Warming Trends
- Prof C
- Oct 18
- 9 min read
by Ashley
First Day photos
I know in my last post, I alluded to some things that I said I'd follow up on in my next post. Since I imagine I'll have a lot to update as the holidays near, I figured I'd squeeze in this post to honor my words. In my discussion on the need for good principals, I had mentioned there was an event that almost led to Philip and I resigning from the district, for which we're working. At the end of last year, there was a student on our campus who had not passed a single class all school year. His behavior was such that he was getting sent home on a weekly basis, by the principal. It got to a point where the student's mother became angry and levied some accusations about our campus to the district. Suffice it to say, the student was removed from the learning environment for the remainder of the school year (which was about 7 months). It quickly devolved into no work getting done, with movie watching and sleeping replacing academics, and when grades were submitted, as a staff, we discussed how it was not in the best interest of this student to be promoted. Philip had discussed the academic consequences with the student, all year, and it was clear that the student had no concern. No work had been submitted, therefore, promotion couldn't even be considered. We were promised that the proper paperwork would be submitted, and then we broke for summer.
Fast forward to our return on campus for the fall. The SPED teacher from the previous year had moved on, and we had a new teacher to take his place. We began discussing the classes and student rosters, and the principal casually mentioned that the aforementioned student had been promoted to the next grade. Philip and I just sat there, dumbfounded. When we asked how, the principal muttered, borderline incoherently, that it was something about paperwork not being submitted in time, because he was unaware any needed to be. We lost our cool. I can't remember all the words we said at that point, because adrenaline and emotions were high, but I do remember some key phrases levied by Philip: "academic malpractice"and "betrayal of trust." I was so mad, I walked out. And I had so many questions. Who was really responsible for this utter lack of accountability? Was it really a paperwork oversight, or was the team decision overridden by individuals on our campus? Or was it someone higher up at district, who didn't want to deal with the headache of retaining a student? Or had grades been changed to take the issue completely off the table? The problem with the teaching situation last year, was that Philip ended up teaching most of the junior high subjects, but wasn't actually the teacher of record. Therefore, he had no control over what grades were actually input.
What angered us most was the casual manner in which our boss had delivered the news. Since we've been here, student accountability has been something we have strived to instill, allowing natural consequences to reflect the effort, or lack thereof, of our students. And there are a lot of students on our campus who have risen to the challenge. The promotion of this student wasn't fair to the others in his class, who worked their butts off to earn the grades they received. How was this going to impact them? Any student in their right mind, who could observe that a student who did absolutely nothing, and got the same advancement as they did, would logically conclude that they could put forth less energy and still receive credit. It also detracted from the integrity of Philip and I, and the conversations we had had with the student, about the consequences of his actions. All of it now meant nothing.
Philip and I were at a crossroads. On the one hand, how were we going to work for an entity, whether it be campus-level or district-level, that could allow this gross oversight or intentional dishonesty? On the other, what about all the hard work we'd put in, and the overall positive trajectory we had seen since our arrival? We couldn't just abandon that. After several inquiries, and heated conversations, it seemed that it really was a lack of paperwork submission by our principal. Which still begs the question how district eyebrows weren't raised at all about failing grades, for the entire year, for a student in the SPED program. I'm sure there are still details of which we are ignorant. What did come out of all of that was that Philip and I released all documented responsibility of that student. The dynamics had shifted for this year, where neither of us are teaching the middle school core, so academics were already cut loose. But we also stated our position that any decision, regarding that student, was going to be made without our input, or signatures on any document. It also burned the bridge between us and our principal. Granted, it wasn't just this one event that contributed to the divide; there have been a series of inconsiderate, dishonest, incompetent, and sometimes, downright dangerous actions and words displayed by the man in charge of our campus. We have made the best of it. But it's clear he has no interest in learning how to improve his craft, and it's clear that he doesn't really care about teaching students, or like them all that much.
At this point, we have reached a cordial, professional coexistence with him. But no more than that. And in my opinion, Philip is still doing way too much of his job for him. I suppose that's to be expected, since Philip cares about things being done well, and in a way that brings about the greater good, regardless who gets the credit, so long as the task at hand gets done. Our frustrations with the boss aside, the year has gone quite well. We've had some enrollment fluctuations, gaining students we didn't expect, and losing others we had. But we still have a lot of good things going on. Our chicken flock is thriving, and it's always fun to see my class traipsing in a line, at the end of the day, with eggs in their hands, to put them in the school refrigerator. The chickens have been laying for a month now, and it's still exciting for the kids. We are also still running the Wildcat Cafe, with the high school students doing the cooking and the baking, and running the concessions as well. Avery, Emily and Jadyn have gotten quite adept at running the espresso machine, cotton candy machine and the ice cream machine. Some of my students help out with popcorn. Once a month, our cafe will offer a dinner as well. We've sold out almost every time. The high school students have also gotten into wood burning and wood cutting, making game boards, wall hangings, and bowls, all from the trees in our woods. It's been great seeing how invested they get in their respective pieces, spending hours and days on getting them just right.
