Wáa sá iyatee. (wa-saw-ee-ya-tee). This is a way
of saying hello in Tlingit. Killem iigahamna. This is Good morning in Aleut. My
name is Naomi
Edenshaw and I am a graduating senior and the FEA President. Sinoo dung hiigan.
How are you? I am Haida, Tlingit, and I have a little Yup’ik blood in me. I
know four languages; a little Aleut, Russian, Haida, and Tlingit. I am from the
Eagle clan and there is also the Raven clan; which is the clan that my dad is
from. My mom is the one to pass down the clan where I came from. I am from
Hydaburg, Alaska, a small town in the Southeast area. I am currently 18 years
old and I am the daughter of Rosalind Washington and Ivan Edenshaw. I grew up
there in Hydaburg and when I turned 6 years old, I moved to Anchorage, Alaska
and stayed here, up until I was in the eighth grade. Then, I moved to Saint Paul Island, Alaska in
2008 and I have lived there for 7 years now. Okay, enough about me, my topic is
Why teach in Alaska?
Why teach in Alaska? We need our Alaskan teachers. Most of the
teachers in Alaska are from out of state and only some are Alaska Native. Having
Alaskan teachers can help keep the culture and language alive in Alaska and
help reduce the teacher drop out rate. Alaska teachers connect to the students’
culture and they could help culture strive in the villages or city like
Anchorage. In my community, we are losing people who know our language and
culture. Our language is slowly starting to die out but we try to keep it
alive. Our dancing is starting to die out too. We don’t have that many people
who dance. My teacher is teaching Aleut to the younger generation and hopefully
they will keep our culture alive. Alaska needs Alaska Native teachers. The
teacher turnover rate in Alaska is bad and we need to overcome that and teach
in Alaska as Alaska Native teachers in Alaska.
We are the future. Future Educators of Alaska is growing our own Native
educators in Alaska. Future Educators of Alaska is helping us to pursue our
teaching careers. FEA benefits students in a very great way, like it has
benefited me. I have been in FEA for three years now. I have been the Secretary
of State, Vice President, and now I’m President. We are all apart of the Career
Technical Student Organizations and it has impacted all of our lives in a very
big way. We can change the world in Alaska. We can change the Alaska Native educator
percentage in Alaska and easily make it increase to a bigger percentage of
future teachers in Alaska. Future Educators of Alaska can also benefit teachers
to give them the opportunity to become advisors and to share their happiness
with their students to become the future educators in Alaska. Also, we can
benefit communities. We can encourage others and inspire others to become educators
and prosper in the career of education. Apart from that, we support the career
development for Alaska Native college students and it acts as a vehicle to the
students who plan to become a future educator in Alaska.
The impact of teacher dropout rate is big. “Teacher dropout” is
being an increasingly common problem across the United States. Teacher dropout
is when they leave, move, or quit teaching completely. “Roughly half a million
U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year,” according to a
new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, a public support group.
And this kind of turnover comes at a steep cost, not only to students but also
to districts. The cost is up to $2.2 billion a year. There were more than 3
million full time teachers in 2013, according to the Department of Education,
meaning nearly 15 percent of the workforce is moving or leaving every year. And
the study says, at-risk students suffer the most. Nearly 20 percent of teachers
at high-poverty schools leave every year, a rate 50 percent higher than at more
affluent schools or wealthy schools. That’s one of every five teachers, gone by
next semester. As for that $2.2 billion, this money is largely spent on
induction, a professional development process that is organized by a teacher
and is trained and it supports them, human resources says Jason Amos, Vice
President of Communications for the Alliance. That includes recruiting and
processing new hires of teachers along with money spent on training and
development. This is a big issue in Alaska. This issue also affects students
such as myself. I like teachers who stay, so I can get to know them and come to
grow attached to them. I’ve had teachers who stayed a year and in that one year
I’ve grown attached to them but unfortunately they left. I don’t feel too good
when teachers that I end of really liking leave the school and the students
have grown attached to them and have gotten used to their teaching styles. It
is like a feeling of sadness to see them go when I know they are great teachers
in our school. I feel we shouldn’t have new teachers every year because
students need to stay used to one teacher. We can’t recover just like that the
year after and deal with the new teacher and their teaching style.
