Survival of My First Semester

Well, it's official!  I've survived the first semester as a 7-12 Teach-A-Little-of-Everything Teacher.  So, I guess to end the year of 2009, I'm going to try and sum of my thoughts and experiences.  Bear with me, this entry might jump around a lot...

Middle School

Okay.  Now, let's just get this out there.  I never imagined myself as a middle school teacher.  In fact, I moved to Alaska to avoid having to take a middle school job in Colorado.  Well, now I'm in Alaska, and guess what I teach?  MIDDLE SCHOOL (well, high school too...but that's another section).  And not only do I have to teach middle school, but I'm not just teaching them science.  I'm also their PE/Health teacher, AND their math teacher.  I guess the biggest difference between teaching middle school here and teaching middle school in Colorado is class size.  I teach (are you ready for this?)  12 middle school students.  Yeah, just 12.  Not too shabby.  Although sometimes it's a little overwhelming, it's not awful.  It's a learning experience for both them and me.  Fortunately, they don't hate me.  We just get tired of each other.  It works both ways I guess.  They've figured out the routine with me.  Next semester, I will only be teaching science and PE/Health with them.  Oh, they play the most ridiculous form of kickball I've ever seen.  It's like kickball/tag/dodgeball.  It's funny as hell!  I love watching them play!

Picture clarity is poor because the gym lighting is poor...but this is the MS kids playing kickball.

High School

This is what I thought I was going to be teaching when I moved here.  High School Science.  But, alas, I only teach one science class...out of 6.  I also teaching high school health and a high school elective, which this semester was Current Issues in Science.  There is about 22 high school students.  We're a little top-heavy in the school right now, with more high schoolers than elementary school students.  Overall, the high school students are pretty good.  Just like any other high school, there's always a few that are tougher than the rest.  There's a few that I struggle with.  There's a few that I feel like I've connected with.  Every day's a different battle.  The hardest part about teaching the high school is the lack of curriculum for the classes I teach.  There is technically a curriculum, but it is very old and outdated.  Current Issues was an interesting class to teach.  I let the class become student-guided.  They picked topics that were interesting to them, and we discussed and researched them.  One topic we spent a lot of time on was Pebble Mine, the local gold and copper mine that is being developed just upriver from us.  Their final project for that unit was to write letters to either Governor Parnell or the Alaskan Congress/Senate members.  So far, we've gotten two responses back:  one from Parnell and one from Senator Lisa Murkowski.  It shows that a little interest and hard work will give even a high school student a response!  

In and Out

Alright, there's two ways into or out of the village if you're traveling by plane:  Via Dillingham or via Anchorage.  When I first arrived, I came from Dillingham, directly from inservice.  We fly on small Cessna-207s.  They seat 7 people and some luggage (and luggage can be stored in odd places in the nose and tail of the plane).  They're pretty small...well, really small.  And they can be a little scary at first.

Cessna 207 (I didn't take this picture...found it on the web)

The other way in or out is via Anchorage.  Only one bush airline flies directly from our village to Anchorage: Dena'ina Air Taxi.  He flies a slightly bigger plane:  A Navajo two-engine plane that seats up to 10, and gear that can be stowed in various places including the wings and nose.  I just flew with him to Anchorage, on my journey home for Christmas.  He charters flights throughout the Nushagak area, so we left Koliganek, and dropped off most of our passengers in Levelock (another village in Alaska).  Because it was just me and one other passenger, I ended up sitting up front with Josh, the pilot.  He gave me a headset and we talked throughout the flight.  He pointed out the different villages as we flew by.  Unfortunately, it was pretty dark, so I can't say I saw much.  We also flew by the volcano and both decided it would be cool if it erupted right at that moment.  (Yeah...I'm a weird science teacher, that shouldn't surprise you.)  You could smell the sulfur coming off of it!

Dena'ina Air Taxi (also didn't take this photo)

Weather

Sunrise, at 10am!

Our weather has been weird apparently.  I don't have much to compare it to, so I can only tell you what I see, and compare it to what everyone tells me it's usually like.  We had hardly any snow when I left Koliganek for Christmas.  We've had two crazy storms that came from the east.  Our storms that come from the east bring in warm winds.  It melted all of our snow, turning it into a nice slick layer of ice!  But to make this ice, you have to have wind.  Very fast wind!  We have had gusts 50-60 mph.  One storm had gusts up to 80 mph!  Whew!  Talk about blowing your feet out from under you!  Temperature wise, we've been all over the place.  Since the first day of fall, we haven't really had temperatures above 40.  In December, we had a few days below 0.  Last week, we hit -35.  Then this weekend, it went from -35 to +20, overnight.  That temperature change, in addition to the crazy wind, snapped my satellite cable!  Right in half between the two houses!  This picture is of the sunrise.  Yes, I was awake to see the sunrise!  It helps that the sun rises around 10am.  The sun also sets about 4:30 or 5pm.  The longest day of darkness was on Monday, so now it will start getting lighter!  Hurray!

Christmas Holidays

We finished up the semester with Santa's Workshop, a Christmas Program and Potluck.  Santa's Workshop is the typical junk that we all had in elementary school and could buy for our parents and grandparents.  It gives the community a chance to go shopping for each other though, which is good, especially since not all of them have the ability to leave the village.  For the Christmas Program, all of the classes either sang songs, did a play, or had a game show.  It was a lot of fun.  The whole community came to watch the kids preform!  I also talked to a couple people about their traditions regarding Slavi, the Russian Orthodox Christmas, which begins January 7.  One of the men in the village was making stars for what begins as a giant festival of sorts.  From what I understand, there is a lot of caroling and feasting, and traveling between the villages, usually by snow machine.  Because so many of the people have families in the neighboring villages, this lasts several days.  I was told many times that I should really be here to see this event, but unfortunately, I do not return to the village until January 9, two days after Slavi begins.  Everyone in the village was very nice as I left tonight, wishing me a Merry Christmas.  Even people I didn't know were giving me hugs and wishing me off.  It was nice.  I also was given a jar of fireweed jam to take home with me to share with my family by one of the parents of my students...we'll see if I share though.

Next Semester

Next semester I'm teaching a whole different array of classes.  I'm still teaching middle school science and PE/health.  I'm also still teaching high school science and health.  I'm going to pick up the journalism/yearbook class, as well as another science elective, that has not really been set in stone.  We'll see what happens.

Well, I think that's it for now!  I'm really excited to go home to see friends and family for the holidays in Colorado!