Earlier this week, I was having the kids do a quarterly math assessment.  Part of that assessment is almost 100 addition and subtraction problems.  The kids had been quietly working and it was time to clean up for recess.  I told them to double-check for their names on the front pages and bring the packets to me.  As each test was handed to me, I checked for a name.  One girl handed me her test and I didn't see a name so I said, "Where is your name?"  She grabbed the test back and said, "In your pocket." 

"My name is in your pocket?" 

"Yep!"

Just for Laughs

A couple of quotes from the last week or so that had me stifling giggles:

Victor said, "I'm going to color the fur now" (on his prop for the Christmas program).  Herb, down at the other end of the table, distractedly said, "I have hair. . . ."

After giving the spelling for the word "but," KayLynne said, "If you spelled it with 2 t's, then doom on you!"

A vacuum started up in the classroom next door to ours and John said, "It's a helicopter!"

I'm wearing off on these kids.  One of my students has taken to bursting out in random song, just like me.  It's quite hilarious to hear the songs he comes up with.  Sometimes he even modifies the lyrics to fit the situation.  Clever little 6-year-old. 

Field Trip

I feel so lucky this time of year.  Not only can I take my kids on a field trip that has absolutely no educational value, but I didn't have to mess with permission.  I told my kids on Monday that we were going and to bring the appropriate winter gear on Thursday, and then mentioned it to the principal on Tuesday morning.  It was that simple!  I was actually a little concerned about the principal's response (I hadn't had trouble in the past, but we have a new principal this year and he actually cares about what goes on in the elementary wing of the school); all he said was to make sure the secretary knew when we left. 

For the second year in a row, I could have picked a better day, weather-wise.  The wind was blowing close to 20 mph with stronger gusts, dropping the wind chill to well below zero.  We hardy Alaskans don't let the threat of frostbite daunt us, though, and we bundled up and set off.  I didn't really have a destination in mind.  I figured that if we wandered long enough, we'd come across something.  All I really knew was that this year's tree was going to be significantly smaller than last year's behemoth.

We ended up on the road to the airport, which is where we've ended up for 4 years in a row.  It's a road lined with trees.  Common sense, right?  Not quite. 

See, the trees aren't exactly right at the edge of the road.  There's a bit of land between the road and the tree line.  At this particular moment in time, the kids had convinced Doris (my first-grade aide) that they saw the perfect tree, so she and them trekked over to check it out.  I stayed on the road.  (One of my students has a bum ankle and was lagging behind, so I stayed on the road to keep him company. . . at least, that was my excuse.)  If you can't tell, they're sunk into loose snow almost up to their waists.  Not only did they not find the "perfect tree," but the kids couldn't even remember which tree they were so gung-ho about. :-)

Eventually, we found what Doris and I believed to be a decent tree.  The kids were not so enthusiastic about it.  After listening to a few complaints about how it was "a scrawny tree," I told them that "scrawny" is okay and asked if I needed to show them Charlie Brown to prove it.  The best part is that it's not even that scrawny; it a little bare in spots, but it's actually a cute little tree. 

I love this picture because it manages to capture just a bit of each individual personality, which is one of the things I love about this class.  Each student has a distinct personality that is very different from everyone else's, but they combine to form a group dynamic that is simply fun!  (The wind had momentarily died down to around 10 mph at this point and the snow wasn't blowing quite so bad, which is way this picture is lighter than the others.) 

After a couple of scuffles, the kids figured out how to take turns carrying the tree.  Walking back to the school was walking into the wind, so those of us not carrying anything were walking backwards to protect our faces.  It was actually quite humorous watching some of the less-coordinated ones.  My student with the bum ankle was quite tired, so I was bringing up the rear, cheerleading him on for most of the walk back. 

We had quite a bit of time left in the day when we got back to the school - over an hour.  With a little "help" from the kids, we got the tree in the stand and gave it a drink of water.  It's a little tilted, but I've got it tilted towards the wall, so it doesn't have far to fall. :-)

I put the lights on it after everyone had left for the day (including the kids in after-school tutoring - it turned into a long day).   I say we done good.  It's a cute little tree that adds a little festive touch to the room, and as an added bonus, my room smells like pine now!  (I'm blatantly ignoring the fact that I'm obviously allergic to it.) 

I'm Not That Girl
Wicked

Hands touch, eyes meet
Sudden silence, sudden heat
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl

Don't dream too far
Don't lose sight of who you are
Don't remember that rush of joy
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl

Every so often we long to steal
To the land of what-might-have-been
But that doesn't soften the ache we feel
When reality sets back in

Blithe smile, lithe limb
She who's winsome, she wins him
Gold hair with a gentle curl
That's the girl he chose
And heaven knows
I'm not that girl

Don't wish, don't start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn't born for the rose and pearl
There's a girl I know
He loves her so
I'm not that girl


So Close
Jon McLaughlin

You're in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music plays on for only two
So close together
And when I'm with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams must stop
So I bid mine good-bye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted was to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Now you're beside me and look how far we've come
So far we are so close

How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?

We're so close to reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let's go on dreaming for know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

Just a couple of song lyrics that reflect the conflicted-ness I feel this morning. . . .

Packsacks

When I first got up here, I heard my kids calling backpacks "packsacks."  It makes sense if you think about it.  It is a sack that you pack stuff around in.  Added to that is the habit that women have of carrying their babies on their backs inside their coats (using the coat and/or an extra scarf to hold the baby in place) - they call it "packing," as in, "I was packing baby."  So, to have something on your back is like "packing" a baby, except it's a sack.  Hence, the term "packsack."  Not all the kids (and adults) called them that, but I've heard it often over the past couple of years. 

Just when I thought I'd gotten their linguistic choices pretty much figured out, my kids topped themselves.

As they were getting in line for recess this morning, they started arguing amongst themselves about whether it was "backpack" or "backsack."  Really.  Most of the class was sure that it was "backpack," because one of our green words in our story for this week is "backpack."  (Green words are words that are able to be sounded out, as opposed to red words, which have to just be memorized.)  They'd been seeing this word all week in print and were starting to comprehend it.  There was one girl who was sticking to her guns, though.  She's in a different reading class, so she hadn't read our book in awhile.  She was convinced that it was "backsack."  It was pretty much the class vs. her.  Everyone was telling her that it was "backpack," but she very eloquently refuted them all by saying, "It's on your back and it's a sack.  So, it's a backsack."  It was the way she said it that made the incident memorable.  She was so matter-of-fact, yet indignant.  It was starting to look like a brawl was about to break out, so I decided to end the argument by reminding them that we'd go to the gym as soon as they were quiet. 

Annual Education Conference

Each year, my school district holds its annual Education Conference, which is a fancy name for in-service.  It's a good thing.  Because the district is composed of 15 village schools spread out over 80,000 square miles of frozen Alaskan tundra, we teachers don't have much of an opportunity to get together face-to-face and collaborate/share/solve problems/etc. We are all connected through the internet and video-conferences, but it's not always the same.  This once a year in-service is our chance to see what other teachers and schools are doing to tackle problems that may or may not be the same as ours.  It's a chance to re-set our perspectives and remind ourselves that we aren't alone in this thing called teaching. 

Now, in most places, a multiple day in-service wouldn't be much different from a normal school week.  The teachers would show up at the site of the in-service - generally the school - and leave at the end of the day.  Not so for us.  Remember, we're spread out over 80,000 square miles.  That's quite a commute.  So, we obviously can't go home at the end of each day.  All staff members are flown to one of the sites in the district, usually Unalakleet - it's one of the biggest schools, the district office is located there, they've hosted it for so long that they know what they're doing.  This year, though, different parts of the Unalakleet school are in various stages of renovation and unusable.  Two villages (Stebbins and St. Michael) near Unalakleet are decent-sized and within 15 miles of each other.  It was decided that half the staff would be sent to Stebbins and the other half would be sent to St. Michael for this year's conference.  Elim had the privilege of being sent to St. Michael. 

Think about the implications of this.  We are staying in the village for 4 days.  Due to the fact that there is nowhere else to go, we "get to" sleep on the floor of the school on (sometimes leaky) air mattresses.  We "get to" stand in long lines to eat cafeteria food (actually, the cooks did a decent job and we were provided with plenty of snacks so it wasn't too horrible).  We "get to" share the school bathrooms and showers with the other 150 people at the conference (usually 300 people, but remember, we were split this year). 

