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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New Year and New Surprises

Hey All!

So yeah....haven't blogged in awhile. I apologize. Between two dogs and teaching.....sleeping sometimes feels like an option. Oh well....it's a new year and I'm determined to try my hand at this again...

So....newest story. For those of you that don't know, I adopted a village dog from Kong. Her name is Sammy. Her story is pretty funny. She was living underneath Rachel and Amanda's house and driving us all mad. She would never leave and she was distracting our dogs so that they couldn't even go to the bathroom! Finally, one day while we were dumping our honey buckets, Rachel and Amanda told a student to "get rid" of Sammy (we had already named her by then...) When I came back from dumping they were crying and telling me what they had done. We walked back to their house, tears still frozen on their cheeks, and when the turned the corner...there was Sammy.....waiting for us! Yeah....we were a tad surprised too. Then the next night Sammy showed up to Rachel/Amanda's door all bloody. Somebody had beaten her pretty badly. Rachel put a blanket over her and prepared Amanda for her death. The next morning, Rachel went to go look in on Sammy.....and there she was.....happy as ever and ready to greet the day! So...after that she was in and I adopted her....though she took a couple of "jaunts" in there where I thought she was gone for good. But, our little cockroach is still around.

Here is Sammy :D
Here is Weeko with her favorite piggy pillow :D


Another fun event that's happened this semester is the GPS exercise. Rachel (science teacher) was teaching about GPS and location, so she collaborated with the Search and Rescue team in Kong and set up an exercise where the students have to use a GPS to find certain items out in the tundra. The students came up with the back story. They were searching for a lost villager who crashed his snow machine and had a broken nose...well that's the jist of the story anyways :D

We had 5 teams, each team looking for 2/3 items that Sheila's husband Rod had already placed and mapped out in the tundra. I was the leader for one team, Rachel, Sheila, and two other men from the village made up the other 4. The teams were made up of junior high students, and there were about 4 or 5 students per team. We also had 3 HS boys help out in the exercise as well.

My Team after we found our first item!

Morning in Kong!

We did the exercise during our Saturday school day (had to make up for snow days) which actually worked out well. Those students that were late stayed at school and took the radio calls from the teams and mapped out where everyone was. It was a HUGE success....well I think anyways. All the teams found their items, we didn't lose anyone, and no one froze! It was around -30/35 degrees outside. We all learned a lot about using a GPS AND the elders gave us some tips on how to use the grass and snowdrifts to find what direction we need.

John Phillip: An elder that taught us a few things, he's also the oldest man in the village and the new school is named after him


Here are a couple pictures of Rod and Mr. David showing us a few things, with Mr. Phillip


All in all....awesome experience :D


The last event that's happened is I traveled with the HS Boys BBall team to Tuntutuliak (say that 5 times fast ;) ) It was a lot of fun. We lost both games but they had fun.

The team heading to Tunt

The first game was against Tunt and we came back from a 35 point difference and fought the whole game but lost ...I was proud of them.



After the game we were invited to Gideon's sister in law's house for dinner. Gideon is the 2nd grade teacher and bball coach. That was really nice and I think the boys enjoyed relaxing for a bit. We also had to hit up the store...because that's what has to be done. That night I set up a TV and put in "The Hangover" in for the players to enjoy. For some odd reason, the S.A. in charge thought that I was a coach (which I'm not) and gave me all these things to do for the next day. I was a tad confused, and I also had to watch the JH girls that came for the JH games....not exactly what I was hoping for but meh...it worked out.

Heading to Gideon's Sister in Law's House


The "Cars" of Village Alaska




The next day was our second game against Eek. This one didn't go much better than yesterday's game. We only have 6 boys, so they were tired. BUT they had a lot of fun, especially during the 4th quarter....it was all out. They came back to the bench with smiles on their faces. Overall I think they had fun.


Reminder: These are KINDERGARTEN aged
kids costumes......



We were weathered in Tunt for a bit so the boys messed around with the kindergarten clothes they found in the classroom....obviously VERY bored.


Fun Pictures!!

Some fun pictures I thought you would enjoy :D Amanda, Rachel, Michele and I all experienced our first steam!

Heading to the steam Sheila's Daughter leading the way

For those that don't know what this is....a steam is like a mini sauna but HOTTER! You go into this first chamber and undress.

The first chamber



Then you go into the second chamber where there is a stove with rocks on top.



You take a basin, and two wash clothes in with you. The basin is to hold your water. One wash cloth is for you to sit on (don't want boils!) and the other is to hold over your face to help you breath. After everyone is set up you pour water on the stove. Let me tell you....when that heat rolls over your body.....whew! It's so hot but it feels so good.

Apparently the men take REALLY HOT steams. They have to be on all fours so they can breathe, getting the cooler air closer to the floor. When you've had enough then you go out into the first chamber and take a break, drink water, etc. You do this however many times you want, going in and out, and then you go in and wash.

