I promised a little information about BSSD, so here it is! I could go on for hours, but this is a fair summary.
The Bering Strait School District is a progressive standards-based district comprised of fifteen K-12 schools in the Norton Sound/Bering Strait region of Northwest Alaska. It is part of the Nome Census Area. The district encompasses a land area approximately the size of Minnesota and North Dakota combined, although it is considered a small district by population (roughly 1700 students total).
The district population of students is over 99% Alaskan Native Inupiat, Yu'pik, and Siberian Yu'pik cultures. The communities range in size from a population of 150 to nearly 900 people, while the student population in the schools ranges from 40 to 225 students. Of the 1700 students, over 1000 are ELL students.
The area is extremely remote. The communities are among the most traditional Native Alaskan Eskimo villages in the world. Daily subsistence activities such as hunting (seal, whale, fish, etc) and gathering berries are the mainstay of village life. Few cash economy jobs exist; the school is often the largest village employer. Supplies, mail, and people can only reach the area by bush plane. A few of the district villages are connected to each other through a snowmachine/dog sled route, and six of the villages are checkpoints for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Temperatures range from 60 degrees F in the summer to a possible -45 degrees F in the winter. BSSD does not own a school bus for obvious reason, but it does own several snowmachines (or snowmobiles, as they are called in the L48) in each village as well as a district bush plane for field trip and teacher inservice travel. Visitors to five of the district's schools can see Russia with the naked eye from North America.
While the location is isolated and remote, the schools are state of the art. Alaska is rich in oil, and the oil money has even trickled down to education! The district is an all Macintosh organization and is technology-driven. They have composed an open-content initiative through Wikipedia, and they even create a large Iditarod curriculum project every year for teachers in the Lower 48. Many teachers and students write blogs as class projects.
I hope that gives you a better picture of my district and future home! I will post pictures and videos of the actual places and people once I settle into my new community.
-Megan
Welcome to BSSD!
ReplyDeleteHere are a few links I thought you might enjoy.
Student Broadcasting Team- http://sbt.bssd.org
StraitTalk News - http://blog.bssd.org
Blog Farm (kind of like blogger, so feel free to get going on your own class blog if you'd like)- http://blog.bssd.org/mu/
Woah, I can't wait to see pictures and everything! It seems like forever before you get to get out there and take it all in, but I'm sure time will creep up like it usually does!
ReplyDeleteI hear that "Eskimo" in itself has become kind of derogatory and that "Inuit" is preferred. We were actually talking about this in my Language and Culture class today, good ol' Franz Boas. Check him out. He's the one who started the crazy "snow" discussions ;)
dvaughn,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that in many places the term 'Eskimo' is considered a slur (such as Canada, Greenland, and the L48), and has fallen out of favor in preference to the term 'Inuit". However, the term 'Eskimo' is widely used in Alaska and Siberia without a derogatory connotation. This is in part due to the fact that 'Inuit' is descriptive of only one type of Eskimo culture, with the other major group being Yu'pik (Eskimo).
In official documents, the broad term Alaska Native is used in the United States, while I believe Canada and Greenland use Inuit (though this is an incorrect use of the term). In fact, the term 'Inuit' is hardly used in Alaska at all. The actual Inuit people in Alaska call themselves Inupiat. Terms like Inupiat Eskimos are commonly heard in conversation and seen on Alaskan websites.
In the end, I think it depends on where and how you use the term. So, your professor is only partly right. :-) Is that confusing enough?
Well it looks like you are not taking the summer hire position in Petaluma. I'm excited for you Megan. Talk about a life experience - bush pilot , dog sled, snowmobile, teacher in-service travel... So now I can tell people I know someone very close to Siberia!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to BSSD, Megan. :) It's exciting to see a new hire so early! Usually we don't get to meet them until March. I teach high school reading and writing in Unalakleet, the hub of the region on the coast of the Norton Sound, southeast of Nome. And just so you know, this is pretty much the coolest district in Alaska. Well done, you. You should check out my blog, linked on my profile, of course. There are lots of pictures of AK there!
ReplyDeleteI can tell you've been doing your research, which is awesome. You'll be glad you did when you get here. In reference to the comment about snow above, I hope your professor didn't tell you that Eskimos have an exorbitant number of words for snow, because that isn't quite accurate. They do, however, in the traditional language (which very few people speak fluently) have many ways to describe the condition of snow and ice. But I digress. Most of BSSD villages are Inupiaq (Inupiat). Unalakleet lies at the southernmost edge of the Inupiaq region, which is north of us. South of us is the Yup'ik region. And you are right - I never, ever hear anyone say "Inuit."
Anyway, know that everyone is beginning to read your blog here, because we are all so interested in who is coming. :) It's what we do... if you stick around, you'll be doing the same thing next year! Cheers for now!
Karis