Another impact of our lack of Alaska Native teachers in Alaska is
that each year, about 400 teachers are hired from outside Alaska to staff rural
schools. Research shows that most of them will leave after a year or two on the
job. Today, about 75 percent of teachers working in Alaska were hired outside
of the state, according to research by University of Alaska Anchorage’s Center
for Alaska Education Policy Research. Also, teachers that are hired from
outside tend to cycle through schools more quickly. Turnover rates from year to
year: the top 30 percent in more than a few rural districts, much higher than
urban Alaska districts. The students in the rural schools have much to lose
because the high dropout or turnover, inexperienced teachers can have serious
and negative impacts on the students learning. “In the five highest turnover
districts, which have an average yearly turnover rate of 37.9 percent, less
than half; an average of only 46.9 percent of students score “proficient” in
reading state tests.” Then, in the “five districts with the lowest turnover,
85.8 percent of students score “proficient.”
To solve that problem in having new
teachers every year is hiring more local teachers who lives’ in the community
and who has the experience with the community that the students live in. The
community is more likely to fully support and inspire or encourage locals to
pursue their dream and life-long goal of teaching in their community. Local
teachers are great to have. They can handle the rural areas because they have
lived there. Local teachers can grow more attached with the students and the
students will love them. The students wouldn’t have to go through so many new
teachers in the school that they have to get used to every year they leave and
when the new ones come. That is where we come in, the Future Educators of
Alaska. All of us Alaska Native students live in Alaska and we can grow our own
educators in our communities. Encourage and inspire others to join FEA so we
can have more future educators that is what we need. FEA students and State
Officers in the past and future are future educators and so they should pass it
down from generation to generation. We are the leaders of Alaska. We came here
to pursue our dreams and leadership goals. To conquer our fears, to overcome
our obstacles in life, and to strive for greatness. In order to change the
world, we have the potential to change our selves first and become leaders of
the world and Alaska Native educators of the state of Alaska.
Also, our Alaska Natives are under represented in the teaching community
of Alaska. We need to be represented in education in order to preserve our
cultures, and to provide the best education to our Alaska Natives in the state
of Alaska; we must continue Alaska Native education. According to the
University of Alaska Anchorage’s Center for Alaska Education Policy Research,
Annual reach turnover rates vary among rural districts, ranging from a low 7%
to over 52%, while urban districts have turnover rates that are generally lower
and more similar, from about 8% to just over 10%. Almost 90% of teachers in
Alaska are White. Alaska Natives and American Indians continue to make up only
5% of the teacher workforce.
Teacher turnover rate has been a major issue in Alaska and Alaska
is addressing teacher turnover through an organization called Future Educators
of Alaska. I think the student organization that will help grow Alaskan
educators in Alaska is Future Educators of Alaska. The Future Educators of
Alaska is a statewide collaborative effort to inspire and support Alaska Native
k-12 students to pursue careers in the field of education. Future Educators of
Alaska provides Alaska Native students the opportunity to explore careers in
education and to meet other students that are also interested in education.
So, why is teaching in Alaska so important? Why teach in Alaska?
Alaska needs more representation of Alaska Native Educators in Alaska. We need
to reduce the teacher turnover or dropout rate in Alaska. Alaska needs to grow
our own educators like Future Educators of Alaska does with students,
communities, and teachers. With our Alaska Native teachers or Future Educators
of Alaska, we can preserve our cultures, give the students the best education
they can receive and help others succeed in life.
I encourage the FEA State officers and members of Future Educators
of Alaska to pursue their life-long dreams and goals in teaching or wherever it
may be. It would be best if we take our knowledge and skills from FEA and
become the representatives of our Alaska Native communities or tribes in
education in the community. Nothing is impossible! Go confidently in the
direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined and plan for the
future. Explore, dream, and discover. We wish to see one of you as a State
Advisor one day being the greatest FEA representative on state level in Career
and Technical Student Organizations. I hope you, the Future Educators of
Alaska, can pursue your dreams in education in Alaska, we need your leadership
and knowledge! Haw’aa. Guneshcheesh. Which
means thank you in both Haida and Tlingit. In Haida, we say Haws dang hi
kiinsang. I’ll see you again.
