Merry Christmas!!

Merry
Christmas 

Determined

I made it home for the holidays.  It is safe to say that my roommate and I were determined to make it home for the holidays.  We wrapped up our last day of school.  We had our winter program and the kids did a nice job.  My kids were a bit shy about performing, but they still tried and that is all I care about.  Afterwards we decorated Christmas cookies and watched Rudolph.

At 3:00 we headed back to our apartment to get ready for our flight out.  Much to our surprise a fog had rolled in.  Jill and I made some calls to find out if flights were still going out.  We were assured that the flights were going out, but we would have to call 10 minutes prior to find out for certain.  Our neighbor had her plane fly over head and then turn around.   We were not convinced that we were getting out.  Then, thanks to the kindness of our co-workers, we were offered a trip on snowmobile to get to Bethel to make our flight to Anchorage.  We did not have much time to figure out whether or not we should do this.  The alternative was to wait and hope that the flight would make it.  That did not sound good, so we decided to go (thankfully we did not flights went out to the village).   It was a cold, long ride, but we made it (icicles in my hair and all).  We had 10 minutes till our flight to Anchorage.  Thankfully, the flight was delayed by about 30 minutes and gave us enough time to make it to check our bags and get settled.

We got in to Anchorage, parted ways, and another teacher and I made our way to get on our flight to Chicago.  It was a red eye and I was happy I did not have to wait around for long in the airport.  We landed in Chicago and I met up with parents (after grabbing a Starbucks).

I was sleepy and ready for a nap, but determined to get done what I need to get done.  I wanted to get some groceries and mail them back to my village.  After finishing my coffee I felt, mostly, ready to shop.  We made a group effort grabbing some essentials to mail off.  When my parents and I were finished we decided to get some late breakfast and some more coffee.  I ordered a coffee and went over to fill up the drink.  I was sleepy and excited to get some more caffeine.   I started to say "cofffffeeeeeeeee" and as I was saying it the worker handed me my breakfast sandwich.  I felt I should have explained to him where I just came from and my badly needed coffee break.   :)

Out of Place

This picture is going to look completely normal to most people.  However, it took me by surprise when I saw it yesterday.  I was in my room putting my laundry away when I had to do a double take.  Is that a vehicle, other than a snowmobile or boat, outside my window?

I guess someone must have called for a ride!

Thank You!!

Thank you Diane for thinking of my class.  My kids are over the moon about the items you sent.  They enjoyed the pictures and postcards.  Although I did hear a lot of "Is that you aunt, mom, grandma, brother?" and "Is that in Anchorage?".  I guess they think everyone is related to me.  They eventually got one right.

Here are some very happy kids:

35 Mph Winds

What is it like to walk to and from work with 35mph winds?   It is interesting.

Is it Break Time Yet?

I am counting down the days until break time.  I can't wait to get back home to see my family.   Today was very interesting.   The wind was howling all night and into today.  I did not get much sleep last night, so I am tired today.  I got to walk to school in 35 mph winds.  I feel like my room is a mess and I have a million things to get done with no energy to do it.  Sigh.

On the bright side.....

My kids seem to be learning their song they are going to sing for our concert (Rudolph!)

I received an unexpected package from someone for my kids.  This has them over the moon and willing to do some hard work.  (Thanks Diane!)

Tomorrow is Friday. (TGIF!)

My finger is on the mend.  (Woohoo!)

Baking and Cooking

Sunday, my roommate Jill and I, were baking and cooking up a storm.  We wanted to get a head start on all our cookie baking we have planned.  Then our creative juices got flowing.

Perfect man anyone?


I then went on to starting dinner.  We had a recipe for some potato salad.

After all that hard work this is the aftermath:

How do you stop your finger from bleeding after you slice it with a peeler?  Duct tape.
Thankfully my next door neighbor had some band aids.    Man does it hurt today.  Or should I say maaaaaaan?

Thanksgiving Weekend

It was so nice to be able to get away for a little while and catch up with family/friends.  I made the trip to Wasilla to visit with my uncle and bonus my parents flew in for the weekend.  Two other teachers from another village came with on the adventure and we stayed at the most amazing chalet in Wasilla.  It well exceeded our expectations (Alaska Adventures Unlimited-in case you are interested).  Here are some of the pictures from that fun filled weekend.

Some food after a loooong day of shopping.
Felicia, Kristin, me, and Jill.

The request from my roommate Jill was seafood with a view.  My google search of seafood, view, anchorage came up with this restaurant.  It was fit the bill perfectly.

Some spa time after an action packed day of shopping.

Are you yelling at me?

Let's try that again.

The carnage after being unable to shop in a department store for four months.  I swear that is not all mine!!

I just thought this was interesting at the Anchorage Airport. Bush Pilots Barbershop.

No Water

On Wednesday we woke up to no water in our apartment.  Luckily, we had filtered some water the night before.  We were good on our drinking water.  However, the showering situation was not happening.
Brainstorm on what to do.   Answer, melt a little snow!

That brings us to the afternoon and the water goes out at the school.  The kids had already left.  No school on Thursday (of course the teachers were still there working for some of it).  No school meant school on Saturday and here I sit today.

Candy Land?

I had an amazing long weekend away in Wasilla/Anchorage.  I brought back a few goodies for the kids.  Two weeks ago my mom sent a Candy Land game for the kids.  Well they were all gaga over playing Candy Land.  So, I made sure to pick up an extra Candy Land game when I was off Black Friday shopping.   I also picked up a few candy canes.  During an independent reading time I was so impressed with two kids that stayed on task the whole time.  I gave them my new treat (candy cane) and told the other kids they could earn one during math.  One kid took forever finishing up math and when he did he told me this, "I never got candy land".  I asked him "do you mean a candy cane"?   He looked at me like I was crazy and then said "yes, I never candy land".  

