Playing with Polar Bears

Well, I'm going to have another rural Alaska adventure this year!  I'll be headed to Barrow--yes, that Barrow, the northernmost city in the US--tomorrow at 5:10 p.m.  I'll be teaching 3rd grade at Fred Ipalook Elementary School, the only elementary school in town.  It will be, however, the largest elementary school I've ever taught at--680 students K-5.  By comparison, Will Rogers in Edmond, where I first taught, had 600-620 students K-5.  The principal says that there are 4 or 5 teachers per grade level, so I should also have one of the largest classes I've had--when I do the math, I get an average of 25 students per class.

I'm very much looking forward to it, believe it or not!  First, I'm very glad to have a job!  Second, there's the cool factor (very cool, of course), of living north of the Arctic Circle.  Third, Barrow is a town of 4,000 people, complete with restaurants (plural) and a well-stocked grocery/general store.  Fourth (though this maybe should have been first), there's a Catholic parish there that I can plug into.  Like all parishes in the Bush, they don't have a resident pastor, but I'm used to that from St. Michael.  Fifth, I get to learn about and experience the Inupiaq Eskimo culture--somewhat like, but not entirely, the Yup'ik Eskimo culture I experienced last year.  Sixth, there are polar bears in Barrow! (Yes, Mom, I'll be careful.)  There are more reasons, but I'm a bit unfocused right now, since I'm trying to get everything done by tomorrow.  How do I have time to post, you ask?  I can't take my totes (never unpacked from St. Michael) to the post office until the pastor of my church here in Anchorage gets back with the keys to where they're stored, so, as much as I have to do, I can't do any of it for a while.  Hence the post.

I'll post pictures and more impressions once I get there, but I can't promise to be too prompt about it:  school in Barrow started today, and so I'll have only the weekend to get everything ready (at school and at home) and be ready to teach on Monday!  Prayers are still very much appreciated.

AMDG

Tim

School's out...and it's snowing?

Yes, my friends, today is a memorable day.  It's the last day of school in SMK, and it is not yet spring, anywhere in Alaska.  Anchorage, for example, expects to get three inches of snow today, and we had a mini-blizzard this morning around 7:00.

The last day was relatively peaceful and very enjoyable for all, though.  I held a sale in my classroom for the students to spend the rest of their classroom money, and they left laden down with pop, candy, and other similarly unhealthy junk.  We followed that with a performance by some of the classes (not mine) showcasing what they had learned from our percussionist-dancer-actor Artist-in-Residence, Eddie Wood.  I remembered to get a picture during the high school's performance:

The boys on the left put a little Yup'ik flair into their drumming, and the three on the floor were very concentrated on their rather complex rhythms.

After the performance, we had a balloon-stomping game, which most of the kids thoroughly enjoyed--I only saw one Kindergartener in tears from the loud balloons--and then hot dogs, french fries, and pop for lunch.  The kids' day was done at that point, and we resumed working on our checkout lists.

At a brief faculty meeting, the departing teachers were given going-away presents, which also had an Alaskan flair:

Aside from being very cool, I always had a rabbit skin growing up as a kid, and it's nice to have a souvenir that doubles as a "comfort object."

We have a work day tomorrow, and are expected to check out of school by tomorrow afternoon.  Anyone who knows my work habits knows this will cramp my style considerably--I'm not sure I've ever been done at school before a week after the last day of classes.  But the principal leaves early next week, so it's gotta be done.  I even have to "check out" of my apartment on Monday, though I won't leave until at least Friday.  Again, anyone who knows my housekeeping skills (or more precisely, my poor housekeeping habits--my momma did train me better) knows it's gonna be interesting to see if my house can be presentable by then.

For those of you who don't already know, I won't be returning to SMK next year.  I had to make the decision in February, since the village schools try to hire in March and April, but I didn't want to make it public until the school year was over.  It's been a great experience, but some of the challenges one faces in many village communities are ones that I don't think I'm the best person to help solve.  So where will I be next year?  Please tell me if you know!  I've applied throughout Southcentral Alaska (ANC and environs), but they (I think? I hope?) haven't started hiring yet, so I haven't gotten any more than one interview, and haven't heard back from them.  I'm not officially worried about next year--I'm quite sure that somebody will need a teacher right before school starts, so if I haven't gotten a job by then, I'll fill that need.

If I end up in another of "Earth's imagined corners" next year, I'll continue this blog (at least as sporadically as I have this year).  At the very least, I'll post once more to let interested parties know where I end up--you have to know how the story ends.  Thanks for reading!

AMDG

Tim Main

Field Trip!

All year I had been saving our science unit on oceans to do at the end of the school year, once the snow  and ice had melted.  Guess I'm still an Oklahoma boy at heart--there's still snow, and the bay is still solid.

In fairness, it has warmed up slowly this spring, but measuring salinity, tides, water pollution--not really all that likely in western Alaska in May.

