New Teachers and New Adventures

The beginning of a new school year is always busy, but this year was really something! I recall last year being a blur as I flew from village to village presenting SMART training and professional development to teachers all over the state. This year was spent flustered as I was asked to jump on a plane and facilitate video conferencing between new teachers in Anchorage and the superintendent in Mountain Village. It was a wonderful experience and one I will not soon forget.
Fresh faces, bright and cheery, full of energy and "chomping at the bit" to get into there classrooms, many for the first time. I love new teachers. They teach us so much with there fresh eyes on older problems and new solutions to internal struggles. Following the new teacher orientation I returned to Mountain Village to gather my wits for the continuation of the orientation in the district office headquarters.


Finding the time to fish over the weekend, I grabbed a few fish for the teachers. Not one to "feed a man for a day," I invited the new ladies of Mountain Village to practice their filleting skills on a dozen or so salmon. We had a good time and they all left with meat in their freezer.

Welcoming the new staff to the village every Mountain Village teacher, principal, and their families went down to the river for a bonfire and fun. We threw the football and softball around, danced, visited, and made s'mores. The celebration went deep into the wee hours of the morning as we waited for the meteor shower. Streaking across the atmosphere, Perseids kept us wide-eyed in awe at the celestial light show.


Adding to the confusion of the new teacher orientation and inservice schedule, the powers that be decided to have the entire program delivered over video teleconference. This sounded great to a techie like me of course, but it meant we could not hand out computers in person as planned. Instead we were tasked with flying charters around the district, passing out computers to the new staff members, logging them in, and troubleshooting any needs as they arose. It was a long day to say the least.

The week went by quickly in the heat of VTCs, inservices, and trainings. Drained from the meetings, meetings about meetings, and meetings to talk about the next meetings, I wanted a break. As it was 80 degrees in the delta this week, I though a cool dip in the mighty Yukon sounded great...

Sorry for the delay... I was hoping for more pictures...