UAA School of Education

💚 Last Wednesday, the UAA School of Education headed out to the Kenai Peninsula for Family Fun Day! 💛

Darlene MacKinnon, UAA SOE Outreach Manager, spent the day connecting with families and community partners. She was joined by her sister and SOE student Diana Hays, as well as Kenai Peninsula College Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education Dr. Katie Archer Olson and her grandniece, who brought even more joy to the event. 💙

Thank you to everyone who stopped by! ☀️

🔭✨ Alaska has some of the darkest, clearest night skies in the country — and now every rural school in the state can use them as a classroom.
Smithsonian STARS is bringing telescopes, scientist-led training, and ready-to-use lesson plans to ~240 rural Alaska schools, reaching about 27,000 students.
At UAA's School of Education, we're proud to help connect future educators with programs like this one — because curiosity has no zip code. 🌠
Learn more: https://smithsonianstars.si.edu/

Smithsonian STARS The Smithsonian STARS Program connects rural classrooms to the cosmos by donating Telescopes, ongoing Teacher training, and curricula to inspire the nation's 9.8 million rural schoolchildren. We're on a mission to inspire the next generation of explorers by expanding access and understanding of the

🌿✨ Deepen your understanding of Indigenous knowledge and community wellness this fall with Angie Lunda! 🌿✨

EDIE A630: Indigenous Ways of Knowing looks at how cultural ways of knowing shape values and behavior, how communities sustain one another, and how resilience and reciprocity are nurtured across generations. Students will also engage with Alaska Native traditional values as holistic approaches to wellness and healing.

📍 Enroll today: uaa.alaska.edu/academics/graduate-school
📧 Questions? [email protected]

🌱✨ Discover the depth and beauty of Alaska Native ways of knowing this fall! 🌱✨

This fall, we invite you to deepen your understanding of Alaska Native knowledge systems in EDIE A612: Indigenous Epistemologies in Alaska with Dr. Panigkaq Agatha John‑Shields.

This course examines, analyzes, and applies Indigenous epistemologies, offering students an opportunity to engage with Alaska Native ways of knowing in meaningful, culturally grounded ways.

📍 Enroll today: uaa.alaska.edu/academics/graduate-school
📧 Questions? [email protected]

We continue to celebrate Kitty Deal on her remarkable journey! 💚💛

Longtime educator reflects on her 17 years at Kodiak College and her 30 student teachers An education professor in Kodiak who has spent years developing homegrown teachers across Alaska and building the pipeline to drive more into the high-demand profession is retiring.

It takes a village to grow a teacher. 🏫✨

Continuing our celebration of National Apprenticeship Week — and capping off National Teacher Appreciation Week — we’re proud to share that SUNRAE apprentices come from 17 school districts and 5 organizations across Alaska. None of this would be possible without the employers who invest in their growth every step of the way!

These partners don't just offer jobs. They offer mentorship, paid classroom experience, and real professional development that shapes the next generation of Alaska’s educators.

To every past and present employer who has welcomed a SUNRAE apprentice: thank you! You're building Alaska's future, one teacher at a time. 💚💛

🌱 Alutiingcut Child Care Center
🌱 Anchorage School District
🌱 Bristol Bay Borough School District
🌱 Dillingham City School District
🌱 Head Start
🌱 Hydaburg City School District
🌱 Juneau School District
🌱 Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District
🌱 Knik Tribe
🌱 Kodiak Island Borough School District
🌱 Kuspuk School District
🌱 Lake and Peninsula School District
🌱 Lower Yukon School District
🌱 North Slope Borough School District
🌱 Northwest Arctic Borough School District
🌱 Pelican School District
🌱 RurAL CAP
🌱 Saint Mary’s School District
🌱 Southeast Childcare Collective
🌱 Southwest Region School District
🌱 Yakutat School District
🌱 Yupiit School District

For more information about our programs, email us at [email protected]

🌅✨ Every new beginning has a before. 🌅✨

As we continue celebrating National Apprenticeship Week, we honor the leaders who laid the groundwork for SUNRAE: the Bristol Bay Teacher Retention Partnership (BBTRP). 🤝

Since 2020, the BBTRP and its expanding statewide partnerships have connected rural Alaska educators to experiential learning, cultural immersion, and the M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning–a UAA graduate program designed to honor the real lives of teachers. This master’s degree and its integrated activities have played a meaningful role in strengthening teacher retention across remote and rural communities. 🎓

Initially led by superintendents Bill Hill and Ty Mase alongside UAA’s Dr. Tim Jester, the partnership grew into a sustained collaboration among the School of Education (Dean Tonia Dousay), the Bristol Bay Foundation (Aleesha Towns‑Bain), rural school districts, and Alaska Native communities. These relationships, and the innovative strategies that emerged from them, formed the foundation for the Teacher Apprentice Program, a community‑rooted pathway preparing local residents to become the teachers their communities need. 🌱

Thank you to everyone who helped co-design this vision and contributed so meaningfully to the work! Read more about the collaboration in the UArctic Shared Voices and FY25 Annual Report:

📰 UArctic Shared Voices 2025: https://bit.ly/4ngnNLv (opens in new tab)
📑 FY25 Annual Report (page 8): https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:5a4c661b-13d7-435a-a869-eb6353d55a60 (opens in new tab)

For more information about our programs, email us at [email protected]

🌞 Are you teaching in Alaska?

Whether you're in higher education or K–12, ED 555B: Multicultural Studies for Alaska's Teachers fulfills the DEED multicultural studies requirement for a Type A license — and gives you a glimpse of what the UAA Indigenizing Education Graduate Certificate is all about.

Don't miss your chance to learn from Dr. Panigkaq Agatha John-Shields in a two-day hybrid intensive with asynchronous activities. For only $175, books included, space is limited!

📅 May 28–29 | 📍 UAA Anchorage | 💻 Hybrid
📧 [email protected] to reserve your seat today!