Work work work

Before school starts this year I thought it best to get my flu shot and tb test. The flu shot was given by some yahoos from medical school who really did not make me feel very good about getting poked in the lobby area of the hospital. No tears though. I didn't realize when I signed up for the tb test that they would inject a serum just under the skin in my arm creating a disgusting bubble that eventually oozed moments later. How disgusting! It made me queasy just thinking about it. I asked for a bandage and they said it had to be left uncovered for the test to work. 48 hours later I am proud to say I do not have TB!

I spent 9 long hours working at school today, but I cannot really tell you what I accomplished. I feel like I did nothing but run around in circles. My boards are already done. My name tags are made. Cubby labels were already done. What do I have left to do? I must have altered and finalized and altered and refinalized my class list 5 times today. The final count (as of 5pm today) for my class is 20 kids! I have been assured that more will be added in the next few days as people come back from their camps and turn in their registration. YIKES! More than 20 five year olds sounds way overwhelming. I don't even have enough seats for more than 20! I guess I better start looking for tables and chairs. Tomorrow is back to school night which means I have to be decent looking when I leave my place at 8am and still look decent at 5pm. I'm thinking it will be a good day to wear a dress. Don't worry Aunties, my dress goes past my knees and I will be wearing flats. Once my cupboards are packed and tables are cleared off I will be set to put out name tags and I should basically be done. All that is left is planning for the first few weeks of school! It is already here! Ahhhh I've missed my classroom. I am sure I will feel differently in a few weeks when I spend most of my waking hours hidden away cleaning up and shuffling papers around. 

And we begin year 2

After a summer in Minnesota, I am back in Nome, Alaska for another school year. I had a great time at home with my family and my friends. I didn't enjoy the heat so much, but I kept busy and that was great. I went to four Twins games and did lots of shopping. I did the Relay for Life with my team and I happily did not do 26 miles again. It was a great trip home, but I am glad to be back in Nome. My flights were great and I made it back in just under 12 hours. Since being back it has been beautiful most days. August, as usual, is a bit rainy and wet in Alaska. The ocean and mountains are as wonderful as when I left! 

I've already made a trip to Teller and the Pilgrim Hot Springs since I've gotten back at the end of July. The road to Teller was a bit muddy because it was raining, but I managed to pick berries for the first time! I got about a gallon of salmon berries in the hour I was galavanting around the tundra. The hot springs were way to hot! 120 degrees is to hot to get into, but I happily did some exploring in the areas around the hot springs. I was covered in mosquito bites at the end of that 7 hour trip, but it was a great trip! 

Salmon berries from my trip to Teller

We had our inservice last week at school and it was terribly boring. I am not good at sitting and listening to other people talk for 8 hours. I did a lot of doodling and brought some stuff I wanted to get done in prep for my kids to come to school. My room is mostly ready. It is the cleanest looking kindergarten classroom at our school right now. It actually looks like a classroom and not a storage space. My bulletin boards are up and beautifully decorated. All my name tags and cubby labels are made and ready to be laminated. I was being a nice person and helping a new teacher put up a bulletin board, she had never put one up before, when I hurt myself. I jumped off the counter as I always do, but this time I landed less than gracefully and twisted my ankle pretty bad. I thought I had broken it because it still hurt like crazy and I couldn't walk two hours after so I went to the ER. I had X-rays done and there were no visible fractures so that is good. I got an air cast and crutches to use. After a few days I gave up on the crutches but I am still wearing my air cast. I am just glad I got most of my hard work done before I hurt myself. 

Our staff went swimming in the Bering Sea on Friday and it was so great! Last year when we swam it was overcast and misting and the water was very cold. This year the sun was shining and the water was much warmer. I swam for quite a while out in the Bering. The cool water felt great on my ankle, getting out of the water was a different story. The waves pull you back in and the sand crumbles beneath your feet so it was a bit difficult for me to gimp out. We had hot dogs and brats afterward on the beach and a great big fire too. It was a beautiful day and I was happy to finally be able to go swimming. 

