Administrator In service

Some things are the same no matter where you are. Administrator in service is one of those. The usual mandatory coverage of federal guidelines, the new Covid protocols that are out, reminders of best practices and the areas of emphasis for the year. Alaska, like home, has gone through the Covid gauntlet for the last two years and this is the first year that in person in service has taken place. Normal practices and things you want to do have been suspended for two years, just like home, and now they’re attempting to move past that and get back to the old form of business.

For new teachers there is a more thorough orientation. It lasts 4 days. It’s needed here because most new teachers here are new teachers straight out of college or are foreign nationals here on J1 visas. Many are from the Philippines and haven’t experienced this type of weather environment.  Many are from the west coast and pacific northwest. Those I’ve met are young and straight out of the university. They don’t know what to expect but have high hopes that everything will go perfectly. I’m gonna make a guess that if it’s like a typical school it won’t go perfectly but if they’re flexible and able to adapt and adjust they will make it just fine.

New administrators like myself are older and from the south. Of five new administrators two are from south Texas, one from Miami, one from New Jersey and one from Austria. Then there is me… Mississippi. A couple of us newbies are retirees from other states. Several old hands up here are retirees from across America. (On a side note, naturally I’m teamed with the other assistant principals. They’re all young and working on their administrators certification but are veterans from the district. They referred to our table as the kids table so we adopted that as our official nickname. I thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the kids table and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.) Many are just people who wanted a different lifestyle and came here looking for it. Several have been here more than the five years required to be vested. A few have been here three years and gunning for that fifth year. The jury is still out for me.

For the past three days I’ve been battling the Bethel Bug. Fever, chills, sore throat, ear and sinus pain. There have been times I have shaken so badly I thought I was gonna break a tooth. I’ve coughed so much I’m sore in my chest and back. This too shall pass in time. It’s the typical story… new place, new germs. I’m told most people go through this in the first few days.

We were supposed to fly to the village this afternoon, however, the weather had other ideas and our flight was canceled. Tomorrow we will travel by boat early in the morning. To prep for the trip I bought a small amount of food to last me until I can make an Amazon order for groceries. I’ll get my address for shipping and place my order as quickly as I can. I’ve taken a look at price comparisons and ordering bulk from Amazon is the better option. Groceries here are highly valuable based on my trip through the local store. I’ll post a picture of my haul on Twitter.

Public Service Announcement: Those of you who are soft drink lovers, don’t come here. Soft drinks are expensive and hard to come by. I saw my first coke, not sold in a store, during in service this morning. Someone else was drinking it. I asked where he found it thinking I would grab one. Unfortunately he brought it with him. I had a conversation with myself for about fifteen seconds, should I grab it and run or just bid my time and wait he wasn’t looking and take a drink. I decided on neither. Luckily, lunch came and when it did black gold came with it. A whole twelve pack of red canned goodness arrived. Forty-eight cans of assorted cokes, sprites, Pepsi and A&W root beer came through the door. I guess I sensed a disturbance in the force because I turned and looked at the door a split second before they appeared. I never took my eye off of them as they were placed as far from me across the room as you could get. When lunch was announced I was last in line. The whole time I was in line all I could think was, “they’re all gonna be gone, there is no way I’m getting a coke.” I had resigned myself to the inevitable. I was shocked when I got to the drinks and there were five cokes left. I grabbed one and guarded it like my life depended on it. I sipped it and made it last as long as I could. At the end of the day the announcement was made for us to help ourselves to the leftover snacks and drinks. I probably threw up a dust cloud getting back to those cokes. I ended up with four of those precious twelve ounce cans of liquid joy. So those of you who know the joys of the readily available soft drinks at district PD sessions or state wide meetings be thankful. Not everyone is as fortunate as you lucky few.

Hopefully I’ll be capable of keeping this going regularly. I’m told there is some limited service at the village. If I’m unable to upload posts while I’m there I’ll continue to write them and post them all at once when I make my monthly trip into town.