Finally Done!!

I am finally done!! I graduated at the Kuskokwim Campus on May 08, 2009. I had spent the previous year interning at the Akiuk Memorial School in Kasigluk, Alaska. It was a time honored experience and I would like to thank the Akiuk Staff and students for making my stay and learning experience so wonderful. To my iluungaq-s Darlene, Kendra, Magdalene, Betty, Priscilla, Nastasia and others that I did not mention. I want you to do the same. As one of my students wrote for my mentor Sonya "Taking a Test is Like a Bike Crash!", it is not impossible to go through many obstacles to get to your dreams because it is a winding road. Regardless of one bike crash or two, it is fulfilling at the end. Quyana Cakneq! Pingnatugluta, Yuungnaqluta, Kenkakun... Sue

Longer Days!! Finally!!

Quyana to the Akiuk Memorial School for welcoming me. The schedule for classes has been finalized and right now I am going to be interning at the 3rd grade classroom. It's so much better than going classroom to classroom as during the fall semester. Now I am in a contained classroom with the same students all day. They are so aryuqnarqeq, and I kind of missed lower elementary for a while.

Anyways, about Slaaviq!! Our house was second to the last house on the last day. They entered around 4:30 a.m. and the feeding and passing out candies weren't done until 7:30 a.m. That was so hard because everyone was so tired. My favorite part was when we had a guest speaker and he was talking about marriage. It was funny and embarrassing because Carl and I aren't married. Anyways, everyone loved our sea bird duck soup the most and one community member suggested we cook the same soup next year. Wow!!

I hope all is good. I am so thankful for the longer days. Wow!! It's not dark at 5:00 p.m. anymore. I hope you all enjoy the longer days, and this means summer is around the corner. Good day to you all! God Bless!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday break. First of all, this past weekend I went home to Atmautluak to attend a funeral for one of our community members. His name was James M. Nicholai. It was such a beautiful funeral, because he had become Christian before he died.

My family had their annual Christmas dinner this Sunday. We cooked turkey and exchanged presents. Although my sister Faith wasn't there, it was an okay dinner. Faith and her kids are in Bethel to celebrate Qerrat'aq Isaac's birthday, that was on the twentieth.

During this weekend, Carl and I decided that we wanted to hold Slaaviq at our home in Atmautluak. It was an exciting announcement because my older sister Rita said she would help, and that my younger brother-in-law would help too. So exciting!! I'm going to go into Anchorage to shop for Slaaviq needs, and I can't wait!

I had much needed break from interning here at Kasigluk, Alaska. It was such a demanding semester, with full-time interning at the Akiuk Memorial School, and finishing my homework at night. Sometimes I would go home so exhausted and mentally drained. I would like to thank the community of Kasigluk for welcoming me and making my family welcome here. It's been so heart-warming, although I miss my mom and her cooking, I think it has been so great here. The staff are great and the environment is also so encouraging. I can't wait to get my own classroom.

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays, and God Bless to Everyone. Pray for us!!

Traditional Hunting and Fishing

This is a time when our world is changing. Wow! I have never been so challenged as I have been challenged before. I am so grateful for all the help I received in my internship year here in Kasigluk. I got tremendous help from my school district in getting acquainted with the phases and indicators I need for my math methods class. Wow!! I can't say that I'm grateful enough... I have been so busy in trying to raise my children and pursuing my degree. I can't wait until I graduate and thank all the most helpful people that helped me to try to understand the methods I will use. The content is no problem and sometimes I get anxious to acquire my teaching degree and to get my own classroom. I want so much to teach, but I need to finish working on my classes in order to get there. I love the students because I know how they feel. They are all so motivated as Native Alaskans and they must be taught to believe that they can do all things with and through their culture and language in this common world. Gee, it makes me shiver and gives me so much anticipation to push a little harder and to make most of it regardless of technicalities I encounter every day. I spend my time, honest money at the local stores and subsist off the land and still' I motivate myself to do what is right for myself, my children, and My Students. I want to sing to the tunes of drums to celebrate Yup'ik Life and Song. Gee, I'm getting ahead of myself. This picture is of my son. He is well trained in hunting and fishing. He provides meat and fish for my family and that is so much more than common seat time in school. What he is learning is how to write so he can write articles on hunting and fishing and express these ideas into the common world. I could tell he is going to be an honest man. I give myself a pat on the back because I have reminded him that his life and his lifestyle is more valuable than a standardized roadshow, that most people believe in. Nah, I can't wait to get into the classroom. Be determined my Akulmiut people and you can do the same. Keep your heads high and listen to your elderly. Your unique and that's so much special than the common world. You can live through the common world, just stay in school and learn as much so you can to survive the trials by triumphs you made for yourself and not by anyone else.

