Here I am back at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks... It seems like quite a culture shock - all these white kids sitting in the classroom... kind of scary... :)
Looking back at Buckland, I find the clear division between white/Caucasian and native very saddening. It seems like the white population in Buckland (teachers...) plays such an elitist role. Teachers are the only ones that have running water and a sewage system in teacher housing and the school. The huge, modern, white school is so much newer than all the other buildings in the town. Other than the principal and two native elementary teachers, all the well-payed positions at the school seem to be in the hands of white people. Teacher aids, cooks, custodians are all native Bucklanders. I guess that wouldn't be all too bad in itself, but there sometime almost seemed to be resentment towards the native lifestyle and community... ("Eskimos don't get cold...") I guess the high teacher turn-over rate does not help to improve the situation - particularly towards the end of the school year. Actually just about all the high school teachers are not planning on staying for the next school year. This feeling of moving on and therefore not necessarily caring as much didn't seem nearly as pronounced among the elementary teachers. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the "white education" does not seem detached in the elementary classrooms either...
One of my last days in Buckland, I visited the preschool class! The kids were adorable, they were just working on learning their alphabet. The teacher asked me whether I would like to read a "ABC on the farm" book to them. I was more than happy to do so, of course. Very soon, I realized that my task was much harder than it seemed at first. "F stands for farm" - there are no farms anywhere close to Buckland's vicinity... But the word "farm" still seems somewhat relevant... Not so much the case anymore for some of the other examples... "C stands for corn"... My favorite one: "S stands for silo" !!! How do I explain to a native Buckland student what a silo is and what it's used for?!? After my explanation, I actually found out that not even the teacher knew what a silo was used for and had successfully lived in Buckland for decades! Talk about making the education relevant for the students!!! I would have loved to make an alphabet book for the region: "C stands for Caribou" and "S stands for seal"!!
I really enjoyed this practicum and learned a lot. Nevertheless, more questions than answers remain... Is there any point in teaching these kids the education that white people happen to deem as relevant and important? How about their native ways of knowing and teaching? How about their native language, Iñupiaq, that is getting ready to disappear from the street into dry and dusty anthropology textbooks?
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Going back home...
So, now I'm sitting in the Bering Air terminal in Kotzebue, getting ready to get back to my "urban" life in Fairbanks. Our flight from Buckland to Kotzebue was in a much bigger plane - there was room for almost 10 passengers! Funny enough, there was even an automated security announcement, much like the ones in big planes "Please make sure your seat is securely fastened and your seat is in the upright position." Needless to say, it seemed entirely out of place and the plane actually took off before it was over...
Ali-K with the kids that were seeing us off...
Ali-K with the kids that were seeing us off...
Friday night: Teachers' extra duties/activities
On Friday night, the teachers put together a "lock-in" for the kids between the ages of 7 and 14. It was a fund raiser to help one of the juniors go to Australia in the summer for a cross-country thing. The kids all paid $10 to get in the door, which included a pop and a bag of popcorn. There were then several activities that were offered. The evening started out with a movie (at about 8.30), there were board games in the library and computer games in the computer room. After the movie there were carnival kind of games where the kids won all kinds of prizes. To round the night off, there was a limbo competition. At 10.30, all the kids went back to the library, to put their coats, boots and gloves back on and only cleanup remained behind...
History and English teacher making popcorn
High and middle school teachers manning the concession stand
It was an interesting example of what duties rural teachers do after normal school hours. Popcorn had to be made, the concession stand and the carnival games had to be manned, the floors vacuumed after the happening etc. I enjoyed helping out and seeing how much the kids enjoyed these fairly simple pleasures and just had a blast. It was like a great party!
Shedding layers in the library... Only one sweater and two pairs of gloves remained behind.
History and English teacher making popcorn
High and middle school teachers manning the concession standIt was an interesting example of what duties rural teachers do after normal school hours. Popcorn had to be made, the concession stand and the carnival games had to be manned, the floors vacuumed after the happening etc. I enjoyed helping out and seeing how much the kids enjoyed these fairly simple pleasures and just had a blast. It was like a great party!
Shedding layers in the library... Only one sweater and two pairs of gloves remained behind.
Iñupiaq drumming and dancing
On Thursday afternoon, Ali-K and I went to the Iñupiaq dancing and drumming. We watched some songs and then joined in, either trying to dance the songs or drumming along. It was very fun. It was very interesting to see the mix of traditional songs and dances and modern songs. A song was called "cowboy" and we even sang and danced an Iñupiaq version of the well-known "Macarena"... :)
The 2nd grade teacher that leads the group is originally from Bethel and reintroduced dancing and drumming in Buckland. Together with the kids, he put the drums together and has been practicing since. They are actually going to have a performance in mid-April - I wish I could go see it! :) The kids (mostly elementary age) really have fun with the dancing and drumming and are very concentrated!
The 2nd grade teacher that leads the group is originally from Bethel and reintroduced dancing and drumming in Buckland. Together with the kids, he put the drums together and has been practicing since. They are actually going to have a performance in mid-April - I wish I could go see it! :) The kids (mostly elementary age) really have fun with the dancing and drumming and are very concentrated!
Last few days
Wow, I've been busy here in Buckland. I watched some of the elementary and even an early childhood class. The kids are sooo cute! I can't wait to have my own...
