On the road with the College of Education

For a week in late April, College of Education graduate students head to Newhalen School for the Lake and Peninsula School District's annual Academic Athletic (AA) meet. The decades-old tradition closes out each school year, bringing 7th through 12th graders together from across the 13-school district for a packed week of events, including NYO qualifiers and a career fair.

During the AA meet, Newhalen School - overlooking the shores of Lake Iliamna - is a humming hive of teenage energy. Students sleep in the classrooms at night. Prom dresses hang from the library loft and basketballs echo through the gym. Friends hang out in the hallway between classes, with their duffel bags stuffed beneath trophy cases.

For the past five years, UAA students have been part of the process too, teaching full days of classes on topics selected by the student body. This year's theme was renewable energy, and UAA students led courses on everything from solar-powered K'Nex cars to harnessing wind energy. Previous years have included robot coding, poetry slams and making cosmetics from natural materials. Some activities - like a bird habitat and a radio station - stay in use after the graduate students fly home.

UAA students typically provide science education and the means to process it through the arts. Courses can be "anything and everything to heighten their awareness of how to become more [scientifically] literate," explained Mike Mueller, a professor of secondary education who organizes the trip at UAA. "Our role is to help expand the kinds of educational opportunities either [students in the district] might not spend a lot of time with, or just might not get at all."

Lake and Peninsula School District is large on land - roughly the size of Pennsylvania - but small on students. Most high schools have five students or fewer, and employ only one to two teachers. There's a limited range of what can be covered in a year, but the fresh perspective and new material brought by UAA provides an academic jolt each April. "The value the community gets from our interaction with their school, I think, pays dividends," Mueller said.

The week in Newhalen involves so much more than teaching, though.

For a full four days, UAA students are as much a part of the community as the high school kids. UAA students judge the district's science fair and speech competition, and even help students with their makeup and hair before prom. At the end of each night, the graduate students hurry to finish a flurry of UAA assignments - including their comprehensive exams - on school library Wi-Fi.

The experience provides opportunities for students on both sides of the schedule. For Lake and Pen students, Mueller noted, the exposure to UAA might get them thinking about college. "And the UAA students are really gaining teaching experience," he added. "They're getting a chance to work with rural youth, and really see what they're like."

Many of the UAA participants are in their final semester, meaning they've just logged 500 hours student teaching in Anchorage. The week in Newhalen provides a much different perspective.

Occasionally, the experience inspires UAA students to start their careers in a village. "For me, there's a real value in helping the students to see that this is a viable place to teach," Mueller noted. Three of his students have accepted jobs with Lake and Peninsula School District after participating in the AA meet.

But even if UAA students take a job in Anchorage, they've still gained a valuable viewpoint from a memorable experience.

"There's a real sense of accountability and responsibility here that can get lost in bigger cities with public education," said Erin Ingle, a UAA graduate student who participated in the past two AA meets. Students and teachers at Lake and Pen schools frequently form tightknit, personable connections. "I [now] know the feeling I want to create, so for me it's been great just to be here," she added.

"Good teaching is all about making connections with your students," added Nanne Boogaerdt, who graduates this May. As a math teacher in Anchorage, he can expect a few students with remote roots in his classroom. "If you have connections with students, they will want to work for you. So knowing what their background is, that makes it so much easier to make a connection with a kid."

The AA meet impacts all the students involved, whether they're wrapping up 7th grade or grad school. But at the end of the day, it's also just a great way to end the academic year.

"[There's] a sense of community here that I really haven't seen at any other school," said Boogaerdt.

Written by J. Besl, UAA Office of University Advancement