A Day in the Life of an Alaska Bush Teacher

::6:30am:: My alarm goes off around this time each day.  The second it goes off the dogs assume it's time to play, so I don't get to lounge around for long. After walking and feeding the pups, I make myself a smoothie.  In the past, I've always been a cereal person, but milk is scarce out here so I've made the switch to drinking a Shakeology shake for breakfast.  

::8:00am:: After finishing up my morning routine I head to the school sometime between 7:45-8:00am.  Cody and I make the long trek (approximately 30 steps) from our front door to the school.  It's almost completely dark when we walk to work now because sunrise isn't until after 9:00am.  Students can arrive at school anytime between 8:00-8:30am.  Cody holds open gym for the 30mins before school starts to give the kids a chance to wake up and get in a little physical activity. 

I use the thirty minutes before school to get ready for the day.  I teach four skill levels, which is the equivalent of teaching 1st-6th grade.  I taught a similar age range at my last job, and found great success with writing a highly detailed schedule on my board each day.  I always include centers and every bullet point on the board represents a rotation to a new activity (rotations are in intervals of 15-20 minutes).  It's a lot of work to write out each day, but it's the best way I've found to manage so many grade levels and it really helps with behavior.

::8:45am:: After completing our whole-school morning meeting and our classroom calendar I teach ELA to five students. It's a lot of prep work to make our core content blocks work because, even though it's only five students, I need to know and plan for four grades of work. That means four separate lesson plans per class period.  To compare, in a typical classroom teachers would prep for 1-2 lesson per class period.  I end up needing to prep over twenty lesson plans per day.  

::10:15am:: Whole-school break time in the gym.

::10:30am:: For math I teach four levels again, but my class size swells to nine students. My tiny classroom seems almost bursting at the seams with so many students in it. It's interesting to have such a wide age range for math because my youngest students are working on basic addition and patterning while my oldest are working with fractions and long division.

::12:00pm:: Lunch time! We are ridiculously lucky with our school lunches.  Our school cook is a serious chef. Plus, he's made it his personal challenge to try to cook vegetarian meals this year (score for me!) and I've been getting spoiled.

::12:30pm:: Whole-school SSR time, also referred to as the "Power 1/2 Hour."  For thirty minutes after lunch our school comes together in the library and reads as a big group.  I try to read with them every day, which has been pretty awesome.

::1:00pm:: This is our writing and counseling block. One day a week we have cyber-counseling instead of writing class.  For writing class, I have four levels and seven students. For counseling, I have K-5 instead of levels, which is six students, because that is how the content is administered for the counseling class.

::1:45pm:: Whole-school break time in the gym.

::2:00pm:: It's back to the classroom and time for social studies and/or science.  For the first half of the school year (until Christmas break) we are specifically doing social studies.  Then, after Christmas, we will transition to science. We made the decision to do this because we wanted to keep students together based on levels (I keep the kids in levels 0-4 and Mellisa keeps the kids in levels 5+).  That isn't possible if we switch back and forth because one student might be a level 8 in social studies and a level 4 in science.

Our current focus in social studies is on our community.  We've been working on mapping Pilot Point, so the kids and I have been getting out for lots of little walks and excursions to create our own maps.  I alter the mapping assignment to fit the standards for each level (i.e some just show major landmarks and some are topographical).

::2:30pm:: The last hour of the day is reserved for "specials."  Cody teaches PE from 2:30-3:00, so I use that time as my daily prep. Then, my students come back to me for the last thirty minutes of the day.  Monday and Tuesday I teach art, and Wednesday and Thursday I teach technology. We don't meet for specials on Fridays.

::3:30pm:: School's out and the kids are headed home, most of them riding on four-wheelers. The only day we don't release at this time is on Friday. On Fridays, we dismiss at 2:00pm so that all of the teachers in our district can attend PD (professional development).  Some weeks our PD consists of cyber-meetings with the whole district and some weeks we just meet as a site and work on our own things.

::4:00pm-10:00pm:: I always take a short break from work right at the end of the school day and head out on a long walk with the dogs.  For the most part, I try to make the evenings my "me time" but I'm a teacher, so many days I head back to school after my walk and work until dinner time.

Our evenings are pretty much ruled by the kitchen.  There are no restaurants here, and I get very bored of eating the same thing, so we cook a ton.  After dinner, we read, watch TV (we stocked up on season DVD's), and pursue our hobbies.  We have a lot of downtime, so hobbies are important.  I've been learning to knit, Cody's been buying some of his favorite oldies video games, and together we've been brewing beer.

