Brevig Mission!

I haven't realized how far behind I am in my posts vs. real life! I'll make it quick to catch up.

Unalakleet is where the district offices are. It's where all teachers have to go at some point or another, for paperwork, or workshops, or in our case, both. We spent about 2 days there, getting to know each other better, in meetings with Jay and Ted, learning about what we should expect in terms of schools, procedures, availability of all sorts of things, culture, and anything else you could possibly think of. The meetings basically consisted of defining our jobs in certain respects, payroll, Alaska State certification requirements (should we be extended a job offer), and more official applications for the internship.

One thing that really sank in is the reality of a job offer at the end of this internship. I always tend to assume the opposite because of how common Social Studies teachers are, but it seems like there's room for each of us in the district somewhere, given that we can be taught new roles or content areas. It's definitely something for me to keep in the back of my mind. I plan on returning to Rochester in April, but I'm not sure I would be opposed to coming back here for a job in a year or two, depending on where I am in life. The benefits of being a teacher here are pretty sweet, in all respects. For example, rent is relative, and ultimately not terribly expensive. You could expect to pay at most (meaning not everyone does) $900. No car insurance or gas, unless you buy a snow machine or ATV. Food is expensive, but manageable if you do it right. I guess what I'm saying is that I recognize the sensibility and benefits to working as a full time teacher for BSSD, even if I want to go home first.

Anyways, Unalakleet might have been the last time all of us ever see each other again. There is talk that we will all come back at the end of the internship again in Unalakleet, to debrief, swap stories, and catch up. That is all contingent on whether or not our schedules will match up, flights and times, and availability's. I know I'll be looking forward to it if we're able to.

So, January 30th, Myself along with Andy, Eric, and Hannah, all geared up for our flight out of Unalakleet on the district plane. We had to wear all of our gear on the plane because of cold temperatures as a policy, so I was dressed in my boots, bibs, and coat the whole time. Small planes lack pressurized cabins and I definitely felt a good amount of pain in my ears from it. Still, a 55 minute flight wasn't much to complain about, even if the wind sometimes threw the plane left or right. It felt almost like a roller coaster, which is scary to think about now, but wasn't so bad during the flight. I might not speak for everyone when I say that.

We landed in Brevig with clear weather and met Greg, the Sped teacher for the school. Not only were we being picked up, but food was also being delivered to the school, so we unloaded the plane of that as well, and headed for the school. From then, we were introduced to many of the school teachers and staff members, countless students, and given a walking tour of the building. I was really taken aback by how friendly most of the kids are. They ask your name, and where you're from, and how old you are, and your family, etc., but they remember it too. I'm continually surprised at each of their memories. I struggle a lot with names, so trying to commit everyone's to memory is difficult for now. I at least have most of the faculty and staff taken care of. From that day we observed different classrooms and teachers, asked tons of questions, and tried to ride this culture shock for all that it was. It truly is a whole different world up here, like nothing I've ever experienced before.

That day, we each moved in to our respective homes. Andy lives with Scott, and I live with the Principal, Ginger. Ginger is also married to Brian, who is the pastor of the towns church, Brevig Lutheran Church. My home is literally the second floor of the church, so it's never hard to find the house. I luckily have my own room with my own space, which is really nice at the end of the day. My clothes go in drawers, my own bed and a door that shuts; a nice accommodation. It's a nice and comfortable home, and only a 2 minutes walk from school. I spend more time putting on my boots and coat in the morning than I do walking over to the school. An excellent advantage to living with the principal (but to be honest, no house is outside of a 5 minute walking distance.

Last night (same day) the teachers had Andy and I over for dinner, and introductions. It's a wonderful group of people that we'll be working with these next 2 months. Everyone is quite warm and friendly, and everyone really loves being here. We had Mexican for dinner with homemade tortilla wraps, which were fantastic. I also have now experienced my second taste of Alaskan food (kind of). The 'beef' part of dinner was actually made from Muskox (google a picture). It tasted just like taco beef does, so I'd definitely like to have it in a different form, to get the real taste of it. I might not have mentioned before, but I had Reindeer sausage for breakfast twice in Anchorage. It tasted less like Venison, and more like Kielbasa to be honest, but just like with the Muskox, I'm sure a different cut will yield different flavors. The rest of the night was spent talking with everyone and getting to know them better with small talk. We even played a game of Mafia, which definitely takes me back to Wednesday night youth group with my teens. I'm definitely missing each of them.

