“I’ve reached out to the principal and secretary and actually one person who was a student-teacher and did land a job up there,” VonGoedert said, ” and just asking them if they have any values or different things to keep in mind as I go up there, because I want to learn from them what’s important.”
At UM, her education classes include lessons around Montana’s Indian Education For All program, a state constitutional requirement to learn about the distinct and unique heritage of Native Americans in a culturally responsive manner, which she hopes has prepared her for stepping into a mostly Indigenous classroom.
Despite all the excitement of embarking on an adventure to Alaska, VonGoedert is admittedly scared about how remote it is.
“I realized it was going to be a village when I signed up for the program, but I didn’t realize that my house wouldn’t have WiFi and I didn’t realize that I was going to have to buy a new phone that gets service in that area,” she said. The district set her up in housing 20 steps from where she’ll teach, but the school is the only place in town with internet.
She’s trying to study up as much about Newhalen as she can before she heads off the first week of January, but knows the best way to do that will be on the ground.
UM has had an ongoing relationship with the Lake and Peninsula School District in Newhalen, sending education students interested in teaching in remote communities there for several years. Completing a teaching practicum is required to graduate and become certified.
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