Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Let's Go Fishing
well I had my first Alaskan fishing experience this morning. But I wasn't fishing for fish. Last night at about 11:30pm as I am walking home I dropped my keys and as I stood there and thought what if they go through the board walk I heard a curplunk. So I was in luck our principle was leaving school at the same time and he was kind enough to let me into my house - I figured the keys were gone for good and that I would be pay $500 ($250 for each lost key) Daryl was much more optimistic he figured that we would be able to find them by prying up a couple of boards. He wasn't standing their wen they went curplunk. So this morning before school I thought what the heck I'll at least look. So I took my flask light and started looking between every crack to see if I could see anything. Five minutes later I see them - I can't reach them but I can see them - so basically I ended up finding a piece of wire in my house and was able to fish them out. So that is my Alaskan fishing experience so far. Well back to my school work. Have a great day everyone!!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Life is GOOD!
Very busy first week, but things are going good. It is Saturday afternoon and I am hanging-out in my classroom. Actually it isn't as bad as you are thinking. First of I don't have Internet or TV in my house not a big deal plus it is my laundry time. Each certified staff person has an assigned laundry time either an afternoon/evening time or Saturday morning (mine) Saturday Afternoon, or Sunday. So I thought I would update you while I finished up my laundry and I also found the movie Fiddler On The Roof in our school library so I have that playing on the VCR/TV in my room. Anyways, I have some interesting thing to tell you about today.
First here is another picture of me out picking berries I figured out the timer on my camera and a couple of other shots I took a week or so ago. I am uploading a number of other photo's to my flickr account.
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Cultural Experience on Friday evening - One of the town elders wanted to have a community potluck so that the community could meet all of the teachers. So towards the beginning of the week we received an e-mail about this "potluck". Midwestern up bring so I assume certain things about a community potluck - it was a little different then I expected. First off the school cook made three large sheet cakes (2x3) and the school provided the plastic plates, silverware, coffee and juice, each staff person brought a dish or something to pass. I made lentils and rice with carrots, beef and dried tomatoes in my slow cooker, 1 cup rice 1 cup lentils. I assumed this would be plenty since at every potluck I have ever attended there was more food then you can imagine, and we thought we where to sort of be the guest. Wrong - First off not every family brought food and there where a number of kids whose parents didn't even come and thus they didn't bring anything.
John Phillip on of the elders spoke for 15-25 minutes, and I am not sure what he spoke about because he spoke in Yupik, (Paul Paul the Kindergarten teacher summarized what he had said to us teachers which in short was don't let the kids sleep in class). Then two or three other elders spoke mostly in Yupik. Then a short prayer and then they (and I mean they) finally ate. The elders lined up first then the adults and then the kids. I am told that it is better at this village then in some, in other villages only the very, very young (under three)line-up with their parents. Here at least if their parents where here they lined up with them. By the time the end of the line was getting to the table they were scrapping the bottom of the bowls literally. And the only reason that there was any food left was that there where teachers serving and they limited the amount of food people took. By the way the teachers really didn't eat we had cake (that is all was left). People would take trays of food and then get foil for them to take them home. At the end there was only cake left and people were taking whole plates with four or five pieces of that home. Very very different.
Today was a great day - we finally went on a major exploration walk. We did not make it to the coast but we think we have a better idea how to get there. The following are some pictures of Alicia, MaryJane and myself on our adventure. We were also joined part way through our walk by three village kids, Martha is a first grader, Jovan is in 6th grade, and Jimmy is in 8th grade. The boys shot three birds two smaller ones and a Goose, Justic MaryJanes four legged companion even showed off her retriving skills and swam in the water for one. As you will also see it very wet basically it is a bog that we were walking on. My new muck boots work great as long as I don't go in water deeper then they are tall - OOPs so I learned, but my feet still stayed dry, even if my knees were wet. I LOVE my muck boots - Thanks Bev.
Well, I guess maybe I should grade some papers the pile has gotten a little large this week.
Happy Birthday Sheila!!!!