During the day (for two days) we have one workshop session that we attend.  We went from 9-4, with a half-hour of "Team Time" beforehand, which is time with just the people from our site.  The session I attended this year was about a new math program that the district is slowly implementing.  I figure I'm going to have to teach it eventually, so I might as well learn about it.  I'm now fairly confident in the first 2 steps of 5 Steps to a Balanced Math Program.  Because we had been briefed on the first two steps by our high school math teacher before the school year started, I was already tentatively implementing one of the steps in my classroom.  I now see what I was doing wrong and how I can fix it, and I have a new step to implement.

That left from 4 in the afternoon until 8:15 the next morning (when Team Time started) free for us teachers to create mischief.  That is the reason we had optional evening activities planned.  The first night, Tuesday, was the Museum Walk.  Each school put up a display/poster to show the good things that are happening at that site.  The second night, Wednesday, was good, old-fashioned fun.  The district brought out a band from Nome called Land Bridge Toll Booth Band and a square dance caller.  He taught square dances and contra dances for 3 hours.  It sounds kooky and weird, but it was so much fun!  On the third night, Thursday, the district brought over the Stebbins Dancers and Drummers - a native dancing and drumming group from Stebbins.  We ate pie and watched them for a couple of hours.  By that time, we were all getting a little worn-out.  It's tough to sustain energy for the full schedule during the day on less than 7 hours of restless sleep each night. 

Friday was a bit different, due to travel.  We attended 2 shorter hour-long sessions in the morning, followed by the closing keynote and lunch.  The shorter sessions I attended were about classroom management, which is my biggest weakness.  I was so energized and excited by what I learned!  My classroom management system hasn't been working the way I would like and I have been thinking about how I can change it, but hadn't really come up with anything that would solve the issues I'm having.  I have a new strategy to put into practice on Monday - I don't know exactly what it's going to look like yet and I don't know if it'll work, but it's worth a try.  It's based on the idea that teachers waste a lot of time waiting for kids to behave, so if the kids voluntarily behave, then we as teachers have a bit of time to give back to the kids in the form of free time (but it's not called that because "free time" has a bad connotation in school).  The best part is that this strategy was taught to us by a teacher-trainer from the district office so we can't get in trouble for giving our kids this "activity time."  All we have to do is make sure we're doing it right and refer critics back to Jim Nelson at the district office. 

Friday afternoon was travel time.  We actually got out of there at a decent time.  I think we were all having nightmares about what happened last year - we were the first school to fly in and the last school to fly out.  We were there from 8:30 Tuesday morning until 7:00 Friday night.  This year was a relief.  We weren't the first school in, but we weren't the last, so we had a choice of air mattresses and could get them filled to see if they were going to leak.  We were in the second wave of flights going out.  We loaded up the trucks at 1:45, drove to the airport, sat for 10 minutes waiting for the plane, loaded up the plane, and flew out.  We were home shortly after 3.  It was fantastic!  It felt good to have some downtime and sleep in my own bed! 

Village English

I heard this quote the other day: "Katie always be late for school, but not always." Now, anywhere else, that phrase might cause people to wonder what that child meant. Here in the village, it didn't raise any eyebrows and we all understood what he meant. How do we, as teachers, even begin to teach proper English grammar and vocabulary when everyone - adult and child alike - speaks this way?! It's called village English and hearing what comes out of peoples' mouths is always a joy.

A Whale of a Tale

During this afternoon's staff meeting, the secretary suddenly interrupted with, "Beluga are moving through. You can see them from the window." (Only in Alaska.) We crowded around the library windows to see. All we could see at that point was a blob-shaped set of waves that were different from the waves around it. A whole pod of whales was moving through (underwater). We watched for a minute or two before the principal called us back to order and resumed the (ever-lasting, boring) staff meeting. At the end of the day, one of the aides came into my room and said that they were bringing a beluga in and that was the reason for the large gathering of people on the beach. I decided to go down and check it out.

When I got to the beach, two beluga had been hauled in. One of the usual white color - over 15 feet of blubber and whale meat. The other was smaller and gray. The person I was standing next to, Lillie, said that it was a young whale - not full grown. That's when I noticed another white whale a little further down the beach. This is when I got my first taste of raw beluga. They were cutting off pieces of the tail (because it's so thin) and eating it, raw. One of the kids, Nicole, pulled part of a piece apart and gave it to me to try. Looking at it, I could see the different layers of skin and fat. I was hesitant, but gave it a try because I figured I could handle such a small piece (maybe a half-inch square). If it tasted bad, well, at least it was small. It was okay - I would eat it if I was starving. The skin started to dissolve and came off pretty quickly, but I sucked and gnawed on the fat part for the better part of the next hour.

Lillie pointed out another boat coming and said that it had 3. Whales, that is. This boat was towing 3 whales behind it. One of the hunters from another boat waded out, tied rope to the tails, and brought the other end of the rope back to the shore. All the men and just about all of the kids lined up like it was a big game of tug-of-rope. Working together, they pulled all 3 whales into shore.

At this point, there were 6 whales on the beach. I started talking to one of the ladies standing on the beach - Joanie. She said that they used to eat beluga the same way when she was a kid - straight from the tail. Apparently, there were killer whales that were chasing the beluga and that was why they came through as a large pod and close to shore. The killer whales were out deeper and the beluga were sticking close to shore to avoid them - bad for them, good for us. Joanie said she caught it on video - when the whales were coming through - and it was quite a sight.

I wandered down the beach to the other whale - the hunter who had brought it in were starting to carve it up. Interesting fact - one of the hunters works at the school and, when the beluga were spotted, had asked the principal if he could leave early. It paid off for him. They would slice off huge slabs of meat and fat (3 ft long slabs), rinse them in the water, and then put them in a tarp-lined trailer hooked up to their four-wheeler. It was 2 brothers and their dad and it was obvious who knew the most. Dad was very carefully directing the operation, but his sons were doing the actual cutting. He was imparting his knowledge in the best possible way - directing, but letting them do it by themselves. It was really interesting to watch.

Sorry for the lack of pictures - my camera is still AWOL. MIA. Supposedly somewhere in the mail between Portland and Elim?

Spelling

Kids make me laugh. I put magnetic letters up on one of the file cabinets in my classroom. One of my kids was "spelling" words before school started yesterday. He's one of my best students, academically. He was actually doing pretty well sounding words out, but generally just writing all the names he could come up with. All of a sudden, he said, "Teacher, look, Cheese-Its." Except that wasn't how he'd spelled it. He spelled it "Cheesich." He spelled it the way it sounded to him. That's one of my worst problems as a teacher - the natural speech impediments of six-year-olds. Those were the sounds he heard, not necessarily the sounds that were actually in the word. I had to laugh because he was so excited about what he'd come up with.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

We had a short staff meeting after school today in the high school math teacher's classroom. I wasn't in there for very long (25 minutes), but was seriously disturbed by the time I walked out. She had a poster on the wall describing to students what vertical lines were. Problem was, she spelled "vertical" like this: verticle. On a poster. On the wall for all to see. Duh. On the board she had the agenda listed for her first period class. That's all well and good, except she spelled "cancellation" like this: cancelation.

Does this bother anyone else?! If a TEACHER is going to post something on the wall or write something on the board, doesn't it make sense that the words should be spelled right?! It seriously bothers me that a TEACHER doesn't even care enough to make sure that things are spelled correctly in her classroom. I know that she's not an English teacher or a writing teacher, but that doesn't excuse laziness. She does teach one period of reading, and her horrible spelling skills set a horrible example. I may not be a high school math teacher, but if I do basic math facts on the board or post something on the wall having to do with basic math skills, I make sure those fact/skills/whatever are correct. Is it too much to ask her to do the same in making sure that basic words are spelled correctly?! I don't think so. As teachers, we set the example. We set the bar for the level at which we want our children to achieve. Judging from what I saw in her classroom today, that teacher hasn't set the standard very high. It's a shame.

A Dangerous Prayer

I had an epiphany-like thought at lunch today. I think I've found something more dangerous to pray for than praying for patience.

