I'll start at the beginning. It's a very good place to start!

Well, as many of you may already know, my good friend Falon and I will be teaching in the village of Chevak, Alaska this coming school year.  It will be the first year of full time teaching for both of us (we each spent the past semester/year substitute teaching).  I will be teaching 6th grade English and language arts, and Falon will be teaching Kindergarten.  We are going to be roommates as well as colleagues (and partners in crime), so we will be together in this adventure and once in a lifetime experience.  I'm not sure, however, that many people know how this all came about.  So let me start from the beginning...Before you begin, though, I should just forewarn you that this is a LONG post...proceed at your own risk :)

This past school year, Falon and I both began substitute teaching in our school district.  We both started to get quite a bit of work and had established some schools and teachers that would call us on a regular basis.  It was great experience to have, and really helped us both to gain more confidence in our teaching abilities.  At the end of a day of subbing, you may not have any work to take home with you, but you also have different classrooms, different students, different rules, different grades, etc., etc., etc. all the time and you constantly have to adapt.  It can be extremely challenging.  I have had several people say to me, "If you can survive being a substitute teacher, you can survive anything."  I guess I have a little better understanding of just what they mean by that now.  It does make me feel kind of proud of myself that I can say I survived a year of substitute teaching, and I feel a little more accomplished to have that under my belt.  And it certainly helps me feel a little better prepared to be in my own classroom full time.  I think this past year of substitute teaching gave me the confidence boost I needed to feel ready for full time teaching.  If nothing else, at least it looks good on my resume, right? ;-)

While Falon and I were both enjoying subbing, we were also both anxious to have our own classroom.  We kept our ears open for possible job openings and opportunities in the district this year, hoping that we might get hired as teachers here.  Unfortunately, as the pattern tends to go in Alaska, (or at least in our school district) you usually have to do some time subbing and/or teaching in the bush before you can get into the school system.  You have to put your name and your face out there first, which makes sense I guess....I mean, principals probably want to know you're a good teacher before they hire you :)  Well, we had both done a good bit of subbing (I began subbing at the beginning of the year, and Falon began subbing after Christmas when she had finished her student teaching), and people within the district were starting to know who we were, but.....the job prospects weren't looking too good.  That's not to say for certain that there were not going to be any new job openings in the fall, but that would mean not knowing whether or not we would each have a job for the entire summer, and then if we did get hired it could end up being just days before school started, which is certainly a stressful situation to be in.  While I did enjoy my year of substitute teaching, I was not sure that I was really thrilled about doing it for two years in a row.

During our year in the wonderful world of substitute teaching, Falon and I kind of started our own little tradition.  Just about every Friday (or every other Friday, depending on our schedules) we would get together for dinner and a movie.  First of all, after a week (or two) of subbing, we felt that we deserved to treat ourselves to eat out somewhere.  During our dinners together, Falon and I would swap subbing stories with one another.  We would update each other on how our week went, share crazy things that had happened to us, give each other tips and advice, discuss what we had heard about possible job openings, and generally encourage one another in our teaching endeavors.  We were kind of like our own little support group.  Second of all, Falon and I are basically preferred customers at the local movie theaters around here...we are kind of movie going enthusiasts ;-) so it was always a fun way to end the week, and I always looked forward to it.

Something that was also very helpful this past year was advice from my big brother.  He has been a 5th grade teacher now for 4 years, and he had to substitute teach for 2 years before he got a teaching job.  He is not that far removed from doing just exactly what I've been doing (subbing, networking, interviewing, etc.), so he was very helpful in knowing things that I should and should not do in my efforts to get a teaching job.  He was able to tell me the mistakes he had made in the process so that I could avoid them, as well as things that he had done right that really helped him so I could benefit from that knowledge too.  It also didn't hurt that people knew I was related to him :)...my last name was already familiar.  He's a good teacher (and a pretty good big brother too :D) and that made me look good by association I suppose.....hey, I'm not complaining! :) 

I actually ended up doing a lot of subbing for my brother in his classroom because he was in the middle of getting a master's degree in administration and had to be gone a lot for principal hours, so I would fill in.  It was great teaching experience.  Because I was subbing for my brother he gave me a few crash courses in things like entering grades, using the Promethean board, etc. that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten to do subbing in other classrooms.  Also, because I was subbing for my brother I could call or text him during the day if I had a question or a problem (or a student causing trouble...hehe) and the students knew that he was going to hear how things had gone in the classroom that day, so they couldn't pull one over on me...not that they didn't try ;-)  By the end of the year I had subbed so much in his classroom that I felt like his students were partly my students too.  I subbed in other classrooms and for other teachers too, of course, but I felt like I had a lot of opportunities and chances to learn things in his classroom that I didn't have in other classrooms.  It was a pretty sweet little deal, I have to say, and I am really thankful for the experience. 