First here is another picture of me out picking berries I figured out the timer on my camera and a couple of other shots I took a week or so ago. I am uploading a number of other photo's to my flickr account.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CJzJs3O_Tkb6PiLqZGzjWmTYrOGgeOQ_ZVmuK9I9EKAt_NaWw-1j5rc9pmidSPq1ucblgYlArT4aJb86d1Iu1IcQT_0h4HGowE0ywThrqsauKCU3yiXie9uo7_tURuwGRaF4WRCLleM/s1600-h/IMG_0876.JPG">
Cultural Experience on Friday evening - One of the town elders wanted to have a community potluck so that the community could meet all of the teachers. So towards the beginning of the week we received an e-mail about this "potluck". Midwestern up bring so I assume certain things about a community potluck - it was a little different then I expected. First off the school cook made three large sheet cakes (2x3) and the school provided the plastic plates, silverware, coffee and juice, each staff person brought a dish or something to pass. I made lentils and rice with carrots, beef and dried tomatoes in my slow cooker, 1 cup rice 1 cup lentils. I assumed this would be plenty since at every potluck I have ever attended there was more food then you can imagine, and we thought we where to sort of be the guest. Wrong - First off not every family brought food and there where a number of kids whose parents didn't even come and thus they didn't bring anything.
John Phillip on of the elders spoke for 15-25 minutes, and I am not sure what he spoke about because he spoke in Yupik, (Paul Paul the Kindergarten teacher summarized what he had said to us teachers which in short was don't let the kids sleep in class). Then two or three other elders spoke mostly in Yupik. Then a short prayer and then they (and I mean they) finally ate. The elders lined up first then the adults and then the kids. I am told that it is better at this village then in some, in other villages only the very, very young (under three)line-up with their parents. Here at least if their parents where here they lined up with them. By the time the end of the line was getting to the table they were scrapping the bottom of the bowls literally. And the only reason that there was any food left was that there where teachers serving and they limited the amount of food people took. By the way the teachers really didn't eat we had cake (that is all was left). People would take trays of food and then get foil for them to take them home. At the end there was only cake left and people were taking whole plates with four or five pieces of that home. Very very different.
Today was a great day - we finally went on a major exploration walk. We did not make it to the coast but we think we have a better idea how to get there. The following are some pictures of Alicia, MaryJane and myself on our adventure. We were also joined part way through our walk by three village kids, Martha is a first grader, Jovan is in 6th grade, and Jimmy is in 8th grade. The boys shot three birds two smaller ones and a Goose, Justic MaryJanes four legged companion even showed off her retriving skills and swam in the water for one. As you will also see it very wet basically it is a bog that we were walking on. My new muck boots work great as long as I don't go in water deeper then they are tall - OOPs so I learned, but my feet still stayed dry, even if my knees were wet. I LOVE my muck boots - Thanks Bev.
Well, I guess maybe I should grade some papers the pile has gotten a little large this week.
Happy Birthday Sheila!!!!
Monday, August 20, 2007
First Day of School
Well, I am still alive and so are all the students so I would say that means we had a great first day. It is 8:30pm and I am back at school and will be here for a few hours. then I plan on taking my shower before heading home.
Saturday and this afternoon were happy days - I had some boxes arrive - YEAH - You know it is very different waiting for things to arrive by mail rather then just running to Meijers or Kmart to pick it up. Talk about training/controlling that instant gradification thing. Lucky for me some one is willing to do some shopping and shipping for me. I could order from Walmart in Anchorage but that would probably cost a lot more. We (a couple teachers and myself) are trying to figure out how to get some fresh produce somewhat reasonable since the district isn't sending any of us to Bethel any time soon.
Okay I need to get some planning done for tommorow or else I will probably have to kill some of the students in my 7/8th grade class.
Saturday and this afternoon were happy days - I had some boxes arrive - YEAH - You know it is very different waiting for things to arrive by mail rather then just running to Meijers or Kmart to pick it up. Talk about training/controlling that instant gradification thing. Lucky for me some one is willing to do some shopping and shipping for me. I could order from Walmart in Anchorage but that would probably cost a lot more. We (a couple teachers and myself) are trying to figure out how to get some fresh produce somewhat reasonable since the district isn't sending any of us to Bethel any time soon.
