School

As always, life has been crazy busy. I feel like I have spent every waking moment at the school in the past week. Last Friday was parent-teacher conference day. The parents are required to come to conferences, so I met with 27 sets of parents. It was a little stressful, but it went well. Saturday was an inservice day, so I was at school all day again. Yesterday, Benny invited Nikki, Steve, Mel and me over for a Sunday lunch of roast, potatoes, carrots, rolls and brownies. It was awesome! Then, it was off to school again to get some lesson planning done.
In my spare time, Mel and I have been busy with our evening work out routine. We just got a Tae Bo workout DVD, which is really hard! We are trying to get in shape for our spring break trip to Hawaii (hopefully). We have also been hanging out with Nikki and Steve a lot.

Seal kisses

This seal was spying on me!

Here are some arctic foxes hanging out down the road from our house.

Hunting for for Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen

Well, it has been crazy the past few weeks! School has kept me so busy! Last Saturday we had Saturday school. We have school one Saturday a month, that way we end up getting out in the middle of May so the students have more time to work in the summers. Our Saturday schools aren't like normal school days, we usually do some cultural activities. So, this past Saturday I took a group of the students out reindeer hunting. Well, actually I was more like the teacher chaparone who went with two local hunters who took a group of students reindeer hunting. But whatever. Anyway, we were driving around looking for the herd when one of the students said, "I just saw one back there". It is really usual for a reindeer to be roaming around on its own during this time in the year. They are usually all in the herd. So, we figured the herd must be near. We drove up a hill and there they were! 600 of them!!! It was so cool! We all got out of the van quietly and figured out the best way to sneak up around the herd so they wouldn't see or smell us. As we stalked up to the herd, I was in the rear making sure all the students were coming. One of the girls was having a difficult time walking through the rough tundra and was trailing behind. I was coaxing her on, when I heard a grunt. I looked up and there was a reindeer trotting right for us. I was trying to get the girl's attention without scaring the reindeer. She was so oblivious to the fact that at any moment we might become the new version of "Grandma Gor Runover By a Reindeer." Can't you picture it, "Teacher Got Run Over By a Reindeer". All of a sudden it stopped and stared right at us. We both froze. We turned around and the other hunters were taking pictures! haha. Finally, it ran to catch up with the rest of the heard. By the time we caught up with the rest of our group, two of the girls didn't want to walk any further. So, I was asked to stay behind with them. We sat in the fog on soggy moss covered rocks in the middle of the tundra for an hour and fifteen minutes, while the others were off on a hunting escapade. I was a little bummed, but then the girls decided it would be fun to sing "High School Musical" songs. So, time went faster after that. And the hunters didn't get a reindeer in the end, so I really didn't miss out.
Anywho, we made it back to the school in time for the hot dog luncheon. After sharing our adventures with the other students I was sent off to lead the traditional Aleut story telling and games. I asked Ms. Edna, the Aleut teacher, to teach me a few things. It was really fun! After all of this the last half hour was spent celebrating Grandparents Day. All of the grandparents were invited to the gym, where there were tables of crafts and food. The students made seal and halibut cracker spread and spicy seal chilli. And that my friends, is Saturday school in St. Paul.

The rest of this week has been rather uneventful seen as how I have been swamped with school work! I think I am actually getting the students excited about books! I gave one class the option of playing a game for the last ten minutes of class or I could read to them out of our book. They asked for the book and were bummed when the class period was over because they wanted to know what happens! It was awesome!!!

1st Week of School

Well, it has been a crazy week!

We finished our teacher training and I got my room all set and ready to go. Wednesday, Father (the Russian Orthodox Church Father) came into the school and blessed each room and all of the teachers. Religion is a huge part of this community here and culture here, so it was really cool to see a religious figure inside of the school! Thursday was registration day. The students and their parents came in and met with us to fill out paper work and get their schedules. It was a great way to get to see the students. Friday was the first real day! It went really well. Over the weekend we had another work day on Saturday and Sunday I spent writing lesson plans and getting ready for the next week.
This first week of school went well. I am still learning a lot and figuring things out. I think my students have taught me way more than I have taught them. It has been a challenge all ready, but I am ready for it!!!

This weekend is the 100th year celebration of the church, so there has been a lot of excitement. Friday, the bishop flew into the island. A bunch of the teachers and students left school and greeted him at the airport. Yesterday, Mel and I went for a walk around the island and walked to the church. They are putting a new traditional gold dome on it for the celebration. it is a beautiful church with a lot of history. It was cool to watch them get it all ready. We ended up walking around the island for 3 hours. We saw alot of Arctic Fox and seals! We walked down to a seal blind hoping to get some good pictures. Seal blinds are like little shelters that you can stand in a look through windows to see the seals. They can charge you and are very dangerous, so there needs to be something between you and the seals for safety. We walked a few miles to get out to one. As we walked closer to the seal blind we could hear how loud the seals were! They make so many weird noises. Sometimes they sound like they are burping. When we started toward the seal blind we saw that some seals were actually IN the blind. And on the stairs. And they were BIG seals. So, we couldn't get any closer!

Pictures

i finally added pictures so check it out!