Falon also had her share of connections.  Her mom is a first grade teacher and Falon did half of her student teaching in a school within our district, so she knew several teachers before she ever started subbing.  We both know our fair share of teachers, principals, school district employees, etc.  Falon's mom is a teacher in the district, Falon's uncle was a principal in the district, my brother is a teacher in the district, my brother's mother-in-law is a teacher in the district, several people in our church are teachers and principals.  We both had a lot of people within the teaching community looking out for us, encouraging us, supporting us, praying for us, and rooting for us.....which is how we heard about the job fair where we got hired.

Falon was friends with a teacher at the school where her mom worked who had taught near Point Hope (near Barrow, Alaska.....WAY north).  She told Falon about a teacher job fair that happens every year in Anchorage where all of the school districts from the entire state of Alaska (village schools as well as local schools) come to interview and hire teachers.  She encouraged Falon to think about possibly teaching somewhere in the bush (specifically Point Hope), because she had really enjoyed and valued her experience.  Falon told me about the job fair and we both decided to go together.  We got to work filling out online applications, updating our teaching portfolios and resumes, brushing up on our interviewing skills, and preparing ourselves for the job fair.  We sat at my dining room table with all of our papers spread out, and compared notes about what we were including in our portfolios, how we were formatting our resumes, what we were writing in our cover letters, etc. until we felt pretty confident about what we had to bring with us to the job fair.  It was a lot of work, but it felt good (and was pretty impressive, I thought) to see myself, my experience, and what I had to offer on paper....hey, I'd hire me! ;-)

The day of the job fair rolled around and we got up bright and early, dressed in our spiffy interview outfits, and drove into Anchorage feeling anxious, excited, and nervous.  We weren't really sure what to expect, or what was going to happen.  We didn't really go into the job fair with the plan of getting a job teaching in the bush, but we were open to the possibility.  We just knew that there was no guarantee in either of us getting a teaching job in our own school district, so we wanted to explore our options.  We figured that IF we were going to teach in the bush, now would be the time in our lives to do it.  The one thing we did know for sure was that if we were going to teach in the bush somewhere, we were going together.  We were a package deal, and we made that clear with every school we talked to.

Falon and I talked to several different schools and districts.  At every table we went to, we told them we were looking for two elementary teaching positions at the same site and that we were willing to be roommates.  Some of the schools looked at us like we were crazy to think we could find two elementary openings at the same place, and some of the schools were very enthusiastic about it, because when a teacher has the built in support system of a friend in a remote village, they are more likely to have a good experience and will do a better job teaching.

We went to just about every single table in the job fair, and talked to nearly all the schools that were represented.  It was actually a pretty exhausting process.  We basically said the same thing over and over and over again....we're elementary ed., we graduated recently, we've been substitute teaching in our district, we're looking for two elementary positions at a site together...yada, yada, yada.  Thankfully, our efforts were not fruitless :)  We had several interested schools and dropped off lots of resumes.  We had interviews with the North Slope school district and the Bristol Bay school district on the first day, and scheduled interviews with a Pribilof Island school and Chevak school for the next morning.  It's always a good feeling when someone expresses interest in hiring you - they've seen something in you that they like and are impressed by - and makes you feel just a little more confident in yourself.  Falon and I left the job fair on the first day feeling pretty confident about our job prospects.  And if we didn't end up getting a job offer, at least we had we had received a lot of positive feedback and gained some great interviewing experience.

