My classroom

Today we had a district-wide inservice which was very interesting considering there are nearly 30 schools in the district which are all accessed by plane.  We used distance conferencing for the entire inservice, like DDN in SD.  It was really cool to see some of the teachers I had met in Bethel on the TV!

We also worked on the high school class schedule, and I think I finally know which classes I will be teaching.  I will get a finalized list tomorrow hopefully at our site inservice. Yes, we have inservice on Saturdays too.

The rest of the evening I've been working in my classroom going through the materials.  I have to say I'm really liking my classroom! So I thought I'd share some pictures.

The pictures to the left and right are what you see when you walk into my classroom through the entrance on the respective sides.  The picture below is the entrance to my classroom.

The most interesting thing about my classroom is that there is no door, just a doorway.  We have partial walls (the book shelves) that separate the room from the hallway.  Just outside the hallway are the lockers.  There are 4 classrooms like this, one to the right of me, and 2 to the left of me.  The science room is straight out the my door and to the right, you can see the entrance to the science room straight back from my "doorway".

My classroom is the smallest of the 4, but I'm told that it was smaller before and that they moved the walls to enlarge it, so I'm happy with what I have! I also have a smartboard, white board, and chalkboard.  Right now I have it set up for 14 students, and I should will most likely only have 12 students maximum.  The high school classes are much smaller than the elementary due to the fact that students can drop out at 16.  Last year KAMS (Keta'cik & Aapalluk Memorial School is the name of my school) graduated 5 students, but it looks like right now that there will be no graduates this coming year.

I have also learned some Yugtun (Yup'ik language) words since I've been here. I can say:

"yes" = "ii-i"

"no" = "qang'a"

"what?" = "ca?"

"hurry" = "ampi"

"sit" = "aqumluten"

"listen" = "niicugniluten"

"hello" = "waqaa"

"dance" = "yuraq" - this is the noun, not the verb

"Eskimo ice cream" = "akutaq"

I wish you could hear me pronounce them because it is quite entertaining! :)

The last one I listed you will most likely not be familiar with, but I got to try it at the hotel we stayed at in Bethel.  Eskimo ice cream is a yogurt-like, or pudding-like, concoction made from crisco, oil, sugar, and berries (salmonberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc) and sometimes contains fish as well.  The one I tried was did not have fish and was delicious! :)

Well I'm about to leave the school for the night, and I don't have internet at home so I'd better finish this up.  Although, I've heard rumors that we may be getting cheap internet from GCI in the near future, so keep your fingers crossed! 

Have a great night!