One of my students missed the first 6 days of school. His mom said that he had a sprained ankle, but didn't really like to use his crutches. He preferred to crawl around. After coming in twice to get the work he missed, she decided to send him to school today. His dad gave him a piggy-back ride to school. After he got his coat off and we got all his homework straightened out (some of it was done and some of it wasn't), it was time for him to head to breakfast. I laid down the law: In the classroom, he could crawl, hop, do whatever he needed to do. In the hall, he needed to use his crutches. It took us 10 minutes and not a few tears to get to the cafeteria. There is nothing between my classroom and the cafeteria, except for maybe a couple hundred feet of hallway. He kept complaining that his armpits hurt or his other leg was tired or whatever. The same thing happened in the middle of the morning when we went to the gym for recess. I finally ended up leaving him laboring down the hallway with the first-grade aide and the rest of the class went around him and down to the gym. After recess, he stalled out in the gym, pretty much refusing to go anywhere beyond the gym door. He and one other student had to go to a different reading class that was even farther down the hall than the gym. I left him there in the gym, took the rest of the class back to the room, and sent the other student in his reading class with both homework folders and instructions to "walk Victor down to your room." I don't want to know how long it took them to get there.

I came back from lunch to Victor laying on the floor in the hallway, hysterical, because he'd hit his leg on the wall or something. The principal was trying to get him to at least stop crying. After I got over my shock of seeing a principal actually doing something constructive, we got him calmed down and up off the floor. He didn't want to go to the gym with the rest of the students, so I let him stay in the room. He was building something with blocks and I was trying to get ready for the afternoon. I started to pray for patience with this kid, but stopped. He was already (unintentionally) pushing buttons and didn't need any help from God with that. So, my prayer became, "God, help me to love this kid." By the end of the day, I had become convinced that praying for help loving someone is a more dangerous prayer than praying for patience with someone.

Love (as defined by 1 Cor. 13) is a whole range of things, not the least of which is patient. So, really, praying for help in loving someone is praying for help in being patient, kind, not envious, non-boastful, humble, respectful (not rude), not easily angered or self-seeking towards that person. I'm pretty sure God threw every single one of those at me this afternoon in regards to Victor. Before my revelation at lunch today, I'd been praying every day for help loving this class. I think I'm going to continue with that prayer, but it almost makes me wonder what the rest of the week (year) is going to be like. . . .

Summer - Part 3

Our last camp was Sports Camp. I hate sports, but I love Sports Camp. The sports staff members have their priorities in order - God first, fun second, sports third. They have their own program that they run, but they work to integrate it with what we have established. They participate, they get involved, they truly love these kids.

Our last campfire of the summer was Staff Gone Wild. Basically, Capt. Beverley and Spike planned for the staff to do all the gross contests and stuff that we can't let campers do anymore because of health regulations. Eating Ritz crackers with gross stuff on top. Pop-n-Sock (drinking soda through someone else's sock). Things like that. Too much to write about. A gross night that was a ton of fun.

On the last night of camp, the Program Team pulled an all-nighter. Spike didn't trust the younger staff to not sneak out and do something stupid, so we set up watch right outside all the staff cabins. Give me enough caffeine and I'll be up all night. Nothing happened, which meant it was a boring night, but the walkie-talkie conversations got really fun at times. Colleen and I were up by Sandy and we could hear Tasha and Danielle laughing down by Deep Creek View. I made it all night. I was cursing Spike about noon the next day when the caffeine wore off, but I made it the whole night.

The ironic thing is, we forgot to keep an eye on the sports staff. Major Tumey and Coach Tim T.P.-ed my car sometime during the night. I was told about it by at least 4 people, so I know that it was those two trouble-makers who did it. Revenge will be sweet.

Summer - Part 2

The next moment that stands out for me is the end of All About Kids #2 Camp. There was a little girl named Serena who was very needy. I had spent some time with her walking back from campfire on Thursday night, giving her some much-needed attention. The seat beside her was open during our Friday church service, so I got to sit by her. When Capt. James gave the altar call, she turned to me and asked if I would go up and pray with her. Of course. When we knelt at the altar, I asked what she wanted to pray about. She said, "I want to ask Jesus to forgive my sins and be my Savior." Then she prayed the simplest, most heartfelt 2-line salvation prayer I have ever heard. Her smile for the rest of the day was radiant.

That why I keep doing this. Moments like that are what make the long days and short nights worth it. I could sit on my rear all summer and be essentially useless, or I could come and show God's love to a few campers. Camp changes lives for eternity and I am blessed to be a part of that.

To be continued. . .

Summer - Part 1

So, I suppose sitting in the Anchorage airport is as good a time as any to get caught up on my blog. This summer was eventful, as a summer at camp always is. The lack of pictures in the next few blogs is because Tasha ended up with my camera at the end of the summer and I got all the way to Pendleton before I realized it!

Orientation started out on a good note. The first thing we're told is, "Don't drink the water. It won't kill you, but it tastes like chlorine." Combine that with the fact that it was too cold! It's summer, remember?! I don't think it got above 60 degrees all week. I was not okay with the whole cloudy/rainy/cold thing. I needed to thaw out, and that weather was not doing it for me.

Other than that, orientation was pretty typical. It got me thinking about leadership. I am not an "out-in-front" leader. The worst thing you could do to me is put me in front of a large group of people. I will do it if I have to, but I don't enjoy it at all. But isn't being up in front what leadership is all about? Not necessarily. I've come to the conclusion that there are different styles of leadership. Some lead from the front, some lead from the back, some lead with a combination of the two. I still don't have it completely figured out, but my leadership style is the place where my job and personality meet. My job, as head female counselor, was to lead/support/encourage the female counselors. My personality is shy and not willing to get up in front of people unless required. The point where those two (somewhat conflicting) things meet is the way I am most comfortable leading. It's a work in progress - I'm still trying to figure it out.

Our first camp was Music Camp. The tap water was finally drinkable, but Spike (the program director) announced at lunch (campers were showing up less than an hour later) that we were on water rations because something was wrong with the well. I can handle that. Then he announced that the honey buckets were on the way. (I know that he meant porta-potties, but for an Alaskan, "honey bucket" means a completely different thing. Try picturing a literal bucket in the bathroom. Upscale honey buckets have a toilet seat perched on top.) Oh, goodie. 100 campers on the way and an inability to flush the toilets. We had a lot of fun with that one. Try getting all 100 campers through the porta-potties after campfire. With 1 flashlight. Unless a camper was okay with taking care of business in complete darkness, we really could only use 1 toilet at a time. Luckily, the well was fixed by the next morning and we all got our showers and could actually flush the toilets.

The porta-potties were hauled away 3 or 4 days later, save for the 4 that got left outside the dining hall. The day after they disappeared, the ground in the circle started bubbling water. Generally not a good sign. A pipe burst or something and ALL water was shut off right after noon. No water at all. And only 4 porta-potties for the entire camp. We were all dehydrated by free time, but at least that cut down on the porta-pottie use. :-) Things were looking promising by dinner, but then a geyser erupted out of the hole in the ground. Apparently, the pipe wasn't as fixed as previously thought. Water was turned off again, but restored by the end of the day (11:00).

To be continued. . .

LOST

All this time-traveling stuff has officially blown my mind. That said, here are my (somewhat muddled) thoughts going into next week's season 5 finale.

1. The Jughead plot is not going to work. Either it won't detonate, or the detonation won't accomplish what it is supposed to accomplish.

2. Sawyer and Juliette aren't gone for good. They were on their way off the island, but I can't believe that they actually make it somewhere else. Those other people on the submarine get back to the "real world," but I can't believe Sawyer and Juliette are completely out of the picture.

3. Locke has gone off his rocker. I think Ben and Richard are going to take care of him, like kill him or something. I've never been a fan of Locke, and now he seems especially menacing and crazy.

4. Richard Alpert has something up his sleeve. Maybe Richard is Jacob?

5. The cataclysmic incident caused by release of large amounts of electromagnetic energy isn't going to kill everybody. The Dharma Initiative and the Others are still around in the 1990's, because that's when Ben kills them all. So, I don't see why Faraday felt the need to evacuate the island. But a hydrogen bomb explosion. . . well, it would at least give a lot of people cancer and radiation poisoning and cause birth defects in the future. None of which we see in the future Others. Maybe the hydrogen bomb explosion is going to happen, and that's what always happened, and the island is "course-correcting" as it goes along. After all, that's what Eloise told Desmond back in some earlier season: "History always course-corrects," and that's why Charlie had to die.

