The start of the adventure

I love technology!  I started this blog out with that simple statement because it reflects upon my teaching and my life.  The best example of this is that one of the first things that I did when looking to apply for my current job was to see if the village had high speed internet. With that verified, I looked at the regular job things such as salary and benefits. The internet has brought so much to education all over the United States but it has had even more of an impact in rural communities such as the one I teach in. With a click we can be connected to the great libraries of the world, instant science videos, and students on different continents.

So how as educators do we bring these resources to our students? I have been forced to use the internet in all my subjects due to our location and resources.  For several reasons my district does not have class sets of textbooks that the students can work with.  Currently, I am teaching high school biology (a subject that I have not taken since high school).  Since I am by no means an expert in the subject I have turned to a great website of science videos http://www.brightstorm.com/science/biology/ . Here the students can get great examples of how it all comes together from some one who actually knows what they are talking about. As a teacher in a multi-subject, multi-age school, this new media has helped students overcome the lack of knowledge of their teachers.

Even in classes where the content level is not an issue, media plays an important part of my teaching.  Math class has been supplemented with Khan Academy videos and practice http://www.khanacademy.org/ .   This has freed the kids to move at their own pace and go where they want to learn.

How are newcomers or outsiders regarded in your community?

My village is a native only village, so if a person moves into the community from outside they must be a school district employee.  This makes integration very difficult since you are clearly an outsider.  This situation has been exacerbated by the relatively frequent turnover of employees.  Many community members don’t want to invest the effort in getting to know the new people since they are just going to leave the next year.  My introduction to the village was from the PA system of the ferry that was dropping us off.  “Please do not get off the boat. We will be just offloading off a few people and then leaving.  The town has no services and access is prohibited.” With that auspicious beginning, we departed for our house.  Since then we have gotten to know the people of the village and people have started to warm up.  But for many members it is wait and see if the teacher will renew their contract for the second year.  If that happens the people are willing to start and invest in the time to get to know you. I have not come to that point yet and so my PTA meetings are very quiet.

How can non-indigenous and indigenous teachers help students to embrace both ways? 

I have seen this in great practice with the Unite US program based out of the Geophysical Institute of University of Alaska Fairbanks http://uniteusforclimate.org/.  My students have been looking at global climate change through scientists’ and natives’ eyes this year.  By connecting students to the land around them and then to the bigger picture we are solidifying the science and local environmentalism. I can’t recommend this program highly enough.  They even sent out complete kits so that every science experiment could be completed free of charge.  This was a life saver since I am unable to just run down to the store to get something.

About the course.

This is my first time blogging and I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about what was expected for the class.  I struggled to figure out what exactly I needed to do each week.  For example I was not sure what  “Write a brief annotation for each and link to their blog in your blog” was.  I get the linking part but not sure about the rest.  So I think for next class a bit more explanation or an example blog entry to show us what a rough example would look like.  I know the issue with this as a teacher since once you do this they all start to look the same. But I still think that it would help us blogging newcomers.

As for the course, I like the start of it and I think the first week’s discussion was on a good subject.  The role of media and technology in the class room has become massive.  Very few teaching programs cover the subject well, and so many teachers struggle with its inclusion.