Even so, we took a field trip to the beach yesterday.  We were planning to collect and measure rocks, clean up pollution on the beach, and then just enjoy ourselves.  The last two got done, an as the song says, two out of three ain't bad.

I'll let the pictures (and captions) tell the story:

On our way to the beach--a hike of 1/2 mile or so

I was with the last group to arrive--Elias, our janitor, led the first group.  Joshua (foreground) wanted me to retake the picture so it looked like he was holding the class, but I was eager to get the whole group together.  The kids are standing on the beach, but the (solid) bay is the expanse of white beyond them.

Students journaling about animals and other things they had seen.  Some of the journals "mistakenly" got thrown into the campfire and had to be redone at school.

Elias (center) had the fire burning by the time I got there (no more than 10 min after him).  The kids enjoyed using their graded homework as kindling, though you can see that some of it tried to blow away.  If Elias hadn't been there, we would have (1) had a cold lunch and (2) had to go back much earlier.

One of the local dogs, Chica, chose to come along with us.  She got at least two hot dogs for lunch; the kids wanted to feed her more since she has puppies to nurse.

A short-lived kickball game

On the hunt for pollution

Bernelle had the find of the trip--the skull (and backbone) of a small fox.  She and all the boys found it fascinating; most of the girls found it gross.

Another view of the skull.  Mr. Main found the skull fascinating, too!  The jaw was intact and operable, and there was a "beard" of fur left on the chin.

The results of one group's pollution hunt.  Many of the small pieces are "sea glass," from a ship that sank (?) in the 1800s.  Lots of glass still washes ashore, with the edges conveniently rounded, so it makes a nice collectable.

The pollution hunters that belong to the collection above: Jaylyn, Frank, and Cory

Pollution collection #2

Pollution hunters, group 2: Cheray, Autumn, Ryleigh, and Bernelle (and Chica again)

Last pollution collection.  Notice the black sand on all of our beaches due to its volcanic origin

Last group of pollution hunters: Eric, Silas, and Joshua.  Eric was also one of the 9 (all cousins) who made their First Communion two weeks ago.  I didn't get pictures of that, but I'll try to find some from one of the other teachers and post them.

Lunch around the campfire: hot dogs and s'mores

One more pic of lunch (and the photographer's finger) brings the photojournal to an end.

We left at 10:00 or so, but even leaving late, we were cold by 1:30, so we hiked back to school, watched science videos, and had a paper-airplane-flying competition.  Overall, a success: no injuries (we have our guardian angels to thank for that), no major discipline problems, and a mostly enjoyable experience.  Not so enjoyable for the kids was having to stay after school today when they didn't get their work done on time.  Lots of complaints!  Still, only two more days of school.  After that, I'll be packing up and leaving, to be back in Anchorage around the 25th.  I'll try to post at least once more from SMK before I leave.

Some will be interested to know that one of the students missed the field trip to go goose-hunting with his father, and another missed school today to hunt.  Like in earlier days in the Lower 48, hunting (always to eat) takes precedence over school.

AMDG

Tim

Tragedy in Stebbins

In Stebbins, the only village connected to St. Michael by road, one of the local residents was found dead today, a likely suicide.

The young man was a grandson of the head cook here at our school, and a relative of many of our students.  Suicide is all too common in Alaska's remote villages, so we're very fortunate that this has been the only such incident this year.

Please pray for all involved, especially those close to the young man.  The last thing we want is for this to be the first of many, and prayer is our greatest weapon against that possibility.

My classroom smells like seal oil...and other random factoids.

I plan on "mini-blogging" throughout the day, and updating as I go.

One of my boys went seal hunting this weekend.  The oil is notoriously hard to wash off hands and clothes.  Now he, and my classroom, smell like seal oil--a strongly fishy smell.

The snow is melting quickly--we're starting to watch where we walk, lest we fall into a pond.  I haven't seen signs of breakup on the bay, though.  It's light from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and feels very warm, though the thermometer still says 15°.  I don't know if I believe that--it feels at least in the 30's.

20 more days of school, and we're all getting restless.  It's hard for people to go to bed at a reasonable hour when the sun doesn't!  Though students are increasingly tired and unmotivated, we're still seeing success: good 5-paragraph persuasive essays last week, and a good reading test this morning.

Spring in St. Michael

Yes, basketball season has been over for a while.  Sorry I'm just now getting back to updating this.

Spring in Alaska isn't quite what it is down south.  No flowers yet, nothing growing, snow still on the ground, and in fact, it still snows from time to time.  It's "warm," though--above 20° most days--and we love it!  The sunshine is beautiful to see again.  The sun is rising at 8:15 when I'm headed to school, and it stays light until around 9:00.  Soon we'll be back to long days.

I do have some pictures and videos, if they work, to upload, but I don't know if it'll happen today.  As I write, I have nine of my 12 students still here enjoying free computer time.  This is an important reward here, where most homes don't have Internet access.

At school, we have 11 days, as the principal reminded us this morning, until the dreaded "SBA's"--the state tests that determine so much about education in the modern American system.  We're preparing daily, but I'm trying to keep it low-pressure, since I don't want them to be so nervous they can't test well!

