The locals say the ground floods in the spring when the river melts, gets muddy for half the summer after that, then gets really dry and dusty, and then freezes over again. "Do most of the teachers leave in the summer?" I asked a few juniors; the eyebrow raise, and then, "After school they go." But after talking to an elementary teacher, it seems like there is a split between high school and elementary longevity. One teacher works while her husband does not. He lives the subsistence lifestyle instead, learning from the locals and providing moose and muskox (she offered some for us to take home). Sounds like the life. Also, Terri said the town is very safe, and that is definitely the vibe that I got walking the sunny streets with smiling children on their "snow-gos." There is crime, but she said she is more afraid of bears around here than people. Heck, she's "related to 90% of them," so it's not like she wouldn't know who to blame. Meanwhile...in school, first hour is PE, taught by the social studies teacher, who also teaches Workplace Basics I, along with a writing class and two different history classes. Talk about multi-tasking. And that's not even bad. The principal at Buckland School is also the librarian, counselor, and assistant principal. The scheduling is not as complex as in a bigger school - but still....she has her work cut out for her. This picture is also on Mirjam's site. We had a fun time eating muskox (soooo good) and moose at Terri's house, then we went to Gary's house and tried some of this Beluga. It was just the skin and blubber. The meat was given to the elders. This beluga is two years old! For some reason no Native or biologist can explain, the beluga herds are dwindling and not going their regular routes. I taught two note-taking/caricature/political cartoon US History lessons, one Thursday and one Friday. It was fun. The students did well and I think they'll remember William Howard Taft, especially since I published their humorous caricatures of the Progressive president and his predecessor, TR, in the hallway. The junior class textbook is extremely similar to the 8th grade US History textbook. However, in 8th we skipped the Progressive Era and went straight to WWI. The teacher said some of the students are behind in basic school-like skills, for example, some need a lot of help to write research papers, or do presentations. There are definitely many challenges at the school. Reading comprehension is also difficult for many students. Parent involvement is very low. Getting parents more involved and overcoming old stigmas toward schools is one of the main goals of the district. For example, with the caricature assignment in my 8th grade, the kids asked me if they could take the pictures home and color them. I offered this to the juniors today and they all handed the pictures to me immediately. "You don't want to take it home and make it pretty?" Squished noses.
Even shop class has a SMART board! This looks like a sled in the making...and behind me was a large storage area for projects. Drafting class is in the computer lab. This is one half of the room. These guys were using a drafting program to draw isotope figures of the foam forms they're holding. Measurements had to be exact. It was fun!
The outside of the school, forms of transportation, about mid-morning.
Let's look at pictures of Alaska from the gold rush! Kids were interested and engaged in this fun lesson on photograph analysis. "Break the photograph into quadrants," Mr. Fraser was saying, then a pause, "Who can tell me what a quadrant is?" That was an easy question for these juniors and seniors. The students were given time to choose any photograph from the Alaska archives and fill out a national photography analysis worksheet (steps one and two: look at the photograph for 2 minutes, then focus on the different quadrants and write down observations in categories, i.e. objects, people, activities, etc.).Students worked together and utilized their laptops - not one was playing the bubble game!Mr. Fraser asked the students for thumbs up if they thought they were better with technology than other juniors in the US, thumbs sideways if about the same, and thumbs down if worse with technology. Most of the kids were either thumbs sideways or thumbs down. Then Mr. Fraser asked Mirjam, Cat, and me if our kids had individual laptops at school. "Nope," we chorused back. "See," Mr. Fraser told the class, "I am willing to bet that by the time you guys graduate you will be better with technology than most other kids your age." I think the kids were encouraged.
A little dude that found us and wanted to play. You can see they opted for a stationary postal building instead of the previous movable boat system. On a side note, the boat you see has many more modern sisters around town, stored much the same way. A closer look. A nice local called to us and said, "It closes at 4:30!" and we had to shout back, "That's okay, we're just taking pictures!" That must have sounded pretty silly.Okay, the high school wing is directly above my left shoulder. The school building swings around to where we are standing at a side entrance. The playground is behind me, and the buildings on the other side of the playground are teacher housing. It was windy and cold today!
Onions, anyone? Ready to plant! Two lemons and two very ripe avocados, a few bananas, cucumbers with white fuzz, and pears in a box that has seen better days. No wonder the fellow shoppers today were loading their carts with chips, soda, and canned goods. Ah, the trials and tribulations of bush life... Meanwhile...outside the store Mirjam talks to a local whose dogsled is hitched to his snow machine. The "parking lot" was full with 6 or 7 snow machines and four wheelers. What fun!
"We had so many trophies we had to throw some away from other years," said Terri, the principal, "We had no place to put them all." Connecting hard science with familiar ground... In the high school hallway; much like the big business caricatures and cartoons I did recently. The beautiful, open and bright library with elders gracing the walls. A typical high school hallway - this could be anywhere in the US! Pretty cool. This is after hours, by the way - during the day the hallway is light. The school is amazingly bright and open and welcoming.
Okay, so for the first time in my very short life I felt discriminated against. Monday morning I walk up to get breakfast with my money, and I see cute little kids walking by and getting their trays. I walk up to the lunch men and they say, "No, you cannot get breakfast, you must go to the office and get your ticket."
I felt pretty rejected as I walked back across the commons and found the principal, paid for my little green ticket (which I resisted to rip into three tiny pieces) and then back across the commons to the lunch men again. I handed my ticket across the counter to them, and voila! - a tray with canned fruit, a warm piece of cake/bread, and a bowl of cheerios. Needless to say, on Tuesday morning I bought both my green (breakfast) and blue (lunch) tickets before entering the common area.
I cannot imagine what it was like for the Natives not so long ago in a white racist society. I got the tiniest weensiest taste...and YUCK!
The locals say the ground floods in the spring when the river melts, gets muddy for half the summer after that, then gets really dry and dusty, and then freezes over again. "Do most of the teachers leave in the summer?" I asked a few juniors; the eyebrow raise, and then, "After school they go." But after talking to an elementary teacher, it seems like there is a split between high school and elementary longevity. One teacher works while her husband does not. He lives the subsistence lifestyle instead, learning from the locals and providing moose and muskox (she offered some for us to take home). Sounds like the life. Also, Terri said the town is very safe, and that is definitely the vibe that I got walking the sunny streets with smiling children on their "snow-gos." There is crime, but she said she is more afraid of bears around here than people. Heck, she's "related to 90% of them," so it's not like she wouldn't know who to blame.
Meanwhile...in school, first hour is PE, taught by the social studies teacher, who also teaches Workplace Basics I, along with a writing class and two different history classes. Talk about multi-tasking. And that's not even bad. The principal at Buckland School is also the librarian, counselor, and assistant principal. The scheduling is not as complex as in a bigger school - but still....she has her work cut out for her.
This picture is also on Mirjam's site. We had a fun time eating muskox (soooo good) and moose at Terri's house, then we went to Gary's house and tried some of this Beluga. It was just the skin and blubber. The meat was given to the elders. This beluga is two years old! For some reason no Native or biologist can explain, the beluga herds are dwindling and not going their regular routes.
I taught two note-taking/caricature/political cartoon US History lessons, one Thursday and one Friday. It was fun. The students did well and I think they'll remember 
