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Target Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ The Perspective at the End
by Jane Blaile
This afternoon I visited Nome Elementary school. I had taken the school presentation I'd been doing previous to my trail experience and changed it somewhat. I kept the part about Arizona but changed the "what I'm going to do" part to "what I did and saw". I was told the students would LOVE to see my trail pictures, so I was excited to share. But you know what? I didn't just get to share here; I learned here.
Luckily, I had the foresight to put in pictures of Melissa Owens, Nome's hometown girl. They all knew who she was and were happy to see her in pictures.
In my first presentation to the 1st and 2nd graders, the students were getting excited each time I showed a trail village or town. They would call out the names in a familiar and fond way. Afterwards, the teachers apologized for their enthusiasm, noting many of them had relatives in and had visited those villages. That wasn't something I'd encountered before. So showing those pictures wasn't so much as introducing the places, as sharing in their visits there.
Next, I spoke with 4th and 5th graders. When the slide of the start in Anchorage came up, a little girl in the first row said, "That is my uncle!" It was a picture of Louis Nelson, Sr. That comment reversed my perspective from the one giving information to being honored to receive it. I shared with her that I felt he was a kind and friendly person.
And the oldest group, the 6th graders, shared with me the ingredients of Eskimo ice cream. The pictures of me trying the native foods I ate in Galena will raise a different reaction from students in other states; here I felt the students were proud that I had shared in their ways.
I left Nome Elementary feeling warmly welcomed and very connected to the students and teachers there. Rather than giving just one more rote presentation to groups of nameless students, I had been given glimpses into their lives, and even shared experiences with them.
