Student Teachers Blogging from Barrow

For the second straight spring, a group of Gustavus Adolphus College education majors are completing a portion of their student teaching requirements in Barrow, Alaska – the northernmost point of the United States.

Students Rachel Anderson, Alyssa Fitzgerald, Justin Helget, Molly Koppel, and Travis Spaeth arrived in Barrow on Saturday, April 3. Along with their student teaching duties, the five Gustavus students will be immersed in the culture of the native Inupiq Tribe – a tribe that relies heavily on hunting, fishing, and whaling in order to survive.

The students are blogging about their experiences in Barrow at gustavusbarrow.blogspot.com. In a recent post, Spaeth described some of the highlights of the first week he spent in Barrow:

“I think my favorite part so far has been sharing with the kids my culture and where I have come from, as well as learning about their culture and where they are from. They cannot believe all of the things we have readily available in Minnesota, and it really makes you begin to think about what we take for granted. Most of everything they own seems to come from Anchorage, or Fairbanks. Those are the two main destinations families travel to if they need mostly anything, and it is not a skip and a hop away for those geography majors out there.”

In another recent post, Spaeth wrote about the importance of the whaling season in Barrow:

“On the whaling front, as far as I know there has not been a whale caught yet…We are all anxious to see the procedure and festivities that come with the whale capturing. It is always interesting to see our students talk about how they are involved in the process and all the news they know that goes through the town.”

In addition to the group student teaching in Barrow, a second group of Gustavus students completed their student teaching requirements in Sotogrande, Spain this past fall. For more information about Gustavus’ international student teaching programs, contact Debra Sandquist, coordinator of teacher admissions and field experiences at dsandqui@gustavus.edu.