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.





Our store usually carries chicken and frozen pizza. They have also had eggs, cheese and sometimes ham. They have frozen veggies as well. Everything seems to be priced about $4 and change. Which is odd, butter is $4.20 for a lb of Tillamook butter, and I think at home it's running about $3 and change. They also have some Healthy Choice meatloaf meals.

A 12 pack of soda pop runs $15 here. I haven't bought any. I've been drinking water and Mio. Which is weird, Mio here is $3.09 and at home it's $3.50ish. They only have limited flavors tho.

During the night it's been pretty windy. This morning it was lightly snowing, but it stopped by the time the sun came up. It's pretty cold out today.

Most of the time here, school is just like anywhere else. Sometimes tho, I wonder what is going on. Sometimes the kids don't want to learn, and other days they want to do the best that they can. They are different in school and different when you see them outside of school, like walking around town or at basketball games. Like in all places there are the kids who want/need attention due to whatever reason. There are times when I think I'm making a difference, and then the next day it feels like I didn't get anywhere. But I keep at it and hope that something sticks.

I think another intern said it best in his blog: Sean's Blog "Yet another problem with the Common Core standards, is the very name. Who's opinion of 'common'? What groups have these assessments and standards been normed on? I guarantee it wasn't the Native Inupiaq populations of Northern Alaska. A lot of these kids are truly (and I mean truly) never going to need to know half of the common core's standards, and they realize it too. Many students plan on taking up trades, sustenance based living or crafts to sell. And those businesses are all good, and many of these kids will be successful, just as their parents have been. College is the dream of a few. But instead of trudging through these standards, frustration sets in and behaviors form. One benefit I'm gaining from this experience is finding new ways to explain applicability and relevance in a lot of our content, which stands somewhat of a chance here, and should be most effective back home in NY." 

I agree with him. What is 'common'? What does it mean to everyone in the US? Is it applicable to everyone? 

Today in writing class the subject they needed to write a 3 paragraph essay was on someone they had as a role model or someone that they looked up to. Some of the students couldn't name someone they looked up to. Some of the students named athletes. One of the students that I worked with named her mom, and her essay turned out great. 

But I really hope that I make a difference. That's what I'm here for. All I can do is try.