ATP Continues to Host and Attend Job Fairs Across the State and Nation

Alaska Teacher Placement has been on the frontlines, working to recruit teachers to Alaska and its Districts. Alaska is not alone in experiencing teacher shortages, and because of the remoteness of most of our sites, we experience a special challenge finding candidates to fill these posts. We have been ramping up our efforts to reach more future teachers through digital campaigns, college visits, website enhancements, and as both the host or the guest, attending many local and out-of-state job fairs.

ATP Supports our Grow Your Own (GYO) program, Educators Rising. Pictured here are UAF's Provost Anupma Prakash, surrounded by EdRising high school future teachers. Photo: Vincent Mahoney.

ATP has functioned for years as an Education Service Agency (ESA), and with the additional support of being housed under K-12 Outreach, has managed to attain a wider, more effective reach for recruiting candidates, both at the local and national level. Dovetailing with our GYO program, Educators Rising Alaska, we can help to solve the teacher shortage as a team.

Alaska-hosted job fairs are a great place to recruit people who are already living in Alaska. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

Our Spring Job Fair dates have been solidified. The Anchorage Educator Expo will be Friday, February 24. District meetings and set up will be Thursday, February 23. ATP will host a virtual job fair on Saturday, April 1 from 10:00-2:00 AK time.

ATP helps to recruit teacher for Alaska's classrooms, recruiting across the nation as well. Photo: K-12 Outreach staff.

ATP staff are traveling this fall and visiting campuses across the United States to promote living and working in Alaska's schools. September brought us to Montana, Minnesota, Iowa and multiple campuses in Arizona. Upcoming visits are scheduled:

• October 11, Michigan State University Job Fair
• October 12, University of Michigan 12-4
• October 26 AAEE Job Fair, Baltimore
• October 28, Washington State University Spokane, Communications Job Fair
• November 1, Oregon State Job Fair
• November 2, Oregon State University, 9-4 Furman Hall
• November 3, University of Oregon 9-4

Please check our website for more details and to learn more about our program.

ATP is active on social media and you may find recent updates there as well. Follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/AlaskaTeacher) and Twitter (UA/ATP). You can find all our past virtual chats with Alaska school districts on Facebook.

You can see our recruiting schedule and more, at www.alaskateacher.org, or for more information, email us.

Increased Numbers of Mentors Means More Support Across the State

The vision of the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project is that every student in Alaska will have the benefit of a great teacher. Our mission is to give new teachers the support they need to succeed. We are thrilled to begin the 2022-23 school year with Alaska’s districts. Our mentors are passionate about lifting up and supporting the profession of teaching in Alaska. We provide individualized coaching that develops an effective teaching force responsive to the diverse academic needs and cultural backgrounds of all students.

Returning Mentor, Abby Augustine works with the kumihimo weaving project at Start Up. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

It’s remarkable that despite pandemic challenges since March 2020, our mission and vision were fulfilled in spectacular fashion. Our job has always been to assist early career teachers in achieving their goals.

Mentor Cheryl Childers writes discussion on signboard paper during Start Up. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

Being adaptive and innovative, ASMP continues to fully support, through instructional mentoring, Alaska’s valuable and vulnerable resource: our newest teachers.

We keep moving forward despite an ever-changing landscape. This year we are embarking on a grant-funded study that will measure hybrid vs. in-person methods of the delivery. The model of mentoring is identical. As an additional portion of the study, we will focus on cultural competency of mentors AND early career teachers, to hopefully improve student's social emotional learning skillsets.

Every year, in July and August, we concentrate on locating every Alaska early career teacher who qualifies to be mentored. We do this by contacting superintendents, HR personnel, and administrative support people in each of our 54 districts. Qualifying teachers meet the following criteria:

• Experience of 0 or 1 years in the teaching profession
• Teaching in the following content areas: Math, Science, English/Language Arts, Social Studies, Elementary, Middle School Generalists, and Special Education.

The 2022-23 Mentor Cohort poses with K-12 Staff. Photo: K-12 Staff.

Our mentor Start Up commenced the first weeks of August. We began virtually and ended with in-person AND on-line training at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. In all, we have 16 mentors who have received their caseloads and have begun the mentoring process for the 2022-23 school year.