At home, I've been keeping myself busy with language learning.  Many of you know that I've always enjoyed learning languages, and I figured that was a more productive use of my time in the long winter evenings than video games or TV shows--although I have been doing some of that, too.  I've done some beginning work in Arabic and Yup'ik.  Arabic just because it's an important modern language and has plenty of resources for learning it; Yup'ik because it's the ancestral language of the people here.  Arabic has been fun, and I've been making some progress; Yup'ik not so much.  No one here really speaks it, as far as I can tell, and the best resource I could find is a university-level textbook with no audio component and no answers to the exercises!  I've been reviewing a few of my "old" languages, too: Spanish by watching a telenovela with English subtitles--not high-quality literature, but it keeps my attention--and French by reading one of Robert Heinlein's novels in translation.  Again, the goal is to pass the time with something that's not totally a waste of time.

I asked my seventh-graders if they had something they wanted to add.  Here's what I got:

"Natives rule!"
"It's open space here--lots of tundra, and all that other stuff."

Here are the advertised photos; I'll work on adding the video later.

Before an assembly last Monday, students with perfect attendance or no missing homework got rewards.  On the left is our principal, Carolyn Heflin.  In the middle is Pauline Richardson, one of our "parapros," or teacher's aides, whose daughter is in my class; on the right is another of our parapros, Bobbie Andrews, who's also the mayor of the village!  I thought it was neat that the mayor got to hand out the certificates, so that's why this picture made it.

In basketball-mad St. Michael, a visiting former professional women's basketball player, Tanya Crevier,  was a big hit.  She did a number of Harlem-Globetrotter-type stunts that were truly impressive, and gave the kids some good advice about work habits and discipline that I'm sure sank in much better coming from her than if hey had come from us.  I would have enjoyed the display even in the big city; out here, it was truly a wonderful opportunity.

The altar in our church decorated for Lent.  I may have been trying to capture the view through the windows as well, as it's been beautiful lately, but my limited photographic skills didn't allow that--obviously.

Some of the Yup'ik elders at prayer in the church.  The lady in the back is Rita Oyoumick, our parish administrator.  She leads services when a priest isn't available, handles the church's finances, cleans the church, fixes the stoves (heaters) when they go out, but is looking to retire now that she's in her early 70's.  No one has stepped up to take her place, though.  Our average Sunday attendance in 2013 has been 13 people.

Sorry if this was a bit random, but I figured stream-of-consciousness, at this point, was better than nothing.  I hope all is going well where you live!

TM

P. S.:  If you have any questions about St. Michael, or Alaska, or the tundra, or my seventh-graders, please ask them.  It would be easier to post regularly if I knew what you wanted to know about!

Interesting article in the Anchorage Daily News

The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's paper of record, published a story a few days ago that described the situation of education in the Alaska bush very well.  I recommend it to all readers of this blog.  The title and link follow.  I'll talk more about what's happening in SMK soon...really!

Rural teachers struggle to make school meaningful to kids

http://www.adn.com/2013/03/01/2807644/rural-teachers-struggle-to-make.html

Basketball season!

We resumed school last week, and it seems to be going very smoothly so far.

It's a busy time of year, though, since basketball season has started (first game last night, another game this morning), and that's the most exciting part of the school year for most of the community.  As I did in Texas, I'm running the clock for the games.  I enjoy it, but I worry a lot about getting it right.  After a few games, I hope to be more comfortable and less worried!

Because of basketball, though, I'm likely not to be posting again until late February--with one exception I'll explain below.  Before I sign off, though, I'm going to upload a few random pictures that I took last semester but didn't get uploaded.

This and the next few pictures were taken from the top of the hill to the west of the village, which separates the village from the dump.  Taken at the end of September, and intended to provide a 360° view from that vantage point.

This one is facing north, more or less: the school is in the middle ground, and Whale Island is in the background.

The shadows are either me or Perry; the pipe in some of the pictures is our water/ sewer system.

Facing west (ish), overlooking "downtown" St. Michael.  My house isn't visible here, but would be just behind one of the light blue buildings.

Facing northwest (?) (Have I told you that St. Michael isn't oriented north-south, so directions are hard to estimate?)  The school is in the middle ground on the left this time.  The large white "wall" is the material for repaving the roads.  About half of that wall is still there (1/12/13), waiting for summer.

Looking towards the southwest.  The post office and the road to Stebbins are there somewhere--or at least in that direction.

Perry enjoying our outing

This one out of order chronologically--the beach in late October.  If you look carefully, you can see a ship on the beach that has been there since the late 1800s.

Perry enjoying our September walk again.

My mom at Christmas wearing the qaspeq (summer parka) that was her Christmas present.  In St. Michael, qaspeq are used as formal dress (for women) in the winter as well as in the summer.  This one was not locally crafted, but is similar to those the Yup'ik women of St. Michael would wear.