Atmautluak 2008 Graduating Class!!

Angnirnaqvaall' ukuuni qaqiiciilriani kalikartangluten high school diploma-mek waken Joann Alexie Memorial High School, Atmaulluarmi!! Congratulations to the graduating class of 2008!! Nasektaq Tikiun, Akiq'aq Nick, Nupiig'aq Jacob, Uyang'aq Nicholai-llu. They worked hard during the year, and now they are college bound. This an impressive bunch of students, so colleges of the U.S. heads up HERE THEY COME!!

Winter Deep

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and stayed warm. I anxiously completed my final exams and papers and our semester was finally over. Now I registered for four classes to fulfill my scholarship requirements. This semester I am going to take ED 201, ED 204, EDSE 422, and JRN 308. The excited part was that I only had three more courses to take but I took extra to fulfill my scholarship through LKSD. I have to have 12 credits in order to qualify for LKSD. It also ties me down to LKSD for five years after I graduate and become a certified teacher. Ala-i, I am getting nervous about my intern year! I feel like I'm dumbfounded and unable to believe that I'm almost done. What if I'm not a good teacher? What if I'm not ready? These thoughts have been on my mind for quite a while now. I love teaching and being with students at my work, but what about in a classroom? I had the pleasure of teaching kindergarten as an associate teacher one year, and I wasn't pleased with myself because I was dull. For one thing, I can't sing and another thing I don't play. Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students learn from playing and singing. Now that I have thought about the grade levels I think I want to teacher 3rd through sixth grade students. I really need to find a mentor teacher to do my internship year with. I am going to be placed anywhere if I don't find a mentor teacher. I have had a few in mind but they are out of town or away from their desks. Believe me, I'm saving it for the last to find one. I'm scared!

Panraven Story Book Atmautluak, AK

Panraven Story Book

http://www.panraven.com/visitor/VisitorViewStory.epage?sp=Slink&sp=104131&sp=SMTgzNTA1NzYzNV8xMTk1NzA3ODk4NTc1XzcyMTUzNDk5

STAR GAZING

Wow! I wish I was still' young! These girls are in high school. I was trying to find a winter picture and I asked students if they could give me a picture of a winter scene. I didn't expect this one! I asked "Why you guys laying on the snow?" and Annette Nick answered "We were looking at the stars". I was so impressed by their leisure activity at night that I asked her to mail it to me and give me permission to post it in my blog. I wish I was still' in high school. So many fond memories came to mind. Especially about hanging out outside at night and walking around at night with nothing to do. The weather has been so warm that the common trails continue to be dangerous to travel on. Usually kids just snow machine ride within the village or travel between Nunap, Kasigluk, and Atmautluak. They are just fifteen to twenty minutes on a snow machine and the common trails are usually like a high way by now. What do kids do for fun in a village? I'll let your imagination ponder on that. Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Quyaayaraq

Agaayutmun Quyaunga Ciuqlirmek, Man-a Tekiilluki Nangengqaamta..... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

