Sunday, October 13, 2013

Boat ride, home games, pep rally

Its been another busy week! I am having a hard time believing we're 2 short weeks away from the end of first quarter. Yikes! Guess I better get caught up on grades and such, eh?

Last Sunday, after I finished my last blog, I got a phone call to go out on a boat ride. Well, who am I to turn down a fun afternoon chasing maqlaq? :) We chased a few and John caught one. It was awesome get some fresh air. We had fish over campfire and I went hunting with boys for birds and mice.


Makes me miss my cousins!



Mouse hunting.

Supper time!

Cousins.


Headed home.
The week was smooth, uneventful, and fun. The kids are I spent a lot of time talking about what pets need, how to treat them, etc. It was fun to discuss different kinds of pets and made me wonder about getting a class pet... I'll keep you posted.

On Tuesday a box of zucchini and banana muffins came, courtesy of Aunt Toni. The kids loved them!!!
Thanks Aunt Toni!


Thursday afternoon the Natural Helpers had a pep rally for the volleyball team since we hosted games this weekend. The team members had a contest to see who could eat a cool whip pie fastest and the winner would get to pie a teacher in the face. The high schoolers voted on which teacher and, much to my disappointment, I was 2nd place. (Culea said she was highly entertained reading the votes... "Sammy I joke Nathan" or "Nathan I joke Sammy" were common choices... The kids school wide seemed to really enjoy the pep rally.




Winner!

Nathan... Waiting for his pie in the face.


Friday and Saturday we hosted volleyball games. Teams from Nunam Iqua and Scammon Bay. I spent a total of 13 extra hours at school reffing, coaching, or supervising. It was a great time. Proud of our team for coming out of the weekend 4-0. Good work, kiddos! Thanks to the community for the support. I am very proud of the teamwork I'm seeing with our group as well as the positive attitudes and encouragement. Keep it up, Braves!

Here's to another week of first grade! So excited to continue moving forward and learning and discovering!

xoxo,
SJ

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Three weeks of fun!

Whoa. So the last post was the day after our last open gym...  We had another one yesterday, but the past 3 weeks have been full of so many other fun adventures, I'm not even sure where to start...


The week of September 16th our cross country coaches, Holly and Nathaniel, hosted an informal race for our elementary students who had been practicing. Our district has cut all travel for elementary sports (don't even get me started on that...) but they wanted our students to get to compete too. So, after work and a walk to the PO, I went out to the deck and watched the munchkins run.

The following weekend I travelled to KSM to visit some friends and enjoy a pig roast BBQ. It was great to hang out and catch up with the crew after the summer. The following week was a short week at school. Thursday and Friday were inservice days. The first two years I worked here, everyone travelled to either Hooper Bay or Mountain Village for two days of training. This year, for what I assume to be budget issues, teachers were given the choice to stay at their home sites and participate in various meetings and training via video teleconferencing or to travel to Kotlik (middle and high school teachers) for district wide write grading or to travel to Pilot Station (elementary teachers) to participate in Elementary CM. Since I've done so much work with elem CM this summer and attended the training in Portland in July, I went to Pilot Station to train 22 elementary teachers in how to use this to support our English Language Learners.

It was a fabulous 2 days of training. I met some new (and VERY entertaining) friends. We shared the CM love. We ended up getting weathered in for an extra night in Pilot Station. Despite my many phone calls and texts to my pilot friend Mike, there wasn't anything he could do to get us home Friday night. The cross winds were high that night. However, because Mike is so awesome, he got us home first flight Saturday morning. Our bush order had also come in while I was gone and my friends put everything away for me. Thanks Becca and Holly!! :)

When I finally got home, I whipped up a batch of clam chowder and took a long nap to catch up from sleeping on a classroom floor for 3 nights. Sunday, rather than being responsible and going to my classroom to catch up on grading, organizing, and preparing for the week, I went out on a boat ride with Greg and Aggie to pick up Robyn's moose.

Last week flew by. It was a great week despite my lack of prior planning. Lessons went smoothly, mornings were early and nights were late, but Sammy Jo didn't go crazy on anyone or fall asleep while teaching. :) Friday was perhaps the BEST early out inservice day I have ever had. Our staff ordered moosestache shirts in response to Russian Mission's tuxedo shirts on the first early out. It was a hit. Teachers and admin were smiling and laughing at our ridiculous antics via VTC. Made the meeting go by quicker and staff morale was much higher. Looking forward to seeing what each site comes up with over the course of the year! :)

Yesterday we had our second brave buck open gym. It was a different turn out this time. The first open gym was a good mix of K-12 students. However, this time there were more elementary students and hardly any high schoolers. It was fun just the same. :)

After open gym, Theresa and I created an awesome, culturally sensitive mural for our fall reading race. One good thing that came out of being weathered in at Pilot, was a good discussion about how to change our "fall into reading" race (with maple leaves) into a more culturally sensitive plan. We decided to do "Spear a Good Book" and create a mural of a seal hunting scene. It took us more than 2 hours, and despite our lack of artistic ability, I must admit, I'm pretty proud of the finished project. I also had a conversation with my administrator and it made me feel much better about my abilities as a teacher.

Today consists of grading, blogging, planning and prepping for this week, catching up on homework, and baking bread. :)

xo,
SJ
First frost of the year...

And they're off!

A few extra students and some family members came out to support our kids!

Goofy kids (and adults!)

While the knee is feeling better, this was one particularly swollen evening... 

No coffee pot at home, so I MacGyvered it so I could take coffee with me on a boat ride.

Out seal hunting with Bummer, Steph, Shania, Gramma Mary, and John.

First snow came!! 9/22 I think...

Headed to Pilot

Me and Culea. :)

Theresa and I spreading the CM love!

In case you can't read it... "To Jamie and Sam: please lower your voices.
You are so loud, my ears were ringing."

"I love you"

Mike to save the day!

Mmmm... Mom's recipe!

So many good recipes in here. :)

VHF antennae holder. He takes his job seriously. :)

The kids doing some stretching exercises brought to you by Linus Pauling
Institute at Oregon State University. Thanks Susan for the DVD!

Post PT... 90 minutes of PT...

Assembly to celebrate perfect attendance... This is our K-6 population.

Staff meeting... "If you moosestache a question... Please raise your hand."

Culea and I rocking our outfits.

Spear a good book!

Gaaaayyyy mukluk!