Big Trouble in Little Atka

I had finally reached a point where I felt confident about the work I was doing. With the addition of Kartufala/Scamp, my family felt complete. I even ventured to say out loud that I was happy. I should have known it wouldn't last.

I'm surrounded by so much beauty.
Here's the waterfall I see and hear
when I open my front door.

My partner has always been a little high-strung and anxious. She's also been dealing with some very difficult children. And that's coming from someone who specialized in early childhood special ed! She has one student who gives up as soon as her work becomes challenging. She cries and screams. I teach her older sister, and see the results of years of learned helplessness, although without the tantrums.

She has another student who cries, screams, runs away, throws things, and tries to hit or kick when he doesn't get what he wants. Watching his face, though, it's obvious that he's totally in control of himself and is merely being manipulative to get out of a situation he doesn't like. Again, I have the older sibling, who pretty much acts the same way, but at a verbal rather than physical level. The parents are first cousins, so I'm betting that there's some faulty wiring. The only good news is that the kids in the family all seem to be quite gifted.

Here's the same waterfall, frozen for
the winter. Cold, but no less
beautiful.

A week ago, the little boy threw a huge tantrum. My partner called the mom to tell her to pick the kid up, since he was unsafe. The mom ended up blaming my partner for her son's inability to behave appropriately. My partner finished the call in tears, and immediately decided to quit the job. Since it was a Friday, there would be a plane within an hour, and she planned to get on it. I asked her to wait until Monday so that she wouldn't have to leave all in a rush.

Over the weekend, my partner decided to stay until a replacement could be found. Although I emailed the superintendent 2 or 3 times, I didn't hear from him until Sunday. I wasn't part of the discussion of what to do next, though I'm glad the solution didn't involve me at all.

On Thursday, I got a nasty email from the superintendent, scolding me because, according to a parent, I hadn't yet distributed information for an upcoming field trip. The parent information meeting was held on Wednesday evening. He was also scolding me because this parent said I wasn't using the District benchmarks, which inform everything I do in my classroom. When I called him on scolding me without first verifying the information, he said that if I had an issue, I needed to call him or else he couldn't know that there was a problem. Not really sure what he's referring to there; the parent had a problem, but I didn't. I pointed out that he knew that I was upset and concerned last weekend, but he did nothing to communicate with me. His response was that he didn't know I was upset. It takes a special kind of stupid not to recognize that when one half of a team quits, the other half is going to be affected!

I've learned what my limits are in dealing with bad bosses. I'm not able to ignore being treated harshly. (Look up INFP on the Myers-Briggs.) I'm much happier being ignored. And I require a certain amount of acknowledgement for the good things I do, like being interviewed for two magazines based on my class's accomplishments. Winning a $12k grant. Making connections to the community, including monthly Family Movie Nights. Things my boss doesn't seem to know about for all that he's mentioned them.

So, it looks like we are both leaving. Her departure is imminent, while mine is only theoretical. Perhaps the situation can be salvaged. I hope so. I've had such success this year, and so many plans for next year. I love this job, even though it consumes my whole life. I was even happy, for a little while.

Yakov T. Bear

If you're a Facebook friend of mine, then you've already met Yakov T. Bear. What you don't know is the story of how he came to be.

Yakov's I.D. picture

25 years ago, a colleague of mine had her students bring in old stuffed animals or dolls to be handed to travelers. They carried a log book with them so that people could write their names and locations as they had contact with the toys. From time to time something would happen, like a postcard  or a video showing up at the school. Some of the toys were featured on news programs in areas where the toys had gone. In some ways it was a very exciting project, though most of the toys were never heard from again.

With Capt. Chad before the
first flight

Fast forward to this fall. I'm teaching geography. Holy crap! I've never even had a class in geography! As I start figuring out what I'm doing, I start looking for ways to make the class relevant somehow. Why would someone ever need to know latitude and longitude? Well, maybe if they were tracking something on a map. What if we followed something that was traveling, like a boat or a hurricane? Or maybe a teddy bear!

Co-pilot Yakov

I bought a bear and got him a little pilot's outfit and a backpack. I knew that I would be handing the bear first to a pilot, since that was the only way to get him off the island. I also knew that my former colleague's toys traveled farther when they were entrusted to people who worked for the airlines. I was still thinking in terms of what else my colleague had done, until I realized that technology had changed everything in the interim.

In Manakotak

It no longer made sense for the bear to carry a log book. People could just check in on a Facebook page. They didn't need to leave a signature; they could leave a picture. Or a selfie! With the bear! As I thought through each step, like wearing an I.D. badge that would have the instructions, I realized he needed to have business cards so that people could hand him off and still have the email address and URL.

In Dillingham

As for his name, I wanted to name him in part after our school, Yakov E. Netsvetov School, but I wanted to use the Anglicized version of Yakov, which is Jacob. To get his gmail account, I tried every combination of Jacob T. Bear with and without underscores, periods, and dashes. None of them was available. I finally tried Yakov.T.Bear, and that was available.  Voilà!

In Chignik Bay

Once Yakov was ready, I introduced him to my students. Even the high school boys, who would never hug a teddy bear!, were interested in seeing how far he could travel.

Within the next couple of days, Yakov will be on the move again, first to Anchorage and then … who knows!