A Day in the Life

Life is slower-paced up here, as is probably expected. I thought I'd try to give you an idea of a typical day here.

6:00 or 6:30 am: Days begin quietly. The mornings are calm; it's dark until 9:15 am right now. It is so nice not to hear any cars in the morning. I get up, get the coffee going, make breakfast, and get ready for the day. I do not have a microwave, so I usually make oatmeal on the stove because it's quick and requires little brainpower. I do, however, have to pay some attention to the process because my stovetop has one setting: turbo. Water boils in under two minutes and the oatmeal will burn by about five minutes total, so I try not to walk away while anything is cooking.

This is my house with Kindergarten Teacher posing for you.
I lucked out by getting a 2-BR house to myself. That will
change when we move up to the new housing this fall. 

Other teacher "barn" housing nearby.

7:15ish: Leave for school. It is about an eight-minute walk. We all have first hour prep, which is nice because I just am not able to speak successfully at that hour of the day. And, truth be told, I usually have some things I still need to plan or print.

8:45 am: The bell rings for first period, which is the elective class.  I teach Health, and this class consists of six or seven 7th-12th grade girls, depending on the day. After that, I have two 70-minute classes of science, first the 8th-9th graders and then the 10th-12th graders.

Side note: I say just "science" because our district uses the level system; this basically means I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, teaching several topics at once. I have 7th graders at the 5th grade level, and 10th graders at the 7th grade level. Just two students are in biology, which is level 11. The kids are grouped mostly by age, but somewhat by maturity as well. The widest level spread is my most mature group (thankfully), in which levels span 7-11.

I generally have groups at the same level working on their own projects in the morning.  It is not out of the ordinary for basic chemistry, the rock cycle, and cell structure all to be happening at the same time. Teaching this way requires a lot of prep time but very little actual lecturing time, though I try to do that occasionally to keep kids on track and mix it up a bit.

12:15 pm: Lunch - time to breathe a bit and switch gears for the younger classes of the afternoon. I usually bring mine.

12:50 pm: Two more afternoon classes for the younger grades. The first is mostly 7th graders, the second is mostly 8th graders with a couple 9th graders thrown in. Since they are younger, I keep the afternoon classes together in terms of content. It would be chaos otherwise.

3:20 pm: Homeroom for 10 minutes. I have my first longer 'block' group of the day for homeroom, and they always keep me on my toes. Most of them are 9th graders and have lots of energy.

3:30 pm: The bell! Most days, I just sit at my desk and hope that I can find a few minutes of quiet. Other days, students come in to chat or just to sit and draw; apparently I have the best colored pencils on the second floor. I am happy to let them hang out and chit chat with me or each other. While they do that, I check my email, attempt to process the day and get ready for tomorrow.

The school.  To the right is the new teacher housing that is being built.
The move-in date is rapidly approaching!

I am usually back to my house by 6:00 pm. If I haven't gotten enough exercise running around my room, I'll pop in a workout DVD to clear my head for half an hour. Then it's supper time, and I usually try to convince myself to go back up to the school to use the internet. Some nights internet wins; others, we teachers throw in a movie. If I'm really lucky, I get to spend a few precious minutes practicing guitar or indulging in a tiny bit of recreational reading.

My evenings may change soon as I have added a new title: assistant volleyball coach for the high school Mixed Six team! Mixed Six is - you guessed it - a team comprised of three boys and three girls, and boys can have only two consecutive hits. I was tapped for this position simply because I am the first teacher here to have any sort of volleyball experience. I've only helped a few days, but practice is from 6-8 most nights. I am already sore from playing with these young'uns, but it's been so much fun! Even better, I get a bit more respect in the classroom. Hey, whatever works, right?

Below is just another shot of the sky from my classroom. If you tire of these, let me know. The sky just seems bigger here, if that makes any sense at all.

So, that's generally how my day goes. Each day is different and challenges me in a new way. Daily, my kids teach me more than I teach them. The mix of teachers we have here is starting to gel, and I am excited for the year ahead.

