The Teacher Sweater

So, I'm experimenting with this whole "posting pictures" thing. Kind of fun. My little sister got me the funniest birthday present ever. Remember when you were a child? If your teachers were anything like my teachers, they probably wore sweaters or sweater vests that changed with the season. September's sweater might have apples, while October was little pumpkins or cartoon ghosts, and November was some sort of harvest/Thanksgiving-ish something. December's sweaters were in a category all their own. Presents, snowmen, teddy bears, Christmas trees, wreaths, etc. If it was remotely related to Christmas, it was on a sweater somewhere. And usually had plenty of sequins and other shiny things that should never be allowed in a classroom (some of us are easily distracted). Do you have a picture of this in your mind? The only place we saw them was in elementary school, so these articles of clothing became aptly named "teacher sweaters." When I was in college, I had a couple of friends who were also studying education, and we would joke about becoming teachers and having/getting to wear "teacher sweaters." We were in the process of building up our wardrobes of teacher clothes, and "teacher sweaters" were the big joke. Back to the birthday present. I giggled for the rest of the afternoon after getting this present:

You cannot tell me that getting a "teacher sweater vest" at age 25 is not the funniest thing ever. She called me after I opened it (it had come in the mail), and, after we got done laughing about it, I asked her where she got it. K-Mart? Actually, it was eBay. That set off another round of laughing between us. A teacher sweater off of eBay for my birthday. With a sister like this. . .

I think I'm going to wear it on Friday. It's our last day before break and the only thing we're really doing is having a party. Besides, the high schoolers decided that the school is having a spirit week next week and Friday is "Wear your Christmas stuff" day. I could pull it off, right?!

Field Trip

The question I've been pondering all day: Is it wrong that the funnest activity I do with my class all year is also the least educational? I hope not, because there is no way I could make this field trip educational without stripping it of all fun and excitement.

I took my kids on our annual "Let's Find a Christmas Tree For Our Classroom" field trip today. As I walked to and from home at lunch, I was thinking, "Dang. I definitely could have picked a better day." It was cold, with a biting wind that dropped the wind chill to about 10 below zero. We were all prepared, though. I warned the kids yesterday that if they didn't bring the appropriate cold-weather gear today that I was going to leave them at school. Two kids were absent, so I only had 3 - that's the joy/bummer of only having 5 kids in the class. If two of them are gone, that's half the class!


Doris (the first-grade aide) and Rebecca (one-on-one aide for one of my students) and the class and I set out towards Airport road. It was so fun getting outside and watching the kids have fun. They were so cute with their rosy-cheeked grins and bubbling laughter. We actually ended up going down the snow-machine trail that Katie and I skied on last winter. We had a hard time finding a good tree. They were all looking pretty scraggly and brown. We finally found a decent one - actually it was two trees in one. It was heavy - too heavy for the kids to carry, so Rebecca and I hoisted it up onto our shoulders. Marvin walked behind me and "helped" us carry it. He's usually a real handful, but he was so eager to help out today. I guess he just needs a job to do, a way to feel helpful. The picture is us after we got the tree out of the woods and onto the road.

We only had to carry the bohemeth about halfway. Paul stopped in his truck and took it the rest of the way to the school. It was a challenge getting it inside the building - it was a tight squeeze getting it through the door! Of course, when we did get it inside, the trunk didn't exactly fit into the tree stand. So, Doris went down to the high school wing and got Bidoo to come help us out. Bidoo lives in a different village, but has relatives in Elim and is pretty much spending the year here working on carving projects with the older kids (he even did a small carving project with my kids, but that's a whole different story). Thankfully, he came down with one of the junior high kids and they shaved it down far enough to get it most of the way into the stand.

I only had 1 string of lights left, because I only have 6 strands of lights: 2 are up in our apartment, two are hanging in the classroom, and 1 strand doesn't exactly light up anymore. This is about a 3 strand tree. Hm. Well, with that string of lights and some decorations from the kids (read: paper snowflakes because that's all they know how to make), I think it'll be a pretty delightful tree.

NEW!

I've discovered that, because I live so far away from everyone I know and love, I need a way to stay in touch with people. I have stories to tell, but no way of keeping track of who has heard what. Some people would hear stories more than once and others wouldn't hear them at all. This is my attempt at reaching the vast majority of my friends and relatives, without having to re-tell stories 50 million times. Spread the word. I'm going to play around and try to post my old MySpace blogs here. No promises, though. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so be patient with me. I'm practically an old lady and this new-fangled technology is just all so confusing sometimes ;-)