Alaskan State Troopers

I'm sure you've seen the TV show. (I know my dad probably DVR's the entire season). Alaska State Troopers. You think it's cool to watch the show and see what it is like in Alaska. Well did you know that where I live there are no cops? None what so ever.

There are the troopers.

My village has one that come in about once every two weeks but is in Bethel most of the time.  We are lucky and only live about 10 miles away from Bethel so he can come quickly if he is called but still.  Our trooper is very nice and spends a lot of his time at the school when he is here, visiting with the kids and making sure they are on track.  (He's told me his name like 4 times but I forgot). It's always a lot quieter around the village when he is here and I don't mind.  I know that if anything ever happens I can give him a call. (Yes mom, his number is saved in my phone)

The trooper and me!

(No mom. I am not going to marry him)

K & 1 FUN!

People always say that my job is coloring all day. It's a lot more than that but being an elementary teacher does mean that I can take advantages of certain "holidays" and incorporate them into my classroom.  This past Monday (916/13) was National Playdoh Day!! Since I have 30 min of art/music at the end of the day I took advantage of it.

It was complete playdoh free time (well actually it was Crayola Model Magic but shhhhh).  The kids were allowed to make whatever they wanted, absolutely anything and at the end of the 30 minutes whatever they had would dry overnight and they would get to take it home.  This half hour is at the end of the day right before kindergarten leaves so they're always silly and crazy and today was no different but today they were creative too.  We had hot dogs, mustaches, phones, snakes, cats, dogs, pancakes, glasses, letter etc. SO MANY THING!  Of course I took pictures :)

 Our silly 'staches

 more mustaches

 Mustaches were a big hit

 Creative jewelry 

 And glasses too!

 Everyone needs a good phone

 So fashionable

 HOT DOG!

Showing off what we made

Today is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. I thought it would be a good day to review the letter R. We made pirate hats and walked the plank and said RRRRRRR all day long. First grade also did pirate writings about what they would do if they were a pirate. It was pretty fun. And he high schoolers think I'm crazy for walking around in a pirate hat (but really I just think they were jealous)

 Reading on our pirate ship.

Walking the plank to take a bathroom break

Pirates say "RRRRRRRRR"

My little bunch of pirates (one girl lost her hat somehow so I made her an eyepatch with my hand)

DWIS

The sunset 9.6.13

DWIS. aka Districtwide Inservice. aka a week of classes and professional development.

I have been in Bethel since Monday September 2nd.  It is now Friday. Because the LKSD is so spread out we all come together for a districtwide inservice once a year.  It is at least two days long and up to five days long depending on your school calendar and years of experience.  You spend your days in three hour long sessions working to improve your knowledge of different things in the district.

BUT you also get to hang out with other people in the district. aka THERE'S PEOPLE MY AGE!! I don't know if I've mentioned this before but at my school I am closer in age to the 5th graders than the next youngest teacher. But here there are tons of other people under the age of 30! yay!

Our scores from 3-13

The whole group

THE WINNER!!

Most of the younger people I met at New Teacher Orientation in August so its like we're reunited! A majority of the new teachers have been housed at these dorms that we can use so that we are all together.  We are done with dinner at like 6 and then we are on our own, with no internet. That means cards, games and just sitting around talking and getting to know each other really well.  I love it! We got a little stir crazy by Friday night but that's ok because there was a GORGEOUS sunset that night. (Even if Emily had to go see it in fantastic boots that went great with her plaid shorts.)

 These boots were made for walkin'

 Not an LKSD bag. Also not a bomb.

 Sunset 9.6.13

 Sunset 9.6.13

 Really excited about this sunset.

Me and Emily. 

I have met some great people that hopefully I will be able to stay in contact with for the rest of my times here at LKSD.  We have a few more New Teacher Inservices coming up so we'll see each other occasionally. We are spread out across the district so visiting might be a tad tricky but we're going to try and make it work!

It's made it kind of hard to keep in contact with people back home this week but thank god for texting and having a cell phone so that I can actually call people back home.  We're working it out.

It has been a great time, but with a lot of information and not a lot of sleep.  I am looking forward to ditching the dorm bed Saturday morning and sleeping (aka crashing) in my own queen sized bed Saturday night.

Please do not try to reach me between the hours of 10pm Saturday and noon on Sunday (Alaska time) cause I'll be passed out recover from my DWIS hangover.