Year Numero Dos! :)

After a summer full of traveling everywhere and spending time with friends and family it was time to come back to AUK. This time leaving wasn't as hard or scary, because I had a year under my belt and knew what to expect. I flew up to Anchorage and spent the night in town with the roomie getting all the  food we would need till I go back into town again. 

We have the majority of our staff back this year, but have 3 new hires who have turned out to be not so bad. :) One is from Arkansas while the other two are from Missouri. It's nice to be back in a place where I know people and love my job. 

Last year my kids were no lie a handful and always kept me on my toes with their behavior. This year my kids have great behavior and we are getting to do so much more this year. It's crazy how much can change in a year. They listen and so far we have only had one major outburst. I'll take those odds any day. :)

This year has been more rainy and yucky then last year which I"m not a fan of, but comes with the territory I guess. Becca and I went on a boat ride to Emmonak and got to visit the new AC grocery store. This store is like the Taj Mahal of stores out here... Even comes equipped with an automatic door.  The group of kids jumping in front of it caught me off guard, but then I realized a majority of them have never seen those before especially in a village. It was definitely worth the trip. 

Here are some pictures from my time back here so enjoy. :)

New Adventures To Enjoy

This past week has been amazing I had a blast with my kids for St. Patrick's week. They learned about leprechauns and how to do an Irish Jig. We had a "visitor" named Lenny who magically came in and out all week and kept destroying our room. My kids kept saying you did it teacher because you are from Arkansas and you Joke. Some days their reasoning makes me laugh so hard. I think we are finally over the tough parts of fighting. Things are starting to get easier and more enjoyable each day. It's crazy that my first year of teaching is 3/4ths of the way over.

Friday night Sammy, Jana and I went to Nunam for Potlach and to see Brittnay and Essie. It's the fourth village I've been to and loved getting to go. Their village is much smaller than ours so their dancing was different. On the way back we got to stop in the middle of the Yukon and soak in the amazing sky and Northern Lights. I have seen them a couple of times now, but never this bright. Then on our way back we got lost and took a two hour detour at midnight. To say it was scary is an understatement, but thankfully we have some watching us and made it home safely. Definitely learned why it's smart to take a gps or have someone to follow.

I finally made my first adult purchase a SKIDOO!!! Start my mother worrying.... NOW! :) It is a used one another teacher had and fixed up. Nothing fancy but after two days of driving I'm in love! It's so nice to be able to hop on it and go play on the Yukon River. Also makes taking the trash out more fun. (Hint: We probably would have done it more as kids if we had had these.)

Two of the other teachers took me Manaq'ing which is Ice Fishing. Instead of sitting in a boat enjoying the sun we were bundled up and sitting on our skidoos with a pole in the water. We had to cut a hole through the ice to get to the water and keep it clear the whole time.

My kids and I made a website to where people can donate to our classroom so we can get items we need. Since we are in the bush it's hard to get small things you need here and there. The things we have asked for will greatly help the students  strengthen their reading and writing.

*** If you want to donate please go to http://www.donorschoose.org/srhoads12 and donate! My kids will send you pictures and letters to say thank you. :)

Fish for the Ice Cream 

Heaven! :) 

My Fishing Hole

Manaq'ing

My New Ride. :)

Enjoy the pictures. :)

One year turns into two! :)

It's been a while sense i've updated my blog.... Some of it was because i've been busy, but mostly i've been worn out and lazy.

Lots of things have happened since my last blog my kids are starting to work harder and we are getting more accomplished. The beginning of the year was rough and I figured it would be a great experience, but honestly didn't know how long i'd stay. As the months went by some of my kids calmed down and wanted to learn. There are still the crazy kids who want to fight tooth and nail with everything I say. I try not to let those kids wear me down and truck on.

December came and both my kids and my self needed a break. So we made a countdown for my classroom till school ended and one for Christmas. The kids wrote letters to Santa and made lists of things they wanted vs what they needed. The day before break we enjoyed our Christmas party and movies all day. I'm a firm believer now on limiting kids on the amount of sugar they have. My family who has been amazing this whole year sent my kids amazing gifts which they loved. My kids have become attached to my family without even meeting them. One day before I leave hopefully they will get to meet face to face.

Christmas vacation was absolutely amazing and exactly what I needed. We got to have two nights together in Anchorage as a staff and we had a blast. The friends I have made here have my experience crazy, enjoyable and unpredictable. I switched my flights around came home a day early. The surprise for my parents worked out perfect thanks to my brother. They were dead asleep when I got home and I think I scared them more than anything. After that it was days full of family and friends. I was exhausted by the time I got back to the village and ready to get back to work.

January was definitely the longest month this year and the hardest. I had to deal with difficult kids, parents and coworkers. I've never been pushed more in my life, but it worked out in the end. Some days I just want to scream and move home, but then I remember I'm here for a reason. Not every child may want to learn, but I'm here to teach the ones who want to. That's what I have to tell my self about ten times a day when I have a kid throwing a fit or refusing to work.