This group of students are the Algebra I students that take a class through distance delivery via polycom. It's a conference that uses the latest technology of taking classes with the two way streaming from the District Office and the surrounding Lower Kuskokwim School District schools. We have a really good teacher that broadcasts out of Bethel. She is a certified Math teacher, and this is a requirement with our Highly Qualified Teacher policy through the state. All of these wonderful Algebra stars are up to par with their assignments and most, if not all are in the honor roll. I'm a teacher aide for the TV teacher, Kim. She's the most effective math teacher I ever saw and observed. In a huge part, I would like to Thank her because I think she helped me pass my Praxis Math test. I have had the priviledge of aiding her Algebra II, Algebra I, and Geometry courses all through the polycom and it has been a wonderful experience.

As for my after school students, I rearranged my schedule to start at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every night. It has been a success because our attendance has tripled. I even enjoyed the company of two boys since the extra-curricular activities started in September. So far, we have Native Youth Olympics, wrestling, Speech, Future Teachers, Robotics, and Migrant Education running after school. A demanding schedule for most kids, but an option which is so needed in our schools today. Oh, don't forget the student council that opens up the student store for 1/2 an hour 4 days out of the week.

Our semester is almost over and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the educators within our lives, and most of all to Skip Via, our Tech. instructor from UAF!!

Warm Weather and Raging Waters

My snow machining hasn't started yet this winter. The weather has been so warm. The snow over the ice, isn't good at all. Especially because it insulates the ice, and isn't able to get as thick as it should during this time of the year. People have been going to Bethel back and forth, but it's extremely dangerous. The trail between Atmau, Nunap, and Kasigluk isn't common yet and I think we have to wait until it's super stiff. So frustrating, because it's usually safe by the time it's Thanksgiving.

The river was dotted with people that were jigging for fish, but I guess it's been too flooded to catch anything. Usually they have nets too, but I haven't seen any. Talk about global warming, it affects the fishing season. Even during the summer, they have to check the white fish nets more frequently than they do, because the water gets so warm now and for a longer period of time. But other than that, our fishing season was pretty good.

November has been a very challenging month for me, especially at work. It's hard when you try to make things better for your students but recieve no support. I'll try to remember that when I get to have my own teacher aide. I as a person, makes me no better than anyone else in our work settings. Sometimes it can be hard to remind myself that if there's no support, I have to take things into my own hands. I am so frustrated. My son reminded me that there is someone watching over me while I feel like I'm a ship being tossed out in the raging sea. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that even though things aren't working out at work or at school your family is there to stick it out with you and there is no better person to talk to than with someone who is already there.

Atmaulluaq History - WOW

I had noticed that I hadn't posted anything about the history of Atmautluak, AK since I started writing in this blog. So I decided to start tackling it today. Atmautluak, AK is located in southwest Alaska in the Kuskokwim Delta.

Atmautluak is located about 18 miles northwest of Bethel. Our area is called the Akula area due to our Tundra location. When we travel on Yute Air, you'll hear them refer our villages of Nunapitchuk, Kasigluk, Atmautluak as tundra villages. Atmautluak was first settled in 1968. Some people moved from Nunapitchuk, AK because the fishing grounds were better and closer to Atmautluak. When I had interviewed Oscar Nick, the man who settled in Atmautluak first, he stated that they almost called Atmautluak Wassillieville. I got a crack out of that place name. Atmautluak sounds so much better than Wassillieville right now! The first school, which was BIA was built in 1974.
Atmautluak is situated on the Petmigtalek River. The community is composed of Yup'ik Alaska Natives with a few Caucasian teachers that are needed to come and teach from other places. The people continue to live a traditional hunting and fishing lifestyle The school sponsors a Traditional Dance Team that represents the community in Traditional song and dance.
There is two churches within our community of 365. We have the Moravian Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. There are no roads between the tundra villages so people travel on boats, snowmachines, and airlines. There are two grocery stores in town, one laundromat, one community building, a post office, a tiny Police office/jail, board walks, fish racks, smokehouses, steam houses, couple school buildings, one health clinic, and one National Guard Armory building.
Seasonal hunting and fishing are lifestyles of the Yup'ik Alaska Natives. During the summer we fish for salmon, whitefish, and pike to dry and store for the summer. The smokehouses are used for salmon and white fish to smoke. We store them for winter use, along with berries and greens we harvest from the tundra.
Right now they are jigging for Pike on the river, and I wish I was out there right now. The pike they dry or eat frozen with seal oil. Yum Yum..... I'm hungry.
I wanted to mention that we have a new grave site past a lake and slough, but the old grave site can be seen by the airport.