I'm really coming into this experience with open arms. I plan to try everything at least once, not only out of respect, but out of curiosity at my part. Eskimos have a thing called Eskimo ice cream, which is made out of berries, seal oil, and caribou fat, and while initially it sounds gross I'm definitely going to have a bit when I can. Other things on the menu (potentially) are Seal, Whale, Moose, Muskox, Wild Salmon, Caribou, and anything else we can get our hands on.

Day 1 of school was really a test to see if we can hit the ground running. School runs from 8:30-3:30, and I'm there each day from 8 or 8:30 to 4:00 at the earliest. It's a different time schedule, but not a bad one. It's certainly interesting. Today, I helped out and observed a handful of other classrooms, trying my best to get a feel for what the kids are like in the classroom, the challenges that they can bring, and the behavioral and academic differences between what I know from Rochester, and what I'm experiencing here. It really is a different place entirely. Kids stay out late, and going to bed on time is a real issue in the school. Last night, ATVs and snow machines were running around the roads well into the night last night, even after I went to bed at 11. Academics are also challenging because of our location. I think that everyone should be well versed in the same basic topics, but that's not so easily explained to some of the kids who don't plan on going to college or leaving town. And to be honest, not everything that you learn in school is life applicable for everyone. The idea is to introduce as many things as possible, to give kids viable career choice options. Still, not everything can be applied so readily to a trades or sustenance based lifestyle. Still, I had a wonderful first full day in the school, hanging out and talking with kids, helping teachers when I could, and observing and picking up on instructional and behavioral strategies that teachers use during their lessons.

At the end of the day, I had just enough time to check out the local shop before it closed at 5:00. I'll have to plan ahead to shop there when I need to, or save it for the weekend. I was exhausted enough so I came back home and have read today for a couple of hours. It's been nice and relaxing to just be silent and read. Some of the kids came by and visited me at the house, which was fun because I got to ask them some questions about themselves, and visa-versa. So far, no complaints on my end.

Some interesting things:
1.) The Bering Straight School District covers about the same area of land as Great Britain. Let the size of Alaska really sink in.
2.) Our neighboring village, Teller, is a 6 mile hike away. Because of the winter cold, the bay separating us is a few feet thick in ice, so it's not uncommon to walk across the frozen bay, or even ride ATVs and snow machines.
3.) Seeing the Northern Lights is a great possibility, so long as it's a clear, cold night. This year is the final year of the Sun's process of switching it's polarity (or something like that), which increases Solar Flare activity. Solar Flares react with the Earth's magnetic field, which causes the Northern Lights in the first place. I couldn't be here at a better time!

This blog is now up to date! I might end up posting each day, but as you can see, some days I'm tired or busy, so we'll play by ear. I also have a stable wifi connection, so feel free to send me an email or facebook message to either talk or set up skype!!

Getting the Hang of it

1 missed flight, 3 layovers, and short naps on each flight, we finally touched down in Anchorage at 6:30 PM. It was a long day to say the least. So far, I hadn't met any of the other interns yet so I was totally relying on finding Ted, the HR guy, or Jay, the Assistant Superintendent. I found Ted at the baggage claim, grabbed my things and loaded them into a truck. We were later joined in the truck by Eric and Hannah, two of the other interns from Wisconsin and Minnesota who were on the same Seattle flight as I was.We left the airport and headed for the Hotel we would be staying at while in Anchorage, and met up with most of the other interns, before heading out to dinner. Dinner was spent getting to know each other, and in my case, desperately trying to remember everyone's name (because I'm awful at remembering names). Because it such a long day of flying around we called it a night soon after dinner ended, in order to try to acclimate to the new timezone. 

The next day was spent shopping for food and supplies, and making sure that each of us was ready and prepared for our stay in each of our respective villages. Before breakfast, most of us met the principals of our schools (I didn't), as well as the Superintendent, different technology and education coordinators. I also found out that I would be joined in Brevig Mission by one of the other interns, Andrew from Spokane, which was interesting. I had always expected to be alone in my placement, so it would be interesting to see how two of us fared in the same location. After the meeting with the principals, we had breakfast and headed for Walmart for food.