Whatever happens, it's going to be epic. Setting us up for an epic season 6. Or maybe they're heading for the final scene of the series being a massive shoot-out with everybody dead at the end.

Oogrook

Melody and I heard early this afternoon that there was someone butchering a seal down near the store. We went down to see. They were outside the house of the mom of the guy who had killed it. We watched her (Helga) cut off the meat she wanted. The guy who killed it said he would probably give most of it away because it was the first one and they would catch more seals (and belugas, too!).



Just from watching her, I could tell she had been carving up seals and other animals for most of her (long) life. She was so quick to find where the bones where and where to best carve out the slabs of meat.

Helga taught us the Eskimo word for seal: oogrook. There were a couple of garbage bags of blubber sitting on the guy's sled. Helga and Ruth (another elder who was standing there talking with us) told us that they would put the blubber in a bucket and just let it sit. It would render into seal oil. Seal oil is what they used to use to light their lamps, and they still use it in a lot of recipes. We also learned that seal intestines are a delicacy.



Apparently, they scrape the meat part away from the skin of it and boil it up. Talk about using every part of the animal! :-)

Crabs

Hard as it may be to believe, I've never tasted crab before. That being said, I was excited when Melody bought two crabs from a couple here in the village. They had just come back from their crab pot set out on the edge of the ice, and we got fresh, still-alive crabs. Melody had to go back up to the school right away, so we put the crabs in a box to cook later.



The big one in the bottom is upside down, and the other one looks like he's about to make a break for the exit. They were scrambling around a lot for the first hour or so. I thought they were going to get out and terrorize the apartment. At one point, the right-side up one managed to get himself halfway out of the box.

When Melody got back a couple of hours later, we boiled some water. The crabs were still moving a little bit, but were mostly dead. She picked one of the them up and almost got pinched as she dropped it in the water. As the steam from the boiling water hit the crab, he started scrambling and she dropped him to avoid a painful pinch. Good thing he was over the pot of water already.

We did the same thing with the second one while we were eating the first one. Fresh crab dipped in warm butter is good, I've decided. Cracking it open didn't work too well, but scissors worked perfectly. Just thinking about it, I think I need to go eat a couple of crab legs that are chilling in the fridge just waiting to be ingested. :-)

A Strange Sight

Last night, I was sitting in the living room and I heard something that sounded like a plane. Now, planes are not uncommon, and we've had plenty of them lately. The Iditarod Air Force (bush pilots that volunteer their planes and their time to shuttling supplies, people, and dogs to different destinations during the Iditarod) has been flying in and out and around the area for the few days. The sound didn't fade away, though, as planes do. I looked out our living room window and this is what I saw:


A helicopter landed out on the ice. My first thought was, "Iditarod Air Force." I had seen a helicopter fly over a couple of times from my classroom window on Tuesday, although I hadn't remembered it being such an ugly brown-ish/green-ish/gray-ish color. I knew that a couple of teams had scratched (dropped out of the race) in Elim, and maybe a helicopter has more room to haul out dogs and sleds. Of course, I wondered why it was parked out on the ice so far away from the village, airstrip, and/or checkpoint, but whatever. I saw a handful of people climb out and go across the ice towards the village. The helicopter just sat there. After about an hour, I saw two more people climb out and head towards the village.

I called the only other teacher that I knew hadn't taken off for spring break - he always knows what's going on. He told me that it was a National Guard helicopter. One of the mushers is a member of the National Guard. They recruited him to run the Iditarod; he's like their poster boy. The National Guard people were taking pictures and video of him at each checkpoint. That definitely explained the ugly color of the chopper. After about 3 hours, I saw the people come back, load up, start the chopper and turn themselves around:


They headed west. . .


And disappeared around the edge of the cape towards White Mountain, the next checkpoint. . .


See the tiny black dot in the middle of the picture? That's the helicopter as it went for the corner and disappeared. Keep in mind that the beautiful sunset in these pictures is happening after 9:00 at night.

Iditarod

Knowing that the Iditarod front-runners were nearing the coast and the Unalakleet checkpoint, I was keeping a close eye on the current standings through last weekend. Sometime Monday morning, I saw that Lance Mackey had gotten to the Koyuk checkpoint. Koyuk is the checkpoint before Elim. Once a musher leaves Koyuk, it's 6-7 hours to Elim. I kept an eye on the standings all afternoon, but he was still chilling in Koyuk. Melody and I had decided to go and see him come through, but I didn't want it to be too late of a night. Mackey didn't leave Koyuk until almost 9 that night. That would put him in here around 3 in the morning. I decided to go to bed for a few hours. Less than 4 hours later, Melody and I got up and got dressed. It takes a lot of time to get bundled up to go outside into a wind chill of -30. Melody, Anna (next door neighbor and fellow teacher) and I headed down to the fire station (where the checkpoint is located) about 2:30. It was a beautiful, albeit cold, night. Clear sky full of stars. I've never seen so many stars in my entire life. We heard that Mackey was still at Moses Point, 10 miles out, and wasn't moving. He had probably stopped to rest his dogs and take a break from the 20-30 mph winds. We decided that standing around outside sounded like a bad idea, so we headed back. Melody and I sat down to watch the end of Night at the Museum, which we had started over the weekend, but hadn't finished. Just after 4, we bundled back up again. We got to the checkpoint just minutes after Lance Mackey got there. We watched him spread straw to bed down the dogs and take their booties off. (Dogs wear booties to protect their feet and help keep them warm.) He started to heat up dog food as the vets did their jobs checking the dogs. Melody, Anna, and I didn't stay long; it was really cold and really early in the morning. We got back about 5.

I didn't go back to bed. I knew that if I did, I would be more groggy than if I didn't. I just took a shower and got to school at about the normal time: 6:30. I had a lot to get done, but it was hard to stay awake. I was sitting at my desk writing my lesson plans for next week, and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had to get up and walk around the halls a couple of times just to keep myself awake. I knew it was going to be a long day. The bell rang, school started as normal, and I hoped the morning would go quickly. We started hearing rumors that the whole school was going down to see Mackey and his team. Nobody tells me anything, so I just tried to ignore the noise in the hall and started our calendar time, as usual. Just as we got done, Funny (the secretary) said that the whole elementary end was going down to the checkpoint. We got the kids bundled up, and the whole elementary, along with miscellaneous junior high and high school students headed down to the checkpoint. (I think the older students were the only students there that day, due to the fact that our boys basketball team was at the state tournament in Anchorage, and it was the day before spring break, and an early release day.) Mackey was still there, and our kids got to talk to him. He was eating and drinking coffee and resting, knowing that he had a huge lead and the push to White Mountain was going to be a long one. He is such a nice guy. As we all crowded inside the building, he said, "Wow, you must have brought all the kids from the area. Elim doesn't have this many people!" He joked with the kids and talked with them, and I could tell some of them were really inspired. While they are enamored with TV/movie celebrities like other kids, these guys have a whole different set of celebrities to emulate - and I must say that I would rather they emulate mushers than some of our current TV/movie celebrities.

The rest of the school day passed just like any other day right before a major break. Not a lot of academics, but we got some work done. I managed to get a phonics lesson in, and we did some work with the St. Patrick's Day book that we had read earlier in the week. It was an early release day for the students, but we teachers had to put in a full 7 hour work day. I can't say I got a lot done that afternoon. I was tired! For those of you who know me, I'm an 8-hour-a-night type of girl. I don't function too well on much less than that. I guess now I know that I can survive on less than 4 hours, but my mind was pretty foggy.

Adventures

Melody's (new roommate) idea is have an adventure every day. Saturday's adventure was cross-country skiing and that awesomeness carried over into Sunday. Monday's adventure was getting to school. It had drifted Sunday night pretty bad and we couldn't get the main door open (again). We went out the apartment door and were blazing trail through waist-deep snow, laughing hysterically the whole way. Tuesday's adventure was trying this "Jalapeno Kippered Red Salmon" that Melody had gotten in Nome (as a gift from someone). It looked gross, but tasted like cold salmon. It really wasn't even all that slimy. Today's adventure was crazy. There is a flagpole outside teacher housing and there is a substantial drift between our door and the pole. Not to mention the hazardous steps. First one to touch the flagpole and get back to the door gets. . . um. . . eternal bragging rights? Picture this: I'm in pajama pants and tennis shoes, she's in jeans and tennis shoes, no coats or snow pants, and we're making a break for this drift that's taller than me. I won, but totally biffed it on the steps coming back. She fell in the drift when she lunged for my feet coming back because I was ahead. It was the best thing ever. Pictures will be posted to Facebook soon. I wonder what tomorrow's adventure will be?

