Dinkytown Braves

By Todd B Finley

A hilarious and poignant teaching memoir set in 1986, Dinkytown Braves dramatizes the racial and economic tensions that a white middle class English instructor battles in his first job at Earth's Heart Survival School, a K-12 institution for Native Americans near the University of Minnesota. Graduating from college with a double major in education, Todd fears that he is inherently superficial--an over-protected zero hiding behind an above average academic resume. When he is hired by an American Indian Movement school to teach 7-12th grade English after three teachers have quit in less than a week, the opportunity to test himself comes at last.The school administration, composed of A.I.M. radicals and veterans of Wounded Knee, is too busy to offer support. Todd learns about Ojibwe traditions, the Rez, literacy acquisition, and the Myth of the Seven Fires in order to align his curriculum with native values. Allies emerge: his wise-cracking identical twin, his college girlfriend, a battered female senior who aspires to teach, a pregnant Ojibwe social studies instructor, his hyper-literate University of Minnesota writing program buddies, and a genius poet professor. They all teach him about literacy, community, and the secret of being a teacher: learning fast.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1515219933
• ISBN13: 9781515219934
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"