A Week in Alaska Supporting Educators

I just wrapped up a week in Alaska that included spending 2 days north of the arctic circle. My first stop was in Arctic Village, a small village on the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (you might have heard about in the news lately around drilling for oil and gas). I truly believe there are some places you just have to see for yourself in this world to appreciate them, and this is one of them. Untouched by human hands, to stand at the end of the village and look out and know that you are literally standing at the end of civilization is….should I say peaceful? Awe Inspiring? Not sure I have a word for it. And also with grizzlies and wolves in the area….don’t stand too long.?

I visited the village school. 22 students K-12 4 teachers total. Two elementary, K-2, 3-5. And two MS/HS teachers. One teaching ELA/Social Studies and one teaching Math/Science. While there, I did a training on Generative AI with them in person as well as to educators across this vast district via zoom. Six schools in six different villages with no roads connecting any of them. My accommodations were an apartment on campus that was maybe 250 sq feet. Small, compact and yet perfect for this part of the world. Living here, teaching here, is not for everyone but all the teachers when I asked them about it all answered the same way. “I love it here!”. It takes a special human, who loves the outdoors, who loves nature, who loves village life to be here, but I understand the draw. The school, up until recently, was the only place in the village with Internet. Thanks to Starlink families can now have internet at their homes as well. A game changer for the village and for the children and their learning.?

My next stop was at Fort Yukon, same school district, larger village with 72 total students. As you can probably guess Fort Yukon got its name from the fort built here during the Yukon gold rush. The gold rush might be over but this small village, only accessible by plane, lives on. At the school I was honored to meet the state champion girls basketball team (who would later bump me from my flight to Fairbanks for a tournament) and do 3 AI sessions with students.?

First up was the 4-6 grade class. I took them to codebreakeredu’s chatbot called byte that is tailored for this age group. Of course the students already knew about AI, either from older siblings or having a chatgpt account themselves and were excited that there was one made for them. We had Byte write poems, a song about their village, help with finding other words for “fun”, and come up with 3 story ideas for something they might want to write about. However…the kicker prompt was one about inventing a new animal that could live in the biome of Alaska interior and Fort Yukon. They had so much fun talking about their animals, figuring out if they thought their animals would actually survive there, and their funny names. Then without prompting one student took out a piece of paper and started sketching his Frosty Fox. Next thing I knew students were either drawing their animals or asking Byte (their new AI friend) more about their animal. One animal, I don’t remember its name, was a cross between a seal and a reindeer. With antlers and flippers. The student was very impressed and intrigued. All I could think about was wanting to teach biomes again and how this would change the way I approached it.?

Following that I met with the middle schoolers in two different groups. We used ChatGPT and I walked them through prompts, prompt engineering and answered their questions about Generative AI. I had them fill out a padlet of how they used AI already - overwhelmingly for homework. What questions they had about AI - how did it know everything. And at the end of my time with them what was the learning they wanted to remember. Overwhelmingly it was the environmental impact these tools are having. The same response I am getting from MS/HS students across the country. Sure it can make images, it can support them in their learning, it can brainstorm ideas and yes even write essays. But the thing that strikes them the most is the environmental impact these tools are having. Just another reason I love this generation and yet…without my lesson…they would not have known. We need to do a better job of making sure students understand the environmental impact these tools have and use them wisely. After all they too will have to live with the consequences.?

With my time in the Arctic north over I took a flight back to Fairbanks and on down to Anchorage to work with the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) in thinking through creating custom AI Bots to support their work in supporting educators across the state.?

My last day was spent with Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center (AERRC) talking with districts, universities and Department of Education folks about how generational understanding plays into recruiting practices. A talk I find myself giving more and more both in education and outside as well. We discussed what the state and districts were doing that was working and what was no longer working as they tried to recruit the next generation (Gen Z) to Alaska to teach. Alaska, like most if not all states, is in a critical teacher shortage. Some districts are already, very successfully, recruiting teachers out of the Philippines to fill the shortage of educators. While others are finding innovative ways to entice educators to Alaska through different incentives and strategies. We spent the day looking at marketing techniques (using social media) and what younger generations expect when it comes to onboarding programs, work/life balance, and personal endeavors. It was an eye opening experience for all of us I believe. Them understanding generations and why approaches that worked a few years ago no longer work. And my understanding of what these districts face in trying to recruit educators to Alaska.?

It was an incredible week of learning just how precious of a place Alaska is, just how hard it is to live and teach in places where the sun doesn’t rise for over a month and -40 is an average winter day. I learned that these small villages and indigenous communities are struggling in many ways. Struggling against a declining population, struggling to keep their customs, traditions, languages and history alive alongside schools and districts trying to balance the needs of indigenous communities and customs with the demands of State education expectations. Not all these struggles are specific to Alaska, but it does feel different here. The struggle to recruit workers to Alaska isn’t an educational issue but a larger state issue as Alaska once again saw more people leave the state then migrate here, leaving an employee gap that across the spectrum is harder and harder to fill.??

Alaska truly is the last frontier and a unique part of our world. I look forward to continuing learning more about this incredible state, these incredible leaders, and of course the educators and students that are the reasons I do what I do.