More Obama and Education

I read Obama's speech about education today. It's good on paper. Everything he says about where we're falling short is absolutely true. His plans sound good in theory and his "inspired" remarks draw wild applause. They won't work in practice, though.

That's exactly where No Child Left Behind fell short. It was heavy on solid theory, but fell apart on implementation. It's like they're trying to use a business model for school reform. That's not going to work. Schools are different from traditional businesses in so many ways.

My suggestion would be for the president to put together an advisory board of sorts with plain, ordinary teachers from a cross-section of society - urban, rural, inner-city, suburban - and actually listen to their experience. That's where the workable ideas are going to come from.

Obama and Education

I have been outraged about this all day. I get my news from the Google news headlines. Every now and then, I come across an article that I want to read (in the few spare minutes I have at lunch). That happened today. Ever since I read the first headline about Obama's wonderful new plan for education, I've been wondering how such a naive, stupid person became our president.

First of all, merit pay for teachers. That is, implementing "a system that rewards our best teachers with more pay for their excellence in the classroom," measured by student performance on standardized tests. Ridiculous. Put quite simply, it doesn't work. Teacher unions don't like it because they say it pits teachers against each other as competitors instead of collaborators. I say that's the least of our problems. Basing our salary on how well our students perform on standardized tests makes no sense. There are too many factors out of our control - how much sleep the kid got the night before, hunger, test anxiety, limited English proficiency, learning disabilities, etc. I can differentiate and account for those differences in my teaching, but I don't have that flexibility when administering a standardized test. Should I, as the teacher, be penalized because half of my students don't speak English? Should I, as the teacher, be penalized because some of my students were kept awake by drunk family members the night before the test? Obama says that merit pay does work and that the rest of us are just dumb idiots: "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom." Well, if so many of your supporters are opposed to it, maybe you should take a look at the reasons why.

Obama also wants to give private school vouchers for parents who want the option of not having their children attend public school. I say he can go ahead and do it, but expect a drop in test scores. Public schools will be losing the best students, and are left with the ones who have uninvolved parents (by choice or by circumstance) and who don't stand a chance against the "upper-class white student" standardized tests that we have. Test scores will drop across the board.

He also wants to extend the reach of charter schools. I have a simple equation: charter schools = evil. Of course, charter schools do better on testing. There is no accountability, and they can pick and choose their students. As a result, they get more money because of their "excellence" and the public schools once again lose the war for resources. Yet, public schools are the schools that need it most desperately.

The only thing he said that made sense was revamping No Child Left Behind to implement more uniform and rigorous standards nation-wide. That's a good thing! Now, give us teachers a reasonable timeline to accomplish that. Obviously 8 years wasn't enough. Give us 15 years. We will get there, but it's going to take some time.

Supposedly, in Obama's stimulus package, was money set aside for education use. Guess which schools and districts are going to receive the bulk of that money? You guessed it: the well-performing ones. "The money is conditioned on results." Reward the well-performing schools . Looks good on paper, but is an asinine idea. Crumbling schools with poor teachers need the resources to become well-performing schools, but they can't get those resources because they aren't already well-performing. They have to prove progress to get money, but they need the money first to make progress. It's backwards. Where are they going to get the money they need to implement programs that work? Where are they going to get the money to turn their schools around? They aren't. The gap between well-performing students and poor-performing students will continue to grow because all the money is going as a reward to the well-performing students and the rest are being left behind.

The last thing Obama wants to do (that I read about): is extend the school day and the school year. "The challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom. If they can do that in South Korea, we can do that right here in the United States of America." Since when did we care what they do in South Korea? Their teachers spend less time actually teaching than we do. The majority of their days are spent on collaborative planning and professional development. We don't need to extend the school day or the school year! Just give us sufficient resources in the time we have!

Mr. President, please listen to the teachers! Listen to the ones who are out there in the trenches every day. Please don't make a horrible mistake!

A Dose of Vitamin D

I have a new roommate. She's the long-term substitute for the roommate who took off for Anchorage and never came back. We're still not sure if she's coming back because nobody (and I do mean nobody) has heard anything from her since she left. The new roommate, Melody, got here on Friday, after being storm-bound in Nome for two days. I was a little nervous, but it was getting a little lonely, so I'm glad she came. I shouldn't have worried. We were chatting like friends in no time. She said she hadn't brought any books with her, so I let her look through my random collection. After we got done laughing over children's books an hour later, I knew we were going to get along just fine.

She wanted to get out and "play" today, so we asked Anna, the teacher next door, if she would take us out on a cross-country ski trail. I haven't had a chance to go skiing yet this year, and it felt really good to get out. The sun was peeking through some high clouds and it wasn't too cold, which was nice after our recent storms. We went out in a circle towards Baldhead (a mountain to the east of the village). After that loop, we headed towards Nex Creek, which is west out of the village. I hiked with Anna to Nex Creek in September, and I remembered it being quite a hill. My memory was right. We were v-stepping for quite some time. We stopped at the top of the hill before it drops down to the creek. The view from the top of the hill is one of my all-time favorite views, even though it looks quite different in March than it does in September.

September:

March:




The view of the village also looks quite different in the winter. September:


March:



After stopping for a break at the top, we headed back down. It would have been fun to go all the way to Nex Creek, but looking down the trail, knowing that we'd have to come back up eventually, was enough to make me want to turn around. Luckily, it had the same effect on Anna and Melody, so we headed back the way we came.

We were gone almost 3 hours and probably skied 7 or 8 miles. I went cross-country skiing at Anthony Lakes over Christmas break, and that was a cakewalk compared to this. That trail was flat (or at least smooth), firmly packed, and clearly marked, with grooves already formed for the skis to fit in. The trails we followed today were loosely packed snowmachine trails. It was up and down, bumpy, and so much more fun.

I have friends who tell me that they can't believe that I live in Alaska because it's such a crazy place. They tell me that they never ever want to live here, or even visit because it's so cold all the time. (You know who you are.) It really makes me sad to hear that. This is a beautiful state with so many opportunities to enjoy it, but so many people write it off as being a frozen wasteland. It's really not, but most people don't even give it a chance. Yes, it gets cold. That just means we have to wear more clothes in the winter. I don't know how people can honestly say that they don't want to live in Alaska without having experienced it for themselves.

I hadn't realized it, but the trail we were on is a part of the Iditarod trail. The Iditarod started this morning and the dog teams will be coming through in a little over a week. The ice is pretty bad this year, so the overland trail is marked for use. I can now say that I have been cross-country skiing along the Iditarod trail. True, it was only 3 miles of the 1150 miles of the Iditarod, but still. How many people can say that?!

Crazy Weather

It all started yesterday. The wind was blowing snow around, but the basketball team flew out to the regional tournament on a commercial charter, so I figure it wasn't too bad. But then the principal called me after school to tell me that my new roommate (a long-term sub) was weathered in to Nome. The wind blew all night, picking up in intensity. By this morning, it was going 20-30 mph. The walk to school wasn't too bad once I got past our door. I was able to shove it open, only to be met by a chest-high wall of snow. I went back inside, put my snow pants and a hat on, and climbed up the wall of snow. Beyond that, it was just a matter of stepping in the right places. I felt silly for wearing snow pants when it was almost 20 degrees outside, but I didn't really feel like getting wet. Sun came up a couple of hours later and it was complete white-out conditions. We couldn't see much of anything out the windows. The wind continued to increase. I got wet going home for lunch. The wind was blowing the snow so hard I couldn't look up to see where I was going. I was just stumbling in the general direction of our building. The snow was just deep enough outside our door to cover the tops of my boots and get my jeans wet. It was ridiculous.

The principal came into my room in the middle of the afternoon. He told me to release my kids only to their parents. I was not allowed to let them go without a parent escort because of the weather. He made a school-wide announcement to that effect about an hour later and about 30 minutes after that, came in and made the announcement to my class. He was serious about it.