February has been a busy month with all the holidays. The kids had fun making and passing out valentines to their friends and siblings. Once again my amazing family sent up candy, crafts and fun things for them to do. We had a sugar overload and my headache after was terrible. Then we learned about Groundhog day, Presidents day and Black history month. A lot of information for these kiddos to take in a one time, but they are getting some of it.

One thing they aren't big fans of is writing, but they love sending and getting letters. They just finished writing letters to my brother wishing him good luck with his surgery. He has been sending them videos of work and they love them. So yesterday we made a video of them calling the hogs and sent it back. Have to teach them the important things in life. :) Today they are working on letters to the best friend since we are learning about cops. Sometimes it's nice to have friends with different jobs. So if any of you ever get bored my kids love getting letters or random things. PO Box 24 Alakanuk, Alaska 99554. They will respond I promise. :)

At the beginning of this month we got our contracts for next year and were given thirty days to sign them. I've signed mine and will officially be back next year. Right now the good outweighs the bad and I plan on staying until that switches. I'll be home at the end of May for three months then back to the north.

Thanks for all your love and support. :)

Month of October

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, but life has been busier than I expected. We have had parent teacher conferences, district wide write, report cards, and Halloween. I've spent more time at the school this month trying to get things ready for my kids. We have had an interesting month to where every second we have is valuable. My kids are slowly starting to try more things then they would before and each day is getting a little easier. There have been times where my days have ended in me needing to just go for a walk to blow off steam. Luckily I have an amazing friend who will go with me to show me places in the village I havent been yet. We took one day after the snow storm and the scenery looked liked I had just walked into Narnia. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful this place is and how it gets prettier every day with the snow.

In Arkansas we get snow, but never this much for this long. The maintenance guys at our school laugh because I get so excited when it snows. Then I open my mouth and said wow it's cold outside when the weather is close to single digits.... Their response is they laugh and say this is warm. I think i'm in for an interesting ride with this weather over the winter.

Last week I had my first run in with an upset parent and didn't know what to expect. My parents raised me that if you screw up that you need to own up to it and see what you can do to fix the situation. These kids were brought up in a completely different manner and getting used to it has proved to be quite the challenge for me. I overheard the parent discussing his problem with my bosses and got nervous. My first thought was did I handle the problem correctly? Thankfully my bosses saw nothing wrong with my actions and felt the punishment met the crime. This relieved a lot of stress off of me which I was very thankful for.

Football season has been therapy for me and I have a new found love for it. I find that after a hard week getting to go to another teacher's house to watch the Hogs play and socialize is just what I need. It is so amazing to have such a great staff to work with here. They definitely have made my experience in the bush that much better.

This past week I've been in Anchorage helping a friend out who had surgery on her knee. We flew to St. Mary's on Saturday and we hoped to have an easy flight out that afternoon so we could enjoy some Taco Bell. Someone had other plans and a blizzard hit St. Mary's cancelling our flight. In the lower 48 this wouldn't be stressful because you could rent a car and head to a cheap hotel. In Bush Alaska you have to rely on the kindness of strangers. One of my very amazing friends Jamie who teaches in another village asked how our flight had gone. I explained we were stuck and with in ten minutes a lady came up and asked Are you Paige and Sarah? Turns out she was Jamie's Mentor and she had been dropping her husband off when they realized their flight was cancelled too. So they so graceiously took us home with them, fed us, let us watch the Hogs game and let us stay the night. The next morning we woke up praying for good weather and thankfully arrived in Anchorage. This week has been full of Dr. Appt's, good food, great friends, and shopping (maybe a little too much of the last one). Our trip comes to an end tomorrow as we hope the weather is clear in Anchorage, St. Mary's and our villages. It's nice to get a break to come into civilization, but I m ready to go to the village. Once you get used to not having things easy and accessible to you it's easy to enjoy the privileges of living in a city. However, I miss the quiet of living in a village. You don't have to worry about driving all over to get things, because you either have it or you live with out it.

Part of my new winter gear! :)

View from our room at the Hilton

It's the little things in life. :)

I could get used to seeing this everyday

Our walk to the dock

Outside my house

Anchorage

Finally Leaving St. Mary's airport

Only 2 more weeks till Thanksgiving and 40 till I'm in God's country for Christmas. Love and miss you all! :)

HOOPER BAY TRAINING

Missing Arkansas a little...

Sand Dollars

Arkansans! :)

Family Photo

Bering Sea

:)

Standing in the Bering Sea

Three Musketeers!

The beach....

Only a little bit longer till I'm in God's Country for Christmas! :)

A week of firsts!

This week was full of firsts....

First Month of teaching finished
First Parent Teacher Conference
First Moose Cutting
First Boat Ride

View from the boat ride to Emmonak

My roommate Sammy and I on the boat.... FREEZING!!!

Pretty day in the Yukon!

Playing around with the settings on my phone.

Roommate Picture!

Sky watching at the Slough!

Roommate Time!

I am so lucky to see this everyday!

First experience with cutting up a moose! :)

Welcome to my world!

