Challenge by Choice
Dear Editor: On May 26 the Sitka School District wrapped up the school year with a professional learning day that we called Challenge by Choice. Challenge by choice is the idea that we all grow when we step outside of our comfort zones just enough to challenge ourselves, but not so much we are overwhelmed.
Modeled on Blatchley Middle School’s Discover Your Potential Week, community partners offered eighteen amazing learning opportunities so teachers could experience being a learner, challenge themselves, and connect their experience as a learner to students’ daily experience in schools. Without the overwhelmingly positive response from our community partners this day never could have happened.
Thank you to artists Mark Sixby (formline design), Natalie Brown (cedar weaving), Sharon McIndoo (beading), Hank Moore (guitar), Norm Campbell (pencil drawing), Zack Desmond (improv), Melinda McAdams (dance) and John Straley (haiku).
Thank you to Hames Center personal trainers Victor Littlefield, Dawn Johnson and Brant Brantman.
Thank you to Kronos Gym and Sitka Cirque staff Tara Johnstone, Trish Bessert, Franni Donohoe, Marla Montbriand and Emily Reilly.
Thank you, Amelia Budd, of Yoga Union.
Thank you to Janet Clarke and the Sitka Sound Science Center staff for a low tide seaweed experience.
Thank you to Mike Motti and Ron Duvall of Search and Rescue for a Land Navigation course.
We would also like to thank all the families who drop their children off at our doors entrusting us with their education, safety and well-being. We are honored to be the teachers of your children. We are committed to you, your family, and this community. Have a great summer and see you in August!
Phil Burdick, Sarah Ferrency,
Co-Assistant Superintendents,
Sitka School District
Cigarette Cleanup
Dear Editor: Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year, which makes them the most littered item in the world. To commemorate World No Tobacco Day, we did a cigarette butt clean up on the Blatchley Middle School grounds. Like the Sitka Fine Art Camp, SEARHC, Sitka Community Hospital, Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka Counseling and UAS, Blatchley is a year-around tobacco-free campus. Unfortunately, even though the school is on a tobacco-free property, we picked up 266 cigarette butts.
When smokers litter their cigarette butts, our community’s quality of life suffers. Toxins get released into our environment and water ways, which may impact fish and other wildlife.
Please dispose of your cigarette butts in the trash or cigarette butt receptacles. If you are one of the 70 percent of smokers who are thinking about quitting, please consider calling Alaska’s Tobacco Quit Line at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or go to alakaquitline.com, for free support.
Amanda Roberts, SEARHC
Tobacco Health Educator,
Anthony Treas,
SEARHC Health Educator,
Doug Osborne, Sitka Community Hospital Health Promotion Director