I left pretty soon after the final bell. That's when things got interesting. I was the first teacher to head out. I was glad I had my snow pants on because I was sinking in up to my waist before I even got close to our building. The wind was still blowing so hard that I couldn't breathe or look up. I got to our door and stopped. Snow was piled up chest deep against the door. There was no way I was going to be able to open the door. I stood there for a couple of minutes pondering my options. Option 1: Go back to school and wait for someone stronger than me to dig out the door. Option 2: Stand there in the wind and snow and wait for someone stronger than me to dig out the door. Option 3: Cry and wait for someone stronger than me to dig out the door. I went with option 1. About the time I got to the school, the special education teacher (who isn't stronger than me) was headed out the door with a snow shovel in hand. I went in and got another snow shovel and went back to our building to help. She got the door open enough to squeeze in. The way the wind was blowing, though, it wasn't going to stay clear for long. Anna, the teacher who lives next door to me, went outside and cleared our shared porch off. I think she chipped enough ice away that I can open that door now. It was blocked shut with ice. At least I have that as an exit option now. It's a little bit longer route to the school and is still going to be ridiculously deep, but the door opens. That's what we're going for right now.

I went down for a little while right after I got home to try to clear away a better path out that first door. I shoveled for about 20 minutes, but ran out of places to put the snow. It was pretty much hopeless. The height of the snow drift is now over my head and completely impassable. The wind is blowing over 30 mph with gusts of almost 50. Even if the wind dies down, I honestly don't know how I'm going to get to school tomorrow. One thing is for sure: I'm wearing my snow pants and I don't care how silly I look.

LOST

I've got a theory. Actually it's more like an explanation. Actually, this is what I contemplate at 6:00 in the morning as I get ready for school.

Remember connect-the-dots puzzles? A picture is created by connecting the numbered dots (or letters of the alphabet) in the correct order. LOST is kind of like that, only more maniacal. They are connecting dots for us to create the larger picture that will be revealed at the end of the series. The audience is expected to follow the dot-connecting to a logical end. First problem: we don't know the larger picture so we don't know what we're shooting for. Supposedly the producers do, but this is LOST we're talking about. Anything could happen. Second problem (and this is the biggie): the directors and producers aren't playing fair. They're not giving us the dots in the correct order.

Example: They give us A, and then connect B and C, but don't show us the connection to A, they skip D completely and go to E, connect to F, connect to G, show us H, skip to K, skip to L, go back to D, connect G to H, skip ahead to W, skip back to M, and then connect it to L, etc. The audience never knows where (or when) they're going or what dot it is until way after the fact. Kind of makes composing a timeline a wee bit more difficult, especially since we don't know the big picture.

That's the beauty of it. Complete confusion for an hour a week. And besides, it gives me something to think about during the early morning hours. :-)

The new favorite thing for my students to do to kill extra minutes at the end of class is to find big words using the letters from bigger words. I never anticipated them loving it so much. I actually posted a big piece of paper with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious written on it. They filled that paper with words within two days. (I never realized before that word has no 'm' or 'n' in it.) They're now working on the word cinematography (not as long, but it's got a lot of letters). One of the aides commented that she had found at least 12 words just using the letters in the word March. I didn't think it was possible, but decided to see what I could come up with. I just found 14 words:

• mar
• arch
• char
• cram
• harm
• car
• cam
• ram
• rah
• mach
• arc
• ah
• arm
• am

Darn competitive side. . . . :-)

Good Times

I'm such a slacker! I gotta get caught up on the joyful moments of Tuesday and Wednesday!

Tuesday:

• We finished the IPT test! (That's the big standardized test that I was coordinating for our site.)
• My big trouble-maker was mellow and calm; he was actually focused on his work.
• The snow was interspersed with sun - my two favorite kinds of weather! It actually wasn't too cold and the wind wasn't blowing!
• I took my kids to the gym for our weekly gym time at the end of the day. One of my boys had on crocs that were almost too small. We were playing kickball and he almost lost his shoes every time he tried to kick or run. He started to do this goofy "flat-footed-toes-first" run that cracked me up.
  
• One of my girls (in the gym) came up to me after they'd been playing for a few minutes and told me that her shoes were making her feet sweaty. She knows that going barefoot is not allowed, so I'm still not sure what she expected me to do about it.

Wednesday:

• I got to school at my usual early morning time and was super-productive!
• Once everyone finally showed up, I had full attendance. (The last kid rolled in around 10:45.)
• I've been doing quarterly assessments in math all week and today we finished all but one small part of one kid's assessment.
• I intended to leave directly after-school, but one of the older elementary students wandered into my room and wanted to use my globe. I figured from her evasive responses to my questions that using a globe was not allowed. I spent 20 minutes naming states and telling her when she found the right one on her own (unlabeled) map. Not necessarily the most educational way of doing things, but we were having fun.
  
• Walking home from the post office, I had the wind at my back. Made the uphill walk in soft snow much more pleasant.
• I have chocolate.
  

I've been in a bad mood since. . . ummm. . . actually, I can't remember that time I was actually in a good mood for more than a few minutes. I think maybe it was Christmas break, but the unhappiness straddled that two weeks. I realized last night that if I'm ever going to kick this mood, I've got to start focusing on the positive. I've been so concentrated on the negative side of things for so long that I lost the joy of teaching and the joy that is inherent in life. I decided that this week is going to be different. I am going to write down the good things, the joyful things, the fun things, and dwell on those instead. By writing them down, I can 1) actually remember them, and 2) keep myself accountable to not dwell on the downside. Here was today (keep in mind that each of these has about 3 negatives to go along with it, but I'm trying not to think about those).

• One of my 2nd grade students came into my room before she went to her homeroom this morning. She hadn't even taken off her hat or gloves yet, let alone her coat. She came in to show me her new shirt. I asked her if her mom was back (from three weeks in Nome) and if that was where her shirt was from. She nodded and then proceeded to tell me that her mom had also brought back a "walker" for her baby sister. She also told me that her dad had to lower it because her sister's legs were too short. I could tell that her heart was bursting with happiness because her mom was back, but she related all this in a calm, matter-of-fact way that made my heart smile.
• The sunrise this morning was beautiful! There was a slight break in the clouds right at the horizon, and a brilliant purple and pink sunrise showed through for about 10 minutes and then was gone.
• I have been coordinating a standardized test for our school site and we've been waiting on one student to actually come to school to make up the last section of the test. She came today! We're done!
• No after-school tutoring this week!
• I had full attendance in my class for the first time in weeks!
• I let myself sleep in until 6:00 this morning because I didn't have loads to do, due to the workday on Saturday.
  

The Roller Coaster of Life

Since Friday, I have been on an emotional roller coaster. There have been so many ups and downs that I hardly know where I am anymore.

THE UPS:
The basketball games this weekend were cancelled. Bad news for some, but I was scheduled to take admission at the door on Friday and wasn't particularly excited about it. I cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom instead - both were in desperate need of attention.

The weather cleared up on Monday, which meant planes were flying again.

IPT testing (the huge standardized test that I was coordinating for our site) went off without a hitch!

The sun was shining bright today! Not a cloud in the sky!

I took my kids outside this afternoon instead of going to the gym. It was bitterly cold (like 20 below), but it was so much fun to see my kids get to run and play. They were making snow angels, digging tunnels, and burying each other in the snow (like some kids do with sand at the beach).

I had 6 of the sweetest kids come to after-school tutoring today!

THE DOWNS:
My roommate is still gone. She left last Wednesday, leaving me a note that said she'd be back on Saturday and to call if I wanted anything from Anchorage. That was the last anybody has heard from her. At this point, I'm pretty convinced she's not coming back and I don't blame her. The principal did nothing but give her crap, and it was an unhealthy amount of stress for her. It's still a bummer that she's gone. I'm lonely!

The weather this weekend was awful. Planes weren't flying - that's why the basketball games were cancelled.

Friday was Valentine's Day. Enough said.

The days at school have been wearing me out, but I don't want to come home to an empty apartment.

I fully expected my roommate to be home this weekend. I was stressed out wondering who, if anyone, was flying and if she'd be back. I knew, though, that most likely no one was flying. I was super-alert at the times that planes normally come, listening for the drone of an engine. It was all in vain, though.

Sigh. . . .

Battle of the Books

Battle of the Books is finally over! Most people have never heard of Battle of the Books; I think it's mostly an Alaskan thing with a few other miscellaneous states and school districts thrown in to keep things interesting.

