Arctic Adventures

Boy, has this been a busy week!  We had our Christmas Program on Tuesday.  My students sang Away in the Manger in Inupiaq, then Silent Night in English, and we played Jingle Bell Rock on the recorders.  Some other teachers and I did a little skit to the Chipmunk song and it was quite funny.  I will have to add pictures later.  We had our arms and legs in the sleeves of a sweatshirt then pulled the sweatshirt over our body and put our head through the hole--so we looked little.  The audience and the kids loved it. Today was the start of the SIVU basketball tournament here.  It's the kick off to the season with 4 boys and 4 girls teams playing here.  I went in to catch the girls game, because I have been helping out a bit, and got roped into doing the scoreboard for boys and girls, of course :)   Also, I have been trying to get packed and cleaned to leave on Saturday for a wonderful vacation on top of planning ahead in the classroom.  It's never ending :) One last note:  Tonight

I finally started the Home Ec program this weekend.  I baked and decorated Christmas cookies this morning with the elementary students.   We started baking at 11:00 am, and all of the kids were rolling their eyes, because it was "So EARLY" haha. It was a lot of fun and some high schoolers came in to help.  After we decorated the cookies, the kids delivered them to elders.   The sun was just rising above the mountains today at 1:36 (I will post a picture of what it looked like at this point as soon as I get one from Alision), then I looked out the window at 1:43 and it was already set!  December 22 is the shortest day and the sun will not even rise here. Yesterday, a parent came in and we made and decorated gingerbread houses with the kids for the last hour of the day.  It was a great activity because the energy level is HIGH as Christmas Break is approaching, but they were occupied and QUIET and even working together.  It was WONDERFUL.  The day got even better then, because

Today in Reading something about snow days came up, so I was telling the kids that some schools in the UP had snow days because they had a huge storm.  (Background:  there are NO snow days here.  No matter what, we trudge through the snowdrifts.  No need to worry about cars going in the ditch here :)  Anyway, back to the snow day discussion.  They could not understand the idea of not going to school because of the weather.  I told them that the roads get covered and very unsafe, so the busses can't travel.  They asked, "Why can't they just ride their snow-gos?" "Not everyone has snow-gos.  They drive cars most of the time." "Well can't they just walk?"  they asked I tried to explain, "No they can't walk, because some people live far away."  "Well people that live down town (1 mile about) just get up earlier if they have to walk." I tried hard not to laugh, "But some people live 10 or 20 miles away from their school?

With Christmas fast approaching, I am getting excited for my visit back home.  Not only am I excited for the approaching holiday, but my students are as well.  The energy level has visibly risen in the last few days.  Today, we had an assembly to recognize perfect attendance for November and Student of the Month.  Assembly behavior has been a weak point for my students, so I was stressing how important it is to behave during the assembly.  I said, "Your parents and aanas and tattas are here, district office members are here, the whole school is here, watching.  Be proud of how well you can behave.  Show them how awesome you are."  A girl raised her hand, "But Ms Kayla, God doesn't want us to be proud."  :)

So, after four months of living here, I just found out that we are not supposed to flush ANYTHING down the toilet. . . like no toilet paper or anything.  The funniest thing is that at the school, they always have a garbage in the bathroom and I looked at it many times and thought, "Well thats kind of weird that people throw their toilet paper in the garbage. . . especially when it has poop on it." HAHA Oops.  I guess it is something with the pipes.  They shift when the tundra shifts and start to break apart, so the inside has cracks and stuff that catch paper.   On another note. . . We are preparing for the Christmas Concert which is coming up quickly...too quickly!  I am trying to teach recorders, so it is going to be interesting.  The big day is the 15th, so wish us luck :)  Also, the big start-of-the-season basketball tournament is here this year, so we dismiss school early the last two days before break.  Woo-hoo!