The picture above is of students' sleds that the school purchased for outside use. The school also has a set of ski's that are part of the P.E. program.

Atmautluak,AK Place Based

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Quiet Times Sometimes

This is a picture of some of the pumpkins that were in the class pumpkin contest. The Pumpkin with the grass hair won the annual prize for the best pumpkin. My daughter's class had won the contest this year.

Our community had just had a loss a couple of days ago. My childhood friend's Dad passed away from cancer. It's been so quiet here and I have been feeling for the family. I can remember when my own father died. It's so sad to experience it again, especially for a friend you care about.

When there is a death in our village, they have a viewing at the family's house. The graveyard is an island separated with a lake and slough, so I am trying to figure how they are transporting to the grave site. The weather has been so warm, and the ice is extremely thin to travel on. The families from Kasigluk, AK and Nunapitchuk, AK ,although close, had to come in with the airlines. There is no road system connected to the villages because it's tundra country. We have to travel by boat in the summer and snowmachines during the winter. Unfortunately, during this season they travel with the airlines, and it's not cheap. My deep condolensces to the family of the Nicholai's here in Atmautluak, and I think of you in my prayers.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Today was so beautiful here in Atmautluak, Alaska. The snow was falling and it was very warm. I had the priviledge of having TIME yesterday for finishing up my powerpoint for my other class. We are suppose to do a presentation this Friday and I need to finish up the other half of my final exam. It's been so busy lately. NO Social Life. BUT today we had such a fun day at our school. The local social services department sponsored a fun time full of activities and games. They even had a costume contest with cash prizes. It was so neat and funny how some of the teens dressed up and some of the adults. They gather in the gym and line up all the families that are passing out candy and do trick or treating that way. Here, they usually don't go house to house. It was fun socializing with the community and seeing people who I haven't seen in such a long while. My kids had fun too, although my niece's heart kept leaping in fright from all the witches and ugly monsters walking around.

This picture was taken in the English class. They had some time to get their class pumpkin ready for the pumpkin contest in the community event. My daughter is in phase 5-6, and her class was the lucky pumpkin to win. I heard the beginning of the event was fun too but I missed it because I was attending class from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Gee, the Holidays are fast arriving and before you know it the New Year will begin. Okay, Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Head's Up!!!

Hello Everyone,
Our high school gym is very tiny. The three point lines are touching, literally saying. Some people say "Do you have fun in this gym?" Regardless of the size, the kids have a blast and especially if you make it exciting. I like to play basketball with the students, and it's so much fun especially if you play with budding stars. This is part of the after school program and right now they are playing basketball. The first thing you hear when we enter the gym after tutoring is either "Shoot Up!" or "Bump Out!" You shoot up to see who the first two people make it in and who get to choose teams, and then when you play bump out you line up and shoot consecutively until someone bumps out someone by making a basket before the person in front of you makes it. This is good exercise especially when kids are computerized these days during our tutoring and during their time at home. It's not all TV anymore.

Now that Native Youth Olympics and Wrestling had begun the season, I am lacking boys. For the past two or three weeks, I had no boys for tutoring. Sometimes it can get frustrating and I think it's about time I changed my scheduling to the evenings. I will keep you all posted as to what's happening and to see if my attendance is up again.

