Part 1 of 2... maybe of 3?

Yes - this is part 1 of 2... I will post another post about this with many more photos and videos.

This past week was crazy, insane, busy, hectic, festive, awesome, fun and full of energy! We had culture week this week. Culture week is a 5-day long culture-rich packed activity stations for the kids. 

We had our usual mornings and lunch and part of our afternoon, but then for the last 2 1/2 hours of school, the students rotated through various stations to learn about an important aspect of the Yupik culture from a village expert/elder. The sessions are divided between elementary and high school. 

The high schoolers made harpoons, crocheted, built a fish trap, impressive beading and other activities at their level. 

The elementary students, along with their teachers (I loved learning and participating about my kiddo's culture!) went to their own age-appropriate centers. Here is a picture from each center:  

Making ice fishing poles and tying their own lines, swivel and hooks.,,

Beading.. students are making a zipper pull covered in beautiful beaded designs...

 What you see is spotted seal fur; this is being cut to make traditional Yupik yo-yos (I will try to find a video online later to show how they work,)

Story telling with music and dance involved - this lady was amazing, cheerful and I could have listened to her play and sing all day long!

 The students learned about parkas, the various furs used to make them and the meanings behind some designs; the parkas were stunning!

The students learned about survival skills - they learned to always have a stick with them when on the tundra to test the strength of the ice.. they learned how to use their thumb nail to find which way is home - how to look at the sides of their boat to know how to get home if they get lost - I learned so much during this station!

 Native Youth Organization - this looks so easy, huh!? WRONG - what you do is sit on your bottom, take your right hand and grab your left foot... then while not letting go of your foot, lift your body up and use your right foot and kick the dangling ball... Yes, I tried it and no, I couldn't do it! lol

 Dance, dance, dance! This was energetic, fun and my personal highlight of the whole week! I will be uploading videos and talking more about this event since it was just (insert the most awesome word you know here).

As if culture week wasn't enough - Operation Santa arrived on Tuesday!!! This is the Air Force National Guard bringing in Santa, Mrs. Claus, Governor Walker and his wife..

Everyone was surprised a plane of that size could land on our little tiny gravel runway! This photo was taken by my vice principal.. <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/178525/operation_santa_claus_begins_in_alaska_villages">Here is a link to the military's website the tells about this amazing event with even more photos</a>

And here is the big guy himself! 

That's it for now! I will get a Part 2 up next weekend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and I hope you are blessed this week and enjoy spending time with your friends and family; I will miss mine very much - the holidays are going to be a little boohoo for me - but, it's okay - I have many other blessings just by being here!

Operation Santa Claus is coming to Togiak!

This is an email received the other day: 

Tuesday, November 15th, Operation Santa Claus is coming to Togiak!

Alaska Operation Santa Claus is a non profit that brings Christmas Cheer to remote Alaska villages. 2016 is the 60th year for Op Santa! We team up with the Alaska National Guard, Alaska Businesses, Local Community, and all of JBER to bring food, new toys, and other much needed supplies to villages in Alaska that are in need!

We are expecting about 45 people, including our Alaska state governor, his wife, other dignitaries and Mr. and Mrs. Claus!  They are scheduled to arrive in Togiak around 10 am, and will be setting up in the gym.  It will take them about an hour to set up.  While they are setting up, families will be able to take pictures in the commons with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  We will be decorating the stage on the commons, and the gym.  I would like to get all kids involved by having each class make decorations:  snowflakes, wreaths, red/green chains, and other Christmas decorations that we can decorate the gym and commons with.  So if you can have your students make something this week, and we can decorate on Monday, Nov. 14th.

HOW EXCITING!!! The day after getting this email, I was running around looking for Christmas music so we could listen while decorating to help us get into the spirit 6 weeks earlier than usual; I did find some nice music on amazon to listen to. We decided to making a giant white snowflake out of butcher paper and each student pressed their hand into red or green paint and then we decorated the snowflake with our hand prints. We also made stockings from paper; the kids decorated the paper with red and green colorings, various Christmas pictures such as snowmen, presents, trees, etc. and then we added some bling using glitter! To top this off, I called my mother - who was unaware of any of the events taking place - and we sang Jingle Bells to her! My mother is a Christmas fanatic and her license plates are Jingle Bell (some shortened version of that...)

