We Made It!

Sorry it's been so long for an update...we have had NO access to internet at all.

OK...Day 1
I had the "bad" idea of having a sleep over the night before we were supposed to leave for the trip.  Sheila ended up coming over too!  It was a combination of playing wii dancing games, Glee Karokee, movies, hair braiding and nail painting...a very typical sleep over....with A LOT of people.  Sheila didn't go home until 3 am and the rest of us didn't go to bed until around 4:30 am.....GAH.  I was woken up starting at 8 am.....so the moral of the story is that there was very little sleep :S  Sheila called at 10:45 saying the planes were coming early....EARLY!  So I woke everyone up and it was a mad dash to get to the planes with all the luggage.  Sheila went in on the morning flight so she was there to meet the first group, I went in with the second plane and Oscar went with the third.  It all worked out, no one was left behind and all the luggage made it....wheew!

When we all got into Bethel we had different places to go.  Sheila took her group to go get ID's so they could fly.  I took my group directly to the airport and started to hand stuff out.  We got bright green ducked tape to put on all the luggage so we would know whose luggage was a part of our groups (works great!)  We also got each student a blue, draw string back pack so that they will have something light to carry their smaller stuff while we're touring.  Inside the backpack they got a small notebook, to keep a journal of the trip, and a pen and pencil.  So I handed all that out, with a marker for them to put their names on their bags.  Then they filled out ID tags for their luggage....we were a well oiled machine my friends.  Then Oscar's group showed up and we repeated the process.  By the time Sheila's group showed up we had it down AND we could check in our bags!! Mind you it's about 2 pm at this point and our plane doesn't leave until 8:30 pm....we have awhile.  Checking in went very smoothly and we were off to Brother's Pizza for lunch. 

Smiling...waiting for pizza

Chaperones

 




After lunch it was sit around and wait time.  We had roughly 4 hours and let me tell you....they were not impressed!  There was a lot of whining and pacing going on BUT eventually we made in on the plane to Anchorage, AK.  One of our students had NEVER been on a plane before so she was VERY nervous....there was a lot of squealing going on.

We landed in Anchorage and everything went very smoothly going to the hotel.  We got our baggage...thanks to the green duct tape :D  and our shuttle for the hotel arrived right when we walked out of the airport!  We checked in and got everyone in their rooms.  We passed out t shirts that we got for the students.  Some of the students had parents or other family in town so we had visitors for awhile.  Needless to say it was another night with very little sleep. 

ANCHORAGE!

That's day one!  I'll blog separately for each day so they are not so long.

We're Going to be Famous!!!

So quick update.

I got a message from a friend at the Great Lakes Aquarium ( little background info:  used to work there and the people rock)  The message basically asked if we were OK with the aquarium putting together a media packet and contacting local media and online media about our trip.  The students answer to this was, "YES!!!!"  They are so excited.  I guess they are going to contact local news, newspapers, online media and facebook advertising to let people know about our trip.  I was so taken aback!  This is a big deal. 

The students are already coming up with some pretty fantastic stories about how we live in igloos and in the summer sod houses...but we still have internet.  This is such a blessing!!

We leave tomorrow and the excitement is building!!  We were selling food the past couple of days to earn some spending money to hopefully buy the students tshirts, etc.  We made over $1,000!!  YAY!!!  I am so proud of the students and their hard work and so GRATEFUL for Sheila....pretty sure without her this trip would not be happening.

That's all folks!  I'll give you an update after our adventure to Anchorage tomorrow....STAY TUNED!

We Are GOING!!

WE MADE IT!!!

That's right.  After months of fundraising we are going on our trip!!  For those of you that are just tuning in, we've been trying to raise enough money to take our 8th grade class on a trip to the lower 48 this summer.  Most of our students have NEVER been further than Anchorage, and may never get an opportunity like this again.  Most have never gone to the movie theater, traveled in a car for longer than 5 minutes, or gone to any kind of museum.  This is such a great opportunity and I'm so grateful that we made it!  It has taken many, MANY long days of fundraisers, Basketball tournaments, and bake sales. 

