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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The 3,714-mile trip from West Pittston to the small village of Kongiganak, Alaska, is probably not on your travel itinerary.</p><p>But for Brittani Shearer, it&#8217;s No. 1 on her destination list.</p><p>Shearer, 23, of West Pittston, is preparing to trade in her family&#8217;s ice cream scoop &#8212; the Shearers own The Snack Shack in Wilkes-Barre Township &#8212; for a snowmobile. In early August, she heads back to Alaska for her second year of teaching preschoolers.</p><p>How did she get there in the first place, you may wonder?</p><p>Shearer graduated from Bloomsburg University in 2017 with a degree in early childhood and special education.</p><p>&#8220;When I initially spoke to my adviser, I didn&#8217;t want to work nothing more than an hour away from home,&#8221; Shearer said. &#8220;I went to the job fair (and) I saw two schools from Alaska, and they interviewed me on the spot.&#8221;</p><p>As fate would have it, Shearer ended up accepting a contract offer at the end of April 2017, which started her faraway adventure.</p><p>Despite the distance, she was able to rely on one local link.</p><p>&#8220;When I moved to Alaska in 2017, I only knew one family,&#8221; Shearer said.</p><p>That was the family of Tim Wallace, an Anchorage, Alaska, native and one-time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin. Shearer says his family &#8220;picked me up from the airport in Anchorage.&#8221;</p><p>From there, Shearer traveled to the town of Bethel, where she boarded a four-seater plane to the small village of Kongiganak.</p><p>The village nicknamed &#8220;Kong&#8221; was formed in the 1960s after another village started to erode. The village has two stores, two churches, a laundromat, a health clinic, a post office and residential housing.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s certainly not anything like Wilkes-Barre,&#8221; Shearer laughed.</p><p>&#8220;With only a few stores and the expense for goods being so high, you really get to know the difference between &#8216;wants&#8217; and &#8216;needs&#8217;.&#8221;</p><p>She also noticed how independent children are in what&#8217;s known as The Last Frontier state.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll get photos from my students who are 3 and 4 years old, helping their parents cut a moose,&#8221; Shearer said. &#8220;There are kids here ( in Pa.) that can&#8217;t even cut their own food.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Family gained</strong></p><p>Non-verbal communication is also very different in Alaska.</p><p>&#8220;Natives use more hand motions and gestures,&#8221; Shearer said. &#8220;I can tell how my students are by their facial expressions.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It didn&#8217;t sink in until one day I squinted at one of my students and he began to cry,&#8221; Shearer mentioned. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t mad at him, but because non-verbal cues are part of the culture, he misinterpreted my facial reaction. That just took some getting used to.&#8221;</p><p>Shearer works at a dual-language school that teaches English and the native Yup&#8217;ik.</p><p>Although she has enjoyed her time in Alaska, there are drawbacks.</p><p>&#8220;I think the hardest part is missing holidays and family events,&#8221; Shearer said.</p><p>But she has gained another family: the villagers of Kong.</p><p>&#8220;Despite the laid-back atmosphere and lack of technology, I&#8217;ve become a close-knit family member to the community,&#8221; Shearer said.</p><p>And after witnessing life in a village where there isn&#8217;t always reliable internet service, she offers some advice.</p><p>&#8220;Family is important,&#8221; said Shearer. &#8220;We should put away the phones and laptops and engage in more face-to-face communications with our family.&#8221;</p><p>Shearer heads back for her second year of teaching Aug. 6.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to see the energy from the kids and I can&#8217;t wait to interact with the community again,&#8221; she said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">These are hand-crafted slippers made of beaver and seal skin that Brittani Shearer brought back from rural Alaska, where she teaches preschool. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_TTL061218Alaska2.jpg</photo0><caption0>These are hand-crafted slippers made of beaver and seal skin that Brittani Shearer brought back from rural Alaska, where she teaches preschool. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_TTL061218Alaska1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Brittani Shearer, of West Pittston, recently talked about her experiences teaching in rural Alaska. She&#8217;s headed back for her second year there in early August.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_TTL061218Alaska1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Brittani Shearer, of West Pittston, recently talked about her experiences teaching in rural Alaska. She&#8217;s headed back for her second year there in early August.  </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Local woman teaches preschool in Alaska</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dan Stokes</p><p>ttlnews@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

‘Not anything like Wilkes-Barre’: Local woman teaches preschool in Alaska