Toothbrushes

The students up here do not get a chance to brush their teeth much.  I have the happy duty to make sure that all my students get their teeth brushed after lunch. 

I labeled their cups so that they would be able to use the same toothbrush everyday.  I did not count on them switching toothbrushes.  After hearing the story that people where switching toothbrushes more than three times from three different students, I had to assume that the story was true.  I swung into action.  Quickly I labeled each of the toothbrushes with the students names.  Crisis averted. 

The toothpaste is in little travel sized tubes and I have caught students poking through other students cups to grab the fuller tubes.  The poor kid was reprimanded for his poor choice and I pointed out to him that I replace all the tubes at the same time so they are all filled about them same.  It is a good thing they have the little kid toothbrushes, the bristle area is tiny, so they can't fit that much toothpaste on them.

Interesting foible of working in the bush.  Toothbrush behavioral expectations.

It is a foolproof system!

Post Office

The post office in Sr. Michael is a happening place, after school each day the teachers posse up and check for any new mail that has come in.  Really it is the only material connection to the outside world.  For example I have been trying to get a phone.  The one that I have received had a bad sim card.  The helpful employee suggested that I visit the closest phone store and I would get a free card for my trouble.  I told him that would be impossible because the nearest store was in Fairbanks, a $600 plane ride away.  We quickly made alternative arrangements to get me a new sim card.  Which will come to the post office. 

The Post Office (it has no signage to indicate that it is a post office)

The daily box check

Everyone has post office boxes, there is no home mail delivery.  I share one with my roommate, which I think benefits him more than me because I end up getting all of his mail for him.  Interestingly there are no real street addresses in St. Michael.  I think I could get away with just putting the zip code and my name on a package in order to get it.  When you are moving to the bush and you want an Alaska I.D., you just make up your street address.  People live at the oddest addresses up here.  72 Hi-ho Cherry-O Way, 100 Walrus Tusk Lane, and what I wanted 21 Blue Jay Way.  Trying to get companies to acknowledge where I live is a pain.  I use the schools address since I know that one exists and the companies always say it is a school and they can't ship there since I don't live there.  15 minutes of arguing later they send the package or whatever to the school.

The Postmistress, named Liz, is the only federal worker in town.  I feel that it would be a bad idea to get on her bad side.

I could be fostering a Newman vs. Jerry situation

Really Postmistress Liz is a very nice lady and is very patient in dealing with a desperate new teacher who needs his box of socks that has not arrived yet.

She was tickled that I asked to take her picture.

Now I should talk about the shipping situation.  What I have learned is that free shipping is worth every penny extra it takes to earn it.  Clothes get here faster than food.  Package tracking lies.  2-day shipping means that the package gets to Anchorage in 2 days and then who knows how long for the rest of the way.  For example my new boots. 

All lies!

I checked today 10/6 and they have not been delivered, just like everyday since the 3rd.  What happens is that FedEx and UPS do not ship it out here.  The U.S. Postal Service does.  Once FedEx reaches the end of their commitment and hands the package over to USPS they call it good and delivered.  So my boots are someplace between Anchorage, Nome, or Unalakleet.  The record so far for something I have ordered is 5 days, that is with 2 day shipping to get it to Anchorage.  It was my balaclava, which was small so that might have given it an advantage.

Another thing I have found funny about shipping things is the routes things take. 

Cat litter, if you are interesting in knowing.

I placed the order to a Wal-Mart in Anchorage (a long time ago I might add).  They are shipping the cat litter from Georgia.  I can't think that is very economical for Wal-Mart to give me free shipping and then ship the package from Atlanta. 

Other notes:
Everything is going well.  My kids are learning things and I am having more "good" days all the time.  The weather is saying it is 41 degrees out but it feels like 26 degrees because of windchill.  Luckily my windproof jacket has arrived, I will do a fashion post as soon as my boots get here. 

Shipping

I have gotten care packages from family and I am thankful all of it.  I was amused with one of the packages, Wal-Mart packing guy must have been at the end of his shift or something. 

Here is what I was thinking when I opened it.  A good sized box, what could it be?  I open it.

 Anticipation building.  Is it brownie mix?  Summer sausage and ritz?

 Not even close. 

Keep 'um coming family and friends!

