December craziness.

December was here and gone before I knew what hit me... It started with a tour of the new school (see previous blog post) and an opportunity to be on a committee to choose new reading curriculum for our district. It was a very interesting process and I am so grateful that I was able to be part of the committee to choose the curriculum. I am very excited to get it and implement it into my classroom next year.

After getting back to Alakanuk, I had 8 1/2 days of teaching left in the term... That meant only 8 1/2 days to get my kids ready for the Christmas program while still maintaining our routine of reading and math rotations... Holy cow. As it turns out, it was enough time... The kids had fun, the community loved it and the staff did a great job of pulling everything together.

Some of the staff pulled off a surprise dance at the end of the program. The crowd LOVED it. :) You can find it on Youtube here... http://youtu.be/czhBVggFnJA Go ahead and watch it, and like it. We wanna be on Ellen. :)

The trip to Oregon was an interesting one... We got out of AUK on time and were excited that we had good weather. When we got to St. Mary's (KSM) we were informed that the dash 8 (the 35ish seater plane that takes us from KSM to ANC) was having mechanical issues and wouldn't leave ANC until at least 1... So, we settled in for a few hour wait... Most of us hadn't packed lunch or even snacks because we're silly and we forgot so one of the pilots ran us to the AC store in St. Mary's... Turns out every they called to give us an update they were putting off the plane coming for another hour or 45 minutes. By about 4 some of us had given up hope that we'd make it out of KSM that night... Some of the pilots were trying really hard to problem solve and get us to town SOMEWAY... Finally around 6 we got a call that said the dash still wasn't fixed but they had another that had been doing charters all day that would be available to leave ANC around 7... This was going to get us into ANC around 1030-11... A few of my coworkers had scheduled the 1130 or 1230 red eye flights so they were stressing if they'd make their flights... Everything ended up working out okay. Jana, Zoey, and I got their luggage to mail while they sprinted to their gates. Everyone has made it home safely and will be spending Christmas with their families. Thank goodness for staff having different flights out of ANC because as it turned out, Jana and I didn't have time to get their stuff mailed... So we had to call upon Paul and Cheryl to take care of it for us.

Now its time to relax,  enjoy the beauty of Oregon and the ridiculousness of my family. :) Can't wait for them all to get here!! YAY!

New School Tour

So over Labor Day weekend we were able to tour the new school... And I blogged about it... Just kidding--I didn't blog about it. Maybe I mentioned it on Facebook about how I was so excited for the exposed beams, the huge gym, and the woods/metals shop... At any rate, I ran into the guy in charge of the construction crew and mentioned that I'd like to see the progress they've made... He said no problem. So yesterday morning Holly, Nathan, Sarah, Culea, and I piled in the van and headed for the new school with Deana and Katie on their 4 wheelers behind us...

Even though it was Sunday, there were a few guys up on the roof finishing a section.

The front of the school... Those windows are in the main office-perhaps the principal's and assistant principal's offices?

Looking toward the main office, teacher's lounge, principal's and assistant principal's offices, and 2 time out rooms. So when you walk in the door this is to the left.

We put Sarah in time out... Time room--2 of them between Diane's and Cheryl's offices with a window connected to their office as well.

To the right of the entrance... I think he said this will be the library. 

The gym!!! SO EXCITED for a big gym.

One of the classrooms... Gonna be good sized. 

Walking down the hall of the elementary classrooms.

Upstairs. I'm sad to see that all but the last 5 feet of those beams will be covered. 

View from one of the classrooms upstairs. So pretty!

Looking down from the upstairs hallway.

So, closest to the far right of the picture is the library. Then between the two rows of metal is the computer room, and at the far left is the Yupik room.

Same here... Far left is the Yupik room, then computer room, then the library, and the far right is the entrance hallway.

Its looking pretty good!! :) So exciting to see the progress.

This is Katie and Louis's new Can Am 4 wheeler... I think it'll be my next big "you will never be out of debt" purchase.