A Day in the Life

What follows is a description of a "typical" school day. Not that any day is ever "typical," but perhaps this is the average of all the atypical days!

The alarm goes off at 6:30. I hit snooze a couple of times, and walk to the bathroom at 7:00. It's quite dark still. When I leave the bathroom, I walk to my office, which is the room where my hanging clothes are. I collect what I'll need for the day, then go back to my bedroom to get dressed. And, of course, to play with the dogs. Cody loves morning play time.

Around 7:30, I let the dogs out, leaving the 3 doors between the outside and the kitchen open so they can come back in. I prepare my breakfast and theirs. My usual breakfast is yogurt with fruit and granola. The yogurt is homemade. The fruit is dried or frozen, since fresh fruit is hard to come by. I make iced mocha by the pot, so all I have to do is pour it out. I'm hoping to get some bottled juice to go with my breakfast.

I leave by around 7:55 for my morning commute. The school is about 75 paces from my door. I don't know how long my pace is, but I'm sure this adds up to a really short commute! If I'm first, and if my key cooperates, I unlock the door. There are often several students already waiting. I've trained my kids that they can arrive at school any time after the doors are unlocked, but they can't arrive in the classroom until 8:20.

My teaching station, with Elmo, is the putty colored
cabinet in the middle of the room.

When my kids finally enter the classroom, they start working on their Journal question. They have 10 minutes from when school starts (8:30) to write at least 3 complete sentences. Then we do Daily Oral Language. In the past, each student had a book with their D.O.L. It was all individualized by grade level, and the teacher checked the work. However, I've found with other classes that if I don't talk about the D.O.L. corrections with the students, they don't really learn anything by doing it. D.O.L. takes 10 minutes max. Then we start Language Arts.

I learned very quickly that these kids have minimal writing skills. I'm teaching them what should be a grammar review at about the 6th grade level. I've also had to teach them the basic format for writing a paragraph and a five-paragraph essay. They're showing good improvement in just a short time. I think they had some of the basic skills, but didn't know how to apply them.

The District doesn't have a reading program for these kids, so I'm using novels. We're all doing the first book together: The Bridge to Terabithia. Once I get a sense of each student's level, I can group them for future novels. I could even create literature units for individuals, if there isn't anyone else at the same level.

The last 15 minutes of Language Arts is when I read aloud to the students. They're really enjoying Stargirl. One of the best parts of reading aloud is that I can read books that are more difficult than they can read on their own. I think the next book I'm going to read is Ender's Game. I hope to read Dracula, though, for Halloween. It's a long book, so I may have to read that next, and Ender after.

10:00 to 10:15 is break time. The District buys snacks for the kids. The procedure for handing out the snacks seems to have existed for a long time. I didn't want to do anything to disturb it. The snack helper--okay, having an assigned helper to do the work is my contribution--puts an assortment of snacks in the bowl. Then the oldest student picks first, and down the line to the youngest.

I sit at the semi-circular table as I dispense
mathematical wisdom!

After the break, it's time for Math. My students range from 4th grade math to Geometry. They watch video lessons, then work in the text. They've learned that I'm going to make them go back and correct everything they miss, so it's better to come to me for checking after every lesson segment. The big surprise for me is how much I understand in the Algebra I and Geometry curricula. I didn't think I had retained that much, and I know I didn't understand all of it when I took the classes in high school. I had warned the kids at the outset that I might not be able to help much in the higher levels, but it turns out I was wrong.

At 11:15, we move into one of the other classrooms for Fine Arts. Today was Music. I've gotten over my shock at how few songs these kids know (mostly), and now I'm working at giving them a decent education in music. My jaw still dropped when I asked them to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and they didn't know it. However, I forged ahead and taught it as we sang. Then I introduced the concept of a round. After we sang it in parts a couple of times, I put on a section of Fantasia, with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm. I told them to pay attention to how the music seems to echo itself, as if it's playing follow the leader. I compared that with the round, which we sang again. My hope is that they can sing Dona Nobis Pacem at Christmas.

A Day in the Life of Cody and Shadow: sleep on the sofa,
wake up, repeat

Lunch time is noon to 1. No school lunch program here. The best part is being able to go home and let the dogs out. Cody is always so happy to see me!

