Back to Work

Okay! So today is the first day back to work after summer vacation. Luckily, my brain has not atrophied quite as much over this summer as I have let it in years past. For example, the year I refused to make any decisions. Someone said, "Get in the car," I got in the car. It was nice, but it made coming back to work REALLY hard.

My online class towards my masters has been going for two weeks now, and I've already turned in a paper, so that helped keep my brain going. Also, playing thinking games on my iPad. (Sure, that sounds good. Let's go with that.)

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual Shishmaref Teacher Polar Bear Dip.  And the water was frigid. Believe me. Actually, it wasn't any worse than trying to swim in the ocean in western Washington. And we did pick a day with scattered sunshine, so that helped a little bit once we got back out. 

The new schedule for the school year is out, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. Because of the new School Improvement Grant we're in this year, we are doing our usual week of inservices, followed by an additional week of training. To make up for those five days without kids, we're sneaking those days in throughout the school year. So if you see some Saturday school days, that's why. 

And in case you were wondering what our weekly schedule will look like, here it is. the blocks that we're doing in the afternoons will all be attended on Wednesday mornings. It's going to be confusing at first, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

Anchorage

I'm so tired. Welcome Wagon was a success. More to come.

Summer

Okay, no pictures have been posted. No lists made. No posts entitled clever things like, "I went all the way to Utah and all I got was this crummy toothache."

I'm a bad poster. Unless one realizes that this blog is about my Alaskian adventures, and I haven't had any this summer.

Blogging

Yeah!! I was able to log in again. Updates about the senior trip as soon as I download pictures.

Waiting

I've already written once about what "waiting" means here in the bush. Recap: to go to the city to wait for the baby to come.

And a funny update on that: One of Amy's 5 year olds told their mother, in regards to their new baby: "Maybe you should take that baby back to Anchorage."  Ahh, sibling rivalry.

But today's post is about the other kind of waiting. The kind that most of us do on a daily basis in a myriad of ways. Specifically, it's about the difference between waiting up here, and waiting over the summer.

Things you wait for, that I don't:

-The car to warm up
-The light to turn green
-Right of way
-Stalled trafic

-Lines at the grocery store
-Lines at the bank
-Lines at the laundromat

-Waiters, plumbers, road crew, tellers, cashiers, etc.

However, there are a couple things I have to wait for. Things that take considerably longer than most of the things you wait for. For example:

-Mail Order Groceries
-Mail Order Clothes
-Mail Order movies, video games, toiletries, Christmas presents, books, and fruit.

On the positive side of that, it's not like I'm actually sitting at the post office that whole time, waiting for my new clothes to come in.

-The dentist to come to town
-Airplanes - but I maintain that my waiting around for three hours wringing my hands to see if the plane is going to make it is far superior to your daily commutes.


I leave Shishmaref in a week, and all of my non-waiting will go away, and I'll join you all at the drive through. I'll be the one in the white pickup truck, with an exasperated expression on my face.

Last Day of School

Good Morning Everyone!!

Today is the last day of school for the students of Shishmaref School, for the 2010-2011 school year.

And I want to cry.

Usually I'm tired, cranky, and ready to be gone. Usually, I'm so fed up with my seniors that I'm glad to see them leave. I think they build in that 18-year-old attitude so we don't feel bad about them leaving. Unfortunately, this year everyone was sweet, kind, diligent, and hard-working. And I'm going to miss them!!

Actually, as I sit here, my first period class is coming in, and getting their work out to finish up and turn in before class is over. This is the LAST DAY of school, and we're on early release, and every other school in the country is cleaning out lockers, scrubbing white-boards, and taking down bulletin boards.

I'm not saying that isn't happening here. Brandi, for example, turned in her big, honking research paper yesterday, and I just didn't have the heart to make her start a new assignment. So today she's going to fix book shelves and put stuff away. Poor kid.

And while the rest of the school districts in the U.S. are having trips to the zoo, field days, and outside recess, we are still surrounded by this:

Sheesh. That's all I have left to say about this snow.

Since when?

I once had the opportunity to travel to Elim, to visit a friend, Anna Squires (soon to be something else!!!!)

Their teacher housing has been made by gutting the old school, and building apartments in it. The old offices are now itinerant housing, and the old kitchen is now group storage. The other rooms got split up into bedrooms and had bathrooms and kitchens added to make apartments.

In the old school hallway, which is still the apartment hallway, one of the teachers hung up a big piece of poster-board, and they would write down when someone said something funny or insightful. One quote in particular caught my eye, and went something like this:

For the 2nd highest paid group of teachers in the country, we sure do dress like we're homeless.

I try to maintain a little dignity, but he's got a point. I've seen more sweat-pants, tattered t-shirts, and gym shorts on staff here than at any office or school I've ever seen.

Several of the principals have realized this too, and have started imposing dress codes on us. Usually the basic: No holes, stains, tears, inappropriate logos, etc.  As long as I can continue wearing denim skirts and embellished t-shirts, I'll be fine.

I hadn't really thought about this much lately, but today, while on Facebook (after 4, of course) I saw an ad on the side of the page:

Um, is this what you guys think we look like? And this ad isn't even for "stop being a cannibalistic serial killer and become a teacher" kind of people. No, this one is for CURRENT teachers, looking for their masters. 

Classes USA, if this is the sort of person you're trying to attract, I will not be calling you. Ever.