My class is limited in the elective activities because they're much younger, but they are learning so much. They're becoming more independent and asking deeper questions, and demonstrating so much more ability than others thought they could. The benefits of having staff stability. Since Philip and I are now the long-standing staff on campus, it's always interesting to hear other district professionals (or even new campus staff) try to assess the performance of our students, with just their snapshot perspective. We always have to add the context of growth over the preceding two years, to give a more conceptual understanding of any given kid. How important that piece of information is...the journey a person has taken to get to any given moment in time. Yet, that often takes a distant back seat to the location of their dots or the height of their bars in the data. It's been encouraging to see our students continue warming up to us, letting us get closer to them as we slowly establish trust.
I'll switch now to family updates. We are all still doing well. Emily has been busy in her senior year, traveling to Fairbanks, Anchorage, and other locations for several district camps in cosmetology, small engine repair and college/career explorations.
The cosmetology has been immediately beneficial, since Ems has become the local hairstylist for our village. Community members schedule appointments with her to cut and color their hair. She also only has three classes left for high school, and she could have graduated in December, if she'd wanted to. Instead, she decided to enroll in some extra dual-credit classes to pick up some college credit. As of now, she's looking to go to UAA (in Anchorage) to attend their nursing program. She's procured some scholarships already, and is hoping to earn more.
Jadyn is still completing online classes through UAS, and is working on campus as our Special Events Coordinator. She's enjoying the graphic design element of the job, and running the financial side of the campus cafe. She's also an amazing math tutor for upper level math for our high school students. She's glad to be able to recover the financial losses from last year's tuition, as more scholarships came through this year, and she's been able to save money for post-college.
Avery is doing well in school. The kid is ridiculously intelligent. I am amazed at the work she produces, and the fact that she's been in the high school class since her 7th grade year...well...I know her teacher, and he's one of the toughest there is. :) She's also taught herself many little hobbies out here: crocheting, sewing, beading, watercolor/sketching, soap making, baking sophisticated pastries (her danishes have become a local favorite and always sell out), and playing piano. She also loves trapping and doing outdoor things as much as her artistic pursuits. She's always busy and very self-directed. This is a good thing, since it won't be too much longer before she's the only one at home with us. I'm sure that's going to be a tough adjustment for the baby of the family.
Josh has probably remained the most laid-back, although he's had a busier year this year as well. Over the summer, he started helping out at the Co-op to stock groceries that came in on bypass, and since then, he's the first person they ask to help. He gets paid for the work, and of course, he enjoys having a source of income now. I'm happy that he has that opportunity, as well as the fact that he's already putting some of his earnings into savings. He and Emily enjoy driving the ATV around town for fun, and have gotten pretty brave in their maneuvering, much to my nervous chagrin.
Philip is still working through his grad school classes for principal certification. He can tell you better than I, but most of the time, he needs to decompress after each meeting, to recover from the heavy bureaucratic tone that the professors regurgitate. Fortunately, he just has to make it through the summer, and then he'll be in his internship phase, which is actually pretty amusing to think about, considering all the principal tasks he's been doing since we got here. He also remains our resident hunter and processor, which has saved us on grocery costs, and our primary lumberjack, keeping our supply stocked for wood projects and firewood.
Gathering birch, processing moose, and showing kids how to process a chicken.
As for me, I probably have the least going on. I just teach K-5 students, coach our Battle of the Books teams, and help Philip out with any task he's tackling. I'm quite content in our little neck of the woods, keeping life as simple as possible. I've said before, our work here is exhausting, and in some ways, it never stops. But without the mad rush of a road-system society, and all the distractions it provides, there's also still a lot of quiet. And most of our busy days are almost always self-inflicted. They're filled with projects we come up with and decide to do, lessons we create and enhance beyond the curriculum, or campus improvement needs that we decide to take on. We could always take things down a notch, I suppose. But what fun is that?
This year's major project was the school kitchen.
We are immensely looking forward to our favorite time of year, with all of our favorite holidays. I can't believe that Halloween is upon us. I really can't wait to post pictures of the costumes the kids purchased for this year. It's going to be hilarious. And we also already, miraculously have all their Christmas presents in. We learned from the last two years, and got a really early start before the plane deliveries get even more unpredictable than usual. We plan to carve our jack-o-lanterns soon, and place them on the deck. We'd usually have that done by now, since the cold preserves them, but it's been too warm. What's really strange is that as of the date of this post, there is still no snow on the ground and no ice on the river.
The last two years, at this point, we already had 2-4 inches of snow just sitting on the ground, and large ice chunks flowing by. Our temps have been in the mid-30s to 40s, with no frozen precipitation. Since it's been so warm, we still have bears that are lingering around, interested in our dump site and people's smokehouses. Everyone is ready for winter to arrive. Especially since we just pulled through the Typhoon Halong, which for those keeping up with Alaska news, really slammed the coastal villages. Our location received 60 mph winds, which blew some of the roofs off of houses, and damaged or relocated other large unsecured structures. We even heard from locals about small dogs being blown off of porches when let outside. With the abundance of rain this summer and fall, we've experienced more river erosion than usual, with a lot of key areas being washed out. Even the major bridge in town is in danger of falling in again, because of instability around the banks.
Hopefully, the white stuff that I love so much will start falling soon, and stick around. And with that, I'll wrap this post. As always, thanks for reading, and we hope all is well with each of you.
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