Why I love Elementary...

"Its the 10th Anniversary, what are you going to sell me for CHEAP." ~Sammy while reading an email.

"You're married?" ~Jana's student

"No, its a store that I bought my sewing machine from."~ Sammy

"You're married to a store?!"~ Student

**Giggles** Jana, 2 more students and Sammy

"No, it means its ten years since they've been open."~Sammy

Bats, buddy reading, and volleyball.

This week our theme was bats... We had fun reading the Magic School bus book about bats and then getting to watch the Going Batty DVD... We learned that bats sleep hanging upside down, use echolocation and we learned what guano is. :) The kids thought that was funny... (Its bat poop.)

We had the privilege of working with some high school students two different afternoons. The writing teacher, Holly, had her students write their own children's book so they high schoolers came down to read their books to us. It was fun to watch the big kids and little kids working so well together. My students loved having older buddies to read with and I think it was a good opportunity for my kids to see that they can be authors too!

Sharing the couch with our big kid friends.

Giggles at the stories.

Rockin new teacher showing the kids how its done. And a few first graders showing the big kids how to sit and listen.

Thats the most still those two boys EVER sit. :)

Criss cross applesauce, hands in your lap.

The big kids were scared to read so my sweet child read to them instead. (And our awesome bats on the board with bat facts!)

We had an assembly on Thursday to pump the kids and staff up for the weekend of home volleyball games. We just finished our first night of games and our kids did awesome. They have been working very hard and their teamwork has improved so much. We beat Pilot Station in 5 games. Then we played Scammon Bay and beat them in 3.

Over all its been a fabulous week. I'm exhausted, my roommate is back and she has a cold. So, I'm hoping to get enough sleep tomorrow night and Sunday to NOT get sick again... I'll see if anyone has any pictures from the games tonight. Aaaannnndddd.... I'm off to bed so I can be back at school in 6 1/2 hours for breakfast and more volleyball. Whoop whoop!

Fire safety practice with Jana's class

Stop!

Drop!

ROLL!!

Roll some more...

And some more...

Fall!

and crawl!

Sassy Jimmy was asking me how low you were supposed to crawl... What a funny fellow!

Last Wednesday it was a beautiful sunny day in Alakanuk. My kids had been working hard with me, Sam, and Sarah on learning some fire safety tips. Jana and I did a little co-teaching and decided that perhaps we would give the kids some fresh air and practice what it looks like to fall and crawl and to stop, drop, and roll. Our wonderful para-pro Jimmy was the man behind the camera as we practiced all kinds of fire safety. The kids loved it!

As we were walking down to the road to practice what we should look like in case the school caught on fire, we split boys and girls and sparked a little competition. The kids loved it. They also did a fabulous job of walking with anchors and bubbles across the deck, down the stairs, and to the road.

What a fabulous line! And a ridiculous look on the teacher's face...

Good listeners, fabulous at following directions.

The boys...

The girls...

So I'm not sure exactly what Jana's boy/girl count is... But it is apparent in this picture that there are more boys than girls... I know in my class I have 10 boys and 4 girls... So many sweet children and as soon as we can get school appropriate behavior nailed down I know we'll make HUGE leaps and bounds in learning to read and write and do math. :)

Thanks for all your support folks--the kind words, the helpful hints and the smiles mean so much!

Iced coffee and memories.

For the past week or so I have been on an iced coffee kick... If I lived in the lower 48 or even inland Alaska that might mean stopping by the local coffee shop and grabbing a 20 iced vanilla latte... However, since I am in Bush Alaska I improvise and make my own... That means my daily iced coffee is what I would have consumed hot simply poured over ice...

As I was watching the ice melt and the creamer mix with the coffee it started reminding me of my college days... I have one super super super sweet friend with whom I shared many meals, laughs, homework sessions and a few tears. She is NOT a coffee drinker... However, she loved to fix a cup of coffee for her husband or me or anyone who wanted one because she loved watching the creamer mix with the coffee...

While remembering this fond memory, it got me thinking about how awesome my college career was. I had so many fabulous friends and classmates and professors that made my four years in La Grande the best I could have asked for.

So this post is to say thank you to those of you who made my time at EOU so awesome. Its fabulous to have such strong bonds with my Mountaineer family! Happy homecoming weekend Mounties! Mount up!

