I'm officially back in Alaska… Actually, I've been here since July 27th.
My last few weeks at home were great. I got to hang out with friends, eat good food, and go dancing in bubbles my last night. Thanks to all my friends who went out with me. You know who you are!
I returned to Alaska on the 27th of July. I went a bit early to participate in my districts Welcome Wagon. Welcome Wagon is a wonderful opportunity for teachers who are new to the district as well as teaching in the bush. Darla, the organizer of the event, has been living in Alaska her whole life. She knows about the best places to purchase items in Anchorage. How to ship things out in totes, the best places to eat.
I went because I needed to get my drivers license as well as a cell phone that would work in Gambell. (If you have my old number, then don't call or text, because it doesn't work anymore! Message me if you want my number!)
I failed the written test the first time, and I had to go back and take it again the next day. I passed the second time. My address on my license (because we have to have a physical street address) is PO BOX 218: 4 Privet Lane, Cupboard Under the Stairs, Gambell, AK 99742. This is so I can get mail from Hogwarts and go to Wizard School.
After I left Anchorage on the 31st, I went to Nome for my connecting flight. Unfortunately, Gambell was fogged in on the 31st. It was fogged in on the 1st as well. We finally got to fly out on the 2nd. But we almost didn't because it was foggy in NOME!
Luckily there were 4 people stranded in Nome the first night, so we split the hotel room 4 ways. The 2nd night, it was 3 ways. But we still had to eat.
The first night I had everyone over for spaghetti dinner, the assistant principal made bread and brought it over. The 2nd night Suzanne, the new 1st grade teacher, made chicken noodle casserole with chocolate chip cookies.
On the 6th, I hopped a charter flight to Unalakleet with the new teachers and principals for our inservice. We had 2.5 days of training on BSSD stuff as well as doing the fun HR paperwork. Then we had Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday off. The district had many activities in the evening and the weekend for us to do. They have new Honda's that are going out to the villages for teacher retention. Gambell is getting two, they should be shipped out sometime soon. We got to check them out in 2 hour blocks and explore around Unalakleet. I travelled a lot out of the village. It was a lot of fun! I also made a traditional Kuspuk, as well as playing cards and hanging out with new friends.
On Monday afternoon all of the returning teachers arrived. We had a short afternoon meeting, then we had three days of training on the new reading/literacy program by National Geographic called Cengage. It's an awesome program and I'm excited to teach it. We also learned about the teacher evaluation program as well as integrating local culture into our lesson plans and making them applicable to our students.
Friday was a travel/work day. We were told originally that we wouldn't leave Unalakleet until 145pm. At 9am they paged through out the school that we were leaving RIGHT NOW, because Shishmaref couldn't travel because of fog, and neither could Savoonga. So, we get all of our stuff put into the trucks, track down missing teachers, and go over to the airport, only to find that the plane wasn't there yet. But that they only could take 125lbs of additional weight besides our persons. Which was about 5 lbs of carry on's per person. Which meant that all of our clothes and everything not "important" got left in Unalakleet. I was lucky, I just took my phone, glasses, iPad, and hairbrush. They told us it would be here today, but it's not. It may come tomorrow, but probably on Monday. Luckily, the other half of my clothes that I shipped in a tote with stuff from Anchorage made it here so I have clothes that aren't winter clothes!
Today was a work day. We got into our classrooms and started setting them up. I'll post pictures later, although you can see pictures that I posted to Facebook. My classroom was left really nicely organized, but I rearranged things so it made sense to me, and now it's a mess. I also unpacked all of my new reading program. Now, I have to organize it, because it's not in order. Luckily, they provided me with a list. I'm hoping to be able to get all of it finished tonight.
We also found out that the district is sending someone out to Gambell to install Dish TV and Internet access in all of the teacher housing! We'll get to see live tv, and not have to wait til it comes out on DVD or reruns during the summer.
I live in new teacher housing again by the school, but I have two new roommates. They are pretty cool. One even spent the last three years on Little Diomede! The other spent last year in Koyuk. We have decided to make group meals and tonight was the first night. But then I got distracted by having my teacher computer that I forgot and lost track of time. So I've realized that I'm STARVING and will head over there to eat some food!
More to come later!
