If you could look out my window, you could see snow in soft piles, alders with moose-chewed bark, and scrub hemlock flocked with snow. Sometimes ptarmigan sit in the alders like big white pears. A lot of what is me is tied up with my home in Alaska. In winter I live on a mountainside and work in Anchorage. I like teaching because of the people, especially the children who fill the long, dark winter days with adventures! I have taught a little bit in four decades, but the nineties have found me settled in a teaching career in Mountain View, now at William Tyson Elementary School.
My education includes a BA in history and elementary education from Alaska Pacific University, an awesome small school in Anchorage. I have a masters in public school administration from the University of Alaska in Anchorage. More education has come from working in construction, art, and commercial and subsistence fishing, as well as teaching in an Alaskan city, a small town (Naknek), and an Inupiaq village (Nuiqsut). Mountain View is Alaska's largest "village," in a city, with a multicultural population that includes many Alaska natives.
I have four grown sons. My husband and I are migrants moving from the mountain in Anchorage to the Naknek River every summer. I like to be outside working or snowshoeing, do creative work, swim, read adventures, and celebrate with family and friends and food.
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For more about me and my class see:
William Tyson Virtual Native Art Museum
e-mail burtner_judith@msmail.asd.k12.ak.us
Burtner's 3rd grade home page