End of School Projects

The last weeks of school are always filled with fun activities that you don't get to do during the rest of the year because you have been cramming for tests. Well this year is no different. Our kindergarten class joined with the Spanish class to do a Cino de Mayo project of creating piñatas. Here are the pictures from the project.   

After having our fun with paper mache we got messy with shaving cream. I thought this would be a fun way for the kids to get a little messy and practice writing our letters. The kids thought it was really gross but really fun. I don't think many of them have ever played with shaving cream before. 

After our piñatas dried we painted them and stuffed them with candy for a real fiesta!  The students had a real blast trying to break it open. It provided a cool science lesson too about what the inside looks like and what happens when you mix glue and water and paper. 

Prom is a lot different here than anywhere else I have been. The entire village is invited!! It doesn't matter how old or how young you are, Prom is a time to come and dance and just have a nice time. The DJ for this prom was a lot better than all of the DJs combined for all 3 of the proms I went to. The kids stole my camera and decided that they wanted to take pictures with their teacher. Needless to say I had some pretty cool dates. :)

Here I am teaching the students how to disco dance.

My buddies for most of the night. 

The senior class of 2012

Spirit Levels

Since my last post the temperature has gotten all the way up to 45 degrees!! It was so crazy to be able to walk outside today with no hat or gloves on and not worry about frost bite! The snow is starting to melt and the sun is out longer...so naturally spirits are high!

Teacher spirits are really high because we are only 7 weeks away from the end of the school year. I am so excited to see the growth in my students! They are so nice to each other....well as nice as kindergarteners can be. They are actually asking others to walk down the hall using the word please and saying thank you. They are sitting in their chairs and listening to lessons and remembering what they are being taught. Many of them are getting close to being on a first grade level in their subjects. In the Lower Yukon School District they are on a level system where the standards that are to be learned has to be passed off either with a test or some project. In order to get to the next level the students must pass off all of their standards. I have had this fear all year that the students would not learn anything this year other than how to sit in a chair and now to see them passing off standard after standard it makes me so excited to see what they can do with someone who is not a first year teacher trying to figure things out.

So Drew and I are really considering coming back to Alaska next year. It has given me so many great growing and learning experiences that we think it will give us a great opportunity to grow and learn together without a lot of distractions. We are still waiting to hear if he will be offered a job in the Russellville School District but it is a big possibility that we will be back up here next year. I am excited and looking forward to the opportunity to come back. There are so many things that I would change about the things that I did this year but I think that is part of being a teacher. You take what you did and modify it to make it better than before. I do hear that the kids next year will be tough group to crack but I also know that I am more prepared than I was at the beginning of last year. I will also have someone to lean on more than just a phone call. Having Drew here will really help me emotionally. I know that with him here instead of having a relationship with a phone I will be able to go home and talk to him face to face. I will also have someone to help me clean the house :). It isn't official but it is a serious possibility.

It is also getting closer to my wedding and that has me really excited and nervous too. I have been living on my own for the past 5 years now and it will be so different to be living with someone else....forever!! I can't think of a better roommate but it is still nerve racking! I love him so much and he has been so wonderful through this past year. Listening to me cry about the one student that I can't get to or laugh about the funny things that my kids say (it is true that kids say the darndest things). He is the best support system that I could ever ask for. Even if this year has been hard for us, we have grow so much closer and I know that our relationship has been strengthened from the trials. I really cannot wait to be Mrs. Nichole Hanna :D!!

Winter

Winter in the Bush is a strange thing. Last week we were hitting temperatures around -40 and today we are at 34 degrees. Also, I have never seen so much snow! Here are some pictures of what the outside looks like. 

This is a picture outside my window of the snow storm that was going on yesterday. The football field was just past that light pole and you could hardly see it.

Here is from the other window. You can't even see a few yards past the houses due to the wind and snow. 

They didn't put the doors in quite the right way so I got mounds of snow inside of my door. 

Another picture of it a little while later. 

Due to the wind there were really cool pattens in the snow. 

The playground outside my window. The snow is so deep you can walk on it to get to the ledge of it. 

The slide

It is hard to cross the monkey bars at this time. 

The swings.

Yesterday we had a really huge snowstorm. I included some pictures from it. The past few weeks the heat in my house has not been working the right way. The bottom floor has been on average about 60 degrees and sometimes I would wake up to have it be 55. That is really cold especially when it is -40 degrees outside. It is working now but outside it is 32 degrees so it has gotten really warm! I am excited for the warmth.

This week has been a really good week behavior wise. The student that I have been having the most problems with has started listening more and controlling their anger. It makes me so happy to see them doing the things that are needed to learn the most! I have also seen my student starting to be nicer to each other! It makes me happy to see my students saying sorry or using words like please and thank you to each other. My kids may not be able to read or write well but they will be able to control their anger and are kind to each other. I think these are more important than anything that can ever be taught to them. Hopefully they will take these skills and teach them to others to help improve their lives.

Another Week

Well it has been another long while since I last blogged so I figure it is time to catch people up on what is going on up here in the Bush.

Well as of right now I am living alone in my new house and it gets lonely sometimes. Molly headed back to Arkansas due to illnesses and she was advised not to come back and to stay around doctors. She has been greatly missed by her students and her colleagues. So for christmas I decided to do an art project with the students and include older students hoping that they would set an example for the younger kids and for the most part it worked! Here are a few pictures of that project.