Our lives are much quieter here in the bush than they were when we lived in civilization. There are very few friends to spend time with, so we spend most of our free time alone.  The weather also plays a big part in our daily routine because it can be pretty temperamental, which keeps us indoors on some days. With that said, we're enjoying our quiet little lives unplugged from the bustling world outside. It's a change, but a nice one.

Your turn...What are some unique things about your daily schedule? 
Currently listening to...Mess is Mine - Vance Joy

Our House in the Bush

"Do you live in an igloo?" This, and other questions pertaining to housing, is one of the most common questions I encounter when people find out where I live. They always seem a bit disappointed when I tell them that I do not, in fact, live in an igloo. We actually live in a fairly normal house, although it does look a bit like a Morton farm building from the outside.

The house itself is very large, with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  It is, without a doubt, the largest place that Cody and I have rented, and while we don't really need the space it is nice to have. Our rental rate, which is decided by our landlord - the school district - is quite low.  We only pay $625/month, and that includes all utilities. 

In traditional Alaskan-style, when you enter our home you walk into our arctic entryway (similar to a mudroom in the lower 48). This is where our standing deep freeze is, as well as where we keep all of our shoes and outdoor gear.  It's actually a very large room, which is nice for storage purposes.

When you enter the actual living portion of our house you walk into an open foyer area, with the living room on one side and the kitchen/dining room on the other. The house actually used to be two separate apartments, but a previous teacher knocked down a wall to make space for his growing family, which is why it's so large and open.

To the left of the foyer is our dining room.  The dining room is one of my favorite spaces in the whole house.  We've got a huge window that looks over Loon Lake and the tundra.  It's so beautiful and peaceful.  I often sit here and read, drink coffee, or do art projects.

From there, you walk into the kitchen, and while the kitchen is large and has great storage, I really miss having a dishwasher. Doing dishes is my absolute least favorite chore, so this has been probably my biggest struggle with living in this particular house. Plus, there are no restaurants here, so we cook every single meal we eat. SO. MANY. DISHES.

Two of the bedrooms are off of the kitchen, including the one that we have claimed as ours.  The smaller bedroom is serving as our storage room. We have excessive amounts of totes and boxes from the move and this little bedroom has been nice for keeping them all stored away from our living space. Plus, this house had way too much furniture when we moved in (three kitchen tables, an extra dresser, assorted end tables, and tons of lamps). The spare bedroom is also housing all of the furniture odds and ends.  The larger bedroom on this end is the master bedroom. It's a decent sized room with good closet space, plus it has the best view of all of the bedrooms because it also looks out over the lake.

Also on this end of the house is the biggest bathroom, which I've claimed as my own.  Cody and I are really digging not having to share a bathroom.  Seriously, it's marital bliss.

On the other side of the house we've got the living room, two bedrooms, and Cody's bathroom (I'll spare you the picture of Cody's bathroom - haha).  The living room has great space and came with pretty nice furniture.  We spend a lot of time curled up on the couch watching movies and hanging out, mostly because there isn't a whole lot to do out here in the bush, so I'm glad we have such nice living space in our home.

Off of the living room there are two bedrooms. One is serving as our guest bedroom, even though we never have guests.  It's also being used for our brewery (we are brewing our own beer because they don't sell alcohol in our village, even though it's not illegal to possess). The other room we've converted into a great little office.  Cody uses the office a ton for writing, reading, and playing video games.

As you can see, the house is still in need of some home decor accents, but those are the kind of things that tend to happen slowly. In terms of the bones of the house though, we are enjoying it.  It's been especially nice to have so much extra space.  Cody and I work in the same classroom for 40hrs/week and then we come home and hang out together.  Plus, there are very few opportunities for us to socialize separately here, so having our own space is important. I'm glad that we live in a place that allows us so much room to grow, expand, and live peacefully. 

Your turn...What is your favorite room in your house? 

Currently listening to...A Punk - Vampire Weekend 

Berry Picking and Akutaq

On Friday, we piled all twelve students enrolled at Pilot Point School into a truck and drove out to a section of open land near the airport.  The drive took mere minutes, but from the looks on the faces of the students, this was a grand adventure.  Upon pulling up at our destination, the students threw themselves out of the truck and took off into the tundra. Coats thrown to the side and berry-picking bags streaming behind them as they ran.

Later that night we would host a community potluck at the school, and we'd decided to pick berries and make akutaq (pronounced like uh-goo-duck) as a treat to share with the community. This meant we needed a LOT of berries. Fortunately, collecting the berries was easy work with twelve eager students to help expedite the process.  In barely an hour we had already collected multiple gallon bags of blackberries. 