Afterwards you feel so relaxed and thirsty. I could drink gallons afterward. Some rules we've learned are that, usually, men and woman steam a part. The children can steam with whomever and married couples can steam together. It's a great spot to chit chat and gossip....always fun ;)



The other fun pics are when we went to go get fresh caribou.



Mildred's Caribou Joe's Caribou


They usually just cut up the meat inside the house, on the kitchen floor. The first picture was when I went with Sheila, Amanda and Michele to go get some fresh caribou. The second picture is of when Amanda, Rachel, and Michele went to go get some. The villager had shot 3 caribou and he gave the girls ribs to eat! After cutting up the ribs Rachel says she has to take a break before actually eating them...tehe.

Amanda, Michele and I cooked our fresh caribou together; stir fry one night and caribou stew the next night. Amanda prefers moose to caribou, I like them both.


Amanda and I had a little too much fun with the fresh caribou.... ;)

Well folks, that's the update. Miss you all and hope you're all enjoying the snow in the lower 48! Could you send some our way? Would love that! Thanks


TTFN

Speech meet and WEEKO

Hello All!

So this week has been completely hectic. My mom and brother came to visit me last week on Thursday, bringing my new puppy Weeko with them. They came for the 1st annual Tommy Phillip NYO Tournament! It was so much fun! CRAZY BUSY but so much fun. I was the all around gopher, scoring events, measuring for events, serving food, cleaning, etc. Nick basically hung out with the boys from the village all weekend. He came and about an hour after he and mom showed up in the village Nick was hanging out with the boys, helping out at NYO practice, etc etc. I hardly saw him the entire time! Mom helped out in the kitchen and then got the happy task of filling out awards. We all had a great time :)

Here are a few pictures of Nick hanging out with the boys and the NYO events.


This is Tommy Phillip. The tournament is named after him. He is the first NYO coach for the district. He is highly respected within the sport.


This is Nick with Alexie (one of our students) Alexie won the seal hop competition. He and Nick had a lot of fun together.



This is one of the events, the wrist carry. Our students won first place for both JH and HS.


Alexie competing in the Eskimo Stick Pull.

I'll put up some more pictures of NYO when I upload them from our school server. One of the teachers took a bunch of really good pictures and I just need to upload a few.


The next big news is I got a puppy!! Her name is Weeko which is "pretty" is Sioux. Mom brought her with her. She's an Native American Village Dog, which is an actual breed believe it or not. Basically she's a mix of German Shepard and Alaskan Malamute. She is too cute! Here are some pictures of her that I've taken so far.








Last but not least is that I just got back from Bethel for the JH Speech Meet.
I took five girls to Bethel and they all did very well. I had one girl go all the way to round 3 and almost to the finals. I was so proud of all of them! They did so well! It's so hard for them getting in front of people and talking (like so many others...) but they did it and I couldn't be happier!



Here are the girls waiting for the plane to take us to Bethel!


The girls in the plane. The pilot let us take two roller costers....where the pilot goes up....and then down. It's so cool! and unlike Amanda (Ms. Frey) none of my girls cried....tehe.


The girls and me at the dance.

The meet went on for two days. We flew in on Tuesday morning and then went into the first round. We were all scrunched in the lobby of the district office. After the first round we got to go over to the high school to put our bags in our assigned classroom and then have dinner. After dinner it was round two. After that we had free time. The girls and I wandered around for a bit and then went to the room and hung out. They listened to my iPod, took a test for one of their teachers, and then we put in "The Sleepover" and watched that together. We were the only school in our classroom so that was super nice. The floor was a different matter but oh well.

Wednesday was another full day. We had to get up early and bring all our bags back to the D.O. because the high school had classes, so we couldn't keep our bags there. One of our students, Kelly, made it into the third round so we stood around to get coffee for about 30 min. and then went and supported Kelly during her round. After that we had to sit around for a long time. Luckily, we were next to the media center, so the girls just went in and checked out a couple of movies. Unfortunately, Kelly didn't make it into the 4th round so we had to sit around even longer. at 3:30 we had free time so I took the girls to the store. They had been asking ALL DAY to go. I have no idea what is so amazing about going to the grocery store but they loved it! It was SO COLD walking to the store. Strong winds. After the store we went to the movie store so that I could buy a few DVDs. I knew we would be sitting around tomorrow, waiting for the plane, so I got some movies just in case we have to stay there awhile. That night there was a dance and I swear I dance more than the girls did!! A couple of first year teachers were there so luckily I got to chat with them.

That night the girls decided that sleep was not an option. I still had girls up at 3:50 AM!! So MAD!! I was not a happy camper with those two. Later that morning, we went to the airport. We had check in at 8 AM. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided that that would be the day we had our first snow! It was crazy! We sat in the airport from 8AM until 4:15 PM, when we finally got to go home. The girls were so happy because they missed another day of school. Our principal was at the airport with us too, also weathered in, coming from Anchorage and a training he had there. I also met the principal from Quig, our neighbor village, and had a great time chatting with his wife. Their daughter got first place for humorous interp. at the speech meet!

