Staff Connections Yukon-Koyukuk Certified Employee of the Year - Martha Demoski School District years of dedicated ser- She graduated from there vice to YKSD. in May of 1970. 4th Quarter If you ask Martha, her Her preparation for her place of birth is the most 1985 certification came May 2011 fantastic place on earth, from the dross cultural Inside this issue: Nulato. Living along the program, X-CED, through Yukon in seasonal camps the University of Alaska, Retirements 2-3 prior to beginning school, Fairbanks. It allowed her Department News 4 and spending summers in to reside in her hometown fish camps was a nourish- while she and her husband Allakaket/FNA 5 Congratulations to Mar- ing childhood life- Don raised their 3 won- Counselor’s Corner 6-7 tha Demoski for being style. Her four years derful sons Russell, How- selected as the YKSD in Copper Valley High ard, and Jesse Darling. Hughes News 8 Certified Employee of School, a boarding school, Of course, she went on Kaltag & Ruby 9-10 the Year! Martha is re- shaped her work ethic and campus, but a large part tiring at the end of this Koyukuk 11 respect for education. (continued on page 2) school year after 32 Manley 12 Classified Employee of the Year – Katrina Frank Minto 13-15 Nulato 16 the most challenging stu- This school year Katrina Arctic Care 17 dents. She is a person who decided to take college Birthdays 18 can be counted on to help courses after attending the out in the village when PEAK training in February. needed. Katrina rarely She is so excited to be go- takes time off from work ing to school and now wants Thank you for another and only does so when it is to pursue her degree in great year. Please take an urgent situation. She is Elementary Education. She time to relax, have fun, dedicated to the students is highly motivated at work, and enjoy your family that she works with and home and now with college during the beautiful shows great patience and classes summer. I look forward understanding when working Katrina volunteers at bas- to seeing everyone again with them. She goes out of ketball games, carnival, and at the district-wide in- Congratulations to Katrina her way to come up with any function that is happen- service, September 14- Frank for being selected as activities and strategies ing in Minto. Katrina is the 16, 2011. It will be held the YKSD Classified Em- beyond what the teacher is daughter of Joyce Frank in Fairbanks at the ployee of the Year! Katrina asking of her. Katrina works and Lloyd Charlie and she Rivers Edge Lodge and has been working off and on well with all staff members grew up in Minto and Kenai. is for instructional at Minto School for close and students. She is always Above all else in her life aides and certified to ten years as a Teacher’s optimistic and carries a she is the proud mother to Aide. Katrina is a dedi- smile on her face even when Tyler (14), Seth (9) and staff. cated employee and has a she is going through diffi- Reese (1). Kerry Boyd great deal of patience, es- cult times. She is well liked pecially when working with by staff and students. We are sorry to see you go….. (continued from p. 1) pervised local cultural camps for that Tassie Saunders and Tim Cline was spent at home living a subsis- junior high and high school, and started with students, years back. tence way of life and gaining actual joined Susan Paskvan’s summer She became involved by volunteer- teaching experiences. Martha be- camps a few times. She has also ing her time with the Nulato Tribal gan working for the State of been Principal/Teacher. She has JOM program, supervising the stu- Alaska, at the school in 1972 as a had the pleasure of working along- dents learning of memorial songs full time Teacher Aide, then side Elders to teach the Athabas- and stories alongside our respect- can language and culture to her stu- able elders, and chaperoning them continued part time until 1986. dents on many occasions. on trips to the Fairbanks Native Her first certified position in 1986 Martha believes that a teacher’s Festival in March. Presently, she is was in Huslia, as a high school Social education never stops. She’s at- serving on the Nulato Tribal Coun- Studies teacher. Following that tended classes, conferences, and cil. It was an honor for Martha year, she moved to Nulato to give workshops throughout the years, to accept an award from Doyon, support to her widowed mother, the latest learning PEAK strategies. Limited in 2008 for being a teacher Amelia Demoski. Her father, An- She’s served on various YKSD cur- who shared her knowledge of local drew K. Demoski passed away in riculum committees, including being culture, traditions, and language. 