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Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Vol. II
Foreword
Teachers Beware! The following collection of
essays could stimulate you to engage in educational activities of a
provocative and inciteful (even insightful) manner. If you take
seriously the rich assortment of rural schooling ideals and
curricular ideas assembled in this book, you run the risk of opening
up new and uncontrollable learning opportunities for your students.
Such a risk may be worth taking, however, since all of the essays
contained herein were prepared by teachers like yourselves, who have
already broken the trail and are willing to share their experiences
and insights with you. The "wisdom of practice" documented in this
volume demonstrates that the commitment to improve the quality of
school- ing in rural Alaska is alive and well, particularly at the
level of the local community and school, and that many classroom
teachers are ignoring the status quo and venturing into innovative
and promising new realms of curriculum development and teaching
practice.
In the spring of 1988 the Alaska Staff
Development Network published the first volume of Lessons
Taught, Lessons Learned, a
collection of essays on schooling in rural Alaska by participants in
the first Rural Alaska Instructional Improvement Academy in Fairbanks
the summer before. The quality and popularity of the teachers' essays
was such that we decided to continue the writing assignment in
conjunction with the next three Academies, and it is from those
submissions that this second volume is drawn. As was the case with
the first collection, the participants were asked to write an essay
reflecting their views on rural schooling or rural school
curriculum, in response to their experiences, the Academy workshop(s)
they attended, and four assigned articles on curriculum design (which
were included in the first volume of essays). References in this
collection to essays or articles from the first volume are indicated
by the abbreviation, LT/LL. Copies of the first volume can be
obtained from the Alaska Staff Development Network (DOE), or the
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Center for Cross-Cultural
Studies.
The essays in Volume II are organized into two
sections: Part I includes teachers' reflections on the qualities and
practices that make up their version of the ideal school in rural
Alaska; Part II includes essays that describe curriculum ideas and
teaching methods that teachers have found particularly appropriate
for rural Alaskan schools. The teacher/authors are identified with
the school district in which they were employed at the time of the
Academy they attended, since that is the setting from which their
ideas and experiences are drawn, though some have since moved to
other districts and positions.
Appreciation is hereby extended to the many
teachers who prepared essays for this volume, including those whose
essays were not included due to limitations of space. Hopefully the
essays assembled here have captured the range and spirit of the many
excellent submissions. Additionally, I wish to thank the Academy
workshop presenters who stimulated many of the ideas outlined in the
essays; the staff of the UAF Conferences and Institutes for managing
the logistics of the Academy and entering the essays into the
computer for publication; and Kelly Tonsmeire, Helen Barrett and the
staff of the Alaska Staff Development Network for putting it all
together and making it happen. Keep up the good work!
Ray Barnhardt
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Foreword
Ray Barnhardt
Part I *
Rural School Ideals
"My
Goodness, People Come and Go So Quickly Around
Here"
Lance C. Blackwood
Parental Involvement
in a Cross-Cultural Environment
Monte Boston
Teachers and
Administrators for Rural Alaska
Claudia Caffee
The Mentor Teacher
Program
Judy Charles
Building
Networks
Helen Eckelman
Ideal Curriculum and
Teaching Approaches for a School in Rural
Alaska
Teresa McConnell
Some Observations
Concerning Excellent Rural Alaskan Schools
Bob Moore
The Ideal Rural
Alaska Village School
Samuel Moses
From Then To Now:
The Value of Experiential Learning
Clara Carol Potterville
The Ideal
School
Jane Seaton
Toward an Integrated,
Nonlinear, Community-Oriented Curriculum
Unit
Mary Short
A Letter from
Idealogak, Alaska
Timothy Stathis
Preparing
Rural Students for the Future
Michael Stockburger
The Ideal
Rural School
Dawn Weyiouanna
Alternative
Approaches to the High School Curriculum
Mark J. Zintek
Part II *
Rural Curriculum Ideas
"Masking" the
Curriculum
Irene Bowie
On Punks and
Culture
Louise J. Britton
Literature to Meet
the Needs of Rural Students
Debra Buchanan
Reaching the Gifted
Student Via the Regular Classroom
Patricia S. Caldwell
Early Childhood Special
Education in Rural Alaska
Colleen Chinn
Technically
Speaking
Wayne Day
Process Learning
Through the School Newspaper
Marilyn Harmon
Glacier Bay
History: A Unit in Cultural Education
David Jaynes
Principals of
Technology
Brian Marsh
Here's Looking
at You and Whole Language
Susan Nugent
Inside, Outside and
all-Around: Learning to Read and Write
Mary L. Olsen
Science Across
the Curriculum
Alice Porter
Here's Looking at
You 2000 Workshop
Cheryl Severns
School-Based
Enterprises
Gerald Sheehan
King Island
Christmas: A Language Arts Unit
Christine Pearsall Villano
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
Michael A. Wilson
We-Search and
Curriculum Integration in the Community
Sally Young
Artist's
Credits
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