Teaching in Whittier, Alaska...the state's one-building town | INDIE ALASKA

ruticker 07.03.2025 7:25:22

Recognized text from YouScriptor channel Indie Alaska

Recognized from a YouTube video by YouScriptor.com, For more details, follow the link Teaching in Whittier, Alaska...the state's one-building town | INDIE ALASKA

**Marren Whittier, Alaska** I am a teacher here. You know, Whittier is different than, say, working in the traditional Bush community in that we are on the road, and we're fairly, you know, we're a tourist town in the summer. But yes, we all live in the same building. It does sound strange, but essentially it's a condo association, and you get really cozy with your neighbors. We have everything we need, really. There's a post office downstairs, a grocery store downstairs, and a little video store that, if you want to rent videos or movies, you can go and call her, and she'll come over. City offices are downstairs as well, so all the city managers and everything, and the mayor work down there. You really don't have to leave if you don't need to. I think in a larger community, you know, you go to school, you travel there, but not in Whittier. You just have to walk over, and it takes five minutes, if that, you know, depending on the elevator, of course. There have been times where we've had to say our school day starts at 8:45. If we open the school doors at 8:00 in the morning, if we open the school doors at 6:00 in the morning, the minute the lights are on at the school, they would be there. I think the proximity of the building where we all live to the school creates a very seamless relationship. They don't separate that it's school at home; it's just one place to them. I'm your neighbor; we all live in the same building, right? I live under you. I have been with the same students for four years now, so I have literally had some of them since they were in first grade, and now they're in fourth. It's like a family, you know? I don't have discipline issues; I don't have classroom management issues because they know me. It's like coming to school with mom. They call me "Mom" half the time anyway. My first year, too, I had such a hard time separating that I was a teacher and knowing sometimes what was happening in some students' lives. But I've always had the rule that no matter what time of the day, what time of the night, if a student knocks at my door, I will always answer it. You are always welcome. I've always been a teacher, and in a previous life, I've been a fitness instructor. In my first few years here, my fitness was always my thing, and it was just kind of a very private thing that I did. I would go to the school gym on Sundays or wait until everybody left and work out on my own. I had a lot of community members asking me to teach classes. Last year, I was convinced by just enough people asking that I decided to try it, and it has gone really well. It's really well received. It's hard to stay healthy in a town like this. Our weather is really challenging. We don't have a fitness center or a gym other than the school. The school does have a full-size gym and a weight room that's available during school hours, but beyond that, you know, between the extreme winds and the rain and the snow, that challenges a lot of people. I think it just becomes a normal thing to not move and to not be healthy, and the weather is always a great excuse. Plus, we don't have to leave this building if we don't want to, so a lot of people don't. You know, why would you? The tunnel creates its own sort of isolation in that it closes every night at 10:30. So if we want to go to dinner in Anchorage, we can't usually do that on a school night because oftentimes—and I've had this happen more than once—you go to a movie, and you're just crossing your fingers that it's going to get out by 9:30 because you have to make the 10:30 tunnel. It takes an hour to get down here from Anchorage, and if you don't make the 10:30 tunnel, then you're sleeping in your car, which happens a lot. It would be silly to say that you live a lonely life living in the building because I have friends, neighbors, students, and co-workers that are right down the hall. If you're having a bad day, if you're having a day where you think, "Gosh, I haven't even talked to another human being for a while," you can just walk down the hall or get in the elevator. What do people say when they visit Whittier? Well, first, they all go, "Oh, you all live in that same building? Isn't that strange?" You know, I think what people don't realize is that it's just like an apartment building or a high-rise condo in a large city. So for me, it's not that strange. That's where I grew up. I grew up in a big city; everybody lived in an apartment building, but not the entire town.

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