Friday Night!

Hey everyone, the weekend is here! Fridays are early release days here and we spend the afternoon together as a staff reviewing the week, upcoming events and district/school stuff. Right before our meeting, I wanted to run to the store to grab a few Cokes. I have been really CRAVING some home food, I would really love a burger. Right now the store is only open from 12-3:30, which means that Fridays are the only time I can make it. Its about a 3 minute walk from the school and as I walk closer, I notice the fish plant school bus is pulling in, and its full of people. Most of the people that work at the plant are young adults, who like me, crave the taste of beautifully concocted high fructose corn syrup-y goodness. They all pile in before me and raid the fridge (the drinks are literally kept in household refrigerators, frozen food right above). I decided on a 12 pack and grabbed a bag of chips for the other teacher. A can of Coke is $1.50, not bad all things considered. I figured buying a 12 pack would be more cost effective (pricetags aren't found on a lot of items, the storekeeper probably didn't have time to label them) Turns out, it was just $1.50 times 12, ( do the math children.) But I felt like I was back in line a supermarket, patiently waiting with my two items while 15 people ahead of me have armloads of stuff.

So here's my celebratory dinner:

I did make chocolate chip cupcakes, for the first time ever! Turned out pretty tasty!

Puppy break!

Newborn pups from one of the families.

Lastly, I went for a walk, heading for the beach.

And then, out of the corner of my eye, raspberries!

I picked almost a hat-full and then found a large patch. I figure I can mark the area and head back later.

The Powers That Be

Some might look at this title and think I may rant on about meeting standards, following challenging guidelines while teaching or something of that nature. However, this post will be about the source of our power and electricity in the village.

Since we live way off the road system, on the coast of the Bering Sea, the electricity we get comes from a few generators in town. So here's how it works: there is city power and school power. The school has two 60kw Cummins diesel generators that power the school and teacher housing next door. One generator runs and the other is meant as a back-up. Ideally, the generators are inspected annually and I believe they switch every year. So, in a "perfect" mechanical environment, both generators are up to date and operational.

Then there is "city" power (I call it village power because I have a hard time calling Platinum a city.) The city has its own industrial generator which supplies power to all the buildings, store, post office and homes in the community. The city also has a weaker back-up generator that runs if the main one is down.

So here's how its been. When we arrived a few weeks ago, both of the school generators were down. I believe that one generator was broken due to a melted piston. I'm not so sure about the other one, but it isn't running as well. In this case, the school switches power to the "city" grid. All is fine for a day or two. Mechanics are scheduled to visit to fix at least one generator and diagnose the other. But, a few days before school starts the city generator fails too. Power outages are quite frequent here and the lights normally turn back on after a few minutes, but this time they remained out for a few hours. The lights came back on but with a few restrictions. The weaker back-up generator was running which means that we cannot use any 220 watt appliances like stoves, ovens and dryers.

The past two weeks have quite eventful with at least a power outage everyday and always during school! With the constant overcast weather, it makes reading hard and makes one feel like they are trapped inside. I've learned to become quite adaptable to this and have been better at making activities up on the fly. I've also had to do all of my "cooking" with a microwave, which actually didn't turn out so bad because, well, I'm not exactly a top contestant for any cooking show. But. No laundry. I am fortunate enough to have a smaller water heater that I could keep on for showers. So I may have been clean everyday but the clothes I was wearing, sometimes not so much.

Until today! One of the school generators is operational and ready to pump some power. I currently am finishing up my last load of laundry and celebrated with a good ole out of the box, skillet rice meal, with tuna. Maybe, in the morning, if I'm feeling especially adventurous, I'll make pancakes.

I never thought I'd ever really have to worry about something like electricity in life. Spotty cell phone coverage in hills, sure. No access to internet all the time, probably good for me. But hours and minutes without power in a room full of junior high boys, time to be creative and flow with it.

Back to lesson plans. Here are a few random pics I've taken in the past week:

This is currently my desktop background

The whole village of Platinum

Decided to walk the beach toward Red Mountain. 30 minutes later I was still not very close and the sun was setting.

The road is traveled by villagers and a construction company. There is an active gravel pit on the left side of this picture, behind the hill.

Our dump. Haul it. Throw it. Burn it.

Across the bay

Salmonberries- tasty! There are also blackberries, not so tasty. Raspberries are around too.

A week from last Sunday, the fish plant (cannery) invited people from Platinum to a Sunday lunch. We loaded up in the school bus and drove a mile or so north from town to the plant. It sits on the end of the peninsula, or "spit" as they say. Easy unloading for caught salmon and freight. A lot bigger than I thought!

The plant is owned and operated by the local for-profit regional council. Alaska is much different when it comes to land ownership and management of Alaska Native land. In short, Alaska is divided into 12 regions, based on the different languages and tribes in the state. Since Native Alaskans technically owned all of the land in the state, a settlement was reached and they retained a certain amount of land, paid over $900 million and received other benefits. The cannery is a result of our region's for-profit corporation. They hire people from all over our region.

This is the inside. The food was FANTASTIC! Made me feel like I was back at Camp Barakel. Best part, we could help ourselves to mint chocolate ice cream. I thought I'd have to wait months to taste ice cream again!