Just one week remains in the quarter, and next week I go to Anchorage (all paid for by the district - bonus!) for a conference on the school environment's impact on children's health, and how that affects their learning. Five days in the city will do me some good; I can't wait to have a little wine, beer and access to cable television! 

Seal flippers? Um, yes, please!

This morning during first hour, the principal came to me and asked if I'd be interested in any seal bones to articulate, or put together, either as a class project or to have as a resource in the classroom. Well, by golly, of course I would! I figured he knew a guy who had access to one, and went about my morning.

I didn't expect to have access to any seal parts as soon as I would. The principal found me with about 10 minutes left in my lunch break and said, "They're butchering the seal now! Get to the Yup'ik room if you still want those bones - they are about to cut them up and eat them if you don't speak for them!"

So much for a few minutes to relax...I hurried to the Yup'ik room where the cutting was taking place. Buster, a hilarious fellow and the school handyman, looked at me and said, "Hi Sunshine, how are we today?" (Unfortunately, I cannot clearly communicate how he says this sentence; it is always in one breath, without pauses, and just below shouting level. Perhaps a better representation is "HI SUNSHINE HOW ARE WE TODAY?" The only variation is that other days he calls me Nichole, "Sugarplum," or, if he is speaking of me to another person, "that there woman." I'm starting to get that my name is not too common up here.)  Buster is a wiry yet boisterous character, and I have one of his sons in class. More on him in the future.

Anyway, Buster and another woman, one of the elders in the community, were working on the seal. They cut up the blubber into a bucket, where it will eventually change into oil at room temperature. Seal oil is a precious commodity here; it will be shared amongst the villagers as equitably as possible. Buster gave me the flippers to use in class and offered to boil the bones for preservation. The principal, a student and I rinsed off the flippers and the tail, and I rushed upstairs to meet my afternoon class, bag of seal parts in hand. I gave a brief talk on adaptations and the students then got to play with the flippers. It was a pretty good lesson, and fit right in with our current theme. Also, I have found that if I put whatever I am talking about into terms of bear, salmon, moose, wolf, or seal, I have 'em hooked, which is half the battle of teaching here. Or anywhere, really.

No pictures right now, but they will be up as soon as I get my hands on them!  Hope this story shed some light on how a typical day goes for me. Thanks for reading!

Life in a Screensaver

Most of the leaves are gone now, and we expect snow to cover everything soon. In light of this reality, this post will focus on the beautiful scenes I've been able to capture in my experiences so far. Most are my images; some are from other teachers.  Enjoy!

Sunset on the beach at Mountain Village. This picture doesn't even really do it justice. 

Same sunset as above, just a few minutes earlier. 

Beach at Mountain Village.

Winding slough on the way to the airport. 

Canoe trip from a few weeks ago. I am the second one from the left. Accompanying me L-R are Special Ed Teacher, the visiting public health nurse from Bethel, and 4th-5th Teacher. 

The water was spectacular. I wanted to ski, but the water temperature probably would have made me cry.

Canoe trip from two weeks ago. No, I'm not winking, that's just my lazy eye. 

Nearing the end of this branch...isn't that a crazy reflection?

We beached the canoe and braved the mucky banks to explore the tundra a bit - 4th-5th Teacher nearly sank and lost her boots as we got out, but we survived. Shortly after this picture was taken, I slipped as well but did a quick 180-degree turn and caught myself on a tree branch. 4th-5th Teacher said, "You're pretty scrappy like a cat so I don't really worry about you, but I sorta feel like I should have my hand on your collar, just in case!" Sounds about right.

Just too cool not to include. 

Sunset view from near my front door.  Definitely a pleasant goodbye to any day. 

And now two pictures from the week in Anchorage in August - more to come in the future!

The Chugach Mountains - we took a day trip to view the Portage Glacier.

Double rainbow - first I'd ever seen.