This would NEVER have happened if I didn't have the assistance of the amazing Sheila Phillip, who is the other English teacher that is coming on the trip.  She's a genius and making money and getting people motivated.  We also had a lot of help from people in the school and parents that made hats, food, etc. to help raffle and make some money.  All these people rock and I love them!

So now, THE TRIP.  We are leaving June 1 from the village and traveling to Anchorage.  On June 2 we are flying from Anchorage to Minneapolis, and then driving to Wahpeton, ND.  This is going to be interesting.  Most of these students have NEVER gone on a road trip....or been on a plane longer than an hour....interesting.

The first day in Wahpeton we're going to show NYO to the HS students taking gym.  We are also going to a farm out by Hankinson, ND and the students are going to see what a farm is like and what goes on there.  They are SUPER excited about this. 

June 4th we are heading to Bonanzaville for the morning, near Fargo, ND.  That afternoon we're road tripping to Duluth, MN.  THIS will be an adventure because it's about a 5 hr. road trip.  Obviously our goal is to make it to Duluth without too much trouble.  That night we're going to recover....and perhaps explore Duluth a bit.

June 5th we are going on a cruise on Lake Superior, hanging out at my favorite place, the Great Lakes Aquarium, where the students are going to be taking a class called "Lake Lab" and exploring the aquarium.  Then that evening we're going on the train up the north shore, with PIZZA!  Good times.

June 6th we're getting up SUPER early to go to Hawk Ridge, and then driving up the north shore to see the Split Rock Lighthouse.  After lunch we're heading to Gooseberry Falls and spending the afternoon there.  That evening I may try to find the tower...or we'll hang by the water and chill.

June 7th we're are heading to The Mall of America!!!  This is going to be an EPIC day!  They get passes to Nickelodean (sp?) Land (why can't it still be Camp Snoopy??)  and Underwater Adventures. We're eating at Rainforest Cafe..FUN!  I know the culture shock will definitely hit during this adventure.

June 8th we're hitting up the science museum where they have a King Tut exhibit!  This is Sheila's favorite day by far.  They had a unit on King Tut in History and they students really enjoyed it so this is going to be fun.  The students will get to see the exhibit, a movie based on mummies and also get to explore the rest of the museum.  Talk about a fun day :D  Then we are going to the Como Zoo.  I'm pretty sure this will be the first time most of them have ever been to the zoo.  I'm looking forward to it.  That evening we may go hang out at my Aunts and swim and hopefully go to a drive in that evening. 

June 9th is our last day and we're hitting the planetarium in the morning.  The afternoon is a boy/girl day.  The girls are going to the bead monkey to make jewelry and the boys are doing something.....we're not quite sure.  Maybe a baseball game, maybe rock climbing.  We'll see what they chose.  Later that afternoon we're going to the Art Museum where they get to experiment with art, and then St. Anthony's falls that evening.  Then PACKING!

June 10th they head back to the village.  I'll be staying back since it wouldn't make much sense to go ALL the way back to come home again. 

Fun picture of some of the 8th graders :D

We are so excited and if ANYONE is around the area we are and want to come hang out the more the merrier!  Hope you guys will follow our adventure :D  It's gonna be fun!

Fundraising Again!

Fun Fact:  Sheila and I are sick of fundraising.  We've been fundraising since late September and frankly we're so done.  Are we giving up?  HECK NO.

Sheila got a great idea to sell BBQ chicken from her house.  This works out great because it's in housing so we're closer to the people in the village and we can deliver food to people.  We got a couple of girls from the 8th grade class to come and help prepare the food and then deliver it.  It was pretty successful.  We started at 4, and started selling food around 5ish.  When I left at 8:30 there were only 3 pieces of chicken left, and hardly any stuffing, mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce left.  PERFECT.

