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