I also went and visited some Iñupiaq classes. I learned that good day is "uvlalautaq", the last q being one of those sounds produced low down in the throat - needless to say I can't pronounce it correctly! Iñupiaq also has a variety of dialects. Rosie, the Iñupiaq teacher in Buckland, actually said that she took university classes to learn the region's dialect. Sadly, like most native languages, Iñupiaq is dying out. There are only few people left that speak the language fluently and most of them are of a proud age. I met some people that said they still speak Iñupiaq to their children, but the number of fluent speakers is dwindling...
In return to learning some Iñupiaq, I taught a Spanish lesson to one of the high school classes. They learned how to introduced themselves in Spanish and 11 colors. It was great! It was very interesting to see how the students dealt with my teaching style. I made them get up, move around the classroom, hold up color cards and so on... (Long live Keagan!:) After a little bit of initial frustration "I don't even understand what you're saying!", the kids went with it and had fun. To round off the lesson, I actually tried out Larry Meath's gambling game - a review game that is played in groups and includes gambling with the group's points. The students had so much fun (even though some had troubles calculating their bets) that they tried to get students to hurry up towards the end of the lesson so we could play one more round. It was awesome - great student involvement especially considering it was the last period on Friday afternoon.
So, after teaching high schoolers and some younger kids, I am now sometimes greeted by Spanish, German or French phrases around town! :)
Looked like the students had fun!
I also went and visited some Iñupiaq classes. I learned that good day is "uvlalautaq", the last q being one of those sounds produced low down in the throat - needless to say I can't pronounce it correctly! Iñupiaq also has a variety of dialects. Rosie, the Iñupiaq teacher in Buckland, actually said that she took university classes to learn the region's dialect. Sadly, like most native languages, Iñupiaq is dying out. There are only few people left that speak the language fluently and most of them are of a proud age. I met some people that said they still speak Iñupiaq to their children, but the number of fluent speakers is dwindling...
In return to learning some Iñupiaq, I taught a Spanish lesson to one of the high school classes. They learned how to introduced themselves in Spanish and 11 colors. It was great! It was very interesting to see how the students dealt with my teaching style. I made them get up, move around the classroom, hold up color cards and so on... (Long live Keagan!:) After a little bit of initial frustration "I don't even understand what you're saying!", the kids went with it and had fun. To round off the lesson, I actually tried out Larry Meath's gambling game - a review game that is played in groups and includes gambling with the group's points. The students had so much fun (even though some had troubles calculating their bets) that they tried to get students to hurry up towards the end of the lesson so we could play one more round. It was awesome - great student involvement especially considering it was the last period on Friday afternoon.
So, after teaching high schoolers and some younger kids, I am now sometimes greeted by Spanish, German or French phrases around town! :)
Looked like the students had fun!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Delicious local foods
Tonight we were invited to Terri Walker's (the principal) house for muskox and moose. It was delicious. Both meats are very dark and seemed very lean. It was a real treat and I was actually amazed by the great salad that we all made together (maybe fresh produce is not as scarce as I thought... - or we just got treated as luxury guests!). Thanks to Terri and her husband Oscar for the delicious dinner!
In general, Bucklanders are a very happy and welcoming people. We actually had a very interesting conversation with someone that is currently here from the school district. He said that Buckland was actually an exceptionally merry community. This apparently comes from the low availability of alcohol and the fair number of jobs in respect to the size of the community. It sounded like other communities were not as lucky!
Speaking of welcoming folks, Ali-K and I were invited by Gary Hagley, a long-time Buckland resident, to try some beluga. Even though our stomachs were nicely full with delicious moose and muskox, we stopped by at his place - just around the corner from the school - and tasted some beluga. We had little pieces of the skin and the blubber and were actually amazed by the mild taste. The fishy smell on my fingers certainly wasn't part of the taste (even though it has been frozen for two years)...:) Belugas used to be really abundant at the mouth of the Buckland river, where most of the community would gather to hunt beluga in the summertime. It has now apparently been two years since belugas have last been seen near the mouth of the Buckland river...
Here is a picture of the beluga pieces and a bowl full of local berries:
According to Gary, subsistence foods (caribou, muskox, fish, beluga, berries etc.) actually make up about 90 % of his family's diet. It's therefore no surprise to find half a caribou and most of a spotted seal lying in their "freezer" or known in other places as the front yard... Even their black dog has a piece of seal to chew on!
In general, Bucklanders are a very happy and welcoming people. We actually had a very interesting conversation with someone that is currently here from the school district. He said that Buckland was actually an exceptionally merry community. This apparently comes from the low availability of alcohol and the fair number of jobs in respect to the size of the community. It sounded like other communities were not as lucky!
Speaking of welcoming folks, Ali-K and I were invited by Gary Hagley, a long-time Buckland resident, to try some beluga. Even though our stomachs were nicely full with delicious moose and muskox, we stopped by at his place - just around the corner from the school - and tasted some beluga. We had little pieces of the skin and the blubber and were actually amazed by the mild taste. The fishy smell on my fingers certainly wasn't part of the taste (even though it has been frozen for two years)...:) Belugas used to be really abundant at the mouth of the Buckland river, where most of the community would gather to hunt beluga in the summertime. It has now apparently been two years since belugas have last been seen near the mouth of the Buckland river...
Here is a picture of the beluga pieces and a bowl full of local berries:
According to Gary, subsistence foods (caribou, muskox, fish, beluga, berries etc.) actually make up about 90 % of his family's diet. It's therefore no surprise to find half a caribou and most of a spotted seal lying in their "freezer" or known in other places as the front yard... Even their black dog has a piece of seal to chew on!
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