I went to Dillingham over the weekend to participate in a Vocabulary Committee meeting with the district. I met some wonderful uplifting teachers! It was so nice to get away for a little bit. Dillingham is still not on the road system, but, it has a road! It has 2 or 3 stores AND IT HAS A SUBWAY! I was determined to have Subway for a meal while there - and it just happened to be that the district provided lunch and that lunch was Subway. Needless to say, the trip right there was worth it! 

The weather is getting a little chillier - snowier - windier.. 20s for the highs and teens for the lows. This still isn't anything terrible and I've not yet unpacked my heavy winter gear - but I'm sure I will be doing that fairly soon! The kids enjoyed recess slippingNsliding!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDBABY!! Alexander turned a year old on 11/11 :) 

This was my voting place last week - a picture is worth a thousand words...

Ginger and Chloe :) These 2 give me more than I could ever give in return...

... on another note.. I bought my plane ticket home for summer... a one-way. (More to come on this later...)

First SNOW!

We woke up to snow yesterday morning! (Okay, so it was only a dusting... shhhh - don't burst my bubble!) It wasn't a lot, but it was snow still the same :) Ginger was funny when I opened the door; she usually just takes off in front of me (leashed of course!), but yesterday morning she stopped dead in her tracks. She took a step... lifted her other foot higher than needed and took a step with it.. then she started eating and licking at it :)

Enjoy some photos of my afternoon walk - another teacher (sweet Shuk!) and I went for a walk from the apartments down to the new church; it is a mile walk each way. It was refreshing to get out in such pure and clean air while surrounded by breathtaking awesome beauty all around - as far as the eye can see... oh, and the silence of the beauty is so loud that you can't help but to notice it.

This was about 9:30 in the morning  and you can see a few kids out playing on the tundra even when the sun hasn't quite come up yet.

My afternoon walk with my teacher friend, Shuk...

Last week was Halloween! The school hosts a village-wide carnival and just about every single person, young and old, come for the fun, games, food and fellowship! The carnival is also the school's largest fund-raising activity. The teachers all plan, setup and run a booth of their choice and we set ticket prices for folks to come participate in whatever the activity of our booth hosts. I set up a tattoo booth (the kind you rub on and wash off of course!) and made about $160! Enjoy some photos of the carnival and the cutest little kids in Togiak!

 This is my student and I did not recognize her at all when she came to the tattoo booth... Those glasses! lol

 My favorite costume of course!! This little girl makes the cutest Dorothy ever :)

 This is Amber at our tattoo booth...

 lol.. this little baby is the Chucky doll! Awesome.

When I left the school to walk home, I had to get a photo of this family - this shows how everyone just bundles up and gets around the village...

As you can see... the carnival was a big success and the whole village came for the fun!

Trick-or-treating...

School is going GREAT! I could not be happier with my classroom and students. Every single day I walk into my room and ready to be huggedNloved by my students. They are eager to learn and make my days wonderful. This teacher is blessed beyond words!

I fly out of here in a few hours today to go to Dillingham to take my Praxis - the outcome of this test determines if I get to stay next year or now. I have a year to pass this - but, I am also struggling with wanting to go home and reconnect with my mom, hang out with her for awhile... I see that in my future for next year and then hope to come back to Alaska and experience another adventure - who knows where!!

Enjoy some random photos! (as if I've not posted enough already... right!?)

$27 chicken... it gave me a good 4-days worth of delicious food!

 Yupik dolls project - I had so many parents come help :)

 Messy counters!

 Dale, my vice principal selling tickets at the Carnival.,,

 Sam, my principal...

The view from my kitchen window...

 The view from my living room window...

 So many rainbows... almost every day :)

Ok - so one last photo before you leave... trust me, it's worth checking out :) MY BOYS!!! Happy first Halloween to my grandson, Alexander - you and your daddy are adorable as can be :) I cannot wait to see this little guy come summer. AND.. he will be one year old in 5 more days - amazing!!

My awesome daughter-in-law/perfect wife to my son/best mother ever to my grandbaby, Emy - she is the wolf and the boys are the lumberjacks :)

Until next week... Zzzzz