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[EACH PARAGRAPH IS FROM A DIFFERENT STUDENT]
Accept that this is a small village. The reason I tell you this is because there is only two stores and everything is expensive. I like it here because I was raised here and it's nice and small.
You should bring guns so that you can go hunting for moose or other animals. The men here go hunting in the winter also in the summer. I like living here because there are less people here then other places. This place is fun during the winter also in the summer. When you come here to teach the students you should be careful because some of the students like to be mean and not listen or pay attention. The place here is not that big but it is sure more fun than the other two villages near us. We will teach you how to live in the village. We will tell you what to do when you need help. There is a general store here and two privately owned stores. This is a village where we can not bring or have alcohol. There are two parts of this place and the other place is across the river so it is hard to come across when the river starts to freeze up. The school is kind of big and it is fun in school cause at home there is nothing to do. There is a new building they built last year and that is the Post Office. There are little amount of jobs available, not that many. There are about 150 students in the whole school. We have two languages here. There is Yup'ik and English. English is our second language. You might want to hear us talk Yup'ik. There are also boats and snow machines here. We do not have roads. The only road we have is at the airport. We have boardwalks though. Nunapitchuk is the best place to live cause we are the nicest people around our district. Most places around us are mean but we leave them alone since our elders tell us to leave them alone. We have about 20 to 30 elders here. Some are not that old though. Our school is clean and not messy like the other schools.
To all you new teachers that want to teach in Nunap, I think you should know some hard things you might go through when you get here! Some of the hardest things teachers go through here in the school is that some of their students give them a hard time with some things! If you want to fit in then you should be out going, makes learning interesting: like don't do the same thing every day, mentally strong to last one year and you have to know how to adapted to our culture. Nunap is a very small place! We travel with boats in the summer and snow machine winter. Otherwise you would like it here if you could be comfortable with all of the above. Just to let you know there are about 150 students in this whole school K- 12th grade. The population is about 450 to 500 people! Nunapitchuk is a very nice place to live because we have the kindest people around our district! So try to be a good role models, don't be boring teachers, try to do different things every day in class so your students will listen more and it will make you feel more comfortable with how you teach!
My Advice to a new Teacher is to be fun and not let us work hard. I like teachers that are fun and let us laugh. Nunapitchuk is a small village there is no road's, only board walks all over Nunap. There are a lot of rivers, ponds and lakes. If you are planing to come to Nunap you have to bring warm clothes because in the winter it really gets cold. There is mostly tundra here in Nunap and girls and woman like to go pick berries. Men and boys like to go hunting, camping, and stuff. The 2 stores are closed on Sundays. There's no hospital in this village, only in bethel, but there is a clinic. The houses are small and not big as city houses. The people are friendly and kids like to play out a lot of time. Well some people are rude and not friendly, but a lot of people are friendly.
My advice to a new teacher is be prepared for a different life. There are no roads, but only boardwalks. There are only two little stores. If you want to get to other places, you can only travel by boat or plane. Hunting is very popular around here. There are only houses and no big buildings. This place is small.
I think that the teachers should bring their clothing because our stores have poor clothing & that they are cheep [low quality]. So, if the teacher doesn't want to run around naked, they'd better bring their clothing! I also think that they should bring their belongings such as guns, for hunting or camping. Sacred decorations, some animal they own, but we do not have a vet around here, so make sure your pet doesn't get sick. If they want to be a good or even great teacher, you would have to make some jokes once in a while, or most often which would be much better. Be a humorous teacher, but not too humorous. Teach fun subjects such as Science, English & math. And last, but not least, don't be too harsh on the students! These would make a new teacher a most fun teacher. Now about Nunapitchuk, Nunap is short for Nunapitchuk. Nunap is sort of small, usually around 400-500 people, is our population. There is one main store & two other small stores. We don't have any roads, but we have boardwalks, I mean Nunap is covered with boardwalks. Our store isn't as big as AC or Swanson's, but it is pretty big, but smaller than Bethel stores. I'd also talk about Clinics and Hospitals. Our village can be sort of big but not as big enough to have a hospital. But don't get scared about that because we surely do have health aids and a clinic. I'd say that 97% of Nunap people are nice and polite. But 3% are naughty and makes us angry, but they sure can be nice & funny once you treat them the way their supposed to be treated!
People here are usually quiet and shy when you first move here and you will get a lot of facial expressions and shoulder shrugs as your answers to questions. If you are here for a while and you and the kids here get acquainted, they will get over the shyness and start talking more. If you want the kids to get acquainted faster, you will have to be a nice teacher that doesn't get mad easily and keep talking to the kids individually. If you do this, they will not be shy towards you and say that you are a good teacher.
You could bring a gun for hunting animals if you like hunting, fishing poles if you like fishing, buckets for picking berries if you like picking different kinds of berries. You could teach however you want to teach, but don't teach so boring. I hate it when teachers teach so boring, and students won't learn anything from that lesson. If you are going to teach, you have to work it out and let the students try to get what you are saying and let them work on it. People out here need a lot of experience about anything like making anything with their own hands. I like it out here in Nunapitchuk because there's no roads, not that many people around here, not that many ignorant people, and other things that is different from a city. Also, I like it here because we get to travel by snow machine and by boat to other villages. Plus in winter you could travel by car if the weather is cold and bad. [She is talking about the ice road on the river]
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