Amazing picture!

Firepower!

I may need walks out here more often!

Thinking hard about how awesome we are! :)

This is what happens when you order a 36 pack of diet coke and a 36 pack of diet pepsi. The bush company sends you 36 CASES of each!! I'm in Heaven!! :)

I'm sorry what did you say???

This was week two of teaching and my kids got better as the week went on. We did our first week of spelling tests (which most got correct) and start working with partners on class projects. Even after two weeks and countless headaches these kids have my heart. There are times I have to just take a deep breath and say lets try it again, but it is worth it 100%. :)

After a rough day back in AR I would call up Rachel and we would go buy cartons of eggs take them to the park and hit them with a bat. It is oddly enough an amazing stress reliever, but with the cost of eggs up here that didn't seem like a likely option. So Sammy, Jana and I decided to go puddle jumping after the days of rain that we just had. I couldn't think of a better way to end my last day of being 23, because it was a sight to see and I probably pulled something from laughing so hard. One of the girls in the office lives by where we were splashing and said that she would take a picture, but made sure to never get too close. Ha ha!!

The next day was you guessed it MY BIRTHDAY!! Now I'm kinda partial to my birthday, because those who know me know I can handle a little attention every once and a while. Ha ha! This birthday could possibly be my favorite so far for many reasons.... I got to class and my kids kept giving me "birthday gifts" which were just hugs, but I'll take them. Then Anna came in our room and made me a sweet card and "snuck" around the room to get my kids to sign it. When I opened it and saw the words Love YOUR class I teared up a little. It's nice to know that all this hard work has paid off and i'm finally getting to do what I love! Sammy's class came and sang me happy birthday during math which was followed by loud applause from Jana's class. The gym is where we go to have P.E. every day and since there are no pull out classes (art, music, Yup'ik) we are the p.e. teacher too. Well Michael's English class is right next to the gym so his class sang to me also and kept running up to me with cards. We ended the day with the staff singing to me in staff meeting and people saying I was asking for Happy Birthdays since I wore my birthday shirt! After school we had a staff potluck at our house and every brought some kind of breakfast food. My super amazing roommate made AMAZING biscuits and gravy.... Needless to say I was in HEAVEN!!! It was nice to get to spend time with everyone outside of the school setting.

This weekend was a long one and much needed so when our short Friday hit I was ready. We taught in the morning and then at 12:30 the kids went home and we went to staff training. I decided this weekend that I was going to clean out the cabinets since it has obviously not been done in a while... This was a task that I needed my mom for, because cleaning is not my forte at all! So I worked a little in my room on Friday watched a little Big Bang Theory and then went to bed. Saturday was our WEEKLY breakfast at Michael and Zoey's house and is quickly becoming a staple in our lives. We spent the day being lazy watching t.v. and playing cards which was a nice break. Sunday came around so we decided to have a basketball break and then we worked in our rooms for a bit then card time again.

Today our state mentor, who helps 1st and 2nd year teachers, is supposed to fly in to observe us teach. It's along the same lines as our UCA supervisor, but still a little nerve wracking..... Keep your fingers crossed. I got my lesson plans done early and am about to have to type up my sub plans. Thursday I'm flying to Anchorage for training in Learning Labs which is a after school program Sammy and I are teaching. I'm excited to get to go, because I can buy the things I need for winter (ski pants/jacket). It'll be a nice break and means we can get more fresh food also! :)

One thing I have learned to hate rather quickly is the connection on our phones/internet. People try to call and it either goes straight to voicemail or there is a delay on the line. This is quite frustrating when you are trying to catch up with a friend or family member. So if you call and I don't answer don't think I'm ignoring you just thank GCI. Little things like that are things I never expected to be this frustrating, but comes with the job.

Yesterday I took a walk to Dave's store to buy food for lunch..... 2 Digornio's pizzas, ketchup, koolaid, watermelon, cantaloupe...... $70!! Definitely won't be doing that again, but man did it taste good!! :)

I saw one of my kids on the walk home and asked where he was Friday at school. He explained that his grandpa had killed a moose the night before and they spent the day chopping him up. I still am getting used to the reasons kids miss school and hopefully will catch on and not chuckle when I hear them. The boy then went on to tell me that he would be there Tuesday and that he had carved a moose bone for me... I'm excited to see what it looks like. In my mind that's a big feat for a 8 year old. When I first read his file I thought he would be my biggest problem, but so far he is my favorite. He works hard and sure plays around a little, but still gets his stuff done. Hopefully it stays like that.


Well the mess in my room is calling and can't be ignored anymore....
Have a great day and I miss you all!!

Fun times!! (Notice Jana's lack of crutches!! YAY!)

Take that roomie!! :)

Best last day of being 23 EVER!! Thanks Guys! :)

Sad bc she was the first victim!

I'd be lost without these girls!

Party time in the MUD!

Sammy won the fight. :(

My amazing "family" making breakfast birthday dinner for me! :)

My super amazing very quickly delivered care package from my FAVORITE TEXAN Jamie!!! :)