Morning Snow

On Saturday morning my daughter called my name "Aan!", she was so excited that she scared me. I looked up and she said excitedly "Aan Snow!" I have never been so excited for snow since I was a child. My daughter had reminded me of how wonderful and exciting it was to have the first snow pack in the fall. Brings back so many fond memories of my childhood. I especially remember the smell of fresh air after it snowed.

It's so exciting to see that our kids are motivated and willing to work hard to succeed. Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with a teacher about one of her students who is working hard to get her Math phases up. She is almost at parr and will be ready to take Algebra I probably in the spring. When I hear about student success coming from teachers it motivates me to do my job better and focus on kids that need that extra help to get them at a proficiency level. I want to be as positive as the teacher I had talked with today, because sometimes I need encouragement and support when nothing seems to be going right.

Arrii Has No Email

This is Arrii, and she's in 3rd grade transition. This is when she transitions out of a Yup'ik all-day to English-all day. Anyways, during our after school program she was uninterested in checking her email so she decides to draw a huge face on the board. Sometimes it's good to keep scratch paper and crayons on hand so that kids like her can draw while the bigger kids are checking their email after tutoring.

I wanted to mention how long it took me to make that movie and what flaws after so many revisions I noticed. First of all, I forgot to credit the song I was using in my imovie and it was by Matchbox Twenty "How Far We've Come". Also, I didn't write down Cauline's name in my credits at the end of the show. I had more pictures in it but I had to cut down two or three because I couldn't upload them due to size. It was enjoyable and I had fun putting it together for about five weeks.

imovie429

RAINBOW OF A TIME

This picture was taken at Kasigluk, AK on the Akiuk side of town. I really like it, because they have a nice school and the people are so friendly. My sister married someone from there, and now they have been living there for almost 22 yrs. We visit often and go shopping to their store because they offer a better variety than our store. This rainbow was taken when we were butchering moose my brother in law caught when he went Takllirlak to hunt for moose. Our school year is going well so far, and the staff have been so quiet so far. I am so pleased because they have adapted to our school environment, and are so friendly instead of trying to be judgemental to our conditions. I AM SO EXCITED, YET IT'S ALMOST OCTOBER. The student's are so into playing basketball. Right now, while I'm writing this, they are playing with one another and this is the major reason they come into our after school program. Our target subject this year has been Math. In our SBA's the majority of our students scored at or below the criteria for math. We have been using the ALEK's program which is a math tutoring program that is online. I needed to make a presentation to our staff, but our DO needed to make a list of usernames and passwords for our teachers. So far, I haven't recieved any from them at all. Despite that fact, I think we will be succesful this year. I have no doubt that our staff will make an effort to concentrate on math especially 'cause we succeeded in reading and writing last year. Also our staff morale is more stronger and more positive than it has ever been since the past five years I have been working here. Gotta Think Positive to get Positive feedback from students. I had to realize and notice that myself this year. It's going goot!!

Moose Hunting

This is Aaron N. He is 14 yrs old and he just recently came back from moose hunting for two weeks. I called his school and told the home/school coordinator that he is going out hunting with his uncle-in-law and will come home after they catch a moose. Aaron was excused for two weeks at our school, because he went subsistence hunting. I was wondering if I should allow him to go or not because he would miss so much instruction. I was ignoring the fact he would get subsistence instruction from my brother-in-law and instruction in survival skills out in the woods. Although they didn't catch a moose I was happy to see him home. Back to noise in my little house with the sound of electric guitar and music which he likes to play. He mentioned he learned how to cook soup with rice and salt. I was so happy to hear that because this is another skill needed in life, regardless if he's a boy. Navigation is another key factor, because I want him to take me upriver when he's of age to go on his own. This weekend they are planning to go for just the weekend for punking, and I hope they get lucky getting a moose. Aaron loves to hunt, and I am so happy he does hunt because he is carrying on our tradition and lifestyle of subsisting from our land.

