My how things can change

A trip home starts with a little tiny flight.  A flight you wait for in the village.  Be ready by 9:30 they say but we all know that the plane doesn't normally come until about noon.  It's ok, I could have been ready by 8am for a flight at 5pm if that's what they wanted.  I was stoked!  Pen-Air is the only place that does the flights around here and so we wait (patiently) for them to arrive.  Folks around here have a pet name for them, "when-air", whenever they get here - air.  That's pretty much the way it goes though they try to be on time.

9:30.....are you ready?  Yes.    Ok, I'll call you at 10:30 and we'll see where we are at.   

10:30....are you ready?  Yes, all ready to go.  Just call me when you know the plane is coming.

11:40...Dick is headed your way.  Ok, I'll be outside waiting!

11:45...Dick shows up, I'm outside waiting, toss my cargo into the van and we go to pick up the other travelers.  (6 of us flying out that day!)

12:05....on the plane headed out of town.  PHEW

Pen-Air in King Salmon

First stop...King Salmon, AK   Layover....7 hours....extended by an hour to 8 hours but it's ok I got one heck of a story out of a hunting guide.  He was working out in the area and his two co-workers left to retrieve something.  He walked along this ridge right into a bears bed area.  Opps!  Attacked.  Survivied with the scars to prove it.  He still wears the same watch from the 15 years or so ago with the teeth marks.  Pretty cool story, I won't go into much detail, it's much better if you saw the scars and I didn't take pictures of the guy.  Kinda figured that would be rude.  He did show me pictures from his most recent guides though and there were some fantastic looking bears.  The other gal sitting there with me just got the #2 in the books Dahl Sheep and it was day number 60 of drying time!  She was pretty stoked!

Second Stop.....Anchorage, AK.  Layover about 3.5 hours.  I was super excited for this one as I had not been in Anchorage since the beginning of August and I wanted to see some pretty mountains.  They were fabulous and though I only saw them from the air and from the windows of the airport, it's amazing how much things can change in the span of a few months!  The other part to this layover was that I got to see a dear friend of mine, Jaci.  We spent some time just chatting, catching up, learning about past guys, new guys, and new jobs.  As the evening hours slipped away, I checked in for my flight and she checked out for the evening.  I'll be back though, Christmas time will allow us a few days for some more friend time...and maybe some ice-skating!!!  Maybe we should do that AFTER the shopping trips so I don't kill myself before having to shop for the last 4 months up here.

Last stop......PDX  Portland, OR.....Home  (close enough to it that as soon as you see the lights, the city and hit the runway, you know you are home)  The red-eye flight was a bit to handle.  I was excited but oh so tired.  I think I got about half hour or so of sleep.  The exit row doesn't recline but I like the extra leg room.  I'm not sure even with a reclining seat it would have helped honestly.  First class might though....

Ah, then a nice hug and a car ride the rest of the way home.   Surprises begin.....with the next blog post!

The day before..

Did the village know I was leaving?  It sure put on a show.  Frost and fire it seemed like.  A wonderful sunrise as I look past the school staircase.  It's those wonderful pictures that make you feel like you could watch this every day.  (even though they don't happen every day)  Did the village want to make sure I remembered what I was leaving behind, to make sure I'd return?  Well, I was coming back like it or not, I had a return ticket in hand (well, on the web - common, it's 2011!) and I'd be back soon enough.

Almost all packed and ready to go, there are other things to attend to in the village.  Shooting practice was arranged before I wasn't all packed.  I was close and I knew that I'd have all night.  (Lord knows sleeping probably wasn't on the agenda anyhow!)  Excitement has the funny ability to keep you up when you know something good is coming!

So, a student of mine took me out shooting.  We took his gun and mine, headed out to hand out some punishment on an old metal chair and experience a little time at the gravel pit.  That poor chair.  It seems to have been a target for many a shooter.  So many holes already, I just had to add a few of my own.I must say, that M1A has quite the accuracy!  It looks pretty bad-A too!

I had to make sure I got a picture too, maybe it's just a "show everyone what I've done" or maybe it's because I'll never own a gun like this but it was fun.  I know I don't play the shooting games or go out hunting for animals to kill, however it was fun to shoot!

After the beautiful sunrise and the shooting, packing was in order.  I had already gotten the frozen container pre-packed and then back in the freezer so it was basically a dump and run in the morning.  My clothes were almost dry and ready for folding.  I had to sleep on my pillows but they were the last thing to go in.  Making sure that everything was there, I headed for bed, ready to be ready to go whenever Mr. Pen-Air showed up for me the next morning.  I had a lot to do first thing but where was I going? 

Home.

On the map

I've been all over the map since my last post.  So much has happened I'm going to have to post a few in short order to catch everyone up.  It seems like time flew by so quickly and I had a BIG secret to keep so I couldn't say much anywhere.