Here's the break-down. There are 7 grade groups (K, 1st, 2nd, 3/4, 5/6, JH, and HS) and each has its own set of 12-15 books. In 3rd-12th grades, students from a participating school form a team of 3 (per grade group), read the books, and then battle. In BSSD, that battle is in the form of a video-conference, because we're cool like that. Each school connects on their particular battle day and time. The district librarian asks really hard questions about nit-picking details in the books. The team decides which book they think it came from. 5 points for a correct title and an additional 3 points if they came up with the correct author. The team with the highest number of points wins the district battle and goes on to the state battle. K-2 is a little different. There is no state battle, so our teams can be as large as we want. It generally takes the shape of however many kids are in that particular grade. Kindergarten has 5 books, 1st grade has those 5, plus 5 more. 2nd grade has those 10, plus 5 more. Our battles are a little more relaxed; we're basically trying to hook them on Battle of the Books so they will want to participate when they get older.

As site coordinator for Elim, this year's battles started last spring. I ordered the books so that we would have them right away in the fall. They were waiting for me when I got here in August. I'm also the first-grade coach, so I know the k-1 books like the back of my hand. We didn't have a junior high or high school team this year, and our 3-6th graders didn't do too terribly well at the district battle during the last week of January. Our k-2nd graders, though, did awesome! Because our district is so large, we actually battle in shifts and then the schools with high enough scores go on to the "finals," - a final battle to determine the winner. My kids surprised me - I only had 3 of them there that day, but one of them knew the books backwards and front-wards. She was on fire! I didn't expect to make it to finals, but we did! We actually had the second highest score out of all the 1st grade teams! We ended up dead last after finals. That's right, last. That one little girl who knew all the answers? She was out sick that day. I had 3 kids again, but it was a different 3 and they didn't know anything about the books. Disappointing, but we had fun reading the books and exploring the pictures (that's where most of the questions come from - tiny details from the pictures), so it was all good. Kindergarten and 2nd grade made it to finals, as well. I don't know how the kindergarten did, but 2nd grade was in 3rd place! (One school cancelled due to weather and they're battling next week).

I'm glad the battles are finally over! I was getting a little sick of hearing "10 Minutes till Bedtime" (by Peggy Rathmann) 5 times a day. My kids are now hooked on Skippyjon Jones, though, so I have a feeling I will continue to hear that one. I'm donating all the books to our school library in the next week or so (after I finish reading the junior high and high school books!) and then I'll be done until April or May when it's time to order next year's books!

The Tale of a Bathroom Cabinet

The bathroom cabinet in our apartment is the bane of my existence. There are three mirror panels on the front. The middle panel doesn't exactly stay in. It falls out if opened, bumped, or looked at funny. Sometimes I think it falls off just out of spite. This morning, a little bit more than that fell.

This is where the cabinet is supposed to be and, in fact, where it was last night:


This is where it is right now:


Yes, folks, that's right. It's on the bathroom floor, minus the middle panel and top shelf.

See, this morning, I was blowing my nose when, all of a sudden, the middle panel of the cabinet fell. Or, at least, that's what I thought it was. In actuality, it was the entire top of the cabinet falling over. The middle panel fell out, as did the top shelf. Half of the contents of the cabinet were also falling. I luckily caught it before it hit me in the head. But then I was in a predicament. Two of the screws at the top had ripped through the back of the cabinet and were still embedded in the wall. The third screw had ripped out of the wall and was still in the back of the cabinet. The three screws at the bottom of the cabinet? Still holding in the wall. The top half of the cabinet was falling of the wall, the bottom was still firmly affixed to the wall, and our tool box was in the kitchen. I couldn't let go of the cabinet for fear it would fall the rest of the way and break something. I couldn't get to the tool box to get a screwdriver to take out the bottom three screws. My roommate was still asleep (this was like 7 in the morning). I don't know how she slept through the racket of everything falling down, but she did. I was stuck.

I ended up taking everything else out of the cabinet, and slowly let go so that it was hanging off the wall at a weird angle. I could hear the wood cracking and knew it was in the process of falling completely apart. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed our tool box (many thanks to my Dad), and ran back to the bathroom before the cabinet could fall. I held up back up against the wall with one hand and took out the remaining screws with the other. I almost dropped it when the last screw came out. That thing is heavy. Doesn't look like it, but it is. So now, all of the contents of the cabinet are on the (small) bathroom counter, the cabinet is on the floor, and I'm not sure what we're going to do next. My roommate is still asleep. Maybe she knows how to mount a cabinet. I doubt it, but here's hoping.


Update: My roommate's boyfriend, Tyler, is a hero. He re-mounted our cabinet for us. It was mounted wrong the first time and that's why it fell.

Okay, I admit it. I'm a LOST addict. And I just watched the season 5 premier. I just want to make sure I've got it all straightened out in my mind (relatively). Here's what I think:

When Ben turned that wheel thing, he released that pocket of special energy that the Dharma guy was talking about at the beginning. That unstuck the island in time. It's like when Desmond was unstuck in time and kept going back and forth. The island is going back and forth, but it's not necessarily going back and forth to the same times, like Desmond was. It's going back and forth to random times in the past and then the future. The only way to get Desmond back was for him to find a "constant," in his case, Penny. I think maybe that's why Jack and everyone else has to go back - they are the "constant" for the island, or the other people on the island.

I don't know why Desmond has to go to Oxford and find Daniel Faraday's mother, but I suppose it has to do something with Desmond being Daniel's constant or with Charlotte's strange malady. And that headache has something to do with the nosebleed, which I'm sure has something to do with being unstuck in time.

I don't know who the strange people were at the "safe house," I don't know who is trying to establish Kate's maternal link to Aaron (or lack thereof), and I don't know why that woman at the end - the one talking to Ben about only having 70 hours - looks so familiar. I can't place it. Is she the woman who talked Desmond into breaking up with Penny that one time? Or is she from the island? I also find myself distrusting Sun. I pretty sure she holds her father and Benjamin Linus responsible for the death of her husband because of what she said to Charles Widmore in that room at the airport. I just don't know who she's working for, and I can't figure out how to interpret her meeting with Kate.

I'm sure it'll all come clear in due time. I'm just not a very patient person. . . .

Today was 100th Day at school. I don't remember ever celebrating the 100th day of school when I was growing up, but now it's a big thing. Just about everything we did was connected to the number 100 or counting to 100. For example, in math, I gave each kid a pile of Cheerios and a piece of string, and they made necklaces with 100 Cheerios each. It was pretty sweet. Anyway, one of the students made a comment, as we were sitting there chatting and stringing Cheerios, about 100 Christmas carols. I replied that I didn't think I knew 100 Christmas carols. But it got me thinking. Do I know 100 Christmas carols? Not a chance. Do I know 100 Christmas songs? Probably not, but that's not going to stop me from trying. . .

1. Jingle Bells
2. Joy to the World
3. Silent Night
4. Away in a Manger
5. Oh, Come All Ye Faithful
6. O Come, O Come, Emmanual
7. Up On The Housetop
8. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
9. All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey)
10. Silver Bells
11. It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
12. Suzy Snowflake
13. Mele Kalikimaka
14. Sleigh Ride
14. Blue Christmas
15. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
16. Angels We Have Heard On High
17. I Saw Three Ships
18. Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus
19. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
20. That one about Christmas in Africa that they play on the radio every year. . .
21. Santa Baby
22. Where Are You, Christmas (Faith Hill)
23. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
24. I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas
25. All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
26. I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas
27. Frosty the Snowman
28. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
29. Silver and Gold
30. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
31. I Celebrate the Day (Relient K)
(I'm peeking at my iPod right now. . . but 31 off the top of my head is pretty good.)
32. What Child Is This?
33. Little Drummer Boy
34. Linus and Lucy
35. Hark! The Herald Angel Sings
36. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
37. The First Noel
38. O Christmas Tree
39. Little Town of Bethlehem
40. We Three Kings
41. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
42. Do You Hear What I Hear?
43. O Holy Night
44. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
45. Deck the Halls
46. The 12 Days of Christmas
47. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
48. I Hate Christmas Parties (Relient K)
49. Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
50. Rusty Chevrolet
51. Jingle Bell Rock
52. Feliz Navidad
53. What Child is This?
54. Children God Where I Send Thee
55. Good King Wenceslas
56. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
57. A Strange Way to Save the World (4Him)
58. Welcome To Our World (Michael W. Smith)
59. Gloria (Michael W. Smith)
60. Could He Be the Messiah (Michael W. Smith)
61. It Wasn't His Child (Trisha Yearwood)
(Time to start getting obscure. . . )
62. Beautiful - Christmas Version (Jim Brickman)
63. Starbright (Jim Brickman)
64. Angels (Jim Brickman)
65. We Three Kings
66. Early Snowfall (Jim Brickman)
67. Sending You a Little Christmas (Jim Brickman)
68. Peace (Jim Brickman)
69. Fireside (Jim Brickman)
70. Hope is Born Again (Jim Brickman)
71. Winter Peace (Jim Brickman)
72. Dreams Come True (Jim Brickman)
73. The Gift (Jim Brickman
74. Bring a Torch, Jeannette Isabella
75. Coventry Carol
76. Pat-a-Pan
77. White Christmas
78. Winter Wonderland
79. Santa Claus is Thumbing to Town (Relient K)
80. Merry Christmas, Here's to Many More (Relient K)
81. In Like a Lion (Relient K)
82. Christmas in the Northwest
83. Christmas Eve - Sarajevo 12/24 (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
84. Star to Follow (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
85. First Snow (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
86. Wish Listz (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
87. Mad Russian's Christmas (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
88. Ornament (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
89. Promises to Keep (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
90. This Christmas Day (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
91. The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
92. Boughs of Holly (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
93. The World That She Sees (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
94. The World That He Sees (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
95. Midnight Christmas Eve (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
96. Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
97. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
98. Appalachian Snowfall (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
99. The Snow Came Down (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
100. Christmas in the Air (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Phew! I guess when I don't put any restraints on what kind of Christmas songs, I can come up with quite a list!

