Wow the Time Flies!

Well there is about 6 weeks left in my first year of teaching. Who would've thought that being so far away from home would still make the time fly. It has been an interesting winter, finally getting used to the changes in sunlight and then daylight-savings time happens and we have light until 10 and the time is still increasing. I wonder how long I can go with blacking out all of my bedroom windows. The geriatric that I am I go to be super early and get up early. I will have to change my sleeping patterns if I plan on getting my necessary 8 hours. :) I am starting to get excited about going home for the summer, I am just thinking, "what in the world I am going to do this summer so I don't loose my mind?" Mom and Dad are kind enough to let me stay at the house this summer and I am sure I will have a fun time helping Mom with the day-care and Sophie and Emma! I am excited to see everyone and I know that Dad will need some help this summer. Maybe I will get a killer tan this summer helping him. Or just a really great farmer's tan, after my initial sunburn of the year! :) I am definitely going to have to find something to keep my sane. Going from working everyday and my coworkers/friends living all in the same 100 yard area around the school too driving 30- minutes to and hour to see friends and family will be a change. For some reason I really want to go on trips around the midwest and go canoeing, maybe see a concert or go to a play and I really want to go out dancing at a college bar/club. I miss people so much that it is sometimes hard to not pace my apartments 20 foot hallway or incessantly tape my foot because I am so anxious to do something different. So be ready everyone I will definitely need you all to help keep my sanity over the summer.

Welcome Back!

Being gone a week can really mess with a routine. As a new teacher this last week was my first week away from my students so that I could attend a conference. I am having a hard time getting back in the swing of things. Unpacking, doing laundry, doing this week's lesson plans, and grading papers. I didn't realize how much my life revolves around school sometimes, especially out here in the bush. There isn't much else to do. I spent more of my weekend in the school then at home.

The whole week before leaving I made sub notes, lesson plans, and copies. After getting all the sub notes ready and then making sure that all the materials were ready for my fourth graders to have a successful week I thought I was ready to go. I then began second guessing myself through out the whole time I was gone. Calling, skyping, and texting other staff members to find out if my students had ran the sub out or if the sub was having a hard time understanding what I wrote in the sub notes. I really didn't have much to worry about, however, I feel like that was what I did. :) I came back Friday evening to a very clean classroom, all of the students work was even turned in. They even made sure to wash their desktops off. Wow, maybe I should leave more often! I didn't expect them to put their chairs up, let alone wash their desks. They even wrote fantastic color poetry!! Maybe I am having an effect on them. I will have to see what happens when they arrive in a couple of hours.

Contracts Are Here!

So I received my contract today for next school year. Super relieved. Wondering if I should turn it in right away or hold off a while longer to see if things change right away. I will probably hold on to it for a while longer and see.

On another note today is the school's celebration of being named1 of the 2, Title 1 Distinguished Schools for 2010-2011 by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. Some of the teachers and the principal just got back from Tampa Bay, Florida to receive the award at the national level. It is kind of exciting many of the community members are making their way to the school to help set up and serve food and prepare for the celebration. It is a big deal for sure. I am excited to see the community come out and support the school and the staff. I will however have to miss some of it for one of the classes I am taking. Hopefully we get done a little earlier tonight so I can join in.

There has been very little changing over the last couple of days. I am excited to be leaving for Anchorage on Friday after school. I should be flying in about 8 pm. It will be great to see other people who I haven't seen in a while. I wish it was for fun and not for work, but I am sure I will have my fair share of both. I can't complain too much I get paid to learn something new, and also be away from my students for a week. A much needed break :).

I will post again soon! Enjoy the weather where ever you are we are in the process of getting 6+ inches of snow. Hopefully it will cover up some of the ice that is coating everything. All of you know that I am no friend of ice not matter how pretty it is. Clumsiness is not a friend of ice. :)

Contracts Where Are You

So this is my rant for this week... I am starting to wonder if contracts are really for people who are impatient. I am becoming worse than I was as a kid around Christmas time. I can hardy keep my cool when I don't know if my contract will be renewed or if I will be needing to find a new job come the end of March. I don't want to move again, especially when I have been moving every school year sometimes twice within that school year, for the last 5-6 years. I guess I shouldn't be too concerned I feel like I do my job well and no one has told me different. But what's a girl to do when there is so much riding on it. Who knows, right!! I guess I will find out soon enough.