Thank you for all you are doing for your students and your community. ASMP has resources to support districts, staffs and individuals. We look forward to our continued partnerships, please reach out if we can help further your initiatives. Sue McIntosh

Find out more on our website.

Alaska State Officer Elected President National Educators Rising

Torrey McClain from Palmer High School was selected as the national president officer for the 2022-23 school year and will be the main emcee for the Educators Rising National Conference in Orlando, Florida in June, 2023. We are so excited for Torrey and her accomplishment and the responsibilities she will have this coming school year!

Additionally, Educators Rising Alaska had a very successful week at the Educators Rising National Conference in Washington D.C. June 24-27, 2022. Palmer High School students traveled early to the conference and had a chance to meet with Senator Lisa Murkowski. Forty-three students from Alaska competed among more than 1,000 students and 20 of those students placed in the top 10 nationally. Out of those, eight were in the top three and two students won first place.

Torrey McClain (right) poses with fellow National Officers after elections were announced at the end of the National Conference. Photo: K-12 Outreach staff.

There were two first place winners in Children’s Literature K-3, one of the most popular and competitive competitions at both the state and national levels. Sophia Micciche from Kenai Central High School placed first in the junior varsity division, and Delaney Reavis from Joe Redington Jr./Sr. High School in Wasilla placed first in the varsity division.

We have several graduates who participated in the EdRising AK program and are now successful teachers, which is motivational for our current students. We are pleased to see that EdRising AK is having an impact!

Nome Schools student Victoria Gray poses with her Teacher Leader Rachel Finney before competing in the National STEM Lesson Planning Competition. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

Teacher Leader Christel Mozalevskiy and her students pose with their medals outside the National Conference venue after competition. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

The Alaska team is getting ready for the school year and has solidified another year of offering UAS ED122 through dual enrollment and direct-led instruction (with tuition paid by our program) as well as a new style of professional development. Email us for more information on any of our upcoming offerings: uaf-edrisingak@alaska.edu.

If you, your school district, or someone you know might benefit from Educators Rising Alaska, or if you would like to learn more, or have a comment or concern, please contact our offices. We are here to help grow and nurture the next generation of educators. Please email us at: uaf-edrisingak@alaska.edu or visit our website at www.alaska.edu/educatorsrising.

Cultural Exchanges for Teachers and Students Wrap Up

Nome students and teachers, Wai'anae and K-12 Outreach staff, gather at a historic fish pond. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

Teacher Ambassadors Sharing Knowledge (TASK) fosters cultural exchange between Hawaiian and rural Alaskan teachers. Teachers in both Alaska and Hawai‘i collaborate remotely on place-based culturally relevant science lessons.

This past spring and summer TASK hosted several student and teacher workshops in Hawai'i highlighting, culture, local knowledge, and the environment.

Nome students, teachers and staff work to repair an historic fish pond. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

The first multi day workshop was focused on supporting teachers in the Wai'anae school district by providing an off-site workshop for team building and engaging with the local environment. Educators learned successful educational self-care practices and attended off-site field trips.

The second multiday workshop saw teachers from the Nome School District travel to Oahu for science, education, and cultural experiences. Teachers toured the local schools, learned from cultural experts, and learned

about tsunamis, Polynesian culture, and local ecosystems.

The final TASK workshop brought high school student leaders from the Nome School District to Oahu. Students from Nome met and worked with high school students from Waiʻanae, helped repair a historic fish pond and experienced Native Hawaiian cultural traditions.

TASK will facilitate a student exchange this upcoming spring with students from the Nānakuli Waiʻanae School District traveling to Nome to meet with their student peers and learn about rural Alaska.

Students listen to Reid Yokote and learn traditional lei-making techniques. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

The TASK program is wrapping up this fall but major updates to the website will showcase place-based mini lessons, interviews from rural Alaska and Oahu along with dynamic maps showing how the landscape has changed from both human and natural processes over the past 70 years. We’re excited to explore new opportunities and collaborations that further place based education in Alaska and beyond.

While visiting the Culture Center, students learned about the historical importance of taro and its cultivation. Photo: K-12 Outreach Staff.

Find out more on our TASK website