Adventures in an Alaskan Village : Teller, Alaska

Well, it's the end of my first full week in Teller, Alaska at the school here. Last Sunday we had a gathering at the teacher's house I'm staying at. They made crab mac n cheese and pizza and a bunch of other food. We watched the Seahawks win the Superbowl.

Heather, my host, and Bill the other intern.

Watching the Superbowl with the other teachers

Over the past week and a half I've been working with specific students as what another intern has called as an intervention specialist. At first I started working with 2 7/8th graders in corrective reading for first period. Then I went and helped in the 7/8/9th language arts class that those students were in. I helped them work on their reading as well as the response/questions that they have during the class.

But now in 1st and 2nd period I'm doing a pull out for one student in math and reading everyday. Which has meant that I need to actually brush up on my higher math skills. Which is good, I need to get more familiar with different types of math.

For third period I work with the 3rd/4th graders in their reading class. But mainly I'm there to support one student to help keep them on task. The student is really smart and I think that they have the abilities but not the ability to stay on task. A great kid tho.

Fourth period I'm back with the 7/8/9th graders helping them in their writing period. It's interesting to see the variances in ability in what the teachers have to deal with here and making sure that you can reach everyone's different abilities. I think working in the language arts/writing classes and seeing what happens.

In the afternoon I do more intervention with different students depending on the day. Two students I give support in reading, one in writing. I've also been helping with the K/1/2 classes. (They group up in the afternoon for thematic learning: science and social studies.) I'll be subbing for the K/1 teacher on Feb 17, 18, and 19th.

I've also subbed for the 5/6th teacher for an afternoon when the teacher went to Shishmaref for a basketball game. That was pretty cool, we played games on the smartboard and they taught me how to play Mancala.

Last weekend besides the Superbowl there was a several night Basketball tournament. The games were mainly adult/teen games and they had double eliminations. A lot of people came from Brevig Mission -- which is 6 miles across the bay to play. There was a Teller School Staff team who did pretty well. They won the sportsmanship award.

I worked in the student store for a lot of the time during the basketball tournaments. It was tiring and came in waves. While there are basketball tournaments, you can make a lot of money selling snack items out of the student store. They have a slushy machine, a pop corn machine, and a fridge filled with water, caprisuns, and gatorade 2. The school doesn't allow pop in the school as they are a pop free school. (Although one day one kid told me that he got a drink of soda from someone in the boys room, it reminded me of the song "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" song. Made me giggle at the thought that it was illicit. The seniors had a fundraising for their senior trip. They made sushi one night, pizza another, nachos and the last night was hot dogs and potato salad. If the seniors weren't trying to raise money, the student store would have also sold nachos (chips and cheese) and pretzels as well. Last night they had a spaghetti dinner with garlic bread and salad. It was really good.

Today was a work day at school. I went to the school at 9am with the teacher I'll be subbing for. She showed me the curriculum and helped me prep for the days that she'll be gone. She says that normally she doesn't prep until the day before, but because it was a work day she figured we'd get it done today.