Goodbye.

My time in Russian Mission has come to an end. It is easy for me to say that I will miss the students that I have so quickly come to know over the past week. I had no idea what to expect during my visit; I was sure that I would have an interesting experience, but I could never have expected such a warm and accepting community that would make my stay so memorable.

The night before I was to leave, I strolled on down to the city-gym to check out the basketball scene that is such a big part of the community. A large portion of the students and parents gather at the city-gym to play and watch daily. I was amazed at the atmosphere of the gym. Aside from the very structured yet open shooting during non-game time, two games were played between players who earned their spot by shooting, and making, a free-throw. There wasn't any griping or complaining amongst the people who failed to get on a team. That was interesting enough, but the truly amazing part occurred during play. When a ball was called out, or a player was called for traveling, their wasn't a hint of argument and the call was trusted and accepted. It was amazing how well the players got along. Their passion for the sport was easily apparent in the exceptional ability displayed, but their sense of community managed to curb the frustration that so often occurs amongst passionate players who make mistakes.

If you want to teach in a village, then you must prepare to become an integral part of a community. The living quarters in a village are much too crunched for the societal recluse to maintain his/her anonymity. Village life is a different but valuable experience that most of us see only on television. We all have seen the shows where everyone in town knows each other, but in the village this actually happens. I have never felt such a sense of inclusion. By the last day of my visit, their were elementary children that I hadn't yet met who were saying "hi Jimie" as they walked by. The students in the picture of this post were two of many students who wanted to visit with Erika and I after school to say goodbye. They made it very obvious that they were as sad as we were to be parting after such a short time. I don't know if I have ever felt so appreciated. 

Wrapping up.

This road travelled is about to end. 

The upper buildings in this picture are the schools. The secondary school is on the left and the elementary school is on the right. 

This is the lower portion of RM known as "Downtown." 

Across the frozen Yukon, the village of RM dots the hillside.

Students in action.

This student is practicing an event for the NYO (Native Youth Olympics). Kyle is in mid-flight while attempting to hit a hanging tennis ball with a two-leg jump kick.

This might be a success story. The student that I am standing next to wanted to sleep through class when we first met on Monday. On St. Patrick's day, rather than pinching me, he snuck by me in the office to give my belly a comical pat. He doesn't seem to have trouble staying awake in class anymore.

Below is a student practicing for another event in the NYO called the seal-hop. It looks painful. Wassily is hopping across the floor with only his palms (fingers folded under at the second knuckle from the tip of the finger) and toes.

Snow machine adventure.

Today after school we were invited to go on a snow machine adventure. Judy and David, two of the teachers at RM, were very kind in offering us a ride up river. 

Village life in the winter may seem dismal and claustrophobic to some, but with warm clothes and a sense of adventure its easy to realize that this life offers its own unique brand of freedom.  

The Yukon at RM.

Boats are buried in the snow on the banks of the Yukon and it is just their engines that serve as beacons to their presence.

Standing on the frozen river, halfway between the banks, we speak of dairy products as I push the button on my picture device. 

We are the champions.

It was another interesting day of instruction. It is pretty certain that the math instructor who left the day before we got here has jumped ship. The students and staff have made it known in more than one way that Erika and I are a breath of fresh air when compared to the last instructor. It saddens and angers me a bit that someone would leave these kids in such a predicament. 

It only took about half of the first day for the kids to start to open up to us and now it is pretty much like teaching students anywhere else. There are some minor cultural differences in the classroom, but the only real difference is the struggle to teach to students at vastly different levels of understanding/progress during the same period of instruction. Erika and I both agree, however, that it is possible, and there just needs to be a system. If we had more time we could do it.

I feel bad to be leaving these students after our week is up. Today it seemed like the word had spread that new math teachers were on the scene and because of this we ended up with some new faces, one of these faces hadn't been to school in over a week. We've been asked by several students if we are finishing the year here and we do our best to explain the situation.

The first night in RM.

We see a small mountain and Erika questions me about my idea to climb it. Once we reach the top and the children there start to warm up to us, we realize that it was worth it. Gravel can be interesting if you have the right company. Just below us we can see the vast and frozen Yukon. Before the end of the day, we decide to hike up the large hill behind the village and take a look. The village looks blue now that the sun has gone down.

Outside/Inside.

These are shots taken from outside and inside the plane just before we landed in Bethel. I sat in the last seat before storage. Erika sat to my right. Our flight from Bethel to our final destination was a packed plane with 4 people. The other two people with us ended up being the secretary of the school and the priest of the town. They were very friendly and helpful once we spoke up at the end of our flight with the question, "is this Russian Mission?" We arrived an hour early but were picked up by Jason (the principal) after about ten minutes. Ten minutes was just enough time to scramble through my pack to immediately put on my Carhartts since I was freezing in the wind. The next few minutes was very comedic with Erika helping me try and find my gloves. I eventually settled for some fleece socks.

Jason showed up and gave us quick tour of the school and informed us that we would be the only math teachers this week since their math teacher had taken sick leave. He seemed excited to put us to work. This should be an interesting week. After meeting some of the other staff, we headed off to our barracks. We are bunking with another teacher and the accommodations are quite nice. The apartment is 30 feet from the school and has all the amenities.

For now my brain is mush. Erika and I are about to go adventure the village for a bit before we succumb to the zombification that has been brought down upon us by our travels.

Time to go...

I am all packed up and ready to head to Russian Mission. The things that I brought: insulated Carhartts for outdoor fun, camera, video camera, some clothes, laptop, sandals, water filter, food, sleeping bag, pillow. I went shopping today with the other half of team Burrath (our team name is derived from our names: Ms. Burr and Mr. Horath) and we purchased some nuts, raisins, a few add-water instant soups, crackers, peanut butter, cheese, and a lot of fruit for ourselves and our hosts. I ship out tomorrow at six in the morning and after stopping in Anchorage, Aniak, and then Bethel, I finally end up in Russian Mission at 5:30 PM. I am very excited to get along with my trip but am a bit leery of the 12 hours of travel ahead of me to reach a community that is only a few hundred miles away. I once flew from Seattle to Paris in less than 12 hours and that included a three-hour layover in Philadelphia. This will definitely be different, however, since the majority of my flight time will be by small planes.   

Census data.

I spent about an hour looking over the information at this site. It has very concise and easy to interpret data on just about every aspect of Russian Mission. You're wondering what percent of the people walk to work? Answer: 63%. I can't believe the wealth of statistics the site has.

For my students who have found your way to my blog, I encourage you to click on the site link imbedded above to see some great real-world applications of the topics we've recently covered. All types of graphs are present along with measures of central tendency and measures of variation.

A little info on Russian Mission.

I found this great Alaskan community database site that gives the lowdown on all the communities of Alaska. Click on this link and scroll down to Russian Mission to read the short summary.

For those of you reading this who are headed out to different spots of rural Alaska, I hope you will find this link as a good jump off point for information on your own sites. 

Five days until my excursion to Russian Mission.

I am excited that I will be visiting Russian Mission. I don't think that the realization of this excursion has actually him me yet. This may be my spring break but I am very busy taking care of scholastic business--a lot of which is attached to preparing for my trip. I was able to speak with Mr. Moen today, and it seemed a little surreal to be speaking with the principal of a school that I have never seen. I asked some questions but I just don't know what to expect or prepare for. This does not have me worried, however, and my adventurous spirit is looking forward to the trip.

 Life is good...

This is a test of the emergency blogcast system... This is only a test.