Christmas Vacation

What better time and place to re-cap Christmas break than the Anchorage airport at 2:30 in the morning?!  And what better way to do it than through a series of pictures?!

This was on the bathroom door at the Aurora Inn in Nome.  They got the period at the end, but it still makes no sense. 

I'm pretty sure the cookie dough isn't supposed to do that.  But turning the mixer on high seemed like a good idea at the time.

It was requested that we not bake as many cookies as we did last year, so we were forced to restrain ourselves.  All the cookies fit on the plates, except one.  (Those are just the gluten-free cookies.  We also made fudge and non-gluten-free cookies.)

Gingerbread houses have become somewhat of a tradition around our house at Christmas.

Watching It's a Wonderful Life after church on Christmas Eve, Vicki was all smiles after Travis showed up.  Travis wasn't going to be able to make it home for Christmas and Vicki was devastated.  So, I arranged and paid for Travis to fly home, but we "forgot" to tell Vicki.  Operation Christmas Surprise: success!

Santa apparently has a flame-retardant suit (or so we hope), because we got a bit cold on Christmas Eve, and a fire in the wood stove was the result. 

Our matching pajama pants have also become a tradition for Vicki and I.

 Various family members on Christmas Day.  The highlight was probably making Mom cry with the new mixer to replace the falling-apart one that she was settling for. 

Apparently, I'm really bad at this game.  After two hours of playing, this was all I had.  The winner of the game accumulated at least 10 more cards than I did.  All I managed to accumulate was an interesting set of attributes (that I sincerely hope does not describe me, as some say.)


The break was too short, as it always is.  I'm heading back to the village before New Year's, which I've never done before.  It should be an interesting experience. :-)

What is Love?

I came up with an interesting thought about a week ago and it has been tumbling around my brain ever since.  It's puzzling to me, so I thought I'd share. 

I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying lately about what it means to love God.  What is the first and greatest commandment?  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)  The second commandment?  "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31)  But what does that mean?  What does it look like in practice?  How do I love God with every ounce of my being, love other people, and what will that look like practically in my life?  I came across the answer in 1 John 5:2-3.  "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.  This is love for God: to obey His commands."  So, we love people by loving God and obeying His commands.  Okay.  What are God's commands?

Love God and love people.

I love God and love people by obeying God's commands.  God's commands are to love God and love people.  I love God and love people by obeying God's commands.  God's commands are to love God and love people.  It's a never-ending circle that never really answers my questions. 

I know that there are about 3 people who actually read this blog, but I also know that those minds are greater than mine, so if anyone wants to enlighten me, please do. 

Field Trip

Thursday was the date for my annual utterly-void-of-any-educational-value-but-we're-doing-it-anyway field trip to find a Christmas tree for the classroom.  I could make it educational, but that would kill the fun, so we just focus on making memories and finding a nice tree.  I invited the kindergarten class to go with us - the more, the merrier. 

After two years of wind and clouds, I couldn't have picked a better day (considering I picked the date back in October).  Light snow falling with any wind, and temperatures in the 20's.  As soon as we were out the door and past the playground, the fun really started.  Kids were throwing themselves in snowbanks, chasing each other, and rolling around on the road.  I just let them go crazy, figuring they would settle down and start walking pretty soon.  Between the two classes, we had come up with two plastic sleds; pulling those gave the kids something to do.

We headed up the hill towards Baldhead.  It's the only road out of town and is lined with trees.  The school is up on a hill and the road slopes down to meet the creek and then heads up the hill.  Some of the girls decided they wanted to sled down the hill, but it's not a very steep incline, so the boys obliged by pulling them down the hill.

We veered off the main road before we got very far up Baldhead.  We started following a snowmachine trail, carved by people going out to get firewood.  It was fairly decently packed, and lined with trees of all shapes and sizes.  

