"I've always sought out additional training to increase my effectiveness as an educator," says John Rusyniak, media specialist for the Alaska Gateway School District in Tok. Mr. Rusyniak makes a special effort to establish a dialogue between students and village elders. Elders are encouraged to visit the schools, and students are often brought to visit them. The excursions to the villages are sometimes combined with the community service that Mr. Rusyniak expects of his students. We have stacked wood for Elders, visited with the sick, picked up trash, and painted community buildings, he says. Mr. Rusyniak has spent most of his teaching life in remote small communities. Teaching in the multi-level classroom system has meant that students have spent as many as six years in his class. As he says, under these circumstances, you get to know folks very well.
1975 State University of New York College at Potsdam, B.S.