After collecting the berries, we piled back into the truck and headed back to school. The students then helped us wash and sort berries and make the akutaq. The students could barely contain their excitement over the akutaq, which to them is much like eating cake or brownies would be for a student in the lower 48. I think more berries were eaten than actually made it into the dessert though, as proven by how many purple-stained mouths, teeth, and tongues there were among the students.

Cody using one of the "claws" to pick berries more quickly. 

One of our classroom aides assisted in teaching us (the newbie teachers - not the students) how to make the akutaq.  It involved crisco, berries, sugar, and oil.  In some places, other things like fish and/or animal fat can be added to the dish too.  We stuck with just berries though, and ended up with a very pretty dish that the students were proud of creating. 

At potluck, we had our two oldest students stand up and present about our day of berry picking, washing and sorting berries, and cooking. After, we all dug into the tasty food.  We had spaghetti, pasta salad, sliced ham, chips and dip (contributed by me!), fresh veggies, and a few other dishes and desserts. As always, it was fun to watch the students interacting with their families and friends in a less structured setting, and it was nice to chitchat with community members.  Mostly though, I was proud of the students and their ability to teach us, the teachers, about this part of their lifestyle.

Your turn...What are some of your favorite things to cook or bake with children?

Currently listening to...Son's Gonna Rise - Citizen Cope

Weekend Explorations

Abandoned buildings dot the tundra throughout our little village.  The beaches are vacant except for the occasional wildlife sighting.  Roads are empty of people, and full of village dogs.  The skies stretch for miles and touch the tops of nearby mountains and volcanoes.

With all of that said, our lives have become full of empty spaces, but definitely not empty experiences. We've enjoyed the solitude and simpleness of our new life, thus far.  Our weekends have been full with experiences and happiness, even though they seem to be much less "full" in the traditional sense.  There's no movie theatre to take in the latest blockbuster, or hip new restaurant to meet friends for drinks. Instead, we've been fishing and berry picking with local families, taking long walks with the students after school, and spending lots of quality time just the two of us. 

Last weekend we took some time for just the two of us, Cody and I. We drove to the end of the road, out near the docks, and took off on foot out into the tundra. The tundra is slowly turning, a sure sign of fall settling in. The color changes have still been subtle.  The deep, dark greens and brightness of the berries has begun to fade.  The tundra is now more brown and light green, with the occasional smattering of orange. The beauty of the tundra is very unique, and I'm enjoying watching it progress through its first seasonal change.

Throughout the course of our walk we explored many interesting places.  We ventured into a couple of abandoned buildings, presumably houses or fishing camps that are long forgotten. It was interesting to look at the household items scattered about and try to imagine who had lived there, once upon a time.

Life has been keeping us busy out here, but we are mindfully trying to take time to explore and take in the experiences that our village and the surrounding wilderness has to offer. Here's to hoping that the mindfulness we've been keeping remains a constant in this new chapter of our lives.

Your turn...What local adventures have you been on lately? 
Currently listening to...Barton Hollow - The Civil Wars 

Subsistence Fishing

Fishing has become an integral part of our lives here in the bush. Fishing, particularly subsistence fishing, is a huge part of village life. Stores are extremely expensive, if they exist at all, so many families still depend on hunting, fishing, and gathering to supplement their diets. Aside from the availability issues, it's also a huge part of their cultural society.

As a life-long vegetarian I knew that my options for eating fresh fruits and veggies would be limited, while fishing would likely be a part of our routine, and that my diet would potentially have to shift. I had come to terms with this ahead of time and decided to fully embrace becoming pescatarian (I'm only eating seafood that we catch, and will still be eating vegetarian/vegan outside of the village). I came to the bush with the intention of embracing the culture and lifestyles of my new community, which includes subsistence activities.

Cody and I have been trying to learn about the culture of subsistence living as much as we can.  Because of that, we've been homemaking more food, picking berries, and fishing 1-2 times per week. Fishing here is much different than fishing back home.  We don't go out with a tackle box and poles. There are no slow, lazy trips around a calm lake. 

Instead, we use a fishing net that is attached to a pulley system on the beach.  At low tide, the net gets pulled out. Then, at high tide you head back down to the beach. The net is lined with bobbers, which jump around in the water as soon as a fish hits the net.  As fish hit the net we reel it in and pick them out of it. As the fish get picked from the net they are then immediately filleted. Sue and Al, our school cook and his wife, have graciously taken us under their wing and been teaching us the right way to catch, fillet, and prepare the fish. We've typically been getting 10-15 fish a day when we go out, and then we take them home to vacuum seal and freeze them.  However, Sue and Al have also been showing us how to smoke and can the fish too.