Power

Over last weekend St. Michael was subject to a few power outrages.  The longest of these was at the school.  We were told that the school would be without power and more importantly internet for most of the weekend.  The teachers frantically raced to get everything done Friday evening.  This is because all of our record keeping is done online and all of the curriculum we are provided depends on an electronic component, e-ponent?.  No internet equals no grades.  I got what I could done and then went home.

A little history on why this power outage had to occur.  Anthony A. Andrews school is a FEMA disaster shelter.  For example if a tsunami were on the way everyone would pile into the school (don't know why because the place is 100 yards from the beach) and would ride it out.  The school district gets a certain amount of money each year to maintain this and other schools disaster readiness.  When the school was built three years ago they installed huge generators that could power everything electrical in the school.  Unfortunately the installation was botched and all they could do was keep the emergency lights on.  The school district knew about this problem as soon as they turned the generators on and nothing in the school worked.  Flash forward three years and they decide it is time to fix the problem.  A problem that could have been fixed over any of the three previous summers and they choose a weekend when I am working here, I bet the odds!  On Sunday night I was hoping that the district workmen would be wrapping their job up, I asked one of them when they would be done.  He listed off all things that needed to be fixed and told me the would be done when it was done.  At that news I went home and went to bed.

I asked my co-workers if school would canceled if they did not get everything turned back on by the morning.  Apparently we go to school no matter what, no running water, no heat, and no electricity.  This is because we would have make up those days at the end of the school year and NO one wants to do that.  I went to school Monday morning and the workman had gotten the job done, hazzah I could use the online component for my lessons.  Interesting foibles of working in the bush.  Here are some fishing pictures that go with my UNK post.

Super big thank you to the Martins and the Thomases for having me along. 

Training in UNK

Before starting out any school year there is training.  Some of it is for the stuff you get every year like mandatory reporter and blood born pathogens training.  Others are for super duper curriculum that will cure everything your student has problems with.  We were going to spend five days in Unalakleet for training on everything.

First we had to fly from St. Michael to the district office in Unalakleet or UNK.  In the bush, villages are often called by their airport code, example: "I am leaving SMK for UNK."  We were told to get to the school at 8 a.m.. We were told that we would be flying out at 10.  That is more of a suggested time, in reality it is possible to fly out give or take 4 hours.  On days that we are going to fly out we are asked to have our bags packed and ready to go just in case a flight is available earlier...also being prepared to wait and wait...and wait.  So our plane lands on time (rare), it is a TP tube with wings.

Beechcraft 1900

I was reading about this plane and it seems in the early 1990s Beechcraft made a model of this plane that allowed passengers to able to stand up straight.  We did not have that model.                                        

All staff plane ride

I was way too tall for the plane

We piled everything on the plane including ourselves for a brief flight to Unalakleet.  It was the most cramped trip I have ever taken on a plane. 

Upon landing in UNK we grabbed our stuff and headed to our temporary home at the high school.  We were placed in classrooms with inflatable beds.  Then we were fed lunch...all the food we could eat.  The Unalakleet High School kitchen staff outdid themselves everyday feeding over 150 teachers pretty tasty stuff.  I was trained in the districts reading curriculum.  Success for All, it is metered out to the minute and very scripted method to teach reading.  While this does not allow for much freedom of choice for the teacher (even the books we read are preselected), it does work for a school district that has huge amounts of turnover like the Bering Strait School District.  I got to explore UNK with my fellow teachers.  The weather was amazing that week.  So good in fact I realized that the school really was not built to keep cool,  its silly to buy a air conditioning unit for a place that would never need it.  The school had no AC.  It was hot.

Fireweed is blooming.  When it wilts it means fall is coming.

Wandering around town

We were going to the town store, every town you visit you have to check out the store to compare which store has a better selection.  My friend Tim is the 7th grade teacher at SMK on the left was trying to use his smart phone to navigate around town.  There are street names, which he had, but there are no street signs in towns.  We were lost. As you can see there is not really anyplace we could go, we followed the main drag (the one with a stop sign on it) and we found the store.

Unalakleet

Fish drying shack at the beach

I got the unique opportunity to fish with an administrator in UNK and my future in-laws the Martins. 

Setting off to the fishing hole

Jim, Jay, and Jim. Got a keeper.

I was successful

Silver Salmon were running and it was unbelievable how fast we were catching fish.  There was a person baiting, a person fishing, and a person netting and we were rotating as fast as we could get hooks in the water.  I now have enough fish to last a while.

