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.