{"id":113026,"date":"2009-12-15T16:48:56","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T21:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bssd.org\/?p=3257"},"modified":"2009-12-15T16:48:56","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T21:48:56","slug":"new-teacher-cultural-inservice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/113026","title":{"rendered":"New Teacher Cultural Inservice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Strait<\/a><\/p>\n

By Lynda Bekoalok, Teacher, Shaktoolik<\/p>\n

On September 24-26 over 40 new teachers from BSSD assembled in Shaktoolik for a Cultural In-Service. The theme of the weekend was \u201cBeyond the Horizons: When you’re on the horizon you can see in all directions. Connecting the past, present and future to attain success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend opened with students from Shaktoolik School saying the Pledge of Allegiance in Inupiaq, followed by the Upper Elementary students singing the song \u201cHigh Hopes\u201d. Then the entire student body of Shaktoolik performed a few Eskimo Dances lead by Mary Huntington.<\/p>\n

The speakers for the first evening were Superintendent Jim Hickerson and BSSD Board member Melvin Otton from Koyuk. They spoke of getting involved in the community and to get to know the elders in your village. The elders are a wealth of knowledge that can help someone new to the region become better acclimated to their surroundings. Several villages sent elders to be a part of the conference and to interact with their new teachers.<\/p>\n

Throughout the course of the weekend the teachers were trained in Sheltered English Instruction. Anne Swigard, Educational Training Specialists, LLC of Phoenix, AZ, taught the teachers how to better work with children that English is not their first language. In 15 hours she took them around the world to ten countries involving them in the teaching\/learning process.<\/p>\n

On Friday evening many of the teachers were given a tour of the area by Gary Bekoalok. Gary took them to the old site of Shaktoolik and explained about the erosion. He then took them to the ancient village when the residents lived over 1,000 years ago in earth dugout dwellings. The visitors enjoyed getting out in the country and seeing the flora and fauna of the area.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning was a favorite of the participants. They were able to choose among four different sessions that were presented by area speakers. Annie Conger and Bernadette Alvanna-Stimpfle (Nome) and Nita Towarak (Unalakleet) spoke to the teachers about the history of Norton Sound. They spoke of the changes the area has seen in education and life in general. Jerry Ivanoff (Unalakleet) represented NSEDC and informed the group about the function of NSEDC and how they can help in education with things such as scholarships. Mary Huntington (Shaktoolik) and Yvonne Ivanoff (Unalakleet) lead a session called \u201cFrom Student to Teacher\u201d. They spoke about being students in bush Alaska and then becoming educators. Paul Ongtooguk, originally from Kotzebue now an instructor at UAA, gave the group some very valuable tips on teaching native children.<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening the community and the teachers enjoyed a native potluck in conjunction with the wedding reception of Floyd and Kristin O’Connor. After everyone enjoyed the wedding cake, entertainment was provided by the King Island Dancers, sponsored by NSEDC, BSNC and Kawerak. Many of the teachers remarked that they would like to learn more from all of the presenters. Hopefully it will be possible to hold such a conference again for teachers of the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lynda Bekoalok, Teacher, Shaktoolik On September 24-26 over 40 new teachers from BSSD assembled in Shaktoolik for a Cultural In-Service. The theme of the weekend was \u201cBeyond the Horizons: When you’re on the horizon you can see in all directions. Connecting the past, present and future to attain success.\u201d The weekend opened with students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":969,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/969"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}