It was really fun and I know the kids had a good time doing it. 

Well after that we started getting ready for our Christmas program. We decided to sing the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer because I had kits where the students could make their own antlers and they really had fun with that. Every day we practiced singing the song for about a half hour and I think the kids were getting sick of it. Soon after the Christmas program the teachers headed home to see our families. The only problem about flying in the Bush is that it is always weather permitting and the weather was not permitting on the day we were to leave. It was really foggy until about 6 PM when a plane finally made it out to Marshall it got a flat tire. Another plane could not land to get the first plane fixed until the first plane was moved off the runway. So as teachers we are ready for anything right? Well that night we ended up towing the plane with a 15 passenger van full of our gear and us. It was really a sight to see. Something that I can tell my children! By the time the second plane came it was too late to get the teachers to Bethel to make it to our connecting flights. A lot of phone calls and a lot of money later I was able to make it onto a plane that was heading to Arkansas and would make it before Christmas Day. 

When I finally made it to Arkansas I felt like I was in a dream. Was I really in a place that wasn't -30 and was Drew really holding my hand. For anyone who has been away from their significant other for a long time you know what I mean. Two weeks of bliss later it was time for me to get back on a plane and head back to Alaska to see my kiddos again. 

We got back to work on a Thursday and those two days were great! The kids were great listeners and we got a lot accomplished together. I was able to also participate in Russian Orthodox Christmas. It was really cool! What happens during Russian Orthodox Christmas here is that members of the village walk from house to house following the star. Each house even if you are not a member of the church opens their homes to the star and the carolers then you give something to the carolers and those who are following the star. Here are a few pictures of the star. It spins the whole time the carolers are singing, and they sing for about 45 minutes. It was amazing to see these students standing still for 45 minutes! 

Monday we started getting back into the routine of what really goes on in the classroom. I have just one student that has a hard time being in school every day. It is sad how this student takes away from the learning of all of the other students. 

The other teachers tell me I am a saint for I what I get the opportunity to experience each day in my classroom. I just say it is another day in the life of a kindergarten bush teacher. This week I have had my calendar torn off the wall, toys on the floor, my boots in the toilet and in the sink, garbage sacks torn up, and my whiteboard eraser taken and gotten wet then wiped all over the walls. 

The positives, my students are learning to count by 5's, they have almost completely finished their science standards and social studies, they have improved in their AIMS (reading) scores from the beginning of the year and they are nicer to each other.

I keep telling my principal that they might not be able to read next year but the students will know how to be nice to each other and know what a good choice and a bad choice are and that it is better to make a good choice. We are slowly getting there but I know they are on the right track! 

Well I am off for another exciting week of teaching! This week we are going to study about Chinese New Year hopefully they learn a lot! 

Thoughts

So many things have happened since last blogging.

To start off, my kids have earned back their toys!! That was pretty exciting, I really think I need to have my aide teach more because the week after I came back they were angels! We are starting to get back into the swing of things but it has been a little rough.

Next we had our first real holiday here in the bush. Halloween is a lot different in a village than in the city. First you can't go out and buy candy, you have to have it shipped in and the kids don't really wear costumes because it is snowing so it would be really cold to just wear a costume. Molly and I ratted our hair up and went as people who were electrocuted. It was really funny to answer the door pretending to be shocked. The kids didn't really get it but the teachers found it really funny. That night at about 7 the trick-or-treaters stopped coming because they started doing Eskimo dancing around 7 and the kids were all there participating in that. I went up after a little while and it was so cool to see the dancing and the way the community was involved. It was a really cool way to see the community come together even if it is for one night.

The community has been split in half over some things that have been happening in the village and it is really sad to see people who were once friends talking behind others backs and saying things they know are not true, especially in a very very small community. Hopefully this Christmas season will help mend hearts and lift spirits.

Also, things have been rough for Molly and I. Some people at the school were not happy with they way Molly and I were running student council and they decided to take it to the Regional School Board. In the meeting we were accused of being things that we weren't. It made me really sad and hurt by the things that were said. If I could impart some of my knowledge into the world this would be it. We must teach our children by example. If we want our children to have respect for people we must teach them how to have respect for others. Also, just because we don't look alike doesn't mean that we don't experience the same feelings. It hurts when people say bad things about you NO MATTER WHAT!! It hurts when people lie about you. It hurts when people make fun of you. It hurts when you are hit, kicked, punched, and bit. I really wish that people understood more of that concept.

So I experienced my first Thanksgiving here in the bush and it was full of moving. We have been waiting for about a month now to move into our new houses and Thanksgiving break was the opportune time. Molly has headed back to Arkansas due to health reasons so it was just me moving both of our stuff. Even in bush Alaska you can accumulate stuff that you don't need!! Well I guess just as a teacher you do that anyway. Pictures the kids draw you, print outs that you think you are going to use again, miscellaneous things like 20 toilet paper rolls that you think you are going to do a craft project with. By the time it was all said and done, two bags of garbage and one giant box of garbage were taken out. Now to get rid of the boxes that are sitting in my living room that were used to move into the new house.

This post will end with one my favorite scriptures, hopefully it will help all those who are reading this as much as it helps me each time I read it.


"Peace I leave with you, my peaceI give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27