AU's Early Childhood Department

This post must start with this statement:

The Early Childhood Department at Ashland University has some of the greatest people I have ever met.

Today is a work day at school. The end of the quarter was Friday and this week is in-service week. So before we fly out to district in-service tomorrow, we have a work day. Basically we have to be at school at least 7 hours, but we can be working on whatever we need to, we can go to lunch when we want, go to the post office, etc..

After lunch, I went to the post office. I had a bunch of boxes, so I went back to the school to borrow the truck. I ran into Matthew, one of my cross country runners. He came with me back to the post office to get the boxes. I had some boxes of food from my order to Span Alaska Sales that I made a few weeks ago. I also had a box from the Early Childhood Department at Ashland University.

Matthew and I loaded up the truck and brought all the boxes to my house. I went back to school, and I brought the box from AU with me. I couldn't wait until after school to open it!

I need the internet for the report cards and such that I have to fill out, so I have been camping out in Colleen's room today. I don't have the internet in my building.

So, I get back to Colleen's room, grab her scissors, and open up the box. It was full of great stuff!! Books for my class, stickers, pencils, glow sticks, coloring books, activity books, paper, candy, a hat, and books for me to read! I was on the edge of tears. I had a card signed by the whole department,a note from Mrs. Eibel, and a post-it attached to a book from Dr. Walton. It was just so amazing and thoughtful for them to think of me and my students. Books are not common in homes here in Shishmaref, and the books that they sent will be put to great use in my classroom. Autumn, one of my students, was in Colleen's room with me while I was opening the box, and she was definitely excited.

I laid all the goodies out on the table and ran down the halls telling all the other teachers to come and "look at what I got in the mail!!!!!!" Everyone was jealous, of course.

Some of the junior high girls were coming in, getting ready for cheerleading practice, and they were pretty impressed as well.

So, I used Photo Booth on this computer to try and take some pictures. They aren't great pictures, but this way I can post them right away. My camera isn't hooking up to the computer quite right yet, so photo booth will have to do.





Some of the goodies!




More goodies!




Autumn and her drawings to made today. on the left is a policeman, and on the right is a picture of herself. She does pretty good writing her name too! Her mom is a special ed aide. She was working today, and brought Autumn with her, which is why she was hanging out at school.



The box that the goodies came in.





Autumn with the smiley face paper. She can't wait to show the rest of the class all the neat stuff!



More awesome stuff!


This box just made my day! I can't wait to share it will my class! Thank you!!! :)

A quick trip to Anchorage

I am back from Anchorage!

Tuesday afternoon, I left my classroom and headed for my house to get my stuff to get on the plane. I walked through the big school on my way - it's just faster. Tons of HS and Jr. High kids were giving me hugs and stuff. Mamie's advice to me was "don't get kidnapped". Some other kids were worried that I might not come back. It was kind of funny. Matthew asked if he could have my Wii if I didn't come back. He has an "I'm so tough" fifteen-year-old boy attitude, but he gave me a hug before I left. :)

I left Shishmaref around 1:15. The plane stopped in Wales first. There were five or so people going to Wales, and just me going to Nome. From Wales to Nome, I sat co-pilot. The plane was really fancy. It was the same kind of planes that they use as Medi-vacs (sp?). Basically if there is a bad illness or injury and you need to get out of the village NOW, they use the Medi-vac planes. They are designed to be an all-weather plane. They have a fancy system with a screen that shows you exactly where the runway is in real time. So if you can't see the runway through the window, you can look at the screen and see where to land.

I got to Nome around 2:30. My plane for Anchorage wasn't leaving until 8:55. So I had plenty of time to kill. My cell phone was turned on for a few days, so I called my family while I was eating at Subway, which was wonderful. Later I went to a resturant called Airport Pizza. While I was there, I ran into one of the BSSD teachers from Stebbins, Lauren. So we had dinner together and went to the store together after. It was nice.

I got to Anchorage around 10:30. I stayed at the Millenium. It was really nice. A huge king size bed, TV with cable, and a BATHTUB!!! Even though it was after 11 before I got around to it, I definitely took a bath both nights I was there. It was really nice. I never had a bathtub in college either, but I did get to shower in my own apartment, or when I was in dorms, in my own hallway. So it was a refreshing change.

