Book Blurb:
A young teacher buys a one-way ticket to Shishmaref, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, she finds herself dealing with unexpected, rustic accommodations, and the culture shock of living in a remote Iñuit community. She relies on her courage, resilience, and wit while enduring freezing temperatures, power outages, loneliness, and first-year teacher anxieties and missteps, but eventually realizes that those challenges pale in comparison to the life lessons she learns about the heart of teaching—lessons from her students, their culture, and their community, on the vast, windy landscape at the edge of the Chukchi Sea.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/LlsUyS
Author Bio:
Genét Simone is an award-winning author, recognized by the NonFiction Authors Association, International Impact Awards, Page Turner Awards, and BookFest Awards for her outstanding debut book, "Teaching in the Dark" -- a memoir that chronicles her first year as a teacher in the Arctic village of Shishmaref, Alaska. Dr. Simone's experiences in that Inuit village heavily impacted her teaching philosophy and pedagogy at four major universities in Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington State, when she served as a faculty member and then Academic Program Director for Western Washington University's Teacher Education Outreach Program in Bremerton. Dr. Simone currently teaches high school in Seattle, and still relies on the lessons she learned in Shishmaref those many years ago.
Dr. Simone is actively promoting her memoir at book fairs and through book talks in Washington, Alaska, and Colorado. She is also writing a sequel to "Teaching in the Dark" -- a series of essays that highlight key lessons she has learned through decades in the teaching profession. Those stories will serve to uplift and inspire teachers to sustain their spirit in one of the most demanding professions in the world, empowering them to create and then demand reforms that make it possible to stay in the profession they love.
Editorial Review:
“Teaching in the Dark: A Memoir” by Genét Simone is a glimpse into a teacher’s first year – working in Shishmaref, Alaska. It’s 1984, and the author has left college (and family and friends) to teach high school in a remote Iñuit community. This memoir has it all – culture shock, profound life lessons, personal resilience and the compulsory daily hurdles that are part and parcel of living in such a remote environment. These types of issues are almost expected inclusions in this genre, however Simone has gone further, crafting a highly relatable and engaging read, whether or not the reader has a background in education or has ever been to Alaska. In the opening pages of the book, the author’s recounting of her plane trip to even reach Shishmaref (located north of the Bering Strait, by the Chukchi Sea) is full of humor and realism. Right from the start the reader is aware this will not be a sanitized or once-over-lightly account.
In later pages wandering around to explore, and meeting the community, also brings challenges. Simone’s personal insight into her own situation and the adjustments required by all concerned make for an absorbing read. Her initial meeting with local children sets the scene for her classes and teaching. The first day of school brings reluctant students who would rather be moose hunting, and concerns about whether teaching “Consumer Math” can ever be relevant when the tradition is hunting, fishing and support of self and family. But career hiccups and lesson plans are only a part of this well-rounded account of living in such a unique place, where even the plumbing cannot be taken for granted. Those readers who have never been camping, (and even those who have!), may need to avert their eyes from certain paragraphs where, ahem, nature calls.
“Teaching in the Dark; A Memoir” by Genét Simone, although set in 1984, was published in recent times. The author notes that the book is based in part on contemporaneous letters she wrote to friends and family, given back on her return to her hometown with the suggestion that she write a book. If the letters were half as interesting as this book, this reviewer can see why! A highly memorable and humorous read with a myriad of lessons, and not just the English and “Consumer Math” kind.
*****
“Teaching in the Dark: A Memoir” by Genét Simone receives 5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company
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