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Mike Gens ’15: Teaching on the Last Frontier

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Another perk from teaching in Grayling—the Northern Lights over the Yukon River
Another perk from teaching in Grayling—the Northern Lights over the Yukon River

OK, all you experienced teachers out there: How many of you have beaver skinning in your lesson plans? Martin trapping? History major and newly minted teacher Michael Gens ’15 has been on the job only a few weeks, and already he’s taught those lessons. But that’s all part of the curriculum when you’re the high school teacher in Grayling, Alaska. That’s the high school teacher—as in the only. He teaches all subjects, all grades, for all eight students at David Louis Memorial School in a remote native village on the Yukon River.

How do you land your first teaching job 5,200 miles from your home in Jaffrey, N.H.? “Teaching in Alaska sounded like a great opportunity to try something vastly different from anything else I’ve ever done,” Gens explained. “I knew it would be quite the challenge up here, and I love challenges. Teaching here is a whole different world. I teach high school math, science, social studies, and English. We’re working on developing electives for the students, but things happen slowly up here. I get to run my classroom however I want. I have curriculum to work with, but much of that is through online programs that the students use, so it is my job to look at the programs and provide instruction based on all the material in a more traditional way. We also have classes that focus on learning culturally important skills. For instance, we have skinned two beavers in order to teach students how to skin wild game. Soon, we’re going to set up a trap line to catch Martins, which can be used to make warm clothing materials.”

The amount of work involved is, as Gens says, mind boggling, but fulfilling. “Having students open up to me and having them excel in certain subject areas has been quite rewarding,” he said. “Helping people live more healthy, effective lives has been my goal since the start here. Most people in Grayling live subsistence lifestyles. At first, I came in with the notion of helping students ascend past subsistence living, but I’ve realized that in many ways, a subsistence lifestyle is much richer than that of a wage earner. I hope to help those who would like to become wage earners by getting them to a level of college preparedness, while simultaneously helping other students prepare for a more effective and healthy subsistence lifestyle.”

This is a great example of how well Keene State’s integrated studies approach pays off. “KSC has provided me with many skills to help out here,” Gens said. “The general knowledge that I gained through integrated studies classes has helped tremendously, as I’m primarily teaching out of my specialization, which is social studies. Also, my education courses gave me a solid foundation through which I can understand each student and come up with differentiated teaching strategies for each individual. It also helped that I’m familiar with the mind-numbing amount of education terms and acronyms that the administration and higher-ups love to throw around.”

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