First Day in School

My cell phone doesn't work here and I think I may be having txt'ing withdrawals!

I got up at 6am to shower, which I have to say was way too early. Could have, should have slept in another 45min, oh well. I made coffee in the school office, then enjoyed some left over principal-made pizza for breakfast.

Today's Sunrise from the Secondary Building

Both Andy and I had found it odd that we hadn't met any of the teachers yet, but as they started to show up this morning we found out they were all out adventuring all weekend! The Jr./Sr. high school only has 3 teachers: a math & science teacher, a reading & writing teacher, and a social studies & shop teacher! As the morning progressed, teachers and staff came in, and it was a rather social affair. School begins at 8:50am, but more on that later.

The K-12 school here is currently spread over 5 buildings: kindergarten, 2 buildings for 1-6, a Yup'ik Room, and the secondary building that is also home to the kitchen and the rather tiny gym (as well as Andy and I for the week!). The secondary building is over 40 years old, has terrible lighting, heat, and plumbing; roof leaks, and most of the doors have to be opened with a full-force shoulder ram! The village, however, is getting a new school! It's currently under construction, and they expect to move in before then end of this school year. All parts of the school will finally be under one roof and they'll have a properly sized gym! With the new gym, the principal, Jason, will get a longer break from schoolwork with his daily gym floor cleaning ritual.

The secondary kids are split into 3 groups, based on some combination of ability and age. Group 1 contains the younger and lowest level students, while group 3 has the oldest and highest. In the math & science room, the day is basically split between math in the morning (3 periods) and science in the afternoons (3 periods). Today Andy and I spent the first 2 periods in math with groups 3 then 1 receptively, then spent the 3rd period observing the social studies then the reading & writing class. We then spent a period with the special education teacher and her secondary group, followed by all afternoon in science classes. Teaching the math classes seems particularly difficult, as the ability levels of the students requires a highly differentiated approach.

We ate lunch at the school today, a meal of mashed potatoes, Salisbury steak, mixed green veggies, and pineapple chunks. After school we stopped by one of the 3 village stores for some cookies, soda, and ground meat. We plan on having left over pike for dinner, but that's only after we join some locals for Yup'ik dance lessons!