Sam squared in the classroom.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch my awesome friend Sam teach in my classroom. (He is the one who inspired me to do my iPod donors choose projects.) So Sam comes up with the super cool lesson where my kids write what they think is the most important thing about fire safety then we use iTalk (an app on the iPod touches he brought with him) to record the rule each of them had written down. Holy moly, at first I was very concerned about how the kids would do. The lesson was in the afternoon and I’ve had a hard time getting the kids to do a ton of writing in the afternoons. (Now that I think about it in my half-exhausted state, perhaps its just that I either a. need more adult support in my room so my writing can be in small group setting, or b. I am not planning lessons that are appropriate difficulty.) Anyway, I was super impressed with Sam’s management of my crazy kids, his patience with them not knowing what to push, etc. The kids were super engaged. They thought it was cool to get to use the iPods and then listen to their own voices. After they were successful with the lesson Sam and I decided that perhaps they’d earned a few minutes of game time on the iPods. They enjoyed the games and getting a little bit of extra technology time.  Here are some pictures of our awesome lesson… And by our, I mean Sam’s awesome lesson. :) Thanks again Sam for coming in and showing us such cool stuff!!! We can’t wait to get our iPods and start using them every day in our room.

Working with iPods on recording what we had written down.

**I deleted a few pictures because I realized you could see kids' names... I'll do some editing and put them back in ASAP...**

MMMM Gator... and Fire Safety Week

This is one heck of a busy week. It’s been so fun to have fire safety week. Sarah and I spent THREE AND A HALF HOURS on a bulletin board… You all know how artistic and creative I am…. So, it all started with a genius idea that I concocted last week… I wanted on my long bulletin board a fire scene complete with awesome firefighters who looked like some firefighters I know/worked with… On one end I wanted an awesome fire truck with a Dalmatian and on the other end I wanted a burning house… So, I mentioned this to Sarah this weekend and she is MUCH more artistic than I am. She helped me carry out the plan. Here are a few pictures…

Our burning house... It now has water droplets with rules like Stop, drop and roll. Don't hide.  Fall and crawl, etc. 

Our spray of water across the hallway.

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Our fireman and his truck. I really wanted to put Ana's face on the wall, but I didn't have a picture of her. 

Just missing our Dalmatian!

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Monday the commissioner of education was supposed to come to our school in addition to all of the directors from our district office and our regional school board members. With all the extra people in our building I decided I probably should be on my A game. :) So, I wore a nice blouse, fixed my hair so it wouldn’t be too wild, and amped up my teaching game.

The best part of my week this far was DEFINITELY when Sam cooked dinner… MMMMMMM we had gator, sweet potato fries and deer sausage. Good food, good company, and lots of laughter. Then an after-dark walk with my good friend Joshua. Some silly conversation and fresh air was a great end to a fabulous day teaching.

Weekend festivities

Yesterday was a busy day in the life of Sammy Jo... It started with an early wake up so I could go say goodbye to a good friend who is moving into Anchorage to be with the rest of his family. Took him some Gramma Robison bread to give his wife and kids... Then it was traditional pancake breakfast with the AUK family and a trip to the P.O. From noon to two we had open gym for students who had earned brave bucks. (Similar to our old Way to Go Broncos.) It was so fun to see the students in an environment that wasn't sitting in my classroom or in a school mindset. Here are a few pictures... 

Paul helping some older kids with computers. 

The middle of a dodge ball fight with Clark and Nathaniel and a bunch of kids.

Practicing Native Youth Olympics... I THINK this one is Alaska high kick?

A little volleyball. Woo!

After the open gym we had a bonfire with some other teachers and a few of the high school Natural Helpers. We built a fire--it was tough to do because we've had a ton of rain this week... And we shot my 22 through 2 pour downs and some drizzly weather. We roasted hot dogs and made smores. (Since I'm STILL no sugar I just handed out the goods.) Here are a bunch of ridiculous pictures captured by either Jana, Michaela, Sarah or myself. Enjoy! :)

Our own little Elmer Fudd in AUK.

Sweet Holly making Sarah a hat at the bonfire.

Oh dear... 

You can see the rain clouds to the right... But a beautiful sky!

Two of these are my toys, the third is what I really want... Oh Santa...

A beautiful day to shoot a gun!

Again... Oh dear.

Loading my baby up, ready for another round of target practice on a bread machine.

Michaela loves shooting, too!

Oh what a pretty place I live in.

Taste the rainbow!

We're the village people.... YMCA!

Sarah thought it'd be a great idea to make AUK... I think we look ridiculous.

Silly girls. So much entertainment from these two. :)

And these two are SUPER ridiculous... Oh the antics...

Yay for Samsung, Winchester and inspiration from Annie Oakley.

Modern day Annie right there. :) 

I focus better with my tongue out. :) 

Fartin fire?! :)

Hot dog roast... BUT my stick burned through and I almost lost my dinner. :(

I thought this was cool... You could hear the moisture sizzling out of the wood.

These boots been everywhere...

Jana warms her buns over a campfire with her hot dog... Nathaniel also warms his buns by the campfire...

Here is a taste of my weekend... Now I'm in my classroom late at night with another hour or two of work to get done before I can go home and to bed... Happy Fire Safety week to you all!!!