The short of it:  Egegik to King Salmon to Anchorage to Portland to HOME.   Then Home to Portland to Seattle to Anchorage to King Salmon to Naknek to Egegik.

The long of it:  To follow but only Mom knew I was coming home.  More posts to follow.

Off the map

7:45am

Ever see a town just disappear?  I see it all the time.  In the blink of an eye our tiny little town vanishes from sight.  Not even Google Earth or the strongest satellite would see us right now.  We are off the map.  I’d like to know some morning when it’s going to happen so I could watch it from the sky, or at least from the highest point in town.  Just watch the town go dark, watch it disappear.

That’s what it feels like right now though, and every morning that the beeping continues.  What do I see when I peer out the window?  Nothing but darkness surrounds the eyes, yet I know what I’m supposed to be seeing.  The street lights the speckle the gravel road, the safety light from the school and the little house lights up and down the coastline.  They are gone, if only for now. 

The first thought that came to my mind this morning, but not any of the others that this has happened was:  “We’re invisible!”  No one could see us even if they wanted to.  I doubt that my flashlight would even grab someone’s attention if it needed to.  Invisibility is cool, Harry Potter showed us that, but ours is temporary at best.  When the sun rises and gives us the natural light we’ll lose that cloak of darkness and become part of the modern world again but for now, it’s kind of cool to think about.

All is not lost in the world of power, we have a generator that can be switched on.  It’s just loud, it’s raining out and quite frankly, I don’t know how to turn it on yet.  I can get ready by flashlight and the head teacher here, she isn’t a “morning person.”  Since I’m good getting ready for school in the dark, there’s really not a need for it now that I have the earplugs.  The beeping is about 10 minutes away from being over with now.  (It goes for about an hour)  The Internet only lasted for about 35 minutes this time around. (Sorry about the Skype session Sister, it went out just as you asked!)  So now it’s off to get ready for school by flashlight and have a bowl of cereal before heading to a dark classroom to begin my day.

Invisibility, darkness, adaptation, it’s the Alaskan experience!

7:56 am

Cross Country Meet

A short athletic season in Alaska is something that is regular for each sport they play.  When I was asked if I would like to be the Cross Country coach, I thought (inaccurately) that it would be for the entire fall and there might be multiple meets.  Ha, I was so wrong!  One meet at the end of a month of training.

The season started off with 4 students saying they would participate.  That diminished quickly when one of them quickly made a trip to Anchorage for a medical issue.  Shortly after that two more were gone for two weeks to Anchorage and then I was down to one student.  She put in a great amount of work throughout the season and took the coach's trainings well.

Having a new coach isn't the easiest thing in the world.  I'm not the easiest coach to have either.  I have high expectations and I admit willingly that when I know that there is more left in the athletes, I'm a little like Jillian and Bob from the Biggest Loser.  (Just not THAT intense)  Now, I can't run as far as the Cross Country kids can, but there is a bicycle around that I can ride just that far.  It's nice be able to carry water for my athlete and a stopwatch along with some other provisions just in case.  She took the coaching well and even made me proud when showing me some heart during a few of the trainings when I asked more of her than I ever had.  Knowing that the one and only meet was fast approaching and that I would not see her for 4 days before the meet was a bit daunting but we tried to be ready.

When we met back up in Nondalton, AK and began to walk the course I really felt like she was going to do well.  We knew what the goal was and that it might be a bit difficult because there were quite a few more hills than we have here at home.  She ran through some huge blisters on her heels after a tape job and not only did she reach that goal, she exceeded it!  I couldn't have been more proud of her when I found out her time, I think I might have run through the halls to tell her how fast she ran.

What was I doing then besides being at the finish line?  Why did I have to wait to find out the time?  I was out on the course making sure that runners turned around at the right spot.  How was the weather while I was out there?  It was great, a bit warm, no breeze and I had all the time in the world to wait for runners.  Wait.  Wait just one minute.  Warm, no breeze weather in rural Alaska means one thing though.  Bugs.  Not just a few bugs.  Swarms of bugs.  Mosquitos the size of hummingbirds and flocks of them.  You look up in the sky and I swear I could count a "little" flock of 40 of them just above my head.  Oh my goodness!  The little bugs that accompany them were dotting the sky ever so much more prevalent than the stars and so much more annoying too!  There were times between the races that I had nothing to do but wait so I would pull my hoodie over my face as far as I could and my sleeves over my hands and just sit there in the "dark" so I wouldn't get bit or annoyed by the bugs.  I had a ton of fun cheering on all of the student-athletes as they came past my station however I think my favorite time might have been when I got to run back down to the school when that last runner came jogging by.  Phew, bugs over!

