Pam Johnson
Koliganek School
Koliganek, AK

"It is absolutely essential to involve and draw from the entire community to educate a student. It also takes a whole community to educate its teachers. Our future purpose in education is to show our students how to accept differences, how to work together, and how to see themselves as people who can make a difference in their rapidly changing world."

"In a land where winter days are stormy, dark, and cold, there is a classroom that is always sunny and bright. As the bell rings in the morning, you will find there an enthusiastic master teacher, Pam Johnson, greeting her students with a smile and a hug. Pam is the cornerstone of the Koliganek School program and one of the best elementary teachers that I have ever known."

"If I was to choose one way I've made a difference in my students' lives, it's that I try to empower kids," says Pam. The meaning of the word "teacher" in bush Alaska (an area only accessible by air or water) encompasses not only teaching, but counseling, tutoring, and coaching as well. Pam has taken this responsibility to heart, becoming a teacher who seamlessly integrates the values and traditions of the local community into the everyday fabric of her classroom. Class activities include making native costumes, native dance, storytelling, and berry picking. Pam also seasonally themes her integrated projects, teaching commercial fishing in the summer and subsistence hunting in the winter. The classroom d�cor always matches the current thematic unit. It is important to Pam that parents and community members feel welcome in her classroom. She sees them as vital to the success of her students and considers them a resource rich in community stories, history, and values. Pam also teaches her students that their relationship to the community is reciprocal. Each year, her class sponsors a food drive for the village elders. They assemble boxes of food and gifts that they have made themselves, and deliver them to the elders.

Other Highlights:

• Established parent corners in her classroom that contain activities designed for parents to use with students while visiting the classroom. This corner gets parents "actively" involved while they learn skills they can use at home with their children.
• Helped develop Koliganek Dinner Theater, a collaborative effort put on by the entire student body K-12 of 48 students with the help of staff
• Teacher of the Year, Southwest Region School District, 1998
• Kalikartaq Quyavikarkaq Award - Mankotak School
• Service Award, Alaska Rural Teacher Recognition Program
• Raised money to take her young students to visit Dillingham (a trip requiring two plane rides)
• Hobbies and interests include private pilot, dance, family, fishing, and hunting