We found a tree for the first-grade first.  It was a large tree that we cut off about halfway up.  It appeared fairly bushy and not too big.  We put it on one of the sleds, left it by the side of the trail and continued on in search of a tree for the kindergarten.  The kids spotted one that wasn't as bushy as the first one, but was a good size and not too scraggly. 

As you can see, they really are cute little trees (and cute little kids, too!).

We hadn't noticed as we were tree-hunting, but it had really started to snow in earnest.  As we started back, the flakes got big and started coming fast.  I'm not sure who started the trend, but pretty soon, most kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues.  It's difficult to walk, pull a sled, and catch snowflakes all at the same time, but some kids were managing pretty well.

We took our time coming back, due to the snow, trees, and fascination with catching snowflakes.  Even so, some of the littlest ones were dragging by the time we reached the school.  We had only been gone an hour, but they had walked a fair distance.

Wanda (the kindergarten teacher) invited our class to her room for hot chocolate and animal crackers.  It was a bit of an ordeal getting our tree in the stand, but we managed, and then headed next door. 

We came back to our room and strung lights and decorations on our tree.  That's when I noticed that it is definitely not standing straight up but leans a substantially to one side.  It seems fairly sturdy, though, so I'm not going to mess with it.  I love having kids that get along well.  All I had to do was put the decorations out on a table and they decorated without fighting over who got to do what. 

All in all, the kids had fun, we didn't lose anyone, teachers came back with tempers intact, and we found two beautiful trees for our rooms.  I count it as a successful afternoon.

Holiday Bazaar

Every year, the school hosts a holiday bazaar for teachers and anyone else in the community who has something to sell.  As an elementary school teacher, I am obligated to make and sell something with my kids.  I despise this fact.  Why?  Well, my kids can't make anything that is going to turn a profit.  I can only sell so many popsicle picture frames and ornaments.  The best I can do is have the kids put their names on what they make so that parents and grandparents will be guilted into buying what their children made.  It's pretty much a waste of valuable class time during a time of year in which time is precious. 

This year, the science teacher came down and asked if I had any ideas for the bazaar yet.  He said he would have his middle and high schoolers make birdhouses, and then my kids could decorate them.  I jumped at the chance.  A simple project (his kids did all the work) that wouldn't eat up too much time.

Here is the finished product:

 

I gave the kids free rein to do pretty much whatever they wanted, decorating-wise.  The best part came last night at the bazaar.  I've been exhausted all week - the result of one high-stress event after another.  I was really tired last night and not excited about having to spend the entire evening at an event that, for me, is pointless.  I sold all 4 birdhouses within the first 10 minutes and was done.  Yea for grandmas and aunties!  It was fantastic - a project that cost me 45 minutes of class time and 10 minutes of selling, and actually managed to earn a profit.

Persistence

There have been some not totally disconnected ideas rolling around my brain lately.  I'm pretty sure writing them out for the approximately 3 people who read this blog will help me make some connections.

There are a couple of prayers that I have been praying for years now.  Years with no answer.  I began wondering if I was ever going to get an answer.  I began wondering if it was worth it.  I began wondering if maybe I should give up those prayers.  That's when I started stumbling across verses about prayer and persistence.

In Matthew 7:7-8, it says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."  This is an encouraging verse in this situation.  I have been seeking answers to this particular issue for years.  If I believe this promise, I can keep asking, seeking, knocking, and believe that I will get an answer.  This same promise is repeated in Luke 11, after Jesus teaches his disciples to pray.  Jesus tells a parable about a man asking his friend for bread and receiving it because of his persistence.  If, as humans, we answer our friends pleas, how much more will God answer our petitions?! 

Another promise I came across is in Mark 11:23-24.

“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.  Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 

This speaks directly to my lack of belief that I would ever receive an answer.  If I desire to get an answer, I have to believe that it will happen.  I have to keep praying and keep having faith, and eventually I will receive an answer. 

