Hanna Family: Intervention

I don't think there is such a thing as a non exciting week teaching out here in the bush. Last Friday a lot of the teachers took out the canoes out on the river to just get away for a little. It was so beautiful. I was really sad that I didn't have my camera with me. It really gave us teachers a chance to bond a lot more. When you are all working together to not tip over it really creates a bond. It really surprised me at how calm the river was. We didn't see any wild life but thats ok. It was so cool to be able to not only see the fall colors but to be able to smell fall. I know that is weird but the smell of fall is one of my favorite smells. Saturday we got together again as teachers and we made homemade pizza for us and watched a movie. One way to keep our Saturday nights a little like home. It did make me miss the Saturday night pizza dates that Drew and I would share after the football games. I made him promise me that we would get some pizza when I came back home for Christmas. Monday came way too early like it always does. This week Molly and I have been at the school until 11 or so every night. It makes for a very long week. I have enjoyed being able to talk to Drew every night on Skype (video chat).

Some guys from Oklahoma came up here to hunt and gave us the extra meat. Molly and I and a lot of the other teachers got together for a moose cutting party. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Molly and I all dressed up

Moose legs

Molly actually touching the moose, I was very proud

Riding the moose so it didn't fall off the cart

Cody pushing the moose around

Cleaning buckets to put moose in

Getting moose cutting training

Picking the hair off the moose

Mary cutting up the moose while Susan watched

Cutting up the moose

Moose leg

It was the same size as Susan

Molly holding raw meat

Karen cutting up the meat

We found the bullet

Cleaning up

Moose meat

Well yesterday (Thursday) I had another big blow out in my class. One of the students decided they didn't like that they weren't going to gym at that time so they decided to start throwing things around the room. It got really dangerous for me and the other students in the room. I took the other students out of the room and the student that was throwing things climbed under a table. As I was getting them out from under the table they called me some dirty words and flipped me off. It was really sad to me that the student knew what those words were and how to use them in the right context. After that fire was put out things went ok. A lot of the students decided that they didn't want to listen during story time and didn't want to play in their center during center time. It was time for the students to go home for the day. I kept a few of them back because they had not listened so much that we were going to write an improvement note so they knew the plan and I knew the plan if they didn't listen any more. Well instead of writing the improvement note they climbed up on my counter and got into the art supplies and started creating things with glitter glue and tried to take them home with them. I finally got them to put the pens away and got two of the three to head home. One of the students decided that they didn't want to go home and started throwing things around the classroom and tearing up toys. As this student was in the art cabinate they also stole some of the treats we have for good behavior. I know that wouldn't be a big deal but it was stealing to me and I didn't want them thinking it was ok. Well I started asking the student how many pieces they had taken and turned it into a math problem. This made me laugh a lot just because who would do that...turn something like stealing into something the student could do for math. Well I got the treats back and the student went home. Well I didn't like the fact that my safety was on the line again so talking to Molly, she and I decided that it was time to take drastic action. We removed everything from my room, every last toy, book, marker, table, chair. Even my teaching materials were taken out. My thought process for this is that if we can teach them how to learn then they will learn better. Sounds like a good idea right? I hope so. Today (the first day of trying it out) didn't go too bad but we still had a lot of listening problems and the second half of the day we had a movie party for Molly's birthday. We will see how Monday goes. It does help though that my aide is really supportive of the idea. I really hope this is an answer to many prayers about how to teach these kids.