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!!!

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.

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!!