We were really excited about Pribilof Island because the people at that table (a husband and wife) were very friendly and enthusiastic.  We even got to meet their daughters, who were really sweet too.  It just seemed like it would be a very neat place to go.  Chevak wasn't really on our radar as much (except for the fact that we had an interview with them).  To begin with we thought that if we got hired, we wanted it to be in Pribilof.....obviously God had a little bit of a different plan for us :)

The next morning we drove back into Anchorage for our interviews with Pribilof and Chevak.  We got there early so that we could have time to research the schools a little bit and go into the interviews with some knowledge of the places we were interviewing for.  Our first interview was with the Pribilof school.  They had brought in some students from the school to take part in the interviewing process, so we had a chance to talk with them as well.  It was a very comfortable and conversational interview.  We felt like we did well in our interview, but there was also a couple that was interviewing for the position too, and we just didn't know what would happen.  After that, we had our interview with Chevak, which was a little more intimidating.  The superintendent of the school, the principal, and two or three other school officials were there.  Although we were nervous at first, we left the interview feeling really good about how we had done.  We felt like we had answered the questions and presented ourselves well.  The superintendent told us that they had a few more interviews left to do and they wanted to give all the applicants a chance to interview before offering teaching positions to anyone, but they would be calling us within the next few days.  We weren't completely sure, but that kind of sounded to us like they already knew they wanted to offer us a job.  We didn't want to get our hopes up too soon, but we were optimistic.  Now all we had to do was wait to hear back from both schools.

Falon and I started driving back from Anchorage discussing how great it would be if we got teaching jobs, and what it would be like to live and teach in a native village.  When we were about halfway through our drive home, we got a call from the Pribilof school.  They told us that it had been a really difficult decision, we had done a great job, and they had really liked us, but they were going to offer the teaching positions to the couple that had interviewed.  Up to that point, I was really not totally sure how serious I was about the whole teaching in the bush thing.  I figured it couldn't hurt to interview for the jobs and see what happened, but I didn't know how I would feel when it really came down to it.  After we got that phone call, though, I was really bummed.  We were both really bummed.  We had kind of gotten excited about the possibility of teaching in Pribilof, and were disappointed when we were not offered teaching positions.  I realized that I must have been more serious about teaching in the bush than I had originally thought.  I think the fact that Falon and I would be in this together made me way more open to the possibility  Falon and I drove in disappointed silence for a while after that (about 20 minutes :D).

It wasn't but 20 minutes after our phone call from Pribilof that we received another phone call....   It was the superintendent of Chevak school.  He was calling to offer us both teaching positions (Falon a Kindergarten position and me a 6th grade English and language arts position).  We were so shocked.  We had thought that we weren't going to hear from them for the next few days, and here it was, not but 2 hours after our interview that we were being offered jobs. We hadn't really been thinking about what would happen if we were offered teaching positions in Chevak because we had been busy thinking about Pribilof.  We told him that we would like to go home and talk to our families first before we made a final decision....and of course (as you already know), we decided to accept the teaching jobs! :D

After we accepted our teaching jobs in Chevak, people came out of the woodwork with all kinds of connections that we had no idea about.  Falon's uncle knows people in Chevak from when he used to work and travel to the different villages, a lady in our church knows the lady who is going to be our teacher mentor and has talked to her about us, one of my dad's close pastor friends (he's my friend too :D) knows the family that owns one of the stores in Chevak, one of my friends as well as one of the teachers at the school where Josh works both know one of the high school teachers in Chevak, a man at our church who is a Trooper travels out to Chevak sometimes and he also knows the Trooper who is in charge of Chevak, and the list goes on.  We have also since discovered that there were several new teachers hired at Chevak school this year, and Falon and I are not the only ones who are first year teachers, so we will not be alone, and we will have a support group of new Alaska bush teachers.  Needless to say, I think we ended up in the right place, and what was meant to happen happened.

So that's the whole story of how our teaching jobs in Chevak came about.  I guess that God really knew what He was doing and He certainly had a plan for us.....not that that should suprise me or anything, but I'm only human.  Sometimes I forget that if I just leave it up to the Lord, He is going to lead me in the right direction.  It is certainly reassuring to know that I am going where I'm meant to be for now.  I am nervous, but also excited for this new adventure.  I know that it is going to be an amazing experience.  And I know that I will have many people encouraging me, supporting me, and praying for me.  I am truly blessed.