My Visit to Alaska Public Schools

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting several schools in Alaska and speaking about being a writer. Monday, I visited Houston High School. This was interesting since I graduated from Houston in 1993, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the school was a junior/senior high school. So this facility was new to me. 

I spoke to all of Mary Sanford’s ninth grade English classes and also visited Mr. Helle’s Poetry class. I had a great time talking with students at lunch. The librarian at Houston High, Janelle Maki, took my picture and made a “Read” poster of me to hang in the Houston High library’s fantasy section. How cool was that? 

On Tuesday I went to Houston Middle School. Now this was really weird because this was the actual building that was once called Houston Jr. Sr. High School. This was my old stomping grounds! It didn’t look much different. They’ve painted the lockers red and black, so that looked cool, since the school’s colors are red and black (Go hawks!). They’ve gotten rid of the home ec department, though, which was where I lived when I was in 7^th-12^th grade. I once wanted to be a fashion designer and Mrs. Parks, the home ec teacher, was my favorite teacher. So I felt sad to see the kitchen and sewing rooms looking like a graveyard of sorts.  🙁 

Anyway, I spoke to students in the library, 20-70 at a time. I spoke for all six class periods for the whole day. It was totally fun. I met some kids whose parents went to school with me. The Houston Middle School librarian, Kitty Benson, was the lady who set all this up for me. I got to meet her and that was fun. My mom also works at Houston Middle School, so I told all the students that I was her daughter.  🙂 

I also saw this painting on the wall at Houston Middle. I painted this my senior year in high school! I had no idea what became of it. The art teacher at the time purchased it for the school. And here it was. Talk about memory lane. So I had to go visit the art department, which was my third favorite place to be when I was in school. (The second favorite being the gym as I was a serious basketball player.) The new art teacher was very nice and let me see what she was working on (pottery leaf bowls!). It was a very fun day. 

Wednesday took me to Teeland Middle School, a school that didn’t exist back in my day. This school was spacious and lovely. Purple and black, they are the Teeland Titans. I liked that. Mary Cochran is the librarian at Teeland and she was very kind. I spoke to some small groups on one end of the library, including one group of sixth graders who were scheduled to see me again later. So that they wouldn’t have to hear a repeat session, we brainstormed a story. Mary showed me how to use this really cool prometheus board, which is like a computerized white board. The students wanted to brainstorm a horror story. They came up with a story about a family that moves to a new home and their neighbors are zombies! I’m hoping that all these students ran home to start writing, because they all have very interesting and different ideas on which direction the story should go.

 

 

I also spoke to two large groups at Teeland with 250 plus students at a time. The first group crammed into the library. Some students were even sitting at tables behind me! For the next big sessions, they moved us to the gym. All the sixth graders fit there better. 

Here I met a young writer named Sam Baker (I got her autograph for when she is famous!) and my loyal assistant, Morgan Gouday. 

Thursday I went to Palmer Junior Middle School. It was snowing and I was late! Snow was stuck to all the street signs and I couldn’t find the road. (Sorry, Palmer!) When I got there, the librarian, Sandy Krueger, had rolled out the red carpet! She had water and muffins and chocolates for me. I was in heaven! I spoke to students in the library, 20-70 at a time. At lunch, Sandy and her husband took me to lunch at a nice restaurant with excellent quiche and corn chowder. Yum! Sandy even bought extra copies of By Darkness Hid for her book fair that’s going on this week, and she asked me to sign the author pole. Tundra comic artist/author Chad Carpenter had signed it! Cool! 

 

It was such a fun, rewarding, and exhausting week. I can’t wait to do it again sometime. Thanks to any of you whom I met. I’d love you to email me of you have more questions. And I want to read your stories, so email those to me too! info@jillwilliamson.com