So, the other great parts about going somewhere else is getting to see what the other sites are like.  Nondalton is beautiful.  Not only do they have some beautiful scenery but we also got to see a cool piece of history in the form of a plane wreck.  The lake and the mountains around it were stunning and I can't even imagine how beautiful they must be covered in snow!  The plane went down many years ago when the lake was frozen and they just drug it off to the side.  It still sits there now and you can visit the wreckage site.

Service Project- Filling in Potholes

We also had some fun seeing some Native Youth Olympics (NYO) events being demonstrated and I think my mouth dropped open a few times.  Yes, I've tried them here at home now and I'm sure I look like a dork doing them.  They are fun though!  Besides all these things, there were leadership activities, many school meals and a dance to partake in.  I'm not sure who danced more though; the teachers/coaches or the students.  Fun was had by all though and I'm glad that I've gotten you all updated on at least this portion of my adventure!

Beautiful log house

While out walking the course- Trees and Mountains!

Down by the lake

Nice little trail along the lake

Creating the web

The integration of technology into a bush education classroom isn't always the easiest thing to do.  With so many levels and standards to ensure the kids are able to achieve during their time at school, despair sometimes sets in when there are so many cool things to show them and not enough time in the day.

As a teacher of everything, the first few (I was going to say days but that doesn't even come close!) weeks are completely overwhelming.  Trying to learn the standards, understand where all the kids are at and then plan for the year with so many different levels with all the different kids in class could simply break you if you choose to let it.  The trick is to find the balance between planning and sanity while learning how to live in a completely new place.

Yes, there is a technology standard in there but honestly it's not one that can't be reached simply by doing a few projects during the school year.  I want to go above that though.  My kids will be ready for living a technology life and ready for online classes when I get done with them.  Knowing how to correctly access information online, what creative commons means and how to respond well to forum posts are crucial in college classes.  They will be in my class too!

What did I decide to do then?  Create a website for my class of course.  Which to use though?  I created one for my husband last year to use with his art class.  It has it's good parts and it's downfalls.  I know how it works and he's had great success with it but I wanted to try something new.  It's almost like having two classrooms to try things in.  A valuable thing when dealing with different forms of technology because the kids aren't being tossed from one kind to another.  My husband's classroom uses wikispaces of which we are both admins on.  As he starts to learn how to utilize it more and more, I grow more proud of his integration in his Art class.  The kids seem to really like it and the site has worked well for him.  It has allowed the both of us to grow as he becomes more comfortable with the technology and I begin to learn some HTML for things he wants to do that are not just text and an uploaded picture file.

I've decided to use Weebly for my classroom.  It has an education feature that gives educators greater tools than the average free user.  It's a drop and drag creation tool that is customizable.  I really like the assignment submission tool because it eliminates the need for so much paperwork in the classroom.  It does have a place for student sites that I will begin to use next that will allow for each of them to create sort of a digital portfolio.  This is the next step in my learning as I utilize the website to it's fullest potential.  Right now I'm focusing on making sure the student's assignments are on the different tabs for each week.  Keeping up with this will not only keep me in order but will allow them to keep up with their classes.

For now, I must say goodnight as I have a website to update.  If you are so curious to see what my students are up to and what the site looks like right now, please note that it's a work in progress and is only a week old.  The link is to the right of the blog and is named Egegik Bears School.

Out of the village

A flight out of the village was a treat today. Sitting co-pilot allowed me a great view of the village that I have now explored from the ground. Seeing It from above really helped me get a new perspective on the place I have called home lately. The river seems to go on for miles, it would have been cool to see the whales from above!

I told the pilot before we took off that I was an excitable crier. Every little plane flight before this one I have had tears because it is so exciting for me. Not today. He turned to me as we flew over a large lake and mimicked "no tears?". I said no but I am still happy. His response was a hand motion for "wanna do a barrel roll?". Uh. No thanks! He said no to that too but he was just checking. I hand signed that waving back and forth dipping each wing alternatively would be fun and it was like "Flight of the Navigator". "Compliance!" One wing then the other, back and forth.....so much fun! It was just a couple of swoops and he checked the back seat to see how those people were doing. Not as good as me!

As the flight came to an end we came upon some mountains that we had to fly through and around. A windy day proved that to be a bit of a challenge as it pushed the plane to the side a bit, allowed it to drop a little and then back up it went. It was so much fun, the movements were like the best Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, just in the air. Giggling all the way, I had the pilot in smiles as we headed to the runway. The only time I was a little nervous was then I watched his practiced hands moving feverioushly as we were tossed in the wind as we were trying to touch down.

As you can tell, it all went well. I'm here to tell the tale. A take-off awaits on Friday after this XC meet and I hope to have more stories for you then. I know I will add some pictures later.

Written on my iPad2.