All I could pack into the box I took with me

 The trouble that I was worried about before flying out was weight.  The airline that the BSSD had chartered from had complained that the teachers had packed too much stuff in.  There was a limit of 40 pounds per teacher on the way out...I was over that.  I asked the veteran teachers what I should do, they said ignore it, happens every year.  I taped up my box and put it in the pile going to St. Michael.  I watched them put it on the plane, my worries were unfounded.  Then we killed time before our flight.

Play cards, kill time

The training was helpful and I got to meet a lot of the district personnel.  I also have the freshest salmon I will ever get to enjoy.  Now if only I could cook it...

Now some random pictures.  The principal of the high school get to spend 1% of his budget on art installations, he spent his money well.  They are the Wolf Pack.

 Can't miss with the wolf motif.

The puppy is Jay's.  He is as adorable in real life as he looks in the pictures.  I forgot the name.

Bloodhound puppy

Bloodhound puppy

Downtime

There is not really that much to do in St. Michael.  For example the big event was the trip everyone took today to the post office before coming back to the school and getting back to work.  We have to find ways to amuse ourselves.  I am attempting to cook once and a while, see amusing.  I have managed to make food items that people will actually eat.  Never fear, I now have hot sauce so any future culinary disasters will be cleansed of with fire.

I have made tasty biscuits.

Tasty chicken casserole

Very tasty baked oatmeal 

 We teachers are all trapped together in our dorm.  We end up hanging out and figuring out which one of us is the best card player.  We end up playing for hours until we are too tired to continue.  We can't get sick of each other yet because it too early in the year.  Never know who you will need as a friend when your water pipes have frozen.

Rummy.  I am losing.

Really I think it is the person with the killer instincts who is best.  That person is named Ariél and she is sitting to my right.  Don't let that smile fool you, she will mercilessly take you apart at any card game you decide to play with her.  Luckily for comic relief there is a dorm dog named Boo-boo.  He is a giant dope.  I had to take 10 pictures of him and this is the best one I could manage.

Alaskan Coastal Breed i.e. mutt

Boo-boo Blooper

He gets a bath a day because he enjoys rolling in carcass and other very stinky items around the village.  Someday he will find a use, but so far he is a stinky, barky, shedding machine.  I leave you with a picture of an oncoming front and the rising sun, taking pictures of the sky is something I like to do in my spare time.  Red sky in the morning...

Shade is an option

Excellent walk to work

My Classroom

I have inherited the best classroom in the school.  This classroom has unobstructed views of the ocean on two sides and it is at the extreme end of the school so no one bothers me. 

Room 133 desks for 18 students

Room 133 Main meeting area

Cubbies and storage

The previous teacher had the heat set very high and for a brief time I thought that I might be doomed to sweat to death.  Having functional heat is essential in the winter time but at the time it had to be fixed.  In the winter time we do not let the students take off their shoes just in case of a fire drill or actual emergency.  The students would be barefooted in the snow and that would make the situation worse. 

My classroom was interesting to go through.  I have a bunch of cabinets that are full of stuff.  This stuff is of dubious value to me.  I have enough tempera paint to coat all the walls twice over and paint brushes for everyone.  I have huge canisters of glitter, glitter glue, and white Elmers glue.  I, the savvy primary teacher, will never use white glue because with little kids it will be a mess.  Glue sticks are the adhesive of choice.  Some of the other new teachers have made an effort to organize their cabinet space.  I on the other hand, after going through the cabinets decided that they would stay locked and whoever comes next can decide what to do with a lifetime supply of tempera paint and glitter.

View out my window (last week)

I would use the picture I took today out the window but it is not as spectacular.  The grass is starting to turn brown and the temperature is beginning to dip, I can see my breath on the air in the morning. 

Today we had a spaghetti luncheon for the village and I got to meet about half of my students.  I introduced myself as Mr. Jim.  Everyone else goes by Ms. First Name so I figured I would not torture my students with Mr. Suhrer.  Also I am the only male elementary school teacher, fairly shocking for the kids up here who have never met one.    

Too cute for school

One of my students could not recall Mr. Jim and was calling me Mr. Green to his parents.  He could only remember the color of my hoodie.  School starts on Monday and I feel pretty good about my setup... for Monday.  Tuesday might be a whole different animal.