We're hoping to do this a few more times to raise money for the students flights to Anchorage.  The hardest part of planning for this summer trip has been getting everyone OUT of the village, it's also the most expensive.  Right now, we need around $3,000 to pay for all the students round trip tickets from Bethel to Anchorage.  All the parents are paying for tickets to get their students into Bethel, and then we take over from there. 

Unfortunately, if we don't raise the money, the parents will also be responsible for the ticket to Anchorage.  That super sucks but at this point it's up in the air if we'll have the money. 

OK, enough seriousness.  Here are a few fun pictures of the girls helping out and what we did while we waited for people to order food.

Girls making mashed potatoes

Marcus....doing nothing

Girls bugging Sheila while she prepares the chicken

Stirring the potatoes

Getting the BBQ sauce

Waiting to go deliver food....checking out our year book

Sheila BBQ'ing the chicken...YUM

Charlotte by the Walrus head

Nice walrus...

Some of our better customers :D

Group Shot

Goofing around

Watching "Big Daddy"

The Glory of Shakespeare!

Happy May Day All!!

This blog is dedicated, as promised, to my awesome 2nd hour HS reading class.  They just finished a unit on "Hamlet" and let me tell you, they rocked it!

I have heard so much negativity towards teaching Shakespeare and I would just like to say, it's all in how you present it.  This is the 3rd time I've taught a Shakespeare play here in Kong and each time my students have walked away with an understanding of the play.  Shakespeare can be so much fun to teach if you don't worry so much on the technicalities of the language and instead just help your students understand what they're reading and what Shakespeare was trying to say.

I have to confess, I love using Shakespeare as a way to incorporate sword fighting and acting in the classroom but it works SO WELL!  My HS students acted out a couple of scenes from "Hamlet" while we were reading the play.  I do this mainly so that they can visualize what's going on and to give them a chance to rewrite Shakespeare into modern English, harder than some would think.  There is so much room for interpretation, it's fun to see what they come up with.

My favorite scene that the students acted out was the last scene, Act 5 Scene 2, where basically everyone in the play is killed.  I was lucky enough to have some brave boys act out the scene.   There are only boy actors in our version, true to Shakespeare's theater.  They had name tags that said, "Hi my name is Hamlet" or whatever character they were.  Unfortunately, you can't really see them on the video (that one of my students set up :D ) so you'll have to see if you can guess whose playing who.

I know that it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but to me it was HUGE!  They all participated, tried their best, and translated what was going on into modern English.  They also stepped out of their comfort zones and had fun.  That was the best part.

I hope you enjoy our classes little home video.  Give me a shout out to what you think.

GREEK MANIA!

This blog is dedicated to my amazing JH class.  We've been reading "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan and I must say that they absolutely loved it!

My JH class is made up of 7th and 8th graders.  I couldn't believe how fast they became interested in the Greek Myths.  About half way through the book I started putting together a power point discussing more of the Greek myths touched by the book.  All my students really got into it, even my lowest readers had something to add to the Greek myths.

Anywho, about 2 weeks before we finished the book I made a deal with my class.  If everyone passed the test, not aced but passed, we would have a Greek Week and have fun before the SBA testing.  We did a lot of fun games to prep for the test.  I made a BINGO vocabulary game, that they really enjoyed and were challenged by.  Then we played a game to review the book where they split up into three groups.  It was a challenge game where there was a starting point, then I would ask a question, then the students had to run to the board and write the answer.  Each question was worth different points, so it's not over until the fat lady sings.  By the end of the review, I had teachers, students, and the principal coming into my classroom asking what all the noise was about.  The students REALLY got into it.  Needless to say all my students passed the test!!!  I was so proud of them :D

The next week we reviewed the test and then we watched the movie.  The best part about that was that throughout the whole movie, the students commented how different the movie was compared to the book.  My heart soared hearing that!  They all agreed the book was WAY better :D  :D

The last day was the most epic.  After the movie I had all the students play a game to find out what "house" they belonged to.  It actually worked out perfectly and out of 13 students, I had 4 houses represented:  Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, Hermes.  Then I asked the students to bring bedsheets to class on that Friday.