Okay I need to get some planning done for tommorow or else I will probably have to kill some of the students in my 7/8th grade class.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Update
Sorry, I haven't posted anything on my blog in the past couple of days but as you can guess I have been pretty busy. Technically today was the first day we had to be at school and we spent most of the day in a video conference with the district. Remember the school district is about the size of Ohio and we have 23 schools in about 20 different villages so our district meeting are usually held via Polycom. A number of classes particularly Math and Science are taught via polycom through the district head quarters -thus not every school has a "Highly Qualified" Math and/or Science teacher - we have two different Polycom channels and thus the district can offer a variety of HS Classes.
I have been at school quite a lot since arriving trying to organize my room and figure out what I am teaching. I know the classes 7th/8th Grade Math, US History, Algebra 1, HS Math, 6/7/8th Grade PE and 7/8th Grade Social Studies. By the way they use the "phase" system for Math, Reading, and Writing so that means between my "three" Math classes I actually have 10 different lessons going on - The concept is great the organization of it still has me confused but I think I am getting there. As some of you know I have sent out a cry for help with the Social Studies looking for lesson plans or anything - I guess I am going to have to do a lot of Internet research. US History - I sent an e-mail to the teacher who taught the class a couple of years ago to see if he remembers what books he used and any other materials. PE is temporally on the bottom of my concern list - I will probably be pulling some of my old YMCA stuff or making my YMCA friends send it to me - RUTHIE, remember that math test!!! Did I mention that school starts MONDAY.
Alaska is totally awesome!!! Very hard to describe - SUPER VAST - doesn't even come close.
This picture was taken standing on the board walk in the village. and is one out of 3-4 pictures I did trying to get a panoramic view. Even though we are 2-3 miles up in land from the ocean we still can see the effects of the tides on the river - the river rises and falls a good 10-20feet. In this shot it is just starting to go out.
I went Blue Berrie picking yesterday and was able to get enough to fill two quart size freezer bags. These are some pictures I took out on the tundra. It was a 15 min walk from my house to the area that I picked berries. I hope to go out again tomorrow evening and pick some more. In talking to one of the villagers I found out that I can also pick what they call Black Berries, they look like Blue Berries but are black and the red berries should be ripe by the end of the month.
Well beleive it or not it is 9pm even though it looks like about 5pm the sun is shinning and although I would love to go for a walk or something I think I will head home (a whole 100 yards away from the front door of the school). First I will use the restroom, wash my hands and brush my teeth, I try to do this before heading home for the night since running water makes all of these task a little easier.
Feel free to comment on the blogs - I do apologize if I am not answering e-mail as often as I should.
I have been at school quite a lot since arriving trying to organize my room and figure out what I am teaching. I know the classes 7th/8th Grade Math, US History, Algebra 1, HS Math, 6/7/8th Grade PE and 7/8th Grade Social Studies. By the way they use the "phase" system for Math, Reading, and Writing so that means between my "three" Math classes I actually have 10 different lessons going on - The concept is great the organization of it still has me confused but I think I am getting there. As some of you know I have sent out a cry for help with the Social Studies looking for lesson plans or anything - I guess I am going to have to do a lot of Internet research. US History - I sent an e-mail to the teacher who taught the class a couple of years ago to see if he remembers what books he used and any other materials. PE is temporally on the bottom of my concern list - I will probably be pulling some of my old YMCA stuff or making my YMCA friends send it to me - RUTHIE, remember that math test!!! Did I mention that school starts MONDAY.
Alaska is totally awesome!!! Very hard to describe - SUPER VAST - doesn't even come close.
This picture was taken standing on the board walk in the village. and is one out of 3-4 pictures I did trying to get a panoramic view. Even though we are 2-3 miles up in land from the ocean we still can see the effects of the tides on the river - the river rises and falls a good 10-20feet. In this shot it is just starting to go out.
I went Blue Berrie picking yesterday and was able to get enough to fill two quart size freezer bags. These are some pictures I took out on the tundra. It was a 15 min walk from my house to the area that I picked berries. I hope to go out again tomorrow evening and pick some more. In talking to one of the villagers I found out that I can also pick what they call Black Berries, they look like Blue Berries but are black and the red berries should be ripe by the end of the month.
