Moose Is 4 Months!

7 weeks of 1st year teaching done! Hard to believe, time is flying. I am so excited it is already October! I guess I had a pretty busy week since I posted no updates.
TODAY is Moose’s 4 month Birthday (That’s right, he was born the day after my birthday)! I think I will even make a cake today☺
Last Sunday a couple in the village was celebrating their 50th anniversary. These people were the parents of one of the teachers in the village. EVERYONE was invited to come over anytime after 4:00 for some food. We showed up at about 4:30 and there was a line formed in the living room and kitchen. I filled my plate with LOTS of goodies! Began with Akutaq (mmmm…. Again, the berry/Crisco/sugar/water mix=delicious…this one had seal oil in it as well) and followed with Salmon tail, Whale meat, Walrus skin, Walrus blubber, Walrus meat, mashed potatoes and all that good stuff. I was really hesitant to try the new foods…. At least so many new ones at one time. But one of our students was there (grandson of the couple) and kept telling me what everything was and encouraged me to try it. Garnet informed me that he was just trying to make me get sick. I tried it all! To me the Walrus blubber and skin didn’t have a lot of taste…. But I took tiny bites. Locals told me the whale tastes like eggs- maybe a little. And the seal oil... still not a fan. I LOVE Akutaq but seal oil gives it a really fishy taste and smell which I don’t prefer with a sweet treat.
This week was a good week, just busy. I have been working on another IEP and this time I finally did the work for it. I FINALLY feel like I know what I am doing (usually) and can do things without being walked through everything. My principal observed me a few weeks ago and this week we met to talk about it. Everything he said was great which made me happy ☺ BUT that was only an informal observation… I hope the formal one goes well too!
I have truly learned so much out here already. In the bush, you are SO MANY people all in one. Up here I have a ton of support from the district… but the therapists can only come out about once a month if even because they are responsible for students at various other schools as well. Therefore, every day I turn into the Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, and Occupational Therapist. The actual therapists come out and check up on the students and discuss things I could work on with the kids. At this point we only have one Psychologist for the district (Any psychologists out there—I heard we are looking for another one!). In some ways I took the form of the Guidance Counselor this week. Our Site Administrator (Principal) has SO MUCH work to do out here. He usually creates every student’s schedule. This week we met and made the schedule for one of my students. I really feel like I am learning a lot of jobs all in one out here.
Now for the frustrating part… a few of the teachers out here are looking for classroom management ideas…. Not because they are bad teachers, but the kids are SO DIFFICULT! Now, maybe this is the norm and I am just not used to high school kids…. But they are starting to drive us crazy. I walk into a room and there are kids sleeping on their desks and EVEN THE FLOOR! If you go to wake them up, they ignore you. What can a person actually do in this case? If the teachers tried waking them up every class of every day- that would waste so much time. Also- could be my elementary experience, but so many junior high/high school kids just skip. They either leave school or sometimes I find students hanging out in the bathroom. I tell them to go back to class. They respond with “I will”. I tell them they need to go now- quit wasting their time- they will never get through school if they don’t go to class etc… they pretend to ignore me. Then, when some of the students don’t pass… they are mad at the teachers and don’t hold themselves accountable. I tell the secretaries/principal when I find kids just hanging out… what can they do that is that much different? I feel like the adults are powerless to an extent because if the kids won’t respect you/listen… they win. Sure you can suspend/expell them but then they are getting what they want. NOW, I am not the teacher so this is what I observe and what we talk about a lot- but I am really frustrated for them. I REALLY like the kids, and many of them are totally different outside of school, but there need to be changes made within school. On the bright side…. Things are better than they were a few years ago from what I have heard. AND I think we have a GREAT staff. They are consistent about their expectations and I think the kids will get there. Maybe right now is just a difficult time because they want to reject this authority as much as possible but will quickly get better. OK I WILL STOP BABBLING ABOUT THIS NOW! It is just so different from what I am used to and I don’t know if it is a local thing or if this is the norm for the age and I should get over it.
Last night the student council had a Movie Night for the kids. It was SO COOL! They set up a projector and screen in the gym, turned out all the lights, then sold pop and snacks. I helped in the kitchen. Some kids and I made 2 huge trays of Rice Krispy Treats! (Garnet took pics so I will post them soon). But seriously we had like 6 people working on these treats alone and it really made me think about poor Lorraine, the lunch lady. 6 kids helping and I was worn out from making Rice Krispies alone! This was really a fun event--- I think a majority of the school was there too! After Movie Night, there was open gym for the kids who helped out. Garnet, Sheila and I played too. We played some volleyball, soccer, basketball and then their version of Kickball. NO ONE TOLD ME THE RULES GARNET! Garnet kept saying I was giving gussaq’s (white people- I don’t know how to spell it though) a bad name…. but really I thought we were playing kickball where you kick then run the bases. HERE it is more of a combo with dodgeball. You kick the ball and then try to run to the other side of the gym. Basically you have to be touching one of the walls…. And if you are not and you get hit by a ball, the other team is up. There aren’t really rules it turns out- and no one keeps score. It is just a FAST paced game where offense constantly changes and you run like crazy but have no idea what you are doing or where you are running. At least, that’s what I took from the game. O, and it is A BLAST! The kids found that I was my team’s weakness (because I didn’t understand at all) and totally used that to their advantage. There were many laughs though and that’s what matters- even if I was the victim ;). Apparently we are having another movie showing today- should be fun!