Washington Academy: a snapshot of life Down East

My first time driving down Route One, it was a rainy May day (I would come to find out, it was a typical May day).  I was on my way to an interview in a town called East Machias, at Washington Academy (a small school in Downeast Maine).  I had been to that area a few years prior to go camping at Cobscook State Park (but honestly never thought that I would go back) with

Hiking the Bold Coast

my girlfriend's family.  The drive was SO long, I finally understood the saying "you can't get there from here."  As remote as the drive was, I was fully aware of the beauty along that drive, especially the coastal areas near Ellsworth and Milbridge.  As many of you know, the interview was successful, and after the summer was complete, I was going to be moving Down East.  Over the next couple of years, I learned so many things about myself, as a teacher, and the amazing people in Eastern Maine.

If you've ever been to or lived in East Machias, Maine, you also know that there aren't movie theaters (within a reasonable driving distance), bowling alleys, mini golf courses, amusement parks, or shopping malls (there isn't even a Wal-Mart).  Many of the students at Washington Academy spoke very candidly about how eager they were for the opportunity to get to a more densely populated area.  Admittedly, when I first arrived, even as a Mainer, there was a bit of a culture shock (I can't imagine how the residential students feel).  As time passed, however, it became clearer to me, that while entities of a larger city are nice, not having these things opens the door for so many other opportunities.  The most obvious charm to Eastern Maine, is its natural beauty.  For the most part, I took my surroundings seriously for granted.  The terrain in that area is absolutely breath taking, and on the occasions that I did give myself a second to really look around me, I was never disappointed.

My East Machias backyard

As time went on, the lack "things to do", turned into a real asset.  Instead of doing those things, I was able to focus on building my lessons, working out, and fostering great relationships with outstanding people.
My first year on staff, it is definitely fair to say that there was a steep learning curve.  I had to learn to balance living in the dorms, teaching, and maintaining some semblance of a social life.  I believe that working at summer camp for many years prior, provided me with the ability to be adaptable and wear many hats at one time, a skill that has served me well.  It was also difficult, because as a shy person, moving to place with no prior friends or connections was a very challenging thing to do. Early on, I was most comfortable when I was in my classroom (which was actually spread between three classrooms).  Even while I was student teaching, the classroom setting has been a really natural fit for me, and something that I love to do.  My first quarter of classes was met with a fair number of challenges, but I welcomed these as chances to reflect and become a stronger teacher.  I really appreciated the trust the administrators had in me, and the freedoms that I had in the classroom, to teach my classes my way.  I would be foolish to say that all of my classes were successful, but over two years, I had a was able to develop a working knowledge of winning lessons and losing lessons (advice to prospective teachers, documentaries are great tools, but don't show them without questions, or it may become nap time very quickly).  I was also thankful to have been placed in a freshmen homeroom.  On the first day of school, it was definitely hard to tell who was more nervous, me or them.  As time went on, we added more students to the homeroom and (in my opinion) we were the best!

My homeroom!

The second aspect of my job was a much bigger challenge for me (especially since I have never been one to be super assertive), and that was life in the dormitories.  I spent two years living in a dormitory with roughly 45 high school boys, and I can tell you right now that it did not come without its challenges.  Duty days and weekends meant spending every waking hour making sure that I knew where all the guys were, all the time (town, games, walks, girls dorm, friend's house).  At first, this was a really difficult task for me.  As an active person, I just wanted to go to the gym to work out or the court to shoot hoops, but I was in the dorm, at the front desk overseeing sign-ins and sign outs.  After a really good talk with my boss about how duty is not about "killing time," but rather a fantastic time to develop stronger relationships with the students, I had a bit of enlightening.  Rather than feeling sorry for myself, because I wanted to be out doing things, I needed to spend more time getting to know the dorm students, and planning activities that not only I would enjoy, but that they would like to do too.  Once this switch flipped, I genuinely developed an enjoyment for duty days.  I began to get to know that students better, making an effort to talk to them and learn more about them, and the response I got, was universally positive.  The dorm kids began to develop a respect for me, so rather than having me nagging them constantly to get to meals on time or do their homework, they would actually get things done (it was like magic).

Dorm Duty

While it was hard at the time, I look back fondly on morning BPL with the guys, FIFA tournaments, evening hot pot cooking parties (which are delicious, by the way), and just learning about all the different cultures that were represented in the dorms.  Not many people can say they have lived with people from China, Italy, Spain, Bermuda, Jamaica, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Rwanda (I know I am forgetting a few), but it is a real melting pot experience.  While it is an extremely busy lifestyle, I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be a dorm parent (and it will certainly help when I have teens of my own).
The third, and final aspect of my job began, in a way, towards the end of my first year on staff, and that was coaching.  Throughout my first year on staff, I did a lot of athletics with the residential students (mostly during open gym, particularly basketball), but I didn't start doing any formal coaching until I began volunteering with the outdoor track team.  In high school, I ran track for one season and can safely say that I was not the fastest kid on the team, but thanks to the fact that my younger brother was, I spent a lot of time around track and learning about the basics.  During the my first season with the team, we saw a lot of success, sending a pretty good number of athletes to states.  For a lot of big schools, state championship qualifications are quite common, because they have more athletes to pull from and outstanding facilities to work with.  Hopefully someday, Washington Academy will have a track of its own, but a lot of the training that happens now is done wherever space can be found.  I loved helping out during that first season (mostly because it was a stellar group of student athletes) and caught the coaching bug pretty hard.  During the fall season, I coached the first ever JV boy's soccer team, and although we didn't win any games, there was a notable improvement in skills among the team.  I think the hardest part about learning sports other than basketball and baseball in that area is the lack of feeder programs (mostly because everything is so spread out).  Most of the soccer players in the area (unless they traveled long distances to play on clubs) had other primary sports, so skill building was my goal, to help them become varsity players in the near future.
In the winter, I had my first varsity coaching gig as the head coach of the boy's and girl's swim teams at WA.  I could not have asked for a nicer group to have coached.  I drove a white bus to and from practices, often filled with both day and residential students.  Swimming is a hard sport to learn, and from my limited experience (only swimming one season in high school) I knew that it can be very frustrating, but my athletes always rose to the challenges that I put forth, and pushed themselves to get better.   By the end of the season, I am proud to say, that all of their times had dropped significantly from the beginning of the season.

Me and the Track team!

When spring rolled around, I was officially named an assistant coach of the track team, and I entered into my favorite coaching season during my time at WA (sorry swimming and soccer teams).  By this time, I was much more confident as a coach, and finally felt as though I was hitting my stride at the school as well.  We had outstanding senior leadership and a group of really genuinely good kids.  Coaching can be a real struggle if athletes don't want to put the work in to get better, but everyone showed up to practice (almost) everyday ready to work hard to get better and faster, and it was really apparent.  By the end of the season, we had more state and PVC (conference meet) qualifiers than any season in the short history of Washington Academy's track program.  The other coaches and I often spoke about how lucky we were to have such an outstanding group of athletes (and it was a real reflection on the general character of the students at WA).  Watching athletes develop skills and achieve personal bests is a real privilege to see first-hand, and with a very young team last year, there was so much of that.  The team supported each other and wanted the others to be successful as much as their own personal success, and it made things so easy. Today is the first day of the season for them and I am really sad that I will not be there to watch their continued growth and success!
I realize that this post is mostly about me, but it was really the people that made my time at Washington Academy so very enjoyable, so I will cover them at a later date.

Until next time!