I started another class last night, this class is on teaching writing, which God knows I need help in. My students are a tough crowd in this area and really don't enjoy anything that might even be considered as work. I guess that is how a lot of the kids out there are now. I am hoping that this class will be good and worthwhile. I am seeing great things so far. Well until next time, I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well!! :)

The New Year is Off to a Great Start

After a much needed break in December I am back to work and everything is going great. Everyone is well on their way to being back in the swing of things after the 2 weeks off. It is hard to believe we are already half-way through the 3rd quarter. I am working on 3 classes this semester, all are going pretty well and it has kept me busy in the evenings after school a few times a week. The weather has been pretty good lately we have a snow storm about once to twice a week so it has been pretty nice to get outside once in a while. Snow days are pretty much non-exsistent here, at least for the teachers. Living right next to the school has it's perks, I am not sure if that is a plus or not yet. :)

Everything has been going rather well considering. I gearing up for the rest of the school year trying to prepare all of my students for the impending state testing. As much as I hate to teach to the test, it is really necessary to cover certain concepts they are unfamiliar with that may be on the tests. Many of my students are excited about different things coming up like the Basketball tournaments that are to be held in Dillingham and Manokotak. It is really the main source of entertainment here during the winter. The whole village comes out to support the kids, which is marvelous!! I am also getting ready for a conference in Anchorage towards the end of February. I will be there for almost a week. A very exciting break especially when I will be able to hang out with other adults and be away from kids for a little while. Who would have know that I would be excited about something as simple as having an adult conversation. :) I will definitely make the most of it.

It has been a nice transition back into classes and work. There is more sunlight now and we are gaining more by the day. Very exciting for sure, I can actually do some work after school and still go for a walk when I am done to get some fresh air and chat with one of the other teachers. Fresh air is definitely plentiful out here, and the view are amazing I am for sure in heaven looking out over the tundra and mountains in the distance. The snow frosts those mountains tops in a beautiful way. Going for a walk also means the necessary use of Yaktraks. If you have never had the pleasure of being acquainted with a pair of these marvelous inventions and live anywhere there is ice, they are well worth the investment. These handy things are a clumsy person's best friend. Those of you who know my track record I definitely fall into the category of clumsy. Since the roads up here are only gravel they get very slick when the snow melts and then refreezes. So going for a walk could mean falling on your behind and sliding rather than walking, especially for me. :) I have definitely found something that prevents the past inevitability of a fall on the butt.

I am still looking for something to do over the summer so that I don't go absolutely crazy. I have been debating trying to find a job working at a resort in the Anchorage vicinity or something along those lines. I have also considered possibly taking a trip to Italy or there a-bouts. I will have to see how everything pans out. My main idea is to not work with kids over the summer and get a nice break from the school year. If anyone has any ideas let me know so that I might get a hold of my plans. I will need to start posting more regularly, if you have any questions let me know and I will try to answer them for you.

First Days in Manokotak/ Happy Birthday Dad! :)

Hi to everyone, it has been a while since I have had time to post! It has been a busy couple of months here in Manokotak! I hope all is well in the Lower 48.

My first couple of days in Manokotak were pretty hectic. I was basically given my keys to the school and told to figure it out. Not in that way necessarily, but that is what it felt like. I had to go through my classroom and reorganize somethings and make sure I had enough materials for the first few days. Everything went rather well after I tore the room apart, it looked like a disaster area that is for sure. You would not be surprised to learn that many teachers like to stock-pile materials and resources from the last 4 decades. "Just in case," is what I have often said and have heard others say as well. So I went about clearing out my "extra materials" and decided garbage bags were the best way to organize these materials. Forgive me for destroying these materials all you teacher out there. After the organization I had my first day of school as an official teacher. Wow, that was intense. A million questions from my students, trying to figure out what what they were capable of doing and making sure we covered the basics of the first day. I am sure I forgot something but who will ever know. I know that I pretty much have forgot what happened that day. I don't know if it was because it was so traumatic or if it actually went rather well and it doesn't matter anymore. After the first week of school was over and we were well on our way to getting in the routine of things I learned a lot about my students and what I can expect from them.