Doodle

I have been working hard on getting my students to be able to sound out words and learn some high frequency words.
I have learned something about kids this week.  They love stickers and they yell the word they think it is with some serious conviction.

So, yesterday I had a group of three students in the library with me.  We had their reading books and I would read the story to them.  I was stopping on "random" words and the first kid to tell me the word gets a sticker.  One student had his knees on the book and was staring intently at me.  I had to tell him, "I don't have the words written on me, you have to look at the book".  He starts to get a bit perturbed since one of the other students is getting a good amount of stickers.  Here comes a major sigh and then I have to remind him that the other student is following along, that is how he is getting all the words.  This students is bound and determined he is going to get a word.  He stares intently at the book and I stop at the word "of".   He shoots his head up and yells "doodle".  I tell him "no, that is not doodle, that is of".  We continue on and I stop at the word "the" he shoots his head up and yells "can", again I tell him "no, that is the".  We continue on and I stop at the word "to".  He shoots his head up and yells "doodle".  I can no longer take it and I just start laughing.  I tell him "no, this story does not have doodle in it".  Needless to say I broke my teacher mode and then proceeded to crack up at a few other words the kids were yelling out.  The kids laughed with me, but I have a feeling they did not really know why I was laughing.

Stranded..... Sort Of

On Thursday I got an email asking if I would like to help chaperone for the NYO (Native Youth Olympics) on Friday and Saturday in Bethel.  Sounded like a nice idea to be able to get out of the village for a little bit over a day.  We were going to head back home today at 2pm.   The weather has other ideas.   Right now the wind is just howling outside and it sounds like it is not going to stop.


What does that mean?  Another night sleeping at the school here in Bethel.  I really can't wait till I get back to my bed.

Now, I could be stranded in a much worse of a place.

I have good internet

a coffee shop not too far away

a Subway restaurant

multiple grocery stores

and a warm place to sleep.


I will try not to complain!

Power Outages and Pancakes?

Last night the power went out in our village for a little bit.  It was pitch black.  Guess who was prepared and who was not?  I will give you a hint, it was someone other than me.

Must get flashlight.  I had to use the light of my computer to get ready for bed.  Not fun.  

This morning I decided to mix things up.  I normally make pancakes on Sunday.  This Sunday I decided I would try something different.  I made biscuits and gravy.  My first attempt at making gravy and I think it went well.  

Dangers of living in Alaska

Today I figured out some dangers about living in Alaska.

I woke up to a blizzard warning.  Blowing snow and some nice winds.  It was interesting walking to school.

Another danger is ordering things off the internet.  I found myself on I Tunes.  I wanted to see the new Gavin DeGraw album, then popped up a link to One Republic, and the Fray.  Needless to say, I am a proud owner of all of those now.  I am sure it evens out since I haven't been in a store for a few months.

Then I went online to check my email.  I was trying to be quick so I could get done with my lesson plans.  I saw an email from my sister about a link for a contest on Pottery Barn kids.  Win a trip to the arctic.  To be funny, I sent this response back to my sister "Why would I want to win this?  I live in the arctic", and I hit send.  My email asked me do I want to add Pottery Barn Kids to my contact list.  I then realized I just responded to Pottery Barn and not my sister.  My response was "Nooooooooooo" and then some good laughter.  I am sure I will be disqualified from that contest!

The power of a first grader

We have a plan in the school if a student is being a disruption that they will be sent to another class.  Most of the time the kids come into the room and get the work done that they need to do.  It is actually very effective.  For this story I have removed any names to protect the innocent and not so innocent.

I had a 6th grade student come into my class to finish their work.   Here is how it went down.

6th Grader: (walks into the room and just grabs a seat that is open)

1st Grader whose seat is taken: (is on the floor with another teacher unaware his seat was just taken)

1st Grader: (gets up to go back to his seat)

6th Grader: (makes no move to get out of 1st graders seat)

1st Grader: (comes up behind 6th Grader and points to his desk)

6th Grader: (still not moving)

1st Grader: (taps the chair and begins to pull it out)

6th Grader: (gets out of 1st Graders chair and has to walk across the room to get another chair)

Needless to say I was trying not to laugh when I saw this interaction.  Nice to see someone is not buying a tough student act.

Halloween Fun

My roommate and I made cupcakes for our classes.  They were a hit.   The frosting was suppose to be black and orange.  It was more like grey and peach.   Halloweenish, sort of.

Jill and I had big plans for our Halloween costumes.  The result was a bit different.  We were suppose to be night and day.  This was the result.

We look more like some sort of super hero wannabes.  Oh well, as a teacher would say, A for effort.

Here is the end result of all the Halloween fun and hard work to get all those cupcakes to school.

Icy waters

I thought I was going to be smart and take pictures of the slow progress of the river icing over.   It did not go as planned.

 Here is what it looked like a few days ago.

And the next day:

A few days later the river looks like this.  It floors me that people are walking across the river.  Of course, they are use to this.  I am going to wait a bit longer for that!

Trick or Treat

We just had trick or treating at our Kindergarten building.  Everyone lines up and walks through as the teachers pass out candy.  Big kids and little kids get in on the action.  Pretty nice way to do trick or treating.

The snow is here.

Having some "winter" fun in Alaska.