Robotics, Basketball & Sirens

This is what our family spends time doing nowadays. The Mr. is the coach for our robotics team at school. It is open to fourth through eighth graders so the Boy is on the team but the Girl opted not to join. The kids spent the first part of October playing with the Legos and getting the board ready. They also played around with the robot and the computer. They will have to learn how to program the computer and connect the robot to it. The team has to plan out how they will have the robot accomplish its tasks on the playing board. PLUS, they have to research and make a presentation on the year's theme. This year's theme is "climate." They're supposed to do a project on how climate presents a problem in our community and what would be a possible solution. Needless to say, enthusiasm was much higher before the research started! The meet is set for Bethel on Dec. 5 - 6.

Basketball practice begins on Monday after Thanksgiving. The Mr. is going to coach and I'll be team mom. My job will be to tutor kids who want to play ball but are ineligible. They will be able to work-out (exercise) with the team but when practice with the ball starts each day --- they will go to tutoring. This will be new to them and I'm sure some of them will be very unhappy this year. Eligibility is dependent on attendance and grades. Don't come to school = you don't play ball, or go to movie-night, or whatever.

Which somehow makes me think..... Have I told you about the siren? Every night the VPO (village police officers) runs their siren to signal curfew. Weeknights right now close down at 9:00. Weekends are 10:00. In the summer it will be 11:00. Kids wander the village until these times and sometimes even later. During Slavik (Russian Orthodox religious celebration) kids and adults will be out all night, even though the siren will go off. Anyway, we love the siren at our house. The playground is right outside our front door and kitchen window. Some nights it's a real relief when everyone goes home.

Out on the Tundra

I took these pictures back in September. We borrowed the school four-wheeler and trailer and went out to Fox Lake. We picked berries and went sight-seeing. The rest of the family had been out there last year but it was my first time. It was very interesting walking on the tundra. The ground was VERY spongy - sort of like the moonwalk at the fair. You really can bounce. And the colors were gorgeous. These pictures don't show it but when you're out there and looking down at the ground, it's amazing how many different plants there are and each one is a different color. So... our fall here is much different than Oklahoma. No trees but still a lot of color if you know how to find it.

We got the snow-go on Friday night. Joe hitched a ride into Bethel with a couple of teachers from a nearby village. We are 28 miles northwest of Bethel. The trip on a snow-go is almost 2 hours. He said the trip there was pretty rough and it wasn't much better on the way back. Closer into Bethel they ran into overflow --- where the tidewater pushes up through the ice. And, he said they actually saw open holes in the ice on the river at one place. Auggghhh! Anyway, we had to work at school on Saturday but when we finished ----- we were out and playing on the snow-go! It's great. Now we are so bound into the village. At least we can visit other villages and go to their stores. Yay! It costs about $240 to charter a flight into Bethel. Now we can for a lot less.

Family

Grandma and PaPa came to visit us last month. They flew to the village and stayed with the grandkids while we were in Anchorage for J's hand surgery. Grandma got to substitute for me that week. I was so glad she was here and able and willing to help out. My students really enjoyed having them here. We talk about D and C a lot now in class.

The bottom picture is from the summer. Those are the grandkids. Two in Oklahoma, one in Missouri and two in Alaska. That will keep the grandparents busy in retirement---- just traveling!

He's My Helper

The boy is my really good helper. Many times he will dry while I wash the dishes. Here he is helping out all by himself. Last night he was all lovie-dovie with me on the couch. He's a special boy.

Akutaq

This picture is from earlier this fall during berry picking season. These are basically blueberries from the tundra. The kids picked them one day and we made Eskimo Ice Cream (Akutaq) the next. You mix crisco, sugar and berries and in this instance fruit cocktail to make it go farther. Sometimes they will add white fish to it. You mix by hand --- no spoon --- whipping it until it is creamy. Then you add the berries. Everyone enjoyed it.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin ..... now that's a name you are going to hear a lot in the next few months. She's governor of Alaska and we think she's going to be great. We especially hope that she can shed some light in Washington about education in our state.

It's Saturday and I'm at school laminating all the stuff I bought over the summer. It's amazing. I went to the store and oohhhed and ahhhhed and then we shipped it out. Now we've spent this week opening tubs and oooohing and ahhhing once again. What fun! Of course, I don't have space in my room for all this..... gonna have to get creative.

It's 53 degrees and wet and rainy. Joe's hoping for early snow. I want freeze-up so he can go to Bethel and pick up the snow-go!

Back in Alaska

We arrived in Anchorage on August 6. We spent the summer in Oklahoma and enjoying the heat. NOT!!!! I definitely do NOT miss that Oklahoma heat. We did like getting to see all our friends and relatives. Everyone wanted to know more and more about Alaska so I will try to blog more regularly. No promises. :)

We bought groceries and such for a few days in Anchorage and shipped them out to the village. We flew out to Bethel (400 miles west) and spent a couple of days going to 2nd year teacher orientation. We rented a van in Bethel this time and really enjoyed our freedom there. Otherwise, we would have to pay for a taxi everytime we wanted to go somewhere. They charge by the person so the fare for the four of us was $20 one way anytime we wanted to go some place. And out to the airport was $28!!! So with the van we got to see how the city is laid out and we spent some time at the port just watching the fishermen.

We arrived in Akula on Wednesday night, August 13. Oh! It was soooo good to be home. Everywhere we went people would come and tell us, "Welcome home." They were right. It is home for us.

The sun is still up at 10:00 and it is light at 11:00. The kids play basketball for hours and hours after school. It has been cool here all summer and dry. A front came through yesterday and we got some rain. Today has been beautiful and the temp is around 50 degrees. It feels like Oklahoma fall. I love it.

I have 21 kids this year so far. They are kindergarten, first and second graders. They are wonderful. I have lots of help and my schedule is great. 8:30 to 12:00 nearly kills me but we get so much done. I love my classroom, too, this year. I finally got rid of all the extra stuff and got it arranged so that I am comfortable with it. That helps a great deal.

Joe has 16 kids. He is teaching 3rd and 4th graders. He is SO HAPPY this year. Yes, there are problems but not like he had last year ---- we moved THOSE kids over to the main building for somebody else!!!! ;)

Son and daughter are doing very well. S is in a new class and she is letting him fly so he is not bored. Also, the new high school teacher is going to give Nathan drum lessons. D is in high school reading and writing. She is working very hard to finish phase work in math so she can be called a full-fledged high schooler! Not so happy about that (for myself) but glad she is doing well. She plans to write another speech for contest this year and is looking forward to basketball season.

Okay --- I'll stop for now. I need to save some of the more exciting stuff for tomorrow! If I really watch it, we could get 5 or 6 blogs about life here in the village! Ha!