Its about time to show you around my new school. This is a shot of Arctic Village School from the south looking north. As in most villages the school is the largest building. Our school stands out with a nice red roof.
The mountains are the southern most foot hills of the Brooks Range, also the boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
I'm beginning to learn the names of the peaks around our village, at least the english names, the Gwich' in I'm still working on.
The rocky jagged peak to lookers right is called Upper Cloud Mountain.
The new Arctic Village School has only been open for one full school year. It was completed in 2008/2009. The old school was converted into two apartments for teacher housing.
The focal point for all village kids is the gym. Ours is not quite a full size gym. It also serves as the multi purpose room and cafeteria.
This is the math and science classroom. I might share this room to teach middle school math.
This is the social studies/english classroom. The previous english teacher must have had a limitless credit card for books. The shelves are covered with a wide variety of books from middle school level all the way to collegiate. Considering my average high school student has an elementary reading level it may be heard to get them through
Candide by Voltaire or
The Metamorphis by Kafka- but I will save that for a later post.
My favorite part of the school is this room in the center. It divides the middle/high school portions from the elementary/library part of the building. Based off Athabascan architecture, with photographs of the village Elders hanging around mid-ceiling.
Benches and unique lighting invite students to linger and contemplate the culture in which they descend from.
As I said, I'm still learning my Gwich' in so I don't know what this means yet.
The elementary school room, still being setup after summer school trashed it.
The Library also serves as a sort of multipurpose room for music, computers, video teleconferencing, and sometimes Gwich' in Studies.
One of the local villagers is an infamous guitar and fiddle player, he hosts a music camp each school year. I'm hoping to play my bass guitar with him, as I'm told no one in the village plays bass in his ensemble.
With a huge variety of books, more are being shipped in each year. Anybody want to volunteer for a librarian position?
I think Upper Cloud Mountain is becoming one of my local favorites.
This view is taken from "Old Town", essentially one of the older portions of the village on a peninsula sticking into Chandalar River.
The Arctic Village School, looking south. The water at the bottom of the frame is not the East Fork of the Chandalar River, but a small tributary. There are several fingers and ponds in close proximity to the main channel of the river.
The town boat ramp. The river is more of a highway than fishery. Some fish are caught here, but mostly fed to the dogs. Last week a local took his boat upstream and killed a moose. The village of Venetie is about 80 miles downstream.
This is the original village church. Like a lot of the interior Athabascan region, Arctic Village was originally settled by Episcopalian missionaries- unlike the coastal regions that are primarily Russian Orthodoxy. This church is no longer used for services. Gretchen and I have not been inside yet, but were invited to do so by Franklin, a local that renovated the church. Apparently there is very ornate bead work done by several of the local women.
Here is the village post office. 
Arctic Village School seen from the bridge crossing a small tributary pond to the river.
This is the village washeteria. Since our village has no running water services locals can do laundry or take showers here. It costs $5 for a shower and $4 for a load of laundry. Gretchen and I are free to use the schools facilities since I'm employed with the district. One of the many perks working in the school is running water, making positions in the school very sought after.
The front door of the school.