I hate waiting.  The questions run around in my mind and weigh down my heart.  But Jesus has a solution even for that.  Matthew 11:28-30 says,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God can take my weary, burdened down mind and heart, and give me rest and a peace that surpasses all understanding (Phillipians 4:7 – which incidentally, comes right after verse 6, which speaks of taking everything to God in prayer). 

The promise I go back to over and over is Psalm 37:4.  “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  God has planted certain dreams in my heart, and I can’t believe He would give me those dreams and desires, and then not fulfill them.  It’s a matter of learning how to love God more and find delight in Him and Him alone.

How do I know all these promises are true?  “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.  And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:20) Can I trust God to honor His promises and bring them to fruition?  Yes.  Unequivocally yes. 

To take this all back to the beginning, I can’t help but believe that God will answer.  At this point, I don’t really care if it is a yes or a no, just as long as I know that it is from God.  The years of persistence are worth it, and I should never give up praying until I receive the promised answers.

Fall In-service

Here we go again!  This last week was the annual "Whine about it aloud but secretly enjoy the BSSD Education Conference."  For those not familiar with the way we do things here in the Bering Strait School District, the fall in-service is our one chance each school year to get together as a district.  Because the district is composed of 15 native villages spread out across 80,000 square miles (yes, you did read that correctly) of Alaskan nothing-ness, most of our communication is done through e-mail, Skype, and video-conferencing (or some combination thereof).  During the last week of the first quarter, the district flies everyone to Unalakleet - the village that houses the district office - for 4 days of in-service workshops.  We sleep on the floor of classrooms, eat cafeteria food, use communal bathrooms, and just generally get to know our colleagues a lot better.  It's hard to stay superficial with people you see first thing in the morning.

We were given travel lists the week before, so we knew we were flying out early afternoon on Monday.  That meant we had all of Monday morning to putter around and be generally unproductive in our classrooms.  I got report card comments done, but not much else.  Because we were flying on the district plane (yes, our district has its own plane and pilot), we flew out 30 minutes earlier than planned.  The rest of Monday was pretty standard - claiming an air mattress that would hopefully not leak, attend the mercifully short keynote and welcome (it lasted 20 minutes total - sweet!), and hang out with people we hadn't seen since last year.

The real fun started Tuesday.  We had a few minutes for Team Time in the morning - time for each staff to get together to do whatever we wanted to do.  Tuesday's Team Time was great - the principal wasn't there so we sat around and chatted for half an hour.  After that, we all split up to attend a full-day workshop that we had chosen in advance.  The workshop I went to was supposed to be about integrating the new science materials into the curriculum.  That was not what it was actually about.  It turned out to be about using science journals as a tool for learning.  We got into the new science materials in the last hour, but that hour was spent making sure everyone had access to the online resources.  After considerable confusion, I finally got logged on and found out that the online resources consist of the print resources, online.  Absolutely worthless.  I sound pessimistic about this, but it wasn't all bad.  The workshop description said "integrating the new science materials" and that is what I need help with.  I picked up a couple of ideas about teaching the scientific process and got a couple of book suggestions; it just wasn't what I was expecting or had hoped for. 

There were optional evening activities planned, but I didn't really participate.  The Land Bridge Tollbooth band, all-staff volleyball tournament, and open mic night just didn't sound super-interesting.  I instead did homework - real interesting, I know.  This is week 7 out of 8, which turned out to be one of the more work-heavy weeks of the course. 

