Travelling -- Nome and Gambell

On Thursday I left Teller to go to my new placement in Gambell, Alaska.

I moved for several reasons. I really loved being in Teller and I loved the people there, teachers, kids and the community. But because there's not going to be any open positions there, I decided that it would be a good chance to see some other parts of Alaska and the district. Especially living on St. Lawrence Island because of the location and the fact that it's a completely different than living anywhere else in the district, besides Little Diomede.

I left at 930am in the morning and the sun was coming up. The sky was beautiful and it was a wonderful day to fly to Nome and Gambell.

Northern Lights -- Pictures this time by ME!

Tonight we knew that there would probably be more Northern Lights. The principal said that we could use the truck to go out of town to the airport to see if we could see them better. We could see them, but they weren't as strong. We drove back to school and there the lights were, right above town. This time, they showed up on my camera.

I wish I had a tri-pod and a DSL camera that could be set to take the pictures that would do them justice, but alas, I don't.

Northern Lights

We are sitting here watching the Olympics and the principal calls. The northern lights are out above Brevig Mission.

Get bundled up, but not enough, because I didn't put my snow pants on. It was COLD! out there, and there they were. The Northern Lights. It was amazingly cool, and beautiful.

I stole these photos from Sean Hardy, because mine turned out crappy.

Photo By Sean Hardy

Photo By Sean Hardy

Photo by Sean Hardy

Photo By Sean Hardy

Photo by Me. See... Crappy.

Substituting and pictures around town

Today was my 2nd day substituting for the K/1 teacher who took a few personal days. It's been an adventure to say the least.

Yesterday the 1st graders came in and told me that their names were different. I looked at them and said: "I've been here 4 weeks, I know your names, nice try tho." They laughed.

I did get the "Mrs. S doesn't do that! She does THIS!" Which made me laugh as well. I've already worked with most of these kids already in different capacities in the school, and we had already told them that some of the things that I may do will be different than Mrs. S. Although there are some things that I do the same as she does, because it's just easier that way.

The teacher that I'm subbing for does all of the reading groups for K/1/2, the 2nd grade teacher does the math for all of the students, and in the afternoons they team up to teach science and social studies.

I have discovered that I like some of the reading program. It's harder to teach two fully featured reading programs (K and 1st) at the same time. At least the kids are really good at staying on task for that time. The programs are so full of information and stuff that you are supposed to get to that it's hard when you are teaching two different levels.

Quote :)

Moving!

A little over a week ago I was asked if I wanted to take a trip to another village to finish out my internship. The village is Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island. It is approximately 35 miles east of Russia, and 100 miles west of the United States. It is closer to Russia than it is to the US. It is right on the international date line. I will be able to see tomorrow from there. 

The distance between Gambell and Teller as the bird flies is 190 miles.

The principal in Gambell was looking for a female elementary teacher for next year. There are several positions that will be open in her school based on teachers asking to transfer or leaving the district for other opportunities. There are no open positions available next year here in Teller. I love the kids here and I've established working relationships with them, but part of the reason I took this internship was to possibly find out if I could live here. I can live in Teller, I know, but I won't be here. I figured that I should take this opportunity to go to one of the most interesting places in Alaska. 

Short update

Not much is going on at the moment. This coming weekend is another basketball weekend, the girls are playing at home and the boys go somewhere, I don't remember where at the moment. I might buy a $100 round trip ticket to Nome to see a friend I met several years ago, but who knows?

I'll probably just end up staying here and helping out at school on Friday and Saturday.

I finally got my last box from home. It should have been here over a week ago. It was mailed with another box that I did get a week ago. Amazon gets things here quicker than if you ship it yourself. This is what several of the teachers have told me as well. They usually buy food from Amazon and ship it here and supplement with stuff from the store. I also got my Walmart COD package today as well. I am going to suggest to the district office that next time they bring up interns that they tell them to ship food up at a minimum of 2 weeks before they arrive, because I know that one of the interns bought all his food at Walmart and he didn't get it til today. Luckily everyone here is so sharing with food (the teachers) that it's made it easy. The other day I bought some chicken at the store and used some of the veggies we had as well as the rice I sent myself and made chicken and rice soup. However, I discovered that jasmine rice is not a rice for soup. It made the soup become like porridge. It still tasted good.

Teller, Alaska

Well, it's the end of my first full week in Teller, Alaska at the school here.  Last Sunday we had a gathering at the teacher's house I'm staying at. They made crab mac n cheese and pizza and a bunch of other food. We watched the Seahawks win the Superbowl.

Heather, my host, and Bill the other intern.

Watching the Superbowl with the other teachers

Over the past week and a half I've been working with specific students as what another intern has called as an intervention specialist. At first I started working with 2 7/8th graders in corrective reading for first period. Then I went and helped in the 7/8/9th language arts class that those students were in. I helped them work on their reading as well as the response/questions that they have during the class.

Welcome to Teller! (1/29/14)

After landing in Teller, and helping unload the freeze and our luggage, we drove the three miles to the school. When we walked in these signs were there to welcome us! 

Goodbye Unalakleet and Hello Teller!

Goodbye Unalakleet!

Unalakleet By Kristina Benitez

BSSD Interns 2014 in Unalakleet

On Wednesday morning (1/29/14) we got up, ate breakfast, packed up and headed out. Three of us were the first to leave. Bill and I for Teller. Kirsten for Golovin. Kirsten got dropped off at ERA Airlines (the airline that Flying Wild Alaska was based on.) We got to hitch a ride on the BSSD airplane.

Our ride to Teller, Ak

Unalakleet

The Bering Strait Sea in Unalakleet

We arrived in Unalakleet on Monday afternoon. It was about a 2 hour flight from Anchorage. One thing interesting is that when you fly in-state in Alaska you don't need to go through security ever. Most airports in outside the bigger cities are a landing strip and a few buildings. On our flight to Unalakleet we were the only people on the plane, even though there were many people in the waiting area, they were flying to other destinations.

We arrived at the airport and several district employees who packed us and our gear up and took us for a quick drive to what is called the dorm, or the 5 plex by the locals.