Friday was Parker Schnabel’s last day of classes as a junior at Haines High School, at least according to the script.
“I’m pretty excited to get it over with,” Schnabel said to a London-based film crew for the reality television series “Gold Rush: Alaska.”
Schnabel appeared on the debut season of the Discovery Channel program with grandfather John Schnabel. They offered their expertise to a group of Oregon greenhorns looking to make a fortune at a neighboring Porcupine gold claim.
Parker is set for a more prominent role in the show’s second season, as he takes on additional responsibilities at his grandfather’s claim.
A four-member film crew arrived at the high school Friday for teacher Rene Martin’s English class, to show Parker’s transition from poetry to Porcupine. Summer break was still more than a weekend away.
“My two worlds are colliding,” Parker said as about a dozen of his peers sat in desks and the crew rushed around the room.
Waivers went out ahead of time for parental permission for each child to appear on television. School superintendent Michael Byer said the district didn’t have a policy on allowing cameras in the schools.
Parker jokingly lamented that the crew wanted the students to cover up brand name logos.
“But I’m trying to get sponsored by Coke,” he said.
Martin asked the students to read a poem from their portfolios.
“The one thing you guys have to remember is don’t fade out at the end of your lines,” she said. “You have to speak loudly and clearly and with emphasis … Pause where you put punctuation, because that’s what it’s there for.”
Junior Esther Bower bravely went first, before the class “volunteered” Parker to take his place at the podium. He read “The Life of a Miner,” and then received instruction from director Max Baring.
“Parker, if I could get you to do that once more,” Baring said, and Martin offered some advice of her own, encouraging Parker to “take a deep breath” and enunciate.
Parker read the piece again, describing the work to “wash these eternal rocks” and “find that glory hole.”
Other students shared their poems, and then the class again encouraged Parker to step to the podium.
He said “The Old-Timer” was about his grandfather John Schnabel, who has “not a concern in the world, except maybe what’s for dinner or if there’s a foursome for bridge later.”
Baring had the crew shoot multiple takes.
“That’s why we do it twice, to make it perfect,” he said.
Parker finished the poem and announced, “And that’s about my grandpa.” That earned a high-five from Baring.
Parker still wasn’t finished, as he had to read the poem once more later in the class so the crew could shoot from a different angle.
Junior Jerry Strong also got some extra attention for his poem that recalled “when we were little, we couldn’t wait to be older.”
Baring asked Strong to read the poem twice, since it described the move from high school to career.
He then directed Martin to send the students off for summer break, even though they’d be back for classes on Monday.
“Double-check the grade book, make sure everything’s in and have a great summer,” she said.
Parker sat silently, and then asked Baring, “Did you want a reaction out of me?”
His classmates got into the act after Martin repeated her well-wishes. They triumphantly exited the room, free at last in the reality television world.
“I thought it was weird, the reality they kind of created,” said junior Elena Horner. “It was just hard to try to not ‘act.’”
Junior Emily Bowman said she attempted not to look blankly off into the distance when Martin repeated directions.
Scenes out in the hallway and an interview with Parker rounded out the filming.
Parker told the camera he was surprised the Hoffman team from Oregon already had returned to mine at Porcupine. “Usually, nobody starts before us,” he said.
Martin said the crew likely chose her class for filming on Friday because students completed a final poetry portfolio, not an in-class test. She said the students would be graded more on their written work than on vocal delivery, so any extra anxiety from the visitors wouldn’t do much to hurt grades.
“It’s about Parker, and we’re just trying to support him,” Martin said.