One Week Teacher

(So, this post is a bit different than those previous. A lot less informational, a lot more heartfelt, as-i-think-of-it ramblings. There might be a better mixture as time goes on, but I'm kind of experiencing a ton of new and engulfing things.)

Time has been flying by ever since school started. School has become life in a sense, which means it has been quite busying during the day and planning for the next day. It's also very different planning for multiple subjects (English, Math, Science, Social Studies and PE) and different grade levels within those subjects. Now, I'm not an organizing person by nature which isn't exactly giving me an advantage in this task but being more relational has helped me to warm up to my students. We have already had numerous teachable moments to share about each other and sometimes they connect with the course material quite nicely. But to be honest, it has been quite overwhelming at times, like drowning in a sea of curriculum and standards. 

As I sit and write, I have all of my instructional material spread out on the table and across the room, with some lessons planned and others.... works in progress. What I'm trying to figure out now is how meet the requirements of starting out the course work of a new year while helping my students transition into a new school year. 

I don't want to say that I totally blew that my first day, but I definitely learned a lot about a first day of school. 

Progress. Learning. Consistency. Guidelines. Excitement! Joy! Genuineness. 

A few words that come to mind that describe what I'm learning and what I want to emphasize. Teaching is a learning process (how could that make sense?!) But, that is what experienced teachers are telling me. What do you think?

Anywho, I should probably rest up for another day of learning.

Around the Village

Sorry about the wind, but that's how it is on the Bering Sea coast. My battery was about to die, plus all the kids kept coming up to me so I figured it was a good time to stop recording. I went back inside to cook some food and charge the battery.

After eating, I headed back outside with a frisbee in hand and a charged camera. Here's a few pics

It was tough to throw the frisbee with all the wind. That little guy in the center could throw real well!

The Health Clinic

Post Office

I heard the helicopter is owned by GCI, the telecommunications company. They use it to maintain their towers in the area.

The southern end of the Ahklun mountain range. The "red mountain" goes right up to the shore line.

The Store

The legitimate road in the town. It goes 15 miles south to the platinum mine and gravel pit.

Panoramic of the whole bay from afar.

PLATINUM!!!

Hey there! I just got into Platinum a few hours ago and wanted to give a quick update on what is happening.

If I haven't told you about Platinum in person or if you haven't looked it up on a map, do it! The town is pretty small. I haven't ventured around town yet but thats because its raining and its getting late out. But, I am living in the school. Not like a pull out couch in the classroom but an apartment room that is a part of the school building. Kind of weird sounding but the place is really nice! Here's a quick video tour of the whole school:

Tomorrow I will be working on arranging and setting up my classroom, and I hope to start working on some curriculum (since I'm teaching all subjects that's going to be quite the balancing act). But, the next chance I get and if the weather is cooperative, I'll post some pics and videos around town.

The First One

Well hello. I'm just about to embark on something entirely new. Most of you who will read this blog probably already know that I'm going to teach in Alaska. For those of you who don't or if you are looking to hear some more details, this post is for you. But before I take you back a bit before my arrival to this state, I am just about move down Platinum, the village where I will be teaching as a Secondary Generalist. That means I'm teaching all subjects, grades 6-12. Quite the task but I'm set to have 9 students in those grades.

This journey started in Kalamazoo, Michigan at a teacher career fair in mid April. I was encouraged to attend by my wonderful supervising teachers. I polished up my resume, obtained some letters of recommendation and put on a fancy orange tie and headed to fair. These kinds of places are EXTREMELY intimidating to me. I said a quick prayer before entering, signed in, grabbed a name tag and headed in to mingle with potential employers. I looked up the districts that were in attendance and choose 5 districts to research. Most were in rural areas throughout the country like South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado and Alaska. I talked to a few representatives. Some went well, others not so much. After a few conversations, I saw the rep for the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) sitting at the booth alone. I figured I should talk to her since the district was on my list. But, I made sure that I would change my attitude and not come into the conversation with the baggage of previous not-so-well interactions. I think I was a bit too excited for her off the bat. We talked about the region, the Yup'ik people and what teaching looks like. After a few minutes and questions she asked me to come back later for some "interview" questions. This is common at career fairs so we scheduled a time and continued on my way throughout the booths.

I talked to a few more reps, did a few "interviews" and read some of the material from some districts for a few hours before the scheduled time with LKSD. Again, some went really well, others not so much. But they all ended with the same statement: you've finished the first part, now fill out an official application on our website. Not exactly encouraging to hear when you feel like you are just rocking the answers! Finally the time came for my conversation with LKSD. The questions asked were common interview questions that I was prepared for but I made sure that my responses were genuine, not scripted or just what the rep wanted to hear. After 40 minutes (quite a long time) she ended our conversation. Time seemed to slow down immensely as I waited for her to say something. Did it go well? Did I say something that I shouldn't have, was I too transparent? And then she said something like this, "Devin, I think you are a top candidate for our district. I'm going to send your resume to the district office tonight. Expect a call soon."

And sure enough, two days later I get a phone call from a principal in the district about a teaching position. And within a week, I received the official job offer. I didn't even complete my student teaching, let alone graduate and I accepted a job!

In the next post I'll talk a bit about my 2-week experience of cultural training back in June. Then, expect a bunch of photos and some videos of Platinum. I hope to update this blog regularly and share about teaching. If you want to chat or catch up, shoot me message on Facebook, email me and/or Skype or Hangout with me.