1985. This move required her to in the group for our Denaakkenaage Martha wants everyone know what obtain her Elementary certification curriculum and materials develop- an opportunity it has been to be within a year. Since then, she has ment throughout the years, and has involved in the many activities in been teaching K –8 grades. Other served on the YKSD Indian Educa- preparation for the students’ pro- experiences included a semester of tion committee. She has continued gress in YKSD. high school Alaska Studies, a K-8 to support the singing and dancing bilingual program , planned and su- Page 2 Staff Connections We are sorry to see you go….. She started working as a Teacher’s curriculum committees and as the Aide in Minto in 1982 while she was teacher representative on the In- working toward her Bachelor’s De- dian Education Committee. When gree. She had the opportunity to asked for some advise for less ex- work for YKSD when a teaching po- perienced teachers, she recom- sition opened up just as she planned mends getting out into the commu- to complete the requirements for nity, attending functions and events her degree that summer. to get to know the people. This Ruth’s first 17 years of teaching gives people the opportunity to get was in Minto. She taught in the K-2 to know you and in turn, opens the classroom where she had some of door for a her favorite teaching experiences. better She moved to Fairbanks in 2002 and rapport Ruth Folger is retiring after 25 taught in a residential treatment with them years in teaching. Ruth was raised center for one year. She rejoined and your in Tanana, moved away in 1978, and YKSD by taking a position with Ra- students. has lived mostly in Minto except for ven Correspondence School in 2003. the past few years in Fairbanks. Over the years she has served on and a Masters in Educational Lead- reading, berry picking, camping, ership in 1997. She began working fishing, hunting, visiting elders, and for YKSD as a teacher aide when spending time with her huge ex- the schools were still state oper- tended family which includes many ated. She continued working for relatives from the NANA and the YKSD because she from the area North Slope regions, people from and felt that she needed to con- the Koyukuk and Yukon Rivers, in- tribute back to her community. cluding relatives in Beaver, Rampart Over the years, Virginia has been and Stevens Village. involved with the Allakaket Village Council, a Board Member of Koyit- lotsina, Limited, Chairperson of As- sociation of Interior Native Educa- Virginia Ned is retiring at the end tors, and a Board Member of Alaska of this school year after 23 Native Education Association. years of teaching. Virginia is from Virginia’s favorite position with Allakaket, Alaska. She has taught YKSD was when she was Principal/ elementary for 22 years. Many of Teacher in Hughes. The community those years were spend in YKSD was very supportive of the school schools, Allakaket, Huslia and staff. When asked if she had any Hughes. She has also been Princi- words of wisdom for less experi- pal/Teacher in Hughes. enced teachers she said, “All stu- Virginal received a Bachelor of Arts dents can and will learn.” in Elementary Education in 1980 In her spare time, Virginia enjoys Page 3 Staff Connections Curriculum Distribution Hello all, hope this spring is treating you all well! This school year we’ve sent social studies resources out to each site called “The World” and “American Government.” Over the past few weeks we’ve been working with the Lan- guage Arts novel rotation. We’ve sent novels out to each site. Teachers, please let us know if you need more of these resources sent to your site. Mr. White thought it best to send these out early so teachers have more time to prepare curriculum for 2011-2012 school year. Have a wonderful last few weeks of school and a great summer! Submitted by Ava Vent iPads for Special Education As many of you are probably aware, iPads were distrib- uted throughout the district (1 per site), particularly for use with students with special needs. The special educa- tion teachers have had training on how to use the iPad and download good educational apps for our students to utilize. Included in the variety of apps for the iPad are: Hearing, Vision, & Mobility, Organization and Memory, Communication (speech & language apps), Elementary and Secondary core curriculum apps, as well as Teacher Sup- port Applications. Each site was given over seven pages of apps ranging in price from free to $10, just to get started! For more information regarding the iPad use at your site, please contact your special education teacher or aide! Submitted by Cristina Poage Library Notes Grand Openings have been held at all sites, with positive feedback on how nice the libraries look, and how good it is to once again have functioning libraries.