So far, this has been a great way for us to supplement our giant food costs.  All of our groceries have to be shipped in or purchased at our store (to give an idea - milk is $20/gallon and cookies are $10/package, while fresh options don't even exist) and having something we can get for free has been helpful. We've been enjoying learning different ways to prepare salmon and trout, which are the two kinds of fish we've been catching.

Subsistence fishing is just another adventure in our lives out here in bush Alaska. We came into this experience with the intention of trying new things and generally being "yes" people, and so far I think we've been doing a pretty good job of fulfilling that intention. 

Your turn...What are some new things you've said "yes" to lately? 

Currently listening to... Fire at the Pageant - The Felice Brothers

Running in Bush Alaska

Prior to moving to Pilot Point, I had many predictions for how life would be this year. One thing I knew that I wanted to keep the same was my ability to exercise outdoors regularly.  Getting outside, preferably with the dogs, after work each night has always been my decompression time.  When we landed in Pilot Point I was excited to see that the town has decent gravel roads (2+ miles of which run in a perfect loop right outside my house). I've been happily getting outside after work most nights and taking advantage of the beauty and tranquility of walking around my little corner of Alaska.

While I've been happily going on these after-work outings alone, I was thrilled to get a call last week from Bristol Bay Health Corporation asking if our school would like to host a community color run/walk in Pilot Point. The run would take place on a Wednesday afternoon, following a health fair and raffle in the school gym. I quickly accepted, jumping at the chance to bring such a fun activity to the school.

The weather the day of the run was fairly crummy.  High winds and torrential downpours happened for the duration of the school day.  I was feeling disappointed that the run might get cancelled, and the kids were feeling it too. Luckily, right as the school day was ending, the weather cleared and the sun came out. The temperature hovered in the mid-50's and the breeze blew lightly. We ended up with a perfectly crisp fall day for the run.

Pilot Point is a tiny community, so we weren't sure how big of a turnout we would get, but we were pleasantly surprised.  All of the students and their families showed up, in addition to a handful of other residents. We probably ended up with 30 people total, which is a lot in a community of less than 70. We also had a handful of the village dogs tagalong with us.  All of the pups managed to get covered with colored powder, making for some funny animal sightings in the days following the race.

Participating in an organized color run was definitely not something that I ever would have predicted would be a part of our first month in bush Alaska.  I suppose you just never know what is going to happen out here though, and everyday is a new adventure.

Your turn...Have you ever participated in an organized race?
Currently listening to...All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hopple 

Berry Picking on the Tundra

Living in Alaska often feels like one long string of adventures, mishmashed together with common, everyday moments.  It's always been one of my favorite things about life in Alaska. I absolutely love that my normal classroom routine in Juneau involved learning Tlingit language, or that walking the dogs meant carrying bear spray.  It's these little adventures that make living in Alaska such an experience.

One such experience that I had recently was berry picking.  Last Saturday, Melissa (the other teacher) and myself went out picking with a local woman, Sue.  Sue drove us down a bumpy, two-track that led out to the summer fishing camp (all the houses at camp were boarded up for the season). From there, we went on a hunt for berries and tundra plants.  As usual, I was amazed at the beauty and openness of the tundra landscape of my new home.

For my part, I've long been a berry picker, and I grew up in an agricultural hotspot. There's something just so different about berry picking here in the Alaskan Bush though.  It's sharply contrasting to the U-Pick farms in Michigan, or even to the groomed trails with their abundant berries in the mountains outside of Juneau.

Here, in Pilot Point, there are no berry bushes.  The berries grow in thick little clusters, scattered across the tundra.  This means that all berry picking is done in a sitting or squatting position.  Blueberries are much smaller than those in the lower 48 and SE Alaska.  They taste quite similar though and require handpicking and much care.  Comparatively, blackberries and cranberries are quite hardy and can be picked with a "picker."  These pickers are magical, and allowed me to collect a ridiculous amount of blackberries.  I did collect a few cranberries too, but mostly I am saving my picking of those until after the first frost (they are supposed to be much better after that).

The tundra itself makes berry picking in Pilot Point unique too.  If you've never been on the tundra, imagine it as a plush mattress or trampoline. The ground is so squishy that you sink several inches with every step.  It also holds an incredible amount of moisture, which will quickly soak the knees of your pants as you kneel to pick berries.  I learned my lesson about the wetness of the tundra quickly after kneeling to handpick a few blueberries.

After only a couple of hours I had over 1/2 gallon of berries to show for my hard work.  I was hot, sweaty, and feeling incredibly happy and content.  This feeling of happiness was only added to by the sheer vastness of the tundra, the great company of my new friends, and the delicious berries that I took home to pack away for winter.

Your turn...What are some of your favorite everyday adventures? 
Currently listening to...Alaska - Maggie Rogers