Well Ladies and Gentlemen,
As daylight slowly begins to wind down around 10:40 PM, today dealt me an odd hand. I thought I was going to have to force Grapes of Wrath down the throats of my students but they surprised me. The instant backlash I expected from watching a black and white movie never came, they were intrigiued with the story and were continually asking me questions about the film. It was a nice way to hop back into the saddle after being out a couple days. I have found that at times that is the hardest thing to try and reign the kids back in after a couple days of subs and monotonous activities. Who knows I may slowly be getting the hang of this teaching gig. The kids are an interesting mix of buzzing around and working hard. Students who have kind of slacked off are kciking it into high gear and wanting to get through with phases. I find my classes are slightly changing towards the end of the year, we are approaching modern day in my AK history class and I find our topics are perhaps slightly more enganging than the history of the steamships we have discussed. No joke people my knowledge of Alaskan Steamships has grown to be pretty immense. Now if it only it came up as a Jeopardy topic... I feel I have killed this subject for my students which is probably the biggest crime I could have commited with what seemed to be an underhand pitch. I just couldn't pull it all together, too much mundane information, and few ways to synthesize the info into something that would be more remotely interesting than a hisotry channel presentation. Not to knock the History Channel, I enjoy it, but I am afraid it is not the top of the charts for my students. Just want to get these last two weeks out of the way so I can start putting all my energy into prepping for my next semesters material which is looking like...drumroll please...American Government, World History, maybe entrepeneurship and/or Parenting, PE, Career Exploration. A little scatterbrained, however with enough prep time, this summer I want to nail these classes out of the park. Year two is approaching, the excuse that I am a first year teacher will be invalid in three weeks. Teaching is all about planning, keeping the kids engaged not just with activities but having them engaged in a cohesive curriculum that they can follow. I am failing in trying to teach these carnegie courses like a real course, I need to vere off and maybe try to phase them. Give the kids benchmarks to try and hit, I have got all kinds of goals I want to hit for next year, weekly grade printouts posted, have the course lined out before the semester begins. Do projects but the rough part with that is creativity, so if You are reading this, leave a comment with any project ideas you remeber doing as a student that you enjoyed. If ten people read this there is a cumulative amount of at least 100 years of schooling and projects in your conscious. I hated projects and I think as a result I have blcked out most of those I tried to acocmplish.

So today I was once again impressed by my students problem solving and perception. We can look at event and view it as either a dilemma or find a way to get by it. For example, our school is down to 16,000 gallons of water for the remaining 21 days of May. Now you can can look at that and do some rough math and figure that we need to use less than about 750 gal a day. Now we have a school with 250 students and faculty, and students love to use the bathroom. The toilets flush more than a gallon per flush but let sround down. If every student goes once, we are down to 500. I have not showered at my house for ten days,(I had a shower in quinhagak however it was almost frozen, I have never felt water that cold in my life!) A majority of the teachers have begun to live as if we had no water and there has been some lamentations. A student came over to visit and while we lamenting she was able to offer solution after solution. It gave me pause, man I have no excuse to not have clean clothes she is right, I should go out fill a pot with snow while it is still close to my house and boil it for laundry. If I spent half as much energy on focus on a solution instead of complaining about the problem it would be nonexistant. It is all about how you roll with the changes, you can gripe about them or you can incorporate them and keep on trucking. Excuses have kind of plagued me this year, it becomes almost to easy to claim ignorance, or give ni to feeling overwhelmed. To do somethign about it ladies and gentlemen thats what we need to strive for. Much like a parent rubbing our back and telling us its ok we tried our best, we can lull ourselves with excuses, until we create our own insurmountable demons. Be wary of the hydra of excuses, each head you vanquish presents the opportunity to give up because you have tried so hard,you feel you just can't do it anymore. I will be honest I am not %100 sure how I personally am going to accomplish this, I know one of my biggest weaknesses is organization, maybe if I make a concerted effort into tackling it, developing it, I wont consider it a reason for my faults. Ladies and gentlemen I am just taking an idea and running with it, thanks for coming along for the ride!

Any project ideas you enjoyed doing for American Government, World History, Entrepenuership, Parenting(outside of making babies, I don't how well that would fly with my principal) please comment!

