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!