisor, a Student Living Advisor and Director at one time. Currently I am the Department Head of Fine and Practical Arts and I teach in FPA 129.
I teach Geometry and StRUT (Students Recycling Used Technology) which is a computer refurbishing course I developed one year in a basement of one of the old dorms many years ago. I have also taught Algebra I, Computer Applications, and in the CBE program I taught the Math Modeling course. I also tutor in the Evening Program and run the Robotics Club for students, where I teach them how to build and program LEGO robots. As an educator, I would describe myself as a no-nonsense with a work hard ethic. I set my standards for my students very high and expect them to achieve as much as they can while they are in my classes.
I think some of the more memorable moments are when you see a student’s face light up when the computer they have been working on turns on for the first time and it actually works! Or the robot they have designed and built actually does what they programmed it to do! Sometimes it is when you help a student see a math problem in a different way, and they understand something that they saw before in another math class finally make sense to them for the first time. All those moments are golden to me. One time after we had been lecturing about dams and water we went out to the parking lot and measured out an acre in feet and meters. Then we came in and weighed a gallon of water. After all that we figured out how many gallons were behind Cochiti Lake Dam and the weight of it using acre-feet and the weight of that gallon. Students’ eyes grew in amazement as they realized the numbers and what they meant.
I think my passion in life is to go through it and help or teach others as best I can along the way, having fun and leaving a pleasant memory behind. For SFIS students, I desire everything...but more importantly I desire that they learn as much as they can so that they can continue to function in this world as a contributing member of their tribe and a member of the human race, and to have fun doing it!