Wind

I was woken up this morning by the sound of wind. I had heard it several times in the night, increasing in intensity. By 5:00, it was rattling the windows and shaking my bed. I gave up on sleeping and got up about 6. I checked the weather, and the winds were 45 mph (sustained) with gusts of 60-70 mph. Never have I experienced winds that strong. I looked out the window and I couldn't see anything. The blowing snow made it look like a complete white-out. The windows and doors were rattling, and I was seriously concerned about the windows holding up. One of the windows in my bedroom is severely cracked, and I didn't know if it could hold up with the wind blowing against it. Our door to the outside doesn't seal tightly - when it is closed tightly, we can see daylight around 3 of the sides. Not very energy efficient. Anyway, it was distinctly warmer in the kitchen than it was in the living room. I could feel the difference in temperature walking between the two rooms. I turned my iPod up real loud so that I couldn't hear the wind, and read for a couple of hours. By the middle of the morning, it had died down to about 40 mph, and around 3 this afternoon, I realized that I couldn't hear it anymore. It's still blowing, but it's down to a manageable 10-15 mph now.

The girls' basketball team from Koyuk is here to play our girls' team. Our boys' team was supposed to fly to Teller to play on Friday, but their game was canceled because our weather was bad and Teller was even worse. All flights were on hold until well into the afternoon on Friday. The girls got in that evening, though. They were supposed to leave this afternoon, but I doubt they got out. I guess that's the hazard of having to travel in the winter.

Long Days

So, it goes like this. Our school has never met AYP. AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress, and is the indicator that a school is educating kids properly, according to No Child Left Behind. Like I said before, our school has never met AYP. Ever. That means that we are considered a "level 5" school. We could be next in line for governmental take-over. Because we are such a low-performing school, we are required to offer students extracurricular tutoring and such, if they so choose to partake. One of the after-school tutoring programs needed an elementary school tutor for the 3rd quarter. The e-mail from the coordinator, coupled with what I know about the elementary staff, made the situation seem pretty desperate. I felt sorry for the coordinator so I volunteered to be an after-school tutor for two of the four days each week. That means that I tutor for two hours a day, two days a week.

That doesn't sound horrible. It's only 4 hours a week and I do get paid a generous amount. The downside is that I am at school for 11 1/2 hours on those two days. 6:30 in the morning until 6 at night. I am usually beat by the time school gets out. Teaching wears me out, and then I have to stick around for two more hours. The tutoring isn't too intensive, but I do have to be coherent and patient. I help kids with their homework and other work from their teachers, and then get them interested in learning games or educational websites. (I only have two computers, so if I ever have all 10 kids show up, I'm in trouble.)

This week was our first week of the quarter. I had 5 kids show up Monday and it was the longest two hours of my life. I felt like a glorified baby-sitter. Two of the kids who came were surly older elementary boys who clearly do not like me. They spent the two hours complaining about how bored they were and trying to convince me to let them go on YouTube. I spent at least an hour the next morning trying to find games and websites and multiplication work for them (they requested it). Neither of them showed up on Tuesday. Well, no, I take that back. One of them came in about 3:30 and asked if this other student could wait for him. Until 6? No. They both left my room, but went to do their homework at Power Hour in the cafeteria (Boys and Girls Club coordinator comes up and supervises kids in the cafeteria so they have a quiet place to get their homework done). The other boy came in about 3:45 and asked if he could go on YouTube during tutoring. No. The first boy wandered in and joined the argument. The answer was still no. 4:00 rolled around and both of the boys had left school grounds. Whatever. Their loss. I wasn't going to worry about it. Tuesday was bliss. The 4 kids I had show up were sweet kids and 3 of them entertained themselves with the games I had out. That other 1 spent an hour and a half doing two math assignments and I had to sit beside her and prompt her to do every single problem. That pretty much meant me doing the math, too, and then we would compare answers and argue about who was right.

Definitely a reminder about why I teach the little kids. Older elementary kids have too much attitude and are way too defiant. I've always said that it takes a special kind of person to teach middle-school kids and I think that applies to 4th and 5th grade kids, too.

Depending on how burned-out I am by the end of February, I am contemplating volunteering to do all 4 nights for 4th quarter. Am I crazy? Yes. Is it worth it? Definitely.

Christmas Vacation!

So, I had great intentions of posting about my Christmas break as it occurred, but my parents still have dial-up (sloooow) and it only works on one computer and there were 6 people sharing that one computer. Needless to say, my great intentions were shot down.

So, here is the abbreviated Christmas break. If you want details, let me know :-)

The trip down to Boise was uneventful. I was a tad concerned about the weather (on the verge of a panic attack for the better part of 3 days), but all of my flights were on-time or early. Even my Seattle flight. I flew into, and then out of, Seattle on Saturday morning (the 20th). That afternoon, Alaska Airlines started to cancel just about all of their flights in Seattle and Portland. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. The craziest part was that it got colder as I got farther south. It was 32 degrees and raining when I left Elim, and it was around 20 and on the verge of snow when I finally got to Boise.

Vicki and I started baking that day. We made a few messes, made some good cookies, and mostly just had fun. We also went out and had some fun in the snow. We made a snow-woman and had a couple of snowball fights. The week continued on. Vicki and I found the raddest matching pajama pants ever and wore them on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I got to hang out with a couple of good friends that I hadn't seen recently.

In the week after Christmas, we took a family trip to Oregon - staying in Baker and skiing at Anthony Lakes for a couple of days. The first day was a bust. We got up the mountain, but the wind was blowing snow so hard at the base that visibility was close to zero. I don't even want to imagine what it was like at the top of the mountain! We turned around and went back to Baker. We spent the day playing Yahtzee, reading, and trying to stay warm. The second day was beautiful. I was miserable. I think I must be getting old or something. Going down the ski hill was torture on my ankles, and I couldn't figure out why. I tried tightening my boots; I tried loosening my boots; nothing worked. And then my knees started aching and my toes went completely numb. At that point, I decided it wasn't worth it. Well, after lunch, my dad (he's not real into the whole skiing thing, either) and I decided to walk over to the Nordic Center (cross-country skiing), just to check it out. I ended up renting cross-country skis and skied 4 miles in a couple of hours. I'm not a downhill skier, but I love cross-country skiing.

The trip back up to Alaska was about as uneventful as coming down. I had the pleasure of a 10 hour layover in Anchorage. That meant I had 10 hours of downtime. I was so bored. So very bored. I was very glad when we finally loaded up for the trip to Nome. All flights were "on-time" (but I don't think any of them actually loaded or left on-time). I'm just thankful I didn't get stuck somewhere. I was hearing horror stories about people spending days in Sea-Tac. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

If you want to see the pictures from the break, let me know and I'll send you a link.