I've never shopped for food so far in advance before, and we also understood that the food was going to be more expensive, and shipping it over would be another expense entirely. We decided to stock up on bare essentials to get by. Some of these include different varieties of oatmeal, a 20 pound bag of rice, 3 boxes of spaghetti, a couple containers of Ragu, tuna fish and chicken chunks for sandwiches, peanut butter, mayonnaise, jelly, and some other small things. We were told that meat could be purchased in town, as well as some other supplies in the local store (expensively, and maybe not always available). Our carts were dropped off in the back of the store and labeled for shipping to our respective villages, and we left the store for an outdoors store to supplement any gear we might have been lacking. At the sportsman's store we all were given ice trekkers, special spikes to put on our boots to keep us from slipping on ice. 

What's interesting about Alaska, or at least Anchorage, is the demographics of people who move into the state. On the one side, you have the people who come for the outdoors. There are mountains, lakes, beachfront and forests everywhere, with loads of animals to trap and hunt. There is a lot of outdoor life to be had here. On the other side, you have people who come because it's not like the lower 48 states, and its a place that's wide open and empty, and easy to get away from everything else. That's why after stopping at a sporting goods store for supplies and tools, we went to lunch at a organic/vegan friendly sandwich place called "The Middle Way". It wasn't bad food, but it was interesting to see that population of people there. After our lunch, I headed to a bookstore to see if there were any books that I might want to pick up. I was really looking for "The Book Thief", and was disappointed when they were sold out. I settled for an old classic "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", by Jack London, as well as two other books for leisure reading. 

We headed back to the hotel and had about 2 hours to kill, before our principals picked us up for dinner and more introductions. We decided to hike around the area, and look at some of the different houses and shops. The mountains peak up over everything, so it was really cool to almost always be able to see them around. Our hike took us all around the area, and even through some potentially private property. I ended up getting one foot wet because of the adventure, but it was worth it to be able to get out and walk around after still being sore from flying so much. 

An hour or so after we finished our hike, Andrew and I met up with our principal 'Ginger'. We aren't sure why her name is Ginger, because she has brown hair, and her name is Diane. Either way, we went out to a nice restaurant and got to learn more about Brevig Mission, as well as our job responsibilities while we would be interning there. We learned that meat wouldn't be terribly hard to come by, but that our own local store might be strained to maintain its stock of most things. Brevig Mission also has some of the best water in the district, which was really great to hear, because that meant that we wouldn't need to worry about buying drinkable water. I also learned that night that this was the first time that BSSD has ever done an internship process, whereas I thought that they did this every year, and that it was a very common occurrence. While in Brevig, we will either be teachers aides, or potentially given small groups to work with on our own, which is very exciting. It will be very interesting to finally make it out to Brevig on Wednesday to see what our homes and school will be like. The rest of Sunday was spent repacking our gear in order to prepare for our flight the next morning to Unalakleet, where the district offices are. My next post will focus on the 2 days that we spend in Unalakleet. Till then!

Sean

Day 1: Departure

I don't blog. I don't know how to blog. I have nothing against blogging; it's just not what I do. There is no need for another person to blog about their beliefs or opinions, or projects in their backyard. So I haven't ever intended to blog until now.

A few weeks ago, during the final weeks of my final semester at Roberts Wesleyan College, my friend Trevor told me about a paid internship in Alaska, that would have me working in schools as a teacher's aide. Did I mention it's paid? Alaska is a place that I've always wanted to visit, and I usually say "It's my favorite place I've never been to". I've seen pictures, read some history, and have somehow always been fascinated with our largest and northernmost state. So when I heard that I could go, get paid to work, and have an excellent experience that would look good on a resume, I was in.

After sending over a resume, letters of application, providing references, and a 45 minute skype interview, I received the call that I had been selected to become one of the new interns this year. Needless to say, I was excited, nervous, surprised, and very happy. The weeks following have been checking my things, making sure I had everything I needed, taking care of last minute tasks.

Today, I fly out of Rochester and towards Alaska (with a few stops along the way). This blog will serve mainly as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family, a journal of my own experiences, and a place where all of my pictures will go. Eventually I'll get the hang of this blogging thing. Till then, wish me luck!