All in all it's been a crazy couple of weeks and it's not looking like it's going to let up any time soon. Halloween is next week, plus two training sessions. After that it's HS speech (if anyone decides to sign up seriously), school, after school program, basketball, and then Christmas! OH and guess who was signed up to help organize the Christmas Show that the school puts on....yeah this kid.

Well....as the old proverb goes....I can sleep when I'm dead.

Love and miss you all. I'll put more pictures up from speech, NYO, etc. As soon as I download them. Mom is also sending me some pics so I'll wait for those as well.

Pictures! Finally!

Hello All! FINALLY! (sorry) The reason for the yelling is that my blog is finally letting me post. Before the window was all screwed up and I couldn't write anything! or show pictures!

The first picture I'll share is my house! It's super tiny but oh so cute, and the perfect size for me :D

The next picture is of the school. If you were standing on my little front porch and looked to your left the school would be right there. That's actually where I was standing when I took the picture.


The next pictures are of Dad and I in the plane flying to Kong and some pictures of what the tundra looks like from the sky :D


The next picture is of the "New" School. It was hopefully going to open around Christmas time but unfortunately they've been having some issues with the plumbing, So the school will not be ready until next school year. On an even sadder note, they are moving my house to where the new school is so every morning I have to walk a mile to the old school, in the winter! The new school is a mile away from the old one....gah!



Here are some beautiful pictures of the tundra. We (and by we I mean Megan, Amanda, Rachel, and I) take a lot of walks along the board walk to give the dogs exercise. It's awesome because the landscape never bores you!




These are some pictures of Kong. The first one is of the "main drag." Basically it's one of the main boardwalks that we take to go down town to pick up things at the store, go to the lagoon to dump the honey buckets, or go to the post office. The next picture is of the post office, and the last picture is of the river and one of the barges that came in.




THROW PARTY! These pictures are of a throw party for Mary Lou's daughter. She got married that day :) Mary Lou is one of the elementary teachers at the school. The other picture is of Amanda and Rachel. I took this picture a few minutes before a big plastic bucket was chucked in my direction. It was one of those big plastic buckets you can use to haul ice or fish, whatever. I didn't catch it but I did slice my hand open "blocking" it. I must say Amanda and I are getting better at the throw party technique. We know now where to "stand" to get the best loot and when it comes to the candy I stay out of her way....Amanda gets Mean! I once got a fruit by the foot.....and she didn't.......oooohhhhh Lord. She didn't like me for awhile.




Amanda dumping her honey bucket. I believe this was the second time she did it and that was enough. I am now the official dumper for Rachel and Amanda. It truly doesn't bother me ( Megan doesn't care either) My payment is a pop and a candy bar....I know...it's pretty steep but Hey! I have to live too ya know! The usual payment to have a student do it is $5. So I'm probably, realistically with the prices here, about the same.




PUPPIES!! Well, Moose is a puppy. Midnight is only a year and a half. Lacy....well she's an 'ole bird. Megan, Rachel, and Amanda all have dogs so I'm constantly around them...which I love! Hopefully I'll be adding one to the pack here soon but until then I'm the loveable Auntie!

The first picture is of Moose and Midnight on my couch. I babysat them while Amanda and Rachel were doing.....something. Midnight is a vizsla, heeler mix. I've never seen a vizsla black, we have our vizsla Bailey at home and she does not look like that! Midnight is definitely vizsla though. He does the weird head thing and he tries to hug us too. (Just like ours back home) Moose is a golden retriever. I have to say babysitting them gets confusing with both of them having "M's" as their first letter in their name. The next picture was taken on Megan's couch or what she calls her 'basement', cause it's the "Dog Couch." Lacy is the dog on the right. She is a crochety old lady who likes to keep the other two in place. Love her! The last one is of Moose romping around in the tundra :D





These next pictures were taken the day that we cooked the goose and the tom cods. Margaret is on the right and she's the school's secretary. Love her! She's a doll. She brought us Agudach that night too....I'm officially addicted to it. The next picture is a handfull of berries I picked one day on the tundra with Amanda, Megan, and Rachel. I think I've started Moose on an addiction with berries because I fed him half the berries I found. And Agudach is made of berries....so there ya go.




Last but not least, some pictures of my students! The one on the left was taken for their class newspaper. This is my "older" high school class. They came up with the idea of the pose, I just took the picture. The class newspapers actually turned out too! I was very proud of them. The other picture is of the Cross Country Team!! They did so well all! If you want to see better pictures of the x country team, go to Amanda's blog. I'm a follower of hers and she has tons of pics from Cross Country.





I hope you enjoyed some of my pictures. I promise I'll put more up later. I'm coaching the speech team so I'll put some pictures of that as well as what my house looks like and all that jazz. Love and miss you all! CHEERS!