It’s been a good day. Slow to get up, went to school to rearrange my room, got home to watch the Iowa Women’s Basketball team win against Ohio State, and now this.

I’ll pick from yesterday’s post.

I had 15 native students and 3 white students, something very similar to what I’m teaching now. They were the most awesome students I’ve taught. Funny, smart, really wanting to learn things, and most of all, open to us white people (I say this in jest, but I’ll talk about it in a little bit). They wanted to know me both as a teacher and a person. We’d have students show up at our apartment and they’d make cookies with us. In today’s world, I’m not sure that would fly, but in 1994, we welcomed them. Most had a very difficult lives. Poverty, drinking, lack of jobs were and still are problems in native villages.

Our students were very open, while parents and grandparents were not. When missionaries came to Alaska, they brought school and many improves, but also religion. If students spoke their native language, they had mouths washed out with soap and were told they were going to hell. Much of their culture was pushed off to the side to learn English and “American culture”. So the white who came in (us) were not looked upon highly or with much respect. The elders would not say nice things when we went to school events. Parents were more welcoming, but guarded with what they’d say. As we learned, it made more sense.

We coached basketball, which was an amazing experience, yet humbling. They had a girl who had averaged 18 points a game, but moved out of the district. We had a team of girls who wouldn’t shoot or step up. We tried to run a very structured offense that was very unAlaskan. At the time, most teams ran and shot, and ran some more. We tried our way first, and got no where, going 0 – 7 and being called racists because we were starting girls we thought would work into our offense. So, we changed things up, allowing the girls to fast break more and playing more girls who had speed. This, of course, took one of our white players out, so we had the issue of only playing natives (yeah, 23 year olds were in over their heads!!). However, after that poor start, we went 9 – 4, tying for 1st place in a tournament! Suddenly, we were playing for a trip to the State Tournament. We couldn’t complete the fairy tale ending, losing in our semi-final game by one point.

The other thing about basketball, my wife was the head coach on away games, myself for home. Why? Because if I had traveled with the girls, we’d have lost one player because a chaperon would have to ride with us on the plane. That’s right. Our school flew everywhere. They’d leave, drop our team off, pick up another team, fly to a different site, drop off and pick up. They’d stay Friday night and Saturday, then come home Sunday and do the only thing in reverse until we got home. I paid for my own flight to Nome and our tournament on the interior. The Nome game, I got snowed in so couldn’t get home and had to take a personal day on Monday. I traveled to the interior tournament on the “Duct Tape Express” (yes, there was a lot of duct tape in this plane).

The kids took me ice fishing. My wife got to go dog sledding. I got to coach a group of sixth grade boys, and we traveled by plane to another village. My wife went berry picking. We ate fresh king crab. Fresh as in they brought us live crabs and we had to figure out how to cook them. We walked, a lot, since we had not car and saw some amazing sights. Our village was on Norton Sound, so we got some wicked storm that would blow in, but it also regulated our temperatures. The lowest temps we had were in the -30s, while moving inland, winter temps would be in the -50s. One of the games our team went to had wait until the temps rose to the point where the hydraulic fluid would not gel up on the plane. They had everyone dress in their winter clothing on the plane, just in case.

While we only lasted a year (it was a tough year to be away from friends and family with an adminstrator who was less than helpful), it was a year of school that impacted me greatly. I learned that to be a teacher, kids have to want to follow you, and you get them by being open and upfront with them. They aren’t stupid and know if you are full of BS. I’ve always tried my best to create relationships and just be real with students. That’s served me well in my career.

Would I do it again? In a heart beat (my wife, not so much). It was an amazing experience for a new teacher and help me to see that being a teacher is where I was meant to be! It also showed me how much I loved educational technology AND coaching, both a big part of my life going forward! I have fond memories of the students and have a couple of them on my social media.

And there you have it. If you are still with me, thanks for reading memories that are 30 years old. I appreciate it! 🙂