Born to Teach: Alaska Educator Carries on Family Legacy
Published: | by Hannah Sparling
Molly Dibb grew up knowing she wanted to be a teacher. Just like her parents, who were bush teachers in remote Alaskan villages. Just like her grandfather, who was a school principal. Just like her aunt and uncles and even going back to her great, great grandmother, who taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1800s.
When Dibb graduated from high school and went off to college at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she had no doubts about her major: She would study education.
Fast forward to her college graduation, though, and Dibb was far less certain. She found her college program “very unsupportive, especially for kids coming from villages,” and she didn’t feel equipped for the classroom. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree, but she didn’t get her teacher certification.
And that was the end of it — or so she thought.
Molly Dibb comes from a long line of educators and has always wanted to be a teacher.
Coming Back to the Classroom
Dibb worked a few different jobs after college, but she always found herself drifting back toward education. She was the academic program specialist for a youth center on a military base, for example, then she taught seven hours a week for the small co-op preschool her children attended in Valdez, Alaska.
When her youngest started elementary school, Dibb left the co-op to work for the school system’s preschool so she and her children would be on the same schedule. She worked under two different teachers at the preschool, and when the second left, Dibb went to the principal with a question: How do I get the job?
Step 1 was to get her emergency teacher certification so she could start right away. Step 2: Enroll in a teacher preparation program to earn her professional certification.
Finding a Flexible EPP
Dibb was wary of big universities after her undergraduate experience. And now, as a mom of two working full-time in a preschool, she knew she would need more flexibility. Plus, Valdez is about five-and-a-half hours from the airport, which would make any in-person learning difficult.
After calling the state department of education for advice, Dibb enrolled in Moreland University’s TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program where she could earn her certification online in as little as 9 months. She liked that TEACH-NOW included one live Zoom class a week, but the rest of the work could be done on her own time and schedule. She chose Tuesday evenings for her weekly Zoom, and she was able to start dinner, do her class, then still eat with her family and get her children to bed.
Her instructors at Moreland were responsive and well-prepared for each lesson, she said, and “they were good about being in that hour timeslot. They knew your time was precious, and they weren’t about to waste it, and I loved that.”
In her undergraduate program, Dibb had been overwhelmed and discouraged, but Moreland felt obtainable.
“And it’s so affordable,” she said. “That was a big thing for me, too.”
Many of Dibb’s career choices have centered around her family and caring for her two children.
The Bottom Line
The Valdez school has four preschool classes, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, and Dibb oversees the entire program. Preschoolers are curious and hilarious, she said. They do yoga, circle time, and field trips. They hunt for worms on the playground. They even tell her jokes:
What’s the difference between you and a mountain, one of her students asked the other day. Dibb wasn’t sure. The punchline? A mountain can’t walk.
“The reason I honestly love this job is because every day is different, and these kids just love being at school,” she said. “I love having those opportunities for them to get excited about something we’re doing, learning something fun and new.”
Dibb found her calling in the preschool classroom. Her goal is to keep growing the program and to keep growing as an educator. She plans to go back through Moreland University to earn her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education.
“As long as the kids are happy and know they’re safe, that’s my bottom line,” she said. “They’re going to be loved and cared for.”
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