 Beautiful sunset in Nome, AK

 Musk ox super close to my apartment

First walrus I see is dead and headless on the beach@

Teller, Alaska

On May 30th I took a drive with my native friend Francis...he is 72 years old...to Teller, Alaska. The dirt road is 72 miles of bumps and dips through the Alaskan bush. There isn't much to do for the two hour drive except look around. Teller itself isn't very exciting. It is a town much smaller than Nome, if that is even imaginable! The trip isn't about the destination, it is about the path that gets you there. There is no reason to hurry, especially on these dirt roads. Some spots are great for driving and some spots are half washed away by the nearby creeks and rivers that are breaking up. It was a slow bumpy road and sometimes it was like driving on ice because the sandy road was so slippery. I saw reindeer and ptarmigan (the Alaska state bird) on the drive up. In downtown Teller I saw seal and beautiful blue ice water. There were loons and gulls flying too. Not like the loons on MN lakes. They aren't as beautiful and don't make the loon sound we all know! I spent the day with Francis at his brother's house. I saw his fish "camp" which is only 3 blocks from his regular house. His "camp" has no running water and currently no heat. Most houses in this area have honey buckets and pumps and reservoirs of water into the house. I cannot imagine! His brother is just as much native as Francis and possibly speaks less english. I am used to listening to the mumblings of an old eskimo so I could still understand most of what he said. His wife (a white woman) made goose and chicken for dinner with yellow potatoes. On the drive home I got to see moose again. I saw a small group in the fall and on the way home from Teller I saw a mama moose in the river and a new baby emerged from the willow bushes to join her for a drink. I was SO happy to see them. They were absolutely beautiful. A short 12 hours after we returned from Teller the road was completely washed out at one bridge close to Wooley Lagoon (if you feel like googling that!). The ice jams broke apart the colverts and washed away a 20 foot section of the road. People were stuck either in Teller or in Nome unable to pass by the 40 mile mark of the road. It took about a week to fix and now it is driveable again. 

Ice out

In June the ice finally went out in Nome. It happened all at once overnight. I don't know how it happens. I don't quite understand how it just disappears. There is no way it melts overnight. All thats left are a few random iceburgs left. Where does it go? Nome went from crab pots and tomcodding to gold dredgers. 

My new Nome home

So I moved into my new apartment with my new roomies! It is a nice three bedroom one bath place. We have completely new appliances and floors. We have awesome blackout curtains that make it look like a moonless night whenever they are closed. I could sleep for days in this darkness! My bed is on the floor because my bed frame shipped to MN for some reason. But all my stuff is here! I'm getting more storage from amazon so everything will have a place instead of being stacked in piles around my room. I like it though! Much quieter than being in the city. I like seeing the mountains in the morning. Absolutely beautiful!

Hit the ground running

This year when I came to Nome I felt myself enter survival mode. I was in a completely new place with people absolutely unknown to me. My experience getting here was a difficult one and I hit the ground running. My school year started the day after I landed. I met the kids, parents, and other staff all in one burst of excitement. Looking back, I know the school year started off as me trying to assimilate into my new surroundings. I was learning more about my environment than my students were and I was trying to take it all in so fast I swept certain things under the rug completely. I was new, fresh, and trying to fit in. Things as simple and necessary as routine and expectations were skipped over in my attempt to keep running and not fall. As the year dwindles now I see mistakes were made on my part. I have spent the year trying to catch up and rein in the difficulties that are a result of my ill formed expectations and procedures at the beginning of the school year. Despite the shortcomings on my part, I have learned a great deal. I know better now how I would like to start next year. I have a much better understanding of how to manage a larger class than I am used to as well as interacting with more opinionated parents; I am a young white woman stepping into a largely native population with a strong backing from elders. I was given several opportunities to enroll in classes and read books about classroom and behavior management. I am grateful for the materials and mentoring I have been given this past year. I am still struggling because once misbehaviors are learned and haven’t been dealt with, they are hard to overcome and break down. My students are not terrible, they have grown a great deal the last few months, but they still need to grow. I am attempting to rein in their behaviors these final weeks of kindergarten. I am trying to instill more mature behaviors that have been lacking because my expectations were not always clear throughout the year. These students have grown significantly since the fall; many have complete knowledge of their letters, numbers, and sounds, each of my students knows their alphabet, shapes, and colors, and many can add and subtract with ease. I am proud of my students. My pride is lacking in myself because I let so much slide by me at the beginning of the school year. My goals are clear for next year. 

CRAB