www.alaskaedu.net

I’ve started a new Web site all about education in Alaska.

 

The Best Education Writer in Alaska

I don’t write for the News-Miner anymore (unless you count thousands and thousands of lines of computer code as writing), so to be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about the annual Alaska Press Club Awards — a competition naming the best journalists in the state.

The awards were announced a few weeks ago in Anchorage, and I was pleasantly surprised that I had won in two categories.

 

I was on “The Tonight Show”

Well, OK, I wasn’t on the Tonight Show, but one of my stories was.

 

My Articles

I created a new feature on my blog for those of you who want to keep track of what I’m writing on a day-to-day basis.

 

The Widow’s Mite

Very rarely do I get emotional about things I write at work, but yesterday I almost started crying while I was writing an article about our local Hospice getting a big grant to help fund their new building.

 

School board backs wrestling move

Originally published in the Fairbansk Daily News-Miner November 21, 2007

Robinson: Who knew high school wrestling could be such a contentious issue…

 

Effie Kokrine bucks trend of declining enrollment

Originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner November 20, 2007

Robinson: Two enrollment stories for the price of one! What a deal.

 

Borough schools dwindle for full decade

Oriinally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner November 20, 2007

We have a fairly vocal talk radio crowd here in Fairbanks and apparently they have latched onto this story (even reading portions of it on air) as proof that the school district is wasting money.

I guess I’m flattered that my story caught people’s attention. I’m just not sure I want to be associated with that camp of people.

 

Pilot program brings minority student-teachers to Fairbanks

 Robinson: This was a hard story to do the reporting for.  You can’t tell me that race isn’t a sensitive subject and here I was talking to people who, frankly, were only in Fairbanks because of the color of their skin.  I was basically asking them questions like: “So why do you think it’s important to have people like you in this predominantly white community?”

Don’t get me wrong.  I think the program is commendable.  I don’t believe in racial quotas, but I do think that it’s important to have diversity in education.  And that’s not just race.  Gender diversity is important as well.  I didn’t have a male teacher until fifth-grade and only then because mom and dad pulled me out of Spanish immersion.  If they hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have had a male teacher (besides PE) until ninth-grade when I had Mr. Barker for geometry and Mr. Smith for drama. 

So dad, I’m curious…your school district is markedly more diverse in terms of student body than Fairbanks.  What does your teacher pool look like?  Is it whitewashed?

 

UAF Native science, engineering society named best in nation

 Robinson: I was told that in terms of Native Alaskans, I’m the only “that gets it” at the News-Miner. 

When I started calling around to do the reporting for this story (what I considered a fairly straight-forward one about a student group getting a national award) I was told by the group’s faculty adviser that she was hesitant to talk to the media, but she had read some other articles I had written about Native Alaskans and rural Alaska (she mentioned the fact that I had just taken a trip to Galena…see mom, the trip that keeps on giving…) and that she was happy to work with me on the story because I “get it.”

I’m not sure what to make of that.