Back Home in the Interior

Well we said goodbye to Quinhagak and are now back in Fairbanks after are week long experience in a rural village. I have to say I want to go back someday and this experience has cemented my desire to one day teach in a rural community. Before we left I had a chance to sit down and talk to the high school social studies and art teacher about her career spent teaching in Quinhagak. I wanted her perspective because her and her husband have both been long term teachers in Quinhagak. She stated it wasn't easy, but loved her job. Her sentiments were shared by all the teachers and looking back at the staff of the Quinhagak school they all got along with each other and were there for the students. Of course there was the typical stress about standardized testing and making sure students graduate, but other than that the atmosphere of the school and the community was positive, inviting, and most importantly connected. The joy of learning was also evident in almost every classroom, the students loved to learn. With an experience like that it is hard not to develop a heart for rural Alaska and its wonderful people. If I learned anything it was that the relationships with people and the journey through life are more important than the temperature outside or your house's plumbing situation. The richness of Quinhagak is its people and once you realize that everything else becomes icing on the cake.

5 School Days Later

Well the past five days have been full of new experiences and lots of learning. Every morning we have eaten breakfast with the students and hung out in the gym until school starts. The students love to play with our hair and take pictures with our cameras. I have found touch is very important to the Yup'ik children of Quinhagak. At first it was surprising, but the three of us quickly became accustomed to having the kids up in our faces every morning. As we would find out later in the week hands on, tactile, and kinesthetic activities were preferred by the elementary students. In a way the students were learning about us through touch; we were something new and they were curious. It is not everyday in Quinhagak that a 5'10" red head female with very fair skin walks into the school. I can't tell you how many times I was told I was tall. The children would look up at me in awe as I towered over them. My height was always a way to start a conversation among the kids and adults.

Basketball, mancala, and hanging out on the bleachers are the main activities after breakfast. Nick even played basketball while sipping his required morning coffee (he needed his coffee no matter what and basketball wouldn't even get in the way of that). Our mornings in the gym were a bonding time with students and aided in our time spent in the classroom.

The highlights of the week spent in the school were the times we spent teaching and observing. We helped teach a 1st grade math lesson and P.E. lesson. I even taught a small special ed class while the teacher stepped out for a bit. During this time the principal even came in. This short special ed experience was very rewarding and pushed me outside my comfort zone. I even played middle school vocabulary bingo and surprisingly won. I forfeited my winning so the game could continue until a student won. I didn't need a soda, which I found out was a favorite reward among the students, that and candy of course. We also observed lessons taught in Yup'ik in the kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms and in the upper elementary grades Yup'ik immersion lessons. I also observed middle and high school classrooms, which was just as rewarding and learned that I liked it just as much as the elementary grades.

My favorite teaching experience of the week was teaching the P.E. lesson to the 1st grade class, mostly because we got to use the giant parachute. Just before coming to Quinhagak we had just learned, from our UAF P.E. class, how to use the parachute to teach elementary students in P.E. We played shark attack, but looking back now it would have been a good idea to call it seal attack. Also played was a game called the washing machine and of course we did the one where you make a tent with the parachute. The three of us had just as much fun a the kids.

Also during the week the three of us had the pleasure of being invited to dinner at the two young and newest teachers' house during the week. We made and brought a salad, which was appreciated. It was nice to get to know the staff of the school better through a social gathering. Other social activities we took part in were walks around the village, being invited to another school staff member's house to get a none teacher housing perspective of what villages houses were like, visiting the local store, attending basketball games, and being part of a school wide assembly. One thing you learn through these experiences about a village school is that the school and community are closely linked. Our time in Quinhagak has been a special educational experience and not to mention extremely fun.