FACES OF ARIZONA
What a teacher from the Philippines learned in reservation classrooms
Sept. 7, 2025 As a curious kid in the Philippines, Jeron Velasco enjoyed learning about the world from cable news and programming. He hated reading and preferred National Geographic, Discovery Channel, PBS, CNN and the BBC.
Now 34 and a teacher, Velasco still favors video as an educational tool. Many of the videos he uses in the classroom are from C-SPAN, a nonprofit cable and satellite television network that airs government proceedings unedited and without commentary or analysis. As a current C-SPAN Teacher Fellow, Velasco has the chance to help create educational content for the next generation through cable programming.
He picked up the habit of learning through cable from his mother, the child of a U.S. military serviceman. Velasco sought to connect with his American roots and followed colleagues who had gone to the U.S. to teach.
Teaching in the US was a 'huge blow to morale'
Velasco applied and was assigned to teach in Raton, New Mexico, in September 2021. He came to New Mexico with two other Filipino teachers. They shared a car and apartment — and difficulties connecting with their students. Velasco was accustomed to teaching large classes; 50 students listened attentively to his lecture. In Raton, Velasco quickly realized that students' attention wasn't always guaranteed.
“I learned a lot in my first month of teaching here in Raton," Velasco said. "Students throw colorful words to you and they will answer back to you. They will be disrespectful to you, and we don't experience that in the Philippines."
Velasco was a master-level teacher in the Philippines, meaning he held a higher rank among educators in the Filipino education system, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of St. La Salle in Negros. The disrespect he experienced within the classroom was a huge blow to his morale, he said. It was also difficult being away from his wife and four kids, who stayed in the Philippines for a time while Velasco got his footing in the U.S. "It was really hard for me on those days," he said.
After a semester in Raton, Velasco moved to the Zuni reservation in New Mexico, where challenges persisted. Velasco's principal and the school instructional coach were present in his classroom almost every day, he said. He turned to other Filipino teachers for help. Velasco contacted colleagues from the University of St. La Salle who were also teaching on reservations. They taught him about the hardships many of their students faced, which were compounded by readjusting to classrooms after a year of remote learning during the pandemic.
Velasco was advised that the best way to get students' attention was to make class interactive and engaging. Velasco's wife, a teacher who earned her doctorate alongside him, pushed him to change his approach.
“Don't bore the kids," said Gene Rose Velasco, who later joined her husband teaching on the Zuni reservation. "They're middle schoolers; they have so much energy.” She told her husband that to connect with the students, he had to give up what he thought he knew about teaching. The hardest piece of advice Velasco had to swallow was to embrace classroom activities, something he had long despised.
Learning new methods of connecting with students
Velasco began experimenting with incorporating activities into his lesson plans. For Ancient World History, he borrowed a human dummy from the science teacher and mapped out the process of mummification. To learn about Mesopotamia, he posted a matching game on opposite walls of the classroom and had students race to make pairs.“You have to let the kids feel that they are lawyers, they are surgeons, they are doctors — that they've experienced it,” Velasco said.
Velasco quickly noticed improvements within his classroom. Outside the classroom, he heard positive feedback from parents and compliments on his new teaching style from
staff. Before leaving the Zuni reservation, he received an award from his principal for most improved teacher.
He brought what he learned during his time in New Mexico when he was hired to teach high schoolers at Dishchii’bikoh Community School in Cibecue, Arizona, in the White Mountain Apache reservation in September 2023.
Velasco adapted and transformed the classroom at Dishchii’bikoh Community School to match the curriculum. For U.S. History, it became the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Senate chamber, where students would role-play as justices or senators as they addressed cases or voted on legislation. For this, Velasco won a "Connecting with Classrooms" award from the Arizona Foundation for Legal & Education Services.
During the 2024 presidential election, Velasco hosted a mock election with his classes serving as the electoral college, and the number of electoral votes allocated to each class was proportional to its size. Velasco showed interviews with the candidates, going into their policies, including their stance on Native American issues.
“I'm trying to give them the sense that what we're learning here is not just inside the four walls of the classroom,” Velasco said.
Velasco works to highlight Native Americans in his teaching of U.S. history. He was among 48 teachers nationwide chosen in 2024 by the nonprofit group National History Day to engage in a project where students and teachers work with researchers to put together profiles of people who fought during the Korean War. His classroom chose Native American veterans from Cibecue: Sgt. Steven Phillip Lupe Sr. and Cpl. Ronald “Ronnie” Lupe.
As Velasco began connecting with his students inside the classroom, he worked to encourage them to participate outside of it. He argued against a narrative he described hearing from his students: “It's always a White man's world. We don't belong to that. We just always shut off on the edges.”
Teacher plans course on Native American issues for C-SPAN fellowship
Velasco created a history club at Dishchii’bikoh Community School. The students in the club participated in National History Day, a competition where students present a topic of their interest, and the YMCA Youth and Government Program’s Model Legislative Session, where students debate bills at the Arizona Capitol.
He encouraged his students to share their perspectives on the world and raise awareness about Native American issues at these events. His students went on to debate a bill that prohibited liquor in Native American reservations at the Model Legislative Session, and brought awareness to murdered and missing Indigenous women for the National History Day competition, for which they placed second in the state.
Velasco advised a student with a talent for poetry to apply for the Oskar Knoblauch Holocaust Impact Video Contest using one of his poems. Zachariah Chief won third place and was interviewed by Arizona PBS.
In the four years since arriving in the U.S., Velasco has witnessed firsthand the challenges that many Native American students face outside the classroom. He wanted to create a place in his classroom where they could feel positive, he said.
"What matters most is how the kids will feel. If they talk about school at their home. How did they feel inside your classroom? Is it fun? Did they have games? Did they enjoy it? The learning is secondary to how they feel in your classroom,” Velasco said.
As a fellow for C-SPAN, Velasco hopes to create a course titled “Contemporary Challenges of Native American Communities" so that educators across the U.S. can teach students about issues affecting reservation communities and Native Americans more broadly.