I got to sleep in on Wednesday, which was nice. I got up around 10, got ready and wandered down to the gift shop. I just wanted to poke around and waste some time before I went to go take my test. My appointment was at 12:30, but I wanted to get there super early, in case there were any glitches, I could get them figured out. There were no glitches, and they weren't busy, so I started testing at 11:48. I got done fairly quickly considering it's like a 4.5 hour test with a 15 minute break. I think I was out of there in 3 hours. I am just a fast test taker. I'm a good test taker too. So it's cool.

After the test I went to Wendy's. That was very tasty. Then I went to Fred Meyer to do some shopping. I think that I spent three hours in Fred Meyer by myself. I bought lots of food. It was a lot cheaper than Shishmaref and a lot more variety. Pretty exciting. I brought an empty cooler to Anchorage and then brought all of my perishable food back in it. All the non-perishable stuff I bought I had sent to Shishmaref. The shipping costs from Fred Meyer are fairly reasonable, for non-perishable stuff at least. To ship perishable food, it costs $90, plus the cost of shipping weight. That covers up to 65 pounds of food. I spent $47 in overweight baggage to get it back to Shishmaref, and I didn't have to worry about if it would arrive before it spoiled or anything like that. I think I did it the smart way.

After Fred Meyer I met up with Angie. She was in Anchorage from Tuesday til Sunday with Student Council. There were student council members from all over the state in Anchorage for a confrence. So I met up with Angie and the three high school students and went to the movies. Freida, Angie and I saw "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in 3D. Zander and Miizuk saw some girly romantic comedy instead. When the movies were over we played a little air hockey in the movie theater arcade. It was fun. Then we went to Wal-Mart, which was super exciting, of course! There was a McDonald's inside Wal-Mart, so I got a burger too, which was nice. I went back to their hotel for a bit and then called a cab around 11.

I couldn't sleep on Wednesday night and I didn't fall asleep til after 1am. I had to be up by 4 to get ready to go to the airport for my 6am flight, so that wasn't too fun. Less than 3 hours of sleep. Oh well.

The plane from Anchorage stopped in Kotzebue and then headed to Nome. I had a few hours in Nome, so I had breakfast at Airport Pizza, went to a gift shop, and then bought some Chinese food and Subway to take home to Shishmaref for the next couple of days.

I made it back on Thursday afternoon and life basically went back to normal.

Even though it was a pain to have to go, I kind of wish that I would've had another day. I didn't get to go to the mall or anything while I was there. I wanted to look for snow pants and boots so that I wouldn't have to order from a catalog. Oh well, I guess. It still was a successful trip.

What a mess...

This past week has not been so great.

So, when I got hired, there was some miscommunication. I was told that I had a year to take the Praxis I for my Alaska teaching license. I found out Tuesday that I need to have the Praxis I now. So, I am technically out of compliance. I am placed on substitute pay until the Education Department has my Praxis I scores. I am losing $125 per day. Plus, now I have to go to Anchorage this week to take the Praxis I. I will have my math and reading scores right away, but I will have to wait for the writing results. I am on sub pay until those results are in. This trip to Anchorage is going to cost me about $1300 (plane tickets, taxis, hotels, food, etc.). I am leaving Tuesday afternoon and I will return Thursday afternoon. So I will miss out on two days of work, and since I am on sub pay, I miss out on two days of pay also.

The confusion happened because I just graduated from college and did not already possess a teaching license. If I had an Ohio teaching license, I would've had a year to pass the Praxis I test. So, now I have sent all of my stuff to the Ohio Education Department. If I can get my Ohio license in the hands of the Alaska Education Department before my Praxis I scores are back, then I will get back on my regular pay. So I am working both angles to get this worked out as soon as possible.

In Ohio, I was exempt from Praxis I. At Ashland University, to get into the education program, you have to either have a 21 or higher on your ACT, or pass the Praxis I. I had a 28 on my ACT, so I didn't ever take the Praxis I. I have passed 4 Praxis II tests, however. These tests are harder and more focused on my teaching field. I need those test scores for my Professional Teaching License in Alaska, but not my Initial Teaching License. The Initial Teaching License requires passing scores on the Praxis I. Unfortunately, I cannot skip the Initial Teaching License and go straight for the Professional License. 

That is the news going on in my life. I am trying to not be upset about it anymore. I cried three days in a row about it. Now I am just doing what I gotta do and trying not to be upset about it. On the plus side, I will get to go to Anchorage, do some grocery shopping, buy some meat (I originally bought 5 pounds of hamburger meat, 6 chicken breasts, and one pot roast), eat at a restaurant, and get a Starbucks. I can't go shopping though, because I am on sub pay!

This is my one complaining post. I will try to be positive from now on. :)