Howdy Hoonah-
My name is Mark Browning, and I am your new 4th Grade Teacher! It was quite an adventure getting out here from Wyoming. My fiance, Ollee, and I packed up our house into a 20 foot Uhaul, into a Box Trailer, and into our 19 foot West Wight Potter sailboat and dragged everything up through Canada. Both of us knew we wanted to be up here after our trip last year when we sailed down through the Lynn Canal from Skagway and out to Hoonah. After that trip, I turned around and went home and began emailing Mr. Ralph Watkins incessantly until he gave me this job opportunity.
I was raised in Colorado where I began teaching 16 years ago in Fort Collins and then Glenwood Springs. Six years ago Ollee and I picked up and moved out to Powell, Wyoming. We spent 6 wonderful years there teaching, fishing, hunting, farming and sailing the reservoirs. We also began to take trips to the West Coast and sail in the salt. This is what led us here. I have a daughter of 20 years, who has been lost somewhere in Thailand for the last year. I am sure she got her travel bug from me. I too enjoy life out of a backpack and on the road. I have traveled to Japan, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Panama, Mexico, Australia, Europe (14 countries in 2 months), and through Canada to AK!
Over the last 16 years I have taught 6th Grade, 5th Grade, and 4th Grade in about equal proportions. Fourth Graders are the best by the way! I thoroughly enjoy teaching elementary aged kids. I practice as much hands on activity as I can in the classroom as experiences make for the best learning. I am thrilled to begin meeting this year's 4th Grade Class, their families from which they spring, and the community at large. I am the tall, funny looking bearded fellow walking down the street (not Ben Mettling), and if you see me, please come and say hello and introduce yourself. Until then...