Well beleive it or not it is 9pm even though it looks like about 5pm the sun is shinning and although I would love to go for a walk or something I think I will head home (a whole 100 yards away from the front door of the school). First I will use the restroom, wash my hands and brush my teeth, I try to do this before heading home for the night since running water makes all of these task a little easier.
Feel free to comment on the blogs - I do apologize if I am not answering e-mail as often as I should.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
I made it!
I survived two days of new teacher orintation, and one day of Culture Class. Our Culturel Class is a year long class that is required by the state and we get three graduate level credits for it and the school pays for it. So that was Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Check out some photo's of Bethel on my Flickr account. (http://www.flickr.com/ search for megan haglund do a second search under people for megan heaglund).
Friday evening I flew to Kongiganak with two other new teachers and our site adminstrator. (A picture of me waiting for a ride to the Bethel Airport) Because we had so many people and so much stuff that they gave us on of the larger planes (it sat eight people).
Friday evening I flew to Kongiganak with two other new teachers and our site adminstrator. (A picture of me waiting for a ride to the Bethel Airport) Because we had so many people and so much stuff that they gave us on of the larger planes (it sat eight people).
Andrew and his wife lived in the house I have last year and they had to move to their "new house" Friday evening and Saturday - Andrew had the bedroom cleaned out Friday night so I was able to sleep there and then finished the rest of the house Saturday so last night I cleaned and moved in. Most of my boxes made it, well 8 out of 12 boxes that I had mailed made it. Hopefully the rest will make it soon, the coffee pot did not make. I guess I should have carried that with me along with my Beaners coffee. At least the school has coffee so I am suriving fine. I will try and upload some photo's of my house to flickr tommorrow.
Photo from the plane as we flew from Bethel to Kongiganak.
Saturday we walked around the village - I know I will get photos up soon. My house is about 100 yards from the front door of the school. I do not have running water - I have a bathtube but it has two fifty-gallon barrels in it - this is my water supply. Supposedly the water is safe to drink but it does sit in the barrells for at least a week or more so I boil and/or filter it. Shower is here at the school - the school has running water.
Well, I want to work on some stuff for school since I spent the day finishing and PASSING Ruthies math class.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
First Day
Today was our first day of training for all of the new teachers - for the most part it was fun and interesting. The evening finished with a Yu'pik potluck dinner, a lot of dishes made with Samon - still not something I will eat, I tried. There was also some Moose stew and that wasn't bad. We finished the evening off by picking Blueberries on the tundra. Please note how small the Blueberries are nothing like what we are use to in Michigan.
I almost forgot on explorations yesterday we went to the local grocery store here in Bethel and just to give you an idea - 12 pack of Pepsi $10, Tomatoes $2.29 a pound, sweet potatoes $2.49 a pound ($0.49 in Grand Rapids)
Well it is 9:30pm and even though the sun is shinning as if it was 12noon I am going to try and get some sleep. I hope to post some pictures to flickr in the next couple of days.
Take care and I will keep you posted.
Traveling
Well I arrived - Actually I arrived in Bethel Tuesday, at about 7:30am. My travels went pretty smoothly. We left Clarksville at about 11am Monday, August 6. Pam, Sheila and Bev drove me to the Detroit Airport and I flew out at about 5:30pm. First stop Phoenix, Arizona. I had about an hour layover in Arizona and then it was on to Anchorage, Alaska. I arrived in Anchorage at about 1am local time so that would be 5am Michigan time. Because I was switching airlines I had to not only get my luggage but also switch terminals. I had to wait until 5am to check my luggage so I found a comfortable bench and took a nap for a couple of hours and then it was off to Bethel.
When I arrived here in Bethel I met about 8 other new teachers. We spent the day hanging out and comparing notes. In the picture below with me next to the sign I have been awake for about 36hours. The next picture is of "main" street the final shot is of the river.
When I arrived here in Bethel I met about 8 other new teachers. We spent the day hanging out and comparing notes. In the picture below with me next to the sign I have been awake for about 36hours. The next picture is of "main" street the final shot is of the river.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Last Night in Michigan
I played my last game of golf Saturday morning, visisted the dog beach Sunday morning. I have finished packing and everything is in storage so I guess that's it, I am off to Alaska. I'll keep you posted and post pictures as soon as I can.
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