Teaching in Rural Alaska Part 1

Greetings! It's that time of year again, where districts start posting jobs and the hiring process for rural Alaska is about to begin. The 3 year anniversary of my attending the Anchorage job fair will be in a few weeks.

I wanted to talk about some things a teacher might encounter when teaching in the bush. Now, some of this may be things I've said before, but I have to admit, I've sugar-coated some of my experiences. I don't intend to write everything down in one sitting so this will take more than one post. 

Please note that I can only speak from my experience and I have only lived in one village.

The biggest issue I faced was in the beginning. Before I left, the head of HR of my last district had come up to me after I dropped off my letter of resignation. Several people in the district (admin included) were trying to talk me into requesting a leave of absence. It was a good idea, one that meant I could take a year off and then come back. But I knew the best thing for me was to cut my safety net. If I had my job in California waiting for me, I would never have tried so hard to make it work in Alaska. I knew myself. So when I resigned, it came as quite a surprise to people. The head of HR came up to me and asked, "Miss Ruark, what did you do?" I told him that I did what was best for me. He smiled and shook my hand.

Once I had arrived in Akiak, it was like nothing I had ever known. I was a city girl who had only traveled to other cities. London, New York, San Francisco.....and Reno....never anywhere rural. As my culture shock reverberated through my body, I had his words running through my head. "What did you do?" Except it was in my own voice. The houses looked different, they looked like they were up on stilts and the buildings all looked similar. There was no two story buildings anywhere. The road was dirt and I had already noticed on the bush plane over that Akiak really was in the middle of the tundra. 

The Main Road

My new bedroom was the size of a prison cell and it had no door (there was a bigger room that had already been claimed by my roommate). The windows of my house were boarded up. There were new sounds, new sights, familiar sounds were gone (cars, jets, sirens, sprinklers), and the animals looked wild. I don't know if I have ever admitted before that I struggled HARD that first night. I was asking myself if I had made a mistake coming out there.

AHHHH! But I had no job to go back to. So I awoke the next morning with new determination. This was going to work because it had to. And here I sit, 3 years later. Well, you know what I mean. 

My 1st Bedroom

*Culture Shock

Yeah, it happens. But you can move beyond it easily enough. For me, not only did cutting my safety net help, but so did finding something familiar. The kids. I had fun with the kids. And it wasn't until I started interacting with them that I felt myself relax and I felt normal. I thought I'd have to turn into a super outdoorsy girl who liked to rough it. Naw, I still prefer room service or a fire pit. I've cut fish but I still prefer my fish out of can. 

*Head Lice

So, in my village several of the kids have head lice. Some people even believe that head lice helps prevent sickness in children. The first misconception I've heard teachers (who are no longer here) make is that it means the kids are dirty if they have lice. That's not true. Head lice prefer clean heads. The eggs stay on the shaft better if the hair is clean. 

I've seen teachers treat the kids who have head lice like a leper. One teacher (no longer here) told her students they couldn't play with another student. And she'd hug some kids but not the one who had the head lice. There's no need for cruelty. Head lice can be easily taken care of in one evening. My roommate got head lice and I thought I had gotten it too. But that was before I got to know the little buggers and now I'm not so sure. I had just dyed my hair a darker color and so I think it was dyed skin we were actually scrapping off. 

Ladies - wear your hair up. I still hug kids. I haven't gotten it. And I also use a preventative spray (It's called Fairy Tales) that I spray in my hair. Another thing that keeps head lice away (and kills it if you do get lice) is to dye your hair. Hair dye is actually not as harsh as a head lice treatment. Although, you'll want one of those on hand. Especially get one with a spray for furniture. Remember, it's heat and extreme cold that kill lice...pillows can go in the dryer or left outside in a baggy overnight during the winter. But the spray works for couches and chairs. 

I recommend this product!

If you see a louse in a child's hair, please don't freak out. I've been talking to kids before when I saw a louse walk through their hair. And it's not the child's fault, so be gentle. One student of mine kept getting nits (which doesn't qualify a child to get sent home, only live bugs) in her beautiful long hair. So the parents chopped it off. I've had a little girl with a shaved head before. I never comment on it, and once a girl got her hair chopped for lice, she wore a hat for 3 months, and I let her.

My take on head lice is: you can't be scared of it. If you do get head lice, it's not the end of the world, you can get rid of it. But there are products you can purchase that can help prevent it. And I would also suggest buying a metal nit comb...for those times your head is itching and you just want to be sure....just writing this has got my head itching something fierce. 

A Metal Nit Picker

*Watch Out for Negative Nellys

Before I moved to Akiak, a villager had gotten drunk and broke into several teacher's houses - trashing them and stealing their clothes. I believe it was an "off his medications" incident and that was actually pretty rare. 

Well, one teacher (who's no longer there) had told several of us newbies of the incident. And told us to WATCH OUT! Because it was a message for new teachers telling us we were not welcome. And we were told this in Anchorage before we officially moved out there. 

Now, let's stop and think. The houses in question were already being lived in, hence the clothing. So, if it was actually a message to new teachers, wouldn't the damage had been to new teachers houses? Instead of returning teachers? And is the message: I'll break into your house & come out wearing your clothes? 

My point of this story is to say that some people will tell you the most negative things: Your district doesn't care about you or the kids. You're house will explode in the winter if you have a leak in your pipes (one of my personal faves). All Alaskan Natives hate white teachers. None of these kids can learn. Every one's always drunk. Every husband beats his wife. No kid will like you. It doesn't matter what you do, cause there's no use trying. And every year I hear: it's gonna flood.

There's always someone who is completely negative. It's harder to deal with in the bush because there are so few of us and when you are new, you want to get as much advice as possible. It's hard to weed out the BS versus the real advice. 

So here's my tips: avoid believing statements that are actually generalizations. Words like "ALL" or "EVERY" tend to be dead giveaways that you may not be able to trust what you are about to hear. 

Use some common sense: like the house exploding (seriously, that was a warning), really stop and think about what they are saying. My logic was if that were in fact true, wouldn't there be remnants of houses that actually did explode? 

My advice is to find someone who the kids really respect. Find someone who seems to be having a good life out here. That's what I did. Not only did I gain valuable insight into my families, but I got to know them so much better through my mentor. Look for someone who's making it work. Not someone suffering through it. Misery loves company and someone may just be trying to suck you in!!

*FAS

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - when a mother drinks while pregnant and the baby is born with birth defects. Some kids may not be full FAS, they might just have moderate symptoms. The state of Alaska requires all teachers (read that again please: ALL TEACHERS) to take mandated training on FAS and it's symptoms. Why would a state do that if the numbers of students in the public school system with FAS related symptoms weren't incredibly high? 

State-wide, the numbers are high. Now, just because there's no diagnosis, does not mean you won't see some alcohol related effects in your students. Many times, it will look like ADHD, kids will need more breaks, and sometimes a student actually cannot remember what you taught them the day before. It literally left their brain. It's not that the student is trying, the student may really be doing the best that he

/she can be.

Okay, I am not going to delve into FAS. I just want to point it out. You will take training on how to teach students with FAS if you come to Alaska. All teachers have to. And there is a reason. And don't worry, the training will go over tips for your classroom far better than I could anyways. 

To Be Continued......

(Note to self: mosquitoes, dogs/dog yards, winter gear, shopping)

****If you have any questions you would like answered, please leave them in my comment box and I will address them in Part 2*****