Uppers and Downers of Sick Days

Well ladies and gentlemen, I had a sick day today, I couldn't seem to pull it all together and I might have caught whatever my roomie has. (Hopefully not as he has been out for a couple of days now) However a dayquil and couple genebs later I am slightly optimistic that I may be able to kick this out of my system. This sick day gave me a chance to catch up with some friends and family, find out the ongoings of life outside the boundaries of Alaska. Just a couple of weeks left of school up here, the excitement is building as Prom night approaches. I have decided Friday I am going to teach my students all how to tie a tie. Before my first day of teaching I had this idea of wearing a tie every day to school. I kind of looked forward to it, the sense of accomplishment that came with that tie, the sense of being professional. I have to admit I have not taken my ties out at all this year. It really didn't seem to be too appropriate, as if I was putting on airs. I still kept to loafers khakis and a button up shirt, for almost the whole year, but these last couple of weeks the water crunch has been pretty tight, and I am down to jeans loafers and odd tops. I enjoy the criticisms of my students telling me I dress like an old man. They have had numerous discussions about getting me baggy and saggy clothing, and some have even talked about next halloween coming to school dressed like Mr. Broz. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? Well for right now I'll take what I can get. The beast of the first year is wheezing its last gasps. Next year has me rubbing my hands in anticipation eager for the chance to fix past slip ups and kind of hit the ground running. I have kind of rambled this post but I will blame it on the meds, I should have a more coherent piece tomorrow. As a final thought what type of image do your clothes cast before you, how were are put together whether we like it or not sends a message to our observers. Evening, all.

Of Shoes and SUVs

Well ladies and gentlemen as I step foot in the frozen mud of the once melting tundra I heave a small sigh of relief. It is an odd welcome, cold, unresponsive, unyielding. Try to force your way through with too much pressure, you can leave an impact, one as serrated and abrasive as the refrozen pools and puddles scattered around. Given enough time and patience the ice will eventually recede, leaving in its wake a a mush that will not only receive your steps, but absorb them completly and at times refuse to let go. To say its messy would be an understatement, and every step taken despite all caution runs the risk of getting in too deep, and possibly leaving a shoe behind. There doesn't seem to be a set plan one can take to try and help people, what works with one can either miss or worse, aleinate, another. One can try to stay on the high ground, flit from mound to mound keeping relativly clean and pass through easily, leaving little imprint on the surface. The tracks we leave aren't permanent, their permanence is only determined by the frequency of use. The longer the tracks last the higher the chance it can grow into a trail for others to follow. Through its use others might be able to arrive at similar destinations and then decide to continue on or branch off on their own. To all the trailblazers, pathfinders, and anyone who has ever left a shoe behind, here's to your efforts.

Picking up a trick or two

Well ladies and gentlemen had a relatively intriguing day today. I saw an incredible transistion occur during some of the singing festivities. There was this blind elderly man that seemed to come alive when he had a guitar in his hand. I didn't know he was blind until he was finished and he had to be helped off of the stage. I was shocked, this man's energy just seem to flourish on stage, but as soon as that guitar was handed off he seemed to age a lifetime. So to M.B. here's to you my friend.

For the first time in I don't know how many years I hit two threes in a row in basketball. I have to hand it to my boys showing me the proper grip on the ball to increase control. No one was more surprised than me when I got not one but two swishes in a row, I was aghast, the first one I thought was just beginners luck, but two, it was too much. I was kind of high on life after that but the day had all kind of little surprises. After Youth Group services, I was able to visit a couple different native homes and enjoy some native foods like aqutak (blackberry and mousefood) and some soups. After working on improving some of Yup'ik I found that I am still mixing up question words like how are you, who are you, and what are doing. My students crack up but i cant seem to stop myself from asking a student who they are when i want to do what they are doing. Outside of a couple language snafus things are looking on the up and up, I find I am able to make great improvements when I in a another village for the weekend. There just seems to be a stronger focus placed on just listening and mimicking the sounds. I also figured out how to work the zoom function on my camera which could lead to detailed and more interesting pictures, assuming I can figure out how to get a steady hand...
but that is something for another day, in the words of my parents at the dinner table, "What did you learn today?":

You never know if its a stop sign...

Hanging out in Quinhagak this weekend with the youth group. I have to admit I am enjoying myself immensely, it took a while to get out here, about an hour and half waiting at the the landing strip for a plane that turned out not to be coming. But once we finally arrived things have been on the up and up. Quinhagak has mountains! Something virtually unknown in Kipnuk, it doesn't look like I will get a chance to admire them up close though so some pictures I snap from afar shall have to suffice. I also had the pleasure of walking on a road made out of gravel. While walking with my students one of them stopped by a turned over yellow little kids plastic chair thats was knocked down. I gave him an inquiring look and he shrugged and simply stated "You never know if it is a stop sign." I was struck by this on a couple of levels, the initial one being the concept that a yellow chair could be used for a stop sign. Then the thoughtful consideration put forward in adjusting the environment to aid an unknown other. This is a rarity out here, and its occurrence caused me to stop and think. How many signs do we pass by, simple actions, which if taken could potentially benefit an unknown other? The over turning of a little yellow chair could have an import consequence if it is indeed a stop sign. But stopping for what, traffic, to think, who knows what the unintended consequences of such an action will bring. (Maybe even the extra umph required for me to start a blog) However as we continue to progress through our days no matter our walks of life, keep your eye out for "stop" signs.