Big News...

I am thrilled to share the news that I have accepted a teaching position for the 2008-09 school year in Mountain Village, Alaska! I am the future 2nd grade teacher at the Ignatius Beans Memorial School. The school is K-12th grade and has about 270 students, with a student to teacher ratio of 18:1, every educator's dream!

I am beyond excited right now and I don't think everything has entirely sunk in yet. For those of you who don't know, I've dreamt of teaching in Alaska for the past six years and God has consistently brought Alaska into my life in various forms. I've been nannying for a toddler who's parents lived and met in Alaska; my landlord is from Alaska; a fully funded trip to Alaska fell into my lap this past autumn; and a friend from high school actually ended up moving to Alaska to teach, as well. I frequently end up sitting next to people on planes who are from Alaska or standing in long lines with people who are from Alaska. So it's been clear for quite awhile: Alaska!

Why Alaska?

Many of you know that my mother's side of the family (the LaPointe side) is Native American. I've grown up with a deep appreciation and respect for Native peoples, as well as the knowledge that Natives still have yet to receive the same access to quality resources as the rest of our nation, especially when it comes to education. Besides longing to go where there is a great need for teachers, I am also eager to head to "the Last Frontier" and a little adventure! I never thought that I would fall in love with a city like I have fallen in love with Seattle, but I know that it's now time to move on. I am excited to be surrounded by vastness of space, rather than vastness of concrete! Frederick Buechner writes, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." For me, this is Alaska.

Mountain Village, Alaska is located on the Yukon River near the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and is 458 miles west of Anchorage. It was originally a summer fish-camp site until the opening of a general store in 1908. The approximate population is 1000 people with about 90% of its population being Yup'ik Eskimo. It is also the district headquarters for the Lower Yukon School District. As far as I can tell, temps can get as high as 60 or 75 in the summer and drop to 40 below in winter. Think Jack London's "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild."

My life has been a whirl-wind for the past two weeks, ever since the job fair I went to in Tacoma on April 3rd. The job fair itself was quite the experience. I felt like all the AK booths were very unconventional compared to the booths of school districts in the lower 48. For instance, all the AK booths had their salary scales posted out for all to see, whereas everyone else's was either in a packet or you had to go online somewhere to find it (based on previous job fairs I've attended). My favorite example is from the Lower Yukon's booth, where they had posted to the back wall 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of printer paper with the jobs that were available in each village, and whenever they filled one of the jobs they'd take a fat Sharpie and cross it out (repeatedly, many times). I stood there with the superintendent and he looked at me and flat out asked me, "So which one do you want?" I felt more like I was looking at a menu and choosing a sandwich, when actually I said, "Uh, that second grade position looks pretty good." (and that's the position I now have!)

Many people have asked me what my discernment process has been throughout all of this. I'll try to sum it up, although it wasn't anything too profound or deep. Knowing that God would be with me wherever I decided to go (and in fact, that God is there now, before I even arrive there), I trusted that God would close doors where needed. I was actually offered two different teaching positions in two different school districts. My most "profound" discernment exercise was sitting down and making a pros and cons list. It allowed me to sort out everything that was floating around in my head and see on paper what each district and position had to offer. But even after that, I still was kind of stuck. Both jobs paid pretty much the same. The geographic locations were pretty similar. The Native populations were the same. In the end, I went with my gut. Guffaw if you want, but I've learned to trust my gut instinct, and so I turned to it again in choosing my career. Here are my reasons:

-Mountain Village is larger than most bush communities and is the headquarters for the Lower Yukon School District
-LYSD's staff development and new hire orientation is stronger than the other district's
-Mountain Village is a direct flight from Anchorage, making travel slightly less expensive than more remote villages
-2nd grade. It's the grade I student taught and a grade I know I love. I'm already familiar with 2nd grade Grade Level Expectations and curriculum, and I am hoping that this will help me with my first year of teaching and this whole time of transition I have ahead of me. Familiarity can't be bad, right?
-LYSD's teacher housing is superior to the other district's (and the rent is cheaper!)
-The director of Human Resources emailed me to let me know that I was their first choice candidate for this position and that I needed to let him know ASAP if I wanted the job so they could offer it to someone else if I declined. That right there cinched the deal for me - they really really want me!!

So call it my gut instinct - or the Holy Spirit, or both - but that's what I went with. And I'm happy and at peace.

I'm probably going to start a new blog. The time seems right, too. I'll let you know about it when I have the time to start it up!