The afternoon seems to fly by. The first 50 minutes is Science. We're mostly working from the text, as we are in Geography, which is the next 50 minutes. They get another break at 2:45. At 3:00, my kids go to the gym for P.E. with Sonja while her kids go to the Art room for Music (or whatever) with me.

I go home to greet my dogs and let them out. I spend most of the rest of the day working on my lessons for the next day. Sometime in the late afternoon or evening I cook a meal for myself. No pizza delivery in Atka! Eventually, somewhere around 9:00, I let the dogs out for the last time, and get ready for bed.

It would probably be a boring life, except I like what I'm doing!

And Her Little Dog, Too!

My teaching partner is a slender, red-headed vegan, originally from San Francisco, but most recently from Reno. She had a rough year last school year, so she wanted to get away and escape to some place less stressful.

She has six K-2 students. That's the age that I'm usually most comfortable with. My partner, on the other hand, has never worked in an early childhood classroom. Most of her experience has been with secondary students. Each of us is working outside our comfort area. We talked about trading jobs, but we both had reasons for wanting to do the exact job we're doing. And since each of us has expertise the other lacks, we have built-in mentors!

We are about the same age (50-something), and both come from a special education background. She is teaching P.E. to all the students, while I teach them fine/cultural arts. Neither of us teaches our subjects in the way the kids expected. I teach Art, for example, with a heavy dose of Art History mixed in. My partner's P.E. classes include yoga, meditation, and martial arts.

Sam is her dog. His body is kind of houndish, but his face looks Labby. He's a very active dog, so he and Shadow get along pretty well. He's also a bigger dog, so he and Cody get along, too. He even gets along with Monster Cat, the kitten that I had to give back to my partner when Shadow wouldn't stop barking at him. The first day Sam and MC were together, the cat was playing with Sam's tail. This morning, I saw Sam staring out the window at some of the kids as they passed by on their way to school. He wasn't barking, just watching the kids. Sometimes he walks into my house to see the dogs. Sometimes my dogs go to Sam's house and "ask" if Sam can come out to play. It's a nice dynamic.

I'm lucky to have such a great partner to share this experience. The dogs are all lucky, too!

The Atka Dancers

The people of Atka are Aleuts; in the native language, they are Unangax. During WWII, they and many other native Alaskan groups were relocated to internment camps. Ostensibly, this was for their own protection from Japanese attack, but it's hard to justify putting them in camps that were little better than prisons. Many village populations were decimated by disease and other problems during their 4 years of internment, Atka among them. Entire villages were burned to the ground while the inhabitants were in the camps in order to prevent the Japanese from using their homes. The most devastating loss was the death of elders with all the knowledge they had of customs and traditions stretching back centuries.

About 20 years ago, a Russian Aleut arrived in Atka. With her she carried knowledge of the old dances. She began to teach the children through the public schools. Adults joined the lessons. The people of the village worked together to create traditional regalia for the dancers. The troupe learned to drum and to sing the native songs.

The Atka Dancers were warmly and enthusiastically welcomed when they started performing at Native festivals. The walls of the school hallways, offices, and display cases are filled with newspaper articles and award certificates from various Alaskan institutions praising the dancers and their contribution to Native Heritage.

I teach a fine/cultural arts elective. I have two sections per day, one with the secondary kids and one with the primary ones. My elective includes Art, Music, Drama, Media, and Movement/Dance. The boys who are my oldest students and most excited about dance asked to use their Dance class for practicing the native dances. I agreed. Today was their first class.

They didn't have a clue how to teach or lead anything. One of the boys who's not part of the group was doing a great job taking the dance apart and teaching it to me while the other 4 dithered. They couldn't recognize that they have to teach the dance, the drumming, and the singing as separate things and then put them together. The class period was mostly spent watching the 4 boys argue.

I absolutely do not want this tradition to die on my watch. I have so many strikes against me--bad knees, bad feet, sciatica--and I'm not a native. Or Native. Yet I feel an obligation to the people who are here now and the spirits of the island to help keep the dancing alive. I hope someday soon I'll be able to share pictures of *my* students dancing the traditional dances!