School has been going rather well and I just had my first parent teacher conferences. Finally able to meet the parents of my students and voice some concerns and also some things that I have really seen improvement on throughout the first couple months. It was very interesting to see how parents reacted I have never been on my own for parent teacher conferences. I have always been the one to kind of sit back and watch while my supervisor conducted the conference. It was really nice to be in charge but also very scary with some of the parents.

Not all of the time I have been spending here has been completely on school, although a large portion has been. I have been able to meet a few of the Manokotak natives and get to know them. One of the other teachers and her husband were kind enough to allow me to tag along on a 2+ hour boat ride up the river, that runs along the village, to the lakes where the people catch the spawning salmon. It was a beautiful trip. I had to sit under a tarp for the majority of the trip back down river due to the stinging rain. While we were at the lakes we turned drying fish on the fish racks and also went berry-picking. We followed a bear trail through the woods to get to the berries which I thought was kind of the opposite that we had been taught during inservice. During inservice we were told to go the opposite direction of the bear not towards them. Oh well it was still an experience that I wouldn't take away. I really did enjoy making the trek across the tundra to get the few berries we did find. Oh, for those of you who don't remember what tundra is like let's just say it is like a marsh. When you walk on it it feels like you are walking across a very thick and extensive sponge. It is really an interesting sensation. It is almost scary because when you step onto it you sink in and you never now how much you will sink in.

I have had many experiences in the last two months and I will share some more in the next post. Hopefully this one will be sooner than the last few!

Take Care!

I Have Seen the Light: Days 1 and 2 in Alaska

Hey there everyone, sorry it has been on long since my last post. I am super busy lately and since it is the weekend decided to update everyone on my status up here in the vast world of Alaska! I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska via a long trip beginning at 3:30AM in De Soto, Wisconsin and heading for the Minneapolis, Minnesota airport for my flight that left at about 9:00AM. I travelled for roughly 5 hours via plane to Anchorage. As anyone can imagine travelling by yourself has both pluses and minuses. I, having little sleep, did not much care for the prolonged stay on the runway in Minneapolis. After we took off I was a little more comfortable, the trip up was not too eventful besides seeing some amazing scenery through the plane windows, the Northern Rocky Mountains and some pretty cool Glaciers just to the Southeast of Anchorage. Once we arrived in at the Anchorage :Ted Stevens International Airport and deplaning as well as making my way down to baggage claim I was totally exhaused. But, the bags were the least of my worries, I had to figure out how I was going to get to my hostel without anyone to help me get on and off the city bus and not knowing which bus to take. If any of you have ever needed an information desk for directions and no one was there you now what I mean. There wasn't anyone in sight at the baggage claim "Info Desk." So I was on my own. I was able to find some signs to point me in the right direction of the bus however I didn't know when the bus would come. I waited for about 30 minutes and finally was walking toward the taxi line when the bus came around the corner. I got on the bus and made my way to the Downtown Transit Center. However, what I didn't realize was that bus drivers on the "airport" bus don't like people with luggage. The woman driving the bus throughly chewed some of the passengers out for having luggage in the aisles as well as taking up too many seats with extra luggage. Needless to say I was one of those people. Joy to the world there. I finally arrived at the bus station downtown and preceded to wait some more for the next bus. While waiting I was able to take in some of the colorful Anchorage residents. I never knew there would be some many people in Anchorage visiting. Many of the people I met were from other parts of the world including South Africa. When I got on the next bus I was able to relax a little this bus driver was extremely helpful and decided to give me information about where the best place stop would be and how many blocks I would need to go to get to my stop. It was nice to have someone care. I got to my hostel at about 2:00PM Anchorage time so about 5:00PM Central time. So I had been traveling for about 14 hours. I dropped my suitcases off and went in search of lunch and then a nap or more like bed time. I slept until about 5 am the next more and got up to find the best place to go shopping and ordering supplies. I took the bus to southern Anchorage to a place called Dimond Center. It was nice to be able to do a little shopping and look around the town some more. I was in Anchorage for a couple of days and then took another trip to Dillingham.

In Dillingham I had New Staff Inservice for about 14 days. I was a little much having to stay in a hotel for that long but I was able to meet many of the people I will be working with for the rest of the school year as well as all of the staff from around the district. More to come soon!!

Enjoy the weekend, I sure will!

NIKKI