Our last week before school started we had a training at the other village on our island, Savoonga, sounds exactly how it's spelled;) We sleep and shower in the school eating all of our meals in the cafeteria. It was a new school and we had great company, so five days straight wasn't so...it was...it felt like a long time.
A fun Derek quote that came out of training was when all 80 of us were in a meeting and the training coordinator asked, "Does that provide clarification for everyone?" and Derek yells, "CRYSTAL!" I leaned into Derek and nicely whisper, "She didn't ask if it was
clear." Derek humbly says, "ohh"
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| laying on our air mattress on break from our 8 hour day trainings |
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| the classroom we slept in "the couples room" |
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| shop teacher, John Brady |
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| I look like I'm on the phone, more likely I'm wiping a tear, I miss everyone! |
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| hanging out |
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| derek's jams kept us going |
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| in training |
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| vice principal, Rick (from Minnesota) and his wife Melinda, the 2nd grade teacher |
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| the "couples room" turned into the "animal room" We brought Luna to training! |
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| Derek was voted "The Johnny Depp- look-alike award" at training by the director of student improvement- she gave him a certificate |
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| our neighbors Gerald, high school math, and Steven, high school special education |
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| Ty-5th grade teacher, Deb-Principal, and Brittany - 3rd grade teacher |
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| eating in the cafeteria! |
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| Smoke on the Water |
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| Derek and I with our friend Hallie - Elementary SPED teacher also |
We couldn't have been happier to be back at Gambell! The first day of school was on Monday (August 29), so when we got back from training Friday night, many of us went to school to start preparing for the kids. We worked all weekend.... and got to play a little on our new iPads we got at training, but could only play at the school, because there is no internet at teacher housing to load apps:) But we had some nice surprises for us when we got back...
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| The heat and hot water went out, so we got out our trusty space heater, the Pelonis |
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| Our only wall decoration, Thanks mom! |
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| Derek got cloth Alaskan-theme napkins from his sister Laura for his birthday! They were a hit at our dinner party! Thanks Laura! |
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| Derek shipped up SOOO many clothes! |
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| our new pressure cooker! |
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| our new bread maker! |
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| Derek was invited to a birthday dinner in the village. They served whale or "Muktuk" in Yupik, a sea root of some kind-served frozen, baby walrus, fry bread, ham, salmon, and potato salad. the whale and walrus are very chewy. |
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| we brought left-overs back for the other teachers to try... |
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| MMMMMMMM...... |
The first day of school was crazy. I wore my jello shirt from the Spragues for good luck, but we didn't know what we were up against. The kids are great, LOTS of character, but they sure did try and push us to our limits. We've had a couple teacher break-downs, not going to name any names, but we all needed to reboot after day 1.
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| Derek after the first day of school |
Things started to get better for some, but not others. Day 2, I was running up and down the hall trying to catch my screaming Kindergartener with a dirty diaper, Derek flew through all of his lesson plans before lunch with 4 hours left in the day with no material and no prep time. But we were excited for Day 3 because it was payday and we had an assembly scheduled. For the assembly, we wanted the students to meet all the new staff, so Derek and I wrote a song introducing every staff member and Derek would sing the song while jamming on his electric guitar in the auditorium!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGH3zux_SQE
We ended the school week with Saturday School, a full school day on Saturday, also on Derek's 26th birthday! Everyone was exhausted. I went to the store after school to buy ice cream for Derek to make him an ice cream cake, but turns out they don't sell ice cream, we were thinking of the store in Unalakleet (another village) that sells it. So we decided to make a loaf of bread for his "birthday cake" it turned out great. We partied with hot tea and played games with our friends.
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| Derek's birthday bread |
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| It's as big as his head |
A birthday song from Derek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMt7xxF8cYo
We finished the weekend with cleaning, setting up our band room and jamming, and cooking stew!
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| our boxes we are saving |
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| band room (in our bedroom)! |
video of band room
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Pp8wgR67k
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| cooking soup in our pressure cooker! |
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| our fresh vegetables from full circle farms (a farm that ships out a box of fresh produce that they picked that week, that we get every Monday, $65 a box, but so worth it! we get beets, broccoli, corn, carrots, kale, 3 types of lettuce, peaches, cantaloupe, apricots, apples, cucumbers, zucchini, and radishes- in one box, but each box varies with different/other types of produce) |
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| our view from our living room |
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| this is the neighborhood dog, Uno, he only has one eye |
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| epic stew and garlic bread - all homemade! |
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making tea with a tuner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnLnAtcyXKw
Our friends Tyler and Donna came over last night to try the slack line with Derek and me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nCsUcokj1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ5dMcGCx68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ifLmLOYTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39pMoSvFkL0
At school, the students have been telling Derek and me how they really feel, all the following comments are said with a not nice, disgusted tone, it makes us feel like we are the strangest creatures they have ever seen. It can be funny, but when I'm already having a bad day, it just makes me feel awful. I know they are just kids, but being so homesick, it can get to me...
1. "Why is your hair so messy?"
2. "She has the same hair as her husband!"
3. "Why are your eye lashes so long? igh!" followed by a laughter that makes me feel like I'm getting bullied back in the third grade.
4. Derek was told by his first grader to shut the hell up
5. A fourth grader called me ugly
6. We hear often, "I don't have to listen to you!"
7. "What are THOSE??!!!" as a 3rd grade girl points to my freckles.
8. "Teacher Derek, why do you curl your hair every morning?" - this one is super cute:)
On an educational note...
I wanted the students to have some nature sounds and relaxing music on in the background while they drew a picture, I displayed a youtube video of a forest with the music in the background on the smart board/projection screen. A student of mine looked at the forest in awe and said, "What is that?" I then had to explain to him what a forest was....
One day, Derek was trying to encourage his students to explore in their drawings, he said to his class, "You can draw anything! You can draw a tr... (about to say tree, realizing most of them have never seen one...long pause looking around) You can draw a cloud..or rocks...a whale... or the mountain (their mountain is an 800 foot hill). We are realizing how isolated it is here.
Our winds have been picking up now that winter is beginning to set in:/ The temperature remains in the forties, but the winds have been 40 mph, 50 mph gusts - which is basically 50 mph winds because their are only continuing gusts, never a break in the gusts; this makes the temperature feel like it in the 30's.
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| Getting ready to walk to school...September 6th! |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UpDncX8Uxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT_94qlN4Yg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jsa_45kSuE
Thanks so much for the care packages! we love them SO much! xoxoxoxo