Weekly Bog #3

Here's some of my afterschool students in Atmautluak, AK. We have been working on our math skills since school started and we use the ALEKS program that is geared towards math tutoring. We have tutoring for an hour, 15 min. of snack/email, and an hour of gym time. Gym time usually gets students motivated to come to the afterschool program, but they have to have tutoring for at least 45 min. The students are excited because they get to check their email for 5-10 min. before we head into the gym.

WEEKLY BLOG #2

HELLO EVERYONE:
I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. Seems like everyone is picking berries and fishing. There's a new powerpoint program I came across that the students are working on and it's called Keynote. I really like the options that the program offers and of course the students are picking up on it VERY FAST. Kids these days, they know what's behind the keypad! Very TECH nerdy..... Work is busy as well as home life. I'm trying to work on my projects but I'm quite slow. If there was more time in the day! God Bless our time given though. Okay everyone! Enjoy the rest of the week!

8/30/07 School Days, WOW!!!

August has came and gone by so fast. At work, we had to get organized and set up schedules to meet our student's needs. It would be nice if the admin. could set up one whole day aside to set up schedules, another day to organize, and then another whole day for preparation. The student atmosphere has been positive so far, although our staff is new. We had an energetic younger staff last year, and this year they have been replaced with older people. You can tell the difference in motivation, because our younger staff trained them well last year, and it's gonna be hard for them to keep up. We already are having a hard time finding a student council advisor for this year. I'll leave it up to your imagination.

As for home life, I have been busy putting away fish and boxing up my things for renovation they are going to do on my house. They already started leveling the house, and it's going pretty well so far. I just hope they start on the extension before the first snow fall.

Home Again, Home Again

I am home again, home again. It's so nice to be home again. Although my son claimed to have cleaned and cooked, my house needed major cleaning when I got home. I had to adjust to the quietness of my home town and for some moment I felt out of place because I had gotten use to the hustle and bustle of city life. Today is my back to work day. I work after school hours and this summer I was assigned to summer school, three weeks after and three weeks prior to the start of school. Altough I am two weeks short of when I was suppose to start, I think I can arrange something with my school administrator. Hopefully, he'll understand why I was gone. I would like to welcome everyone home and wish everyone a new school year, wherever your home again might be.

This is Only A TEST- Slideshow Input

Hi Here's just a sample slideshow

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Week's Reflection

Hi Everyone,

I am so impressed at how much information and technology we were exposed to this week. I think I will be more effective in doing my presentations in other classes as well as teaching in a classroom. Now, it's up to us to keep practicing and using this technology because our students are so computer savvy these days. I also wanted to mention that I saw so many great movies made by all of you.

During this week we have made movies, power points, and discovered websites that are going to be useful in our field of work. I have seen students use the blog system in English classes to share their papers and information. Flickr is going to be so useful in our photo world because it will keep our photos organized and ready to use when we need them.

Inspiration/Powerpoint Day 2 Reflection

The other day we made a Powerpoint and an Inspiration document that teaches our students how to make a chart, and how to search on Google. It was so neat, because when I was done with my documents, they didn't look like I even made them. They are so fancy, and so visual that my students will definitely understand the point I'm trying to make.
The one thing I would like to try is to have everyone follow along on the first try and on the second try to have them work on their own projects. I wasn't too impressed with my topic on "George Washington" on my Inspiration project because it was too broad. I should have been more specific, like "George Washington on US Currency" or "George Washington's Early Life" etc.
I am looking forward to using the applications in my classroom, and learning more from this class as well.

Waqaa Everyone!!

My name is Sue N. I am from from Atmautluak, Alaska. I have two kids, Aaron 14 in two days, and Esther 7. I am an Elementary Ed. major and hoping to teach in LKSD with in a year. I am very happy to meet everyone in my class, and to have learned so much within the last week.