Signed and Mail

I signed and mailed my contract today. It is now en route to the district office in Unalakleet. I will be coming back to Shishmaref next year!

I'm taking it year by year. At this point, I feel like I still have a lot to discover and I enjoy my job and the people around me. So, I am coming back. Plus, it cost me a small fortune to move here, so another year makes it more worth it.

Maybe next year will be 2 of 2, 2 of 10, or maybe even more. Only time will tell.

My future

This morning, I was called into Steve's office. He is the principal. This isn't an often occasion, so I didn't know what was going on.

Turns out, I have been offered a contract to teach here in Shishmaref next year. I had to sign that I had received it.

I was surprised - I thought teachers who were not tenured didn't get contracts until March or so. 

I have a month to sign it and mail it to the district office in Unalakleet. I guess that is why I was thinking March - I don't have to decide until then.

I haven't signed it yet, but I am planning on it! I figure it wouldn't hurt anything to wait a week or so, right? I decided awhile ago that I was planning on coming back next year, but now that I have the contract in my hand, I don't want to be too hasty.

So, that is the news for the day, I guess.

File Folder Games

In in college, during Senior Block, all Early Childhood Education majors take a class for  each of the different content areas that we will be teaching. In the math class, we made math file folder games. We had to make five, and they had to be of one common theme. We could theme them like I did, farm, or other people did something like multiplication. They are really low cost, and an easy resource for any grade in elementary school.

However, they take forever. First you have to find the images you want to use. Then copy those images. Color them. Cut them. Glue the pieces onto the file folder. Laminate the folder and playing pieces. Then cut out the pieces - again.  In college, I had my Delta Zeta sisters to sit in the suite with me and color and cut turkeys, pigs, and corn with me.

I found some pre-made file folder games online that were already colored. So, one less step. But the cutting is still tedious. I have enlisted help from the junior high cheerleaders. Play Lady Gaga on my iPod and I can get them to help me with just about anything. I am sure that I could get my class and the kindergarten class to help also, but my OCD doesn't allow them to cut my file folder games. I am all about them cutting all kinds of projects, but not these.

So, I love these girls.

 

The group - enthused, of course. They all have a brother or sister either in my class now, or that will be next year - except for Lori. She is the 2nd youngest in her family, and Dara is in 4th grade. Mamie has a sister in my class now, and a brother that will be in my class next year. Nellie's brother is in my class now. Tammy and Jecca each have a little brother who will be in my class next year. So, I reminded them all that they are doing this not only for me, but for the tiny ones of their families. Lori is cool enough to still help, even though she has no tiny ones left in her family.

 

Tammy Jean with a snowflake.

 

Mamie with a bumblebee.

Lori with a bumblebee.

 

Jessica (aka Jecca) with some letters.

 

Nellie cutting some letters.

 

One of the finished products. This is called "Achy-Breaky Hearts". See how they are broken in the middle? The kiddos have to match the color AND the break pattern. Those white dots are velcro. The matching pieces are in a pocket in the back.

Notice the band-aid on my finger? File Folder Game battle wound. I am so used to using preschool scissors, that when I get an adult pair in my hands, things get a little out of control. 

So, this is how I spent my Saturday night. The life of a teacher, right?

Native Art

Everyone in the community knows when payday is. The last working day of the month. So our January paycheck came on Friday (42 days since we last got paid - the last working day of December was the 18th).

Since everyone knows when we get paid, they know when they have the greatest chance of selling their artwork. It's a pretty good system for them actually.

They usually can make a sale with me. Here are the three things that I purchased on Friday.

This is a key chain with a sealskin and beaded butterfly. Made by Elsie Weyanna.

This is an Eskimo drummer. The man is sitting "criss cross applesauce" with the drum in one hand and his stick in the other. They drum from the bottom. This was made by Johnny Mimic Pootoogooluk. It is made with ivory and baleen.

 

The drummer from another angle.

 

This is a hunter in a kayak. It was made by Thomas Eningowuk. It is made with ivory, baleen, and bone. And I guess there is string on there too, attached to his spear.

 

The hunter from another angle.

 

The hunter again.

Now the picture aspect of my blog is up and running again, I will try and upload more photos of the art that I buy. I've gotten some pretty neat stuff!

Basketball in the Bush

This is my bed from last night and for tonight. It is located in Colleen's classroom.

Why would I want to sleep in the school? Let me tell you:

During basketball season, a lot of the athletic budgets for any school go towards travel. In the lower 48, you might take a bus to your game and be gone probably no more than 6 hours. Here, if they're going to spend the money, they are going to make it worth it - meaning a weekend of basketball.

Usually, we try to split the cost of the plane with our opponites. The first weekend of the season the plane came and got our girls team, brought them to Stebbins, where it picked up the boys team and brought them here. Vice-versa on the way back, and the two schools split the cost. Due to teams forfiting because of numbers or any number of other reasons, it can't always work out like that, however.

So, this weekend, our boys headed to Unalakleet and the White Mountain girls' basketball team came here. White Mountain arrived here Friday morning, they played a game Friday evening and Saturday evening, and leave Sunday morning. The players and coach sleep in the classrooms. We get enough itinerant people in and out that we have a few matresses for this purpose, and some of the girls brought their own air matresses. Only one or two girls had to be on the floor.