Setting up their flag (Poseidon)

Athena and Zeus getting ready to attack

Sacrificing a pig for Zeus

On Thursday night, I went home and learned how to write the God's names in Ancient Greek, along with all my students names.  Not as easy as it sounds but I learned a lot!  Then on Friday, I first did a mini lesson, with a movie, to show how the Ancient Greek Olympics were played.  The students really enjoyed that.  Then we had strawberries, from Half Blood Hill (of course) and Ambriosia (God juice) because they are all half bloods.  We toasted to the Gods and dug in.  Then I taught all of them how to create a toga.  It was so fun watching them make their togas.  Then they all made name tags for themselves, using the Ancient Greek spelling, and created Flags for each of their houses.

Hermes going for Poseidon

Look at the intensity

Let the games begin!

The last part was so amazing!  We went to the gym and created a capture the flag arena.  The four houses set up their bases and the games began.  We played a couple of rounds with the 4 houses, then they combined forces for a few games; Poseidon with Hermes, and Athena with Zeus (Poseidon and Athena obviously couldn't be together)  Then we invited mortals from the crowd (Sheila's JH class) to participate and we had a MASSIVE capture the flag.  It was SO fun to watch.  The students really got into it.

MASSIVE CAPTURE THE FLAG!

After capture the flag we spent the last part of the hour doing another Ancient Greek game: wrestling!  Boys vs. Boys, Girls vs. Girls.  They really loved this and by the end of the games we had A LOT of enthusiastic spectators....who learned about Greek history in the end.

All in all it was a GREAT end to the unit and the students will remember this forever :D

Tune in next week when I show you the video my HS students made, acting out Act 5 Scene 2 of "Hamlet"  quite enjoyable!

Junior High Trip

So yes....it's been over a year since I've blogged. Yeah.....I suck. BUT I've decided to turn the mood of my blog around a bit and focus more on what I've been doing in the classroom AND my 8th graders plans for this summer.

So, this past September, my JH class asked why they never got to take school trips like other schools they've heard about. I told them that it's mostly because no one has ever brought it up and really pushed for it. So, they decided they were going to be the class to push for it. It was then decided that they wanted to go on a 2 week adventure, discovering the joys of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. This may be a strange pick of places but it's all tied to a book weirdly enough. My JH class had just finished reading "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech and they loved all the places the main character got to visit. They wanted to see the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and a few national parks in Minnesota.

To take this trip we would have to raise around $50,000. Let me tell you, this is SUPER hard in a dinky village of 400 people. Though the students have been working really hard, we did not get anywhere close to $50,000. It was time for a rearrangement. It was decided that we would only take the 8th graders, 14 total, and three chaperons. We also cut a HUGE chunk of time out of our trip. We will only be in the Lower 48 for week and three days and were only going to be in ND for two days, in the Wahpeton area, and Minnesota for the rest. It was a tough call but we didn't want to give up or wait another year.

So now we're shooting for $25,000 to take our 8th graders for the trip. We are on course and hopefully we'll make it!

Basically, my entire school year has been one fundraiser after another. This weekend marked our LAST basketball tournament and I HOPE that we've made enough money. Cross your fingers!

I'll be updating throughout the rest of the school year and let you guys know how the fundraising is going and all that. Below is a picture of one of our fundraising attempts, a Spaghetti Feed. We turned the gym into a restaurant and served everyone like a real restaurant. There were waiters and chefs and someone to personally seat you. There was also romantic Italian music playing in the background. It was A LOT of fun :D

The woman in the picture is Sheila Phillip. She is the other English teacher here in Kong and she's also coming along on the trip and has been planning this along with me. Without Sheila this trip would NOT be a possibility. She has organized all the planning for all 4 or 5 basketball tournaments we've had, along with raffles, spaghetti feeds, etc. She rocks and I'm so blessed that she didn't think I was crazy and wanted to do this trip as much as I did.

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