Teaching in a One-Room Schoolhouse

Our school district uses a standards-based curriculum. Students progress through the grades by demonstrating mastery of the standards. Each standard has 1 or more performance benchmarks. The benchmarks are written on a performance grid which indicates what behavior is 'emerging', 'developing', 'proficient', or 'advanced'. Students don't move through the grades simply because they've occupied a seat for a certain length of time. They only advance if they master the content. It's a sound theory.

In practice, though, the truth has been quite different. Past teachers have been less than rigorous. For example, some of the students told us that last year the teacher would give them a printout of the benchmark. Then the student would google the information and write a paper. The paper had no citations. The ones I've read were also horribly written. They did nothing more than repeat back basic information.

I know this kind of system can work, but I'm not sure how to transition the kids into a more rigorous program. They don't value any work except that which leads to demonstrating mastery. There's no accountability in all the assignments that develop the skills leading to mastery.

Another problem is that the school looks like a hoarder's house! Everything needs to be cleaned out: file cabinets, book room, offices, classrooms, library. Everything! Our library needs to convert to the Library of Congress system. I think we're also going to need more shelving for the books that are piled up all over the place.

The kids are pretty great. Maybe the worst thing about them is that they're too independent. They're so used to doing everything for themselves that they have a hard time remembering that they're the students, and I'm the teacher. Well, that and the fact that none of them can write a decent sentence!

I still think I'm going to love this job, but I wanted to let you know what the struggles are, too.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the year. I had already met almost all of my students, but this was the first time they got to see what it would be like to be in my classroom. I think they know now that I'm pretty easy to get along with--as long as they don't screw up! Like I'm fine with kids chewing gum, as long as I can't hear or see it. And the first time I find it stuck on something is the last time anyone chews gum!

I'm much the same way with academics. I trust them to do what they're supposed to. If they don't, then I'll be on their backs monitoring and nagging. I mostly think that kids will behave up to my expectations, so I set my expectations high. I get the feeling these kids haven't been given as much freedom as they deserve, considering they teach themselves!

I've got 6 boys and 2 girls in grades 5 through 12. My youngest student is my brightest. My 12 grader needs only two credits, U.S. History and Health, and he'll be able to graduate. My goal is to get him finished this semester, preferably by Christmas. Other than that, my goals are to teach them something without ripping my hair out!

I started a read-aloud program. That means I'm reading aloud to the students. I decided to share with them the rationale for it, which made 7 heads start nodding. The first book I'm reading is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I got through the Preface, Chapter 1, and part of Chapter 2 in the allotted time. When I finished, most of the kids gave me a thumbs up for being interested in the book. I'm really looking forward to this activity. The kids are so lacking in experiences that everyone else considers "normal." This is a great way to help them build vocabulary, as well as experiencing the world vicariously through the characters.

Along the same lines, I got a real shock when I did my first Music lesson with the combined classes. I pulled out my guitar intending to lead them through some familiar folk songs. They didn't know them! Even the teens didn't know BINGO! Puff the Magic Dragon! On Top of Spaghetti! She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain! Nothing! My partner and I decided we have to split the classes for Arts and P.E. because it was too hard to teach the whole group together. I think most of what I'll do with the K-2 group is singing the songs that every child should know. I'll probably do some of that with the older ones, too, but I want to give them some music-reading and some music appreciation. Fortunately, the National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC) created a list of songs just like I need for these kids. They've even got lesson plans for them.

I'm pretty pleased with how the day went. I have a ton of work to do so that the students can work somewhat independently at their own level, making sure I cover all the content areas, but it's work I'll enjoy. For each unit of study in Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies, I want to offer them a choice between taking a test, writing a research paper (or report, depending on the grade), and making a project. I'm getting to be fun and creative about designing projects. I think I'm going to like it here.

Remind me of that when I start complaining about the workload!

Health and Wellness

My teaching partner, finally arrived on Atka Thursday. She had been stranded in Dutch Harbor since Sunday while the airline canceled the flight three days in a row! Immediately upon her arrival, we had a conference call with all the other employees of the school district: the superintendent, the teachers at the Adak school; a Dutch student teacher, also at Adak; and the business manager at the office in Anchorage. Among other things, we were told that all students in Kindergarten and 7th grade have to have TB tests.