Things just continued to get better on Wednesday.  I took some Midol, put a smile on my face, and was determined to make the day a good one.  Team Time was not much more productive than day 1, but we at least had some semblance of a conversation.  The workshop I was signed up for was Smart Board and Technology.  I was actually excited about it.  I have a Smart Board, but I don't really know how to use it to my advantage.  (I can't use it right now because the projector bulb is burned out, but that's a whole different story.)  We spent the first 90 minutes making sure everyone had the software installed correctly.  I had the software installed, but I'm apparently missing some of the "gallery items."  None of the guys leading the workshop could figure out why, but I'm supposed to run an update when I get connected to an internet connection that isn't so overloaded.  We were then given the rest of the day to play around with the software.  Fantastic.  6 hours.  I explored it all in the first hour.  So did most of the rest of the class.  Like I mentioned before, I can't use my Smart Board currently because of projector issues, so I couldn't work on lessons or anything.  After lunch, I think about half the class was on Facebook.  The other half of us were attempting to maintain a facade of actually working, but I know I am not the only one who was updating my School Improvement Plan goals.  The guys leading the conference knew that most of us weren't working, but didn't have anything planned, so it was an informal session of wasted time. 

Thursday was travel day, just like Monday.  We attended 2 shorter workshop sessions in the morning.  The first one I attended was about using theater in the classroom.  It was a lot of fun, not particularly relevant, but fun.  The second was about writing strategies.  I got a couple of ideas about teaching beginning/middle/end, but that's about it.  The keynote and conclusion was mercilessly long.  The keynote speaker started at 11, and went on and on and on about poverty and our students who live in poverty, and I'm still thinking about the implications of what she was saying.  105 minutes later, the district office staff was rushing through door prizes because some flights were scheduled to leave at 1.  They were charter flights, so it's not like they were going to leave without us, but it's not nice to keep the pilots and airline people waiting.  Besides, everyone is anxious to get home by Thursday afternoon, and the district people want to move everyone out as quickly as possible.

Note to planners - having 6 sites load up their stuff, make sandwiches for lunch, load up the trucks and get to the airport all through 1 door in 15 minutes is not going to happen.  Lunch fell by the wayside.  I was on one of those 1:00 flights and ended up grabbing a bag of chips for lunch that I ate after I got home.  Our flight was smooth until the end.  We flew into a cloud bank about the time we started descending.  I was pretty sure we were going to get diverted due to clouds blocking the runway from sight.  So, here we are, descending through thick clouds, and the pilot is looking not at his instruments or out the windshield, but at his flight log and recording whatever it is they are supposed to record.  It was all I could do to trust him to not fly us into the ocean or splash us across the face of a mountain.  He got us down, safe and sound, in a snowstorm.  Within 15 minutes of getting home, the sun was shining brightly, melting the snow that had just fallen.

We whine and gripe and complain about having to travel to Unalakleet, sleep on the floor, eat cafeteria food, and share living conditions, but that's to be expected.  I think "enjoy" is too strong of a word, but I always come home with at least one new idea of a lesson or strategy or something to implement.  I may have attended mostly worthless workshops, but it wasn't a completely wasted week.  Friday's workday was very productive - I hate clutter and mess and disorganization, and I spent a better part of the afternoon cleaning out cupboards and either throwing away or boxing up stuff that I didn't even know I had.  It's all from previous teachers and most of it was outdated and unusable anyway.  The problem isn't completely solved, but I feel much better about the state of my cupboards.  If nothing else, the kids had an entire week off and will (hopefully) come back to school on Monday rested and ready to work. 

Patterns (for lack of a better term)

I am obsessed with patterns and relationships between things and random occurrences in things like numbers, dates, letters, and life.  For example, tomorrow's date is 10-10-10.  It's a Sunday, but oh, how I love it when those days fall on weekdays so that I can point them out to my kids.  December 11th of this year is 12-11-10.  That's a Saturday, so no fun there, either.  As I was getting ready for the school year, I noticed some curious things about my students' names and their initials.

• 3 of the 4 names begin with E.
• Two of my students have the exact same initials.
• Another student has the initials CD.
• One student has the initials E.T.  (I commented on it once and he looked at me as though I had grown another head.  He had never heard of that movie.  Neither had anyone else in the class.) 

Most people don't notice things like this, nor do they particularly care.  I, however, take joy in picking them out and bringing attention to the patterns that I see.