This is all fine and dandy, except for their coach is a male. Mike cannot sleep in a classroom with 8 teenage girls. So, I was approached by our athletic director to chaperone the girls for $50 a night. Sounds good to me.

So here I am, sitting in Colleen's room at 11:03 on a Saturday night. It's cool though. It's not the first time I've done it (Volleyball season, Golovin), and it probably won't be the last. Unless I have a prior commitment, I will probably agree everytime.

My job was totally easy this time, too. Mike is a teacher in White Mountain, and actually was in Shishmaref for many years as well too. He keeps them pretty under control. He has a bedtime for them, and will personally come shut off the lights. So I don't have to worry about any of that. He seems really fun too, so he's easy for the girls to respect.

So anyway, I think I'll go change into my pajamas and brush my teeth, and get ready for another night in the school!

YAY

Colleen figured out how to put pictures on Blogspot again! She shared this info with me, and I am no longer mad at Blogspot.

Basic update:

The day I was supposed to fly out of Ohio back to Shishmaref, I got super sick. Probably H1N1. So, I paid over $400 to change my plane tickets, and I had to use a sick day because I got back a day late. But, I guess things could've been worse. You would think that they would be happy that I didn't fly with Swine Flu, but I guess it doesn't matter that I was socially responsible.

Julie was here from the District Office this week. It is always nice to have her around.

Colleen and I watched the entire Season 4 of House this weekend, Friday to Monday. In our defense, it was the short season because of the Writers' Strike. Colleen ordered Season 5 from half.com, so we're waiting on that.

I have actually had really good attendance this week at school. 12 or 13 kids almost everyday - compared to my usual 6-10. I have 17 (was 19, but 2 are gone) enrolled, so it's still not great, but it's a start!!

And, I will add a picture - just because I can :)

This is Sharla and me on Tuesday, playing with PhotoBooth. Sharla is in 2nd grade, and her cousin Vivian is in my class.









This weekend I will try and go back to older posts and add pictures, now that I can again.

Peace.

I Touched It's Teeth!

I feel bad. Tons of cool things are happening while Colleen is gone. She probably doesn't think they are as cool as I do, because this is her 6th year here, but still. Lots of cool things have happened since Thursday when she left.

Last night, Kate invited me over to have caribou roast with her, and she said her would get out her bucket of seal oil and seal meat for me to try. So I head over. John wasn't there, just Kate, Carter and Edward, and Wilsa's son Michael. She opens up the bucket and there are all kinds of things floating around in oil. Pink things, black things, white things - stuff that looked like I would never dream of eating. She shows me the different kinds of seal meat (which is black). She had dried, partially dried, and cooked meat. She decided to have me try the cooked kind. Her boys call the dried kind the "hard" kind and the cooked "soft". Carter was excited and wanted some soft too. So Kate puts some on a plate and chops it up with her ulu. She puts several tiny pieces on my plate. Kate told me that if I needed to spit it out she wouldn't be offended. So, I told the boys it was my first time eating it and they should watch. I put a piece in my mouth. Not so pleasant. I thought the consistency would bother me, but that wasn't it, actually. It was very, very fishy. I don't like fish, so it wasn't a good thing. I kept chewing, and I really wanted to swallow, but I just couldn't. I felt bad, but I got up and spit it out in a paper towel. Next Kate gave me a piece of something white-ish/pink-ish/gray-ish. I asked her what it was and she just smiled - never a good sign. She said that it is her favorite part of the seal, and that her boys like it too. So I tried it. It was harder, and more difficult to chew, and it was still really fishy. I spit it out again. Since I was done having it in my mouth, I asked Kate again what it was - seal intestine. Lovely. Kate thinks that it was the seal oil that I didn't like, not necessarily the meat. She said that the oil is the really fishy part. So, if I have opportunity to have seal meat that hasn't been soaking in seal oil, I am willing to try again.

As we were sitting there, I asked where John was. Kate thought that he was fishing or something - he just takes off sometimes. We were talking about all the different things that you can hunt and such. Carter loves to tell me that his dad has got a wolverine before, and we were talking about caribou and lots of other things.

Not five minutes later, in walks John. I asked him if he got anything, to which he responded "I got hot, I got cold, I got stuck." Then he walked back outside. We weren't paying much attention as John walked back in with a box, and set it on the floor. I turned around, and noticed that something furry was sticking out of the box. Sure enough, John had came home with a wolverine!!! He had it in a white garbage bag, and then the bag in a box. The head had broke the bag and was sticking out the bottom. It had really pointy teeth!!! I was squealing, Kate was calling everyone, and the boys were excited. So John took it out of the box and laid it on the floor. I wanted to touch it, but I was nervous!! Carter was nervous to, but finally did it, so I did too. They we played a game. I told Carter to touch a part of the wolverine, he touched it, then I touched it. So we touched its back, head, ears, teeth, claws and nose. It was really exciting. I took a bunch of pictures with Kate's camera. I'll eventually get them from her and put them on Facebook. I was wearing an OSU shirt, so it was a great time for me to get my picture taken with a dead wolverine. Take that, Michigan!!

PS) I didn't even know that is what a wolverine looked like.

Pretty soon I will be Eskimo. The 6th grade girls already refer to me as "the Eskimo who needs a tan".

(Photo added 1/23/10)