A few more images form the arctic.

Roller Skates

A little Kaveolook fun fact: yes, Kaktovik is an extremely remote village where milk can cost over $10 a gallon but when it comes to the essentials in life, such as elementary sized roller skates, the town is not found without. I walked into the gym on Friday only to find the K3-K class buzzing around (soooo cute....) on a roller skate mat course made of gymnasium mats and cardboard, a friendly landing to beginners. Who would have thought...

Trip Reflections

First of all I would like to thank Kaveolook School for hosting me and the guidance and generosity provided by the Gadamus family. The rural practicum was definitely one of the best experiences during my yearlong student internships. I appreciate the opportunity to visit rural community in Alaska provided by my multicultural education professor, Uta Kaden.

Within three weeks I traveled from Fairbanks to Houston to San Pedro, Belize back to Fairbanks and up to Kaktovik. I think my wonder at the beauty and hostility of the arctic was even more impressive juxtaposed to life on a tropical island thousands of miles away but with about the same size and population as Barter Island.


I have been interested in working in rural Alaska throughout the process of my State teaching certification and I was excited to spend time in a village to see if I would still feel that way after visiting Kaktovik. I discovered that I don’t think that I would be able to live in an area that was as physically demanding as the arctic and that if I was to live in a rural community, I should choose an area where I felt I could comfortably enjoy the outdoors. From learning about and seeing the extreme turnover rate of teachers and staff and the impact on the students I would also decide to work in a community only if I felt that I could make a serious time commitment, six or more years, to staying in that area.

Friday

On Friday morning I awoke to howling winds and looked out the classroom to see a complete whiteout. By 10 I was certain that Anneli and I would not be traveling home. The school day went similarly to the rest of the week. I help substitute for the 6th-8th grade class which was mainly supervising and getting the T.V. and VCR to work. Time hanging out with the students gave me an opportunity to chat with some of the girls about their life. I was surprised at the amount of traveling all of the students had done. Many of the students had friends and family across the state that they seemed to visit frequently. A group of the girls and I pulled out a map of the world and talked about where each of us had traveled and they would like to visit.

By the end of the day the island had miraculously calmed and Anneli and I rushed to get to the plane in time for our quick flight back to Fairbanks.

Thursday

This was the first day I worked individually with some high school students preparing for statewide testing. The focus of the tutoring was on adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and simplifying fractions. Essentially I sat will a small group of high school boys and creating problems one by one and worked through them with the students. The rest of the say was spent bouncing from room to room, wherever I could assist teachers.