On Friday, I took my partner for a tour of the village. Our destination was the clinic, to introduce ourselves to the community health nurse there, and arrange for the TB tests.

I found visiting the clinic to be an interesting experience and quite an education in rural health care. The nurse works under the direction of a doctor who is not in residence. He visits regularly, but I don't know how often. Medications are available for acute illnesses, but no prescription medications are available for chronic conditions. I'm not sure how the clinic is funded, but it will only offer care for wellness and chronic conditions to Alaskan Natives and Native Americans. The nurse was quick to assure us that we would be cared for in the event of an acute illness or an accident, but that we had to go elsewhere to find a primary care provider. I can't even get a TB test, though having just come from China and being new to the school system, I probably should. It's not required by law, so no test.

We both plan to stay for multiple years, unless we find that there's something we can't tolerate. The weather in the winter could end up being a deal-breaker, but neither of us will know until we go through it. However, we're both over 50. My partner is in better health than I am overall, but at our age, things are starting to wear out. It bothers me to think that being a resident of the island, as well as a member of the community, doesn't entitle me to use the only health care facility on the island. As much as I am trying to be understanding and respectful toward the native culture, I'm having a hard time accepting this situation as appropriate.

P.S.--Every place on the island is beautiful in one way or another, but the view from the clinic down to the bay is especially lovely (see photo).

Yakov E. Netsvetov School

My school is the Yakov E. Netsvetov School. For a school that has probably never had more than two dozen students at a time, it is remarkably well-equipped. There is a large gym with a weight room. Also off the gym is a woodworking shop. A long hallway has display cases on one side. On the other side are offices and storage rooms. The hallway opens up into the rather large Library/Media Center. At the front end of the Library is a stage. The center space is open, save for some tables, so that it can be used to seat an audience for programs. Rooms on the perimeter of the Library include more storage rooms, a full kitchen for cooking classes, and a well-equipped science lab. At each of the four "corners" of the Library is a classroom. One was used for the Native Alaskan curriculum, including Unangax language studies. That teacher retired, so we don't know yet how we'll use that room. One room is an Art room; the cabinets in there are stuffed with many kinds of art materials. The last two rooms are the homerooms of the primary and secondary classes.

As of today, we have 11 students enrolled: one kindergarten, one 1st, three 2nd, one 5th, one 6th, one 7th, two 9th, and one 10th. There are 3 others we've heard may be coming, but we won't know until they show up. Or don't! Since there's a gap between the three 2nd graders and the 5th grader, I'll have the students in grades 5-12, while my partner will have the students in grades K-4.

The Math curriculum we use is designed for homeschoolers. That allows the students to learn pretty independently. They watch lessons on a DVD, then do the relevant pages in the text. My job is to check their work to make sure they understand what they're doing and provide help when they don't. The curriculum goes up to Algebra II; my highest student is in Pre-Algebra.

We use a pretty structured reading program for the primary students. Usually, the secondary program builds on trade books. My 5th grade student is probably the brightest student in the school in terms of ability, so she'll be able to handle the secondary program. I don't know if the 6th grader will be able to handle it, or if he'll need to use the higher levels of the packaged program.

I chose the texts for Science and Social Studies based on what the high school students need by the time they graduate and what they had last year. I also chose subjects that I think align pretty well so that I can design projects with overlap. I'll be teaching Earth Science and World Geography. After we've done the physical geography chapters and move on to the regions and cultures chapters, I may also be able to align World Geography with World Literature.

The classes combine for two periods a day, last thing in the morning before lunch and last thing in the day before dismissal. One of those periods will be for P.E. with my partner. The other period is when I'll be teaching a Fine/Cultural Arts class, which will include Music, Movement/Dance, Visual Art, and Drama. Teaching so that the little ones can keep up and the older ones aren't bored is going to be a big challenge. I had hoped to include reading music as a goal, but I don't think I can do it with pre-literate students!

So that's what I'll be doing starting Tuesday. Some of it is straight forward; some I have to create as I go, and some is a little of both, like teaching three intermediate students using high school materials. I don't entirely know what to expect this year, but I know it won't be boring!