P.S.

Because it deserved its own spot...they found the body of the gentleman who had been missing. It has been taken for autopsy. When he comes back, we will gather for the funeral. I met him only once, a couple of years ago during Culture Week. He was drumming for Yup'ik dancing for several days of that week. His wife and I were cutting fish together on the gym floor. They both seemed like nice people.

I feel sad for her loss.

That Day Was OK...

It turned out all right. Over the hump for another week. Sure, there will be lesson plans, but at least I'n not sick. So there...

6:21 A.M....

Shit, no cell coverage...I need to do some back East business, and that's tough to do if I don't do it before 7:00 a.m. Besides, I have a phone conference this afternoon for my cert. program, and I need to be able to actually TALK ON A PHONE. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...I'm already irritated, and the day has just started.

8:39 P.M...

OK, so we're back again, Dear Reader...the evening is darkening as I hear the lonely bounce of a basketball on a playground in the middle distance...the house is dark, and the dogs and the gf have gone to sleep. Dogs, because that's what they do, and the gf, 'cause she's got the flu...oops, I hear a stirring. Nope, false alarm...quiet, except for the sibilant whir of the water filtration machine, pumping out potable for the morrow...

Interesting day. Unfortunately, because I supposedly have to keep a job here for a while, and because I know of least one district office person who is linked to this wholesome hunk of blogly goodness, I ain't telling any of you (at least thru this medium) for a while...enjoy the suspense??Ok, ok...one littttttle tidbit. I have nicknamed one of my co-workers "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern." And after all, what could be more flattering than to be named for characters (a character?) in perhaps the greatest work in the English language, especially if you were an English major?? Hmmmmm???

In more pedestrian matters, my tummy is much, much better. I just need to concentrate on getting sleep so that I don't catch the other damn bug. Thanks to the bushido, I know how to deal with the stresses of work. (No bushido!) And, best of all, I may have found a pretty good fight or two to pick! So, all is well at the end of another exciting day in paradise!

Thank you! Goodnight, Deee-troit!!!!

5:45 A.M.

Oh, to hell with it, I'm up...too much to think about, too many thoughts crowding my mind. I know that this sleep thing is supposed to be good for you and all, but it just doesn't seem to be something that I do well or consistently. Why me? I try to do all of the right things. Maybe if I do more of them, it will work better.

When I originally got up at 3:00, I had this feeling of being confined or drowned. Very unsettling. A couple of weeks ago, Buddha had one of his occasional breathing fits. It scared the hell out of me, and I was unable to get back to sleep after that. I would attribute these "night terrors" to the current stressful situation, but they are not a new thing for me. For whatever reason, they have been around in one form or another as long as I can remember. I don't know if they have gotten worse or more frequent as I get older. It kind of seems that way, but...

OK-This Took Longer Than I Thought...

4:13 a.m. Got into checking a couple things out online, then doing comments on our AKT2 website about some teaching issues. Time suck. Anyway, back to bed for a while...

3:16 A.M.

Slept well w/o incident until now. My stomach is bothering me a little. Chew a pepto, do something for 20 minutes or so, and go back to sleep. Beats rolling in pain with my entire midsection burning until 4 a.m. That was last night. I would say something about tomorrrow being another day, but it's early today. I have a meeting at 8:00 with my new mentor. On a lighter note, the mountain of dishes and laundry has been vanquished, and I was in bed at 10:00. Tummy calmer. Back to sleep for a while. I do believe that an eventual trip to the family practice doctor in Bethel will be in order. This "innards" thing warrants further investigation.

P.S. As of the last report that I heard, the search still goes on upriver. Some of the older high school boys were gone today. It has been raining pretty steadily. It's pouring right now. Helping to search for a body is a reality that I believe most other high school juniors and seniors are insulated from.

Back At Work

School all day, and it's Laundry Monday...I'm about halfway through the mountain of dishes that have piled up during my illness. More than one might expect. I can't really describe my state of mind accurately at this point. I feel pretty neutral about a lot of things in my life. That isn't necessarily bad, just neutral.

Maybe positive vibes will reign after more of this miserable backlog gets dealt with.

Someone Is Missing

Not good news. One of the residents here has apparently gone missing upriver near Bethel. The news so far is not encouraging. We can only hope for the best.

Well, THAT Took Longer Than I Expected...

Holy mackerel...Four solid (not always) days of being sick...what the heck...wow, that was nasty. I'm just glad that I seem to be recovering in some meaningful way today. I mean, I don't have that kind of time built into my personal schedule...

I have been toiling over my fancy SIOP lesson plan, and I'm still not satisfied with it. This whole lesson planning thing is frankly eluding me in large part. It's good to have them, but God, it takes a lot of time. I think that I am actually going to go to a simplified plan at the suggestion of the site administrator for all my other courses.

Anyway, it feels good to feel kind of normal, and I'm going to run with that. Time to get to the school and do some preps.

Ok, here's the scoop...

So, I have had many facebook contacts and a phone message from my dad, so I want to get word out across the board: I'm o.k. I have been struggling with some nasty little stomach bug that has kicked my butt for the past three and a half days. It started coming on Tuesday night, and I didn't have much of an appetite for dinner that evening. I tried going to school on Wednesday, but it was pretty clear that that effort was not going to work early on. I didn't get any better by Thrusday, and was actually getting worse. I decided to go to the village clinic (thanks, Augusta!), and they communicated with the hospital in Bethel. The recommendation was that I go up there to get I.V. fluids and some meds. After some debate, I gave up resistance and went up there Thursday night. Many thanks to the YKHC emergency room staff.

After two liters of fluid, and some tummy meds, we decided that I could go home with a follow up appointment for this afternoon. We left the I.V. tube in place in case we needed new access. I felt better enough this morning to fly back to PKA, and am currently resting comfortably. I am supposed to attend a new teacher inservice in Bethel tomorrow, but I am not sure what I currently think about that.

I did come into the school this morning, and folks seemed glad to see me. One little girl in my junior high wrapped her arms around my leg. It gives me the motivation to want to get better.

P.S. Augusta pulled out the I.V. needle at the clinic this morning. It involved much hair loss on the back of my hand.

Yuk

Hope for the future turned out to be misplaced. Vomited several times over night. Went to clinic this morning. They have Mylanta. Somewhat helpful. Got a nap. Still waiting for word whether I will be summoned to hospital or possibly given i.v. fluids here. Resting at home (right behind clinic) in the meantime.

UGH...

Home sick all day today. Stomach painful-all day long. Dry retching. Lovely. Just ate some jello. Feeling better. Hopeful about the future. Not much else to say.

Relaxing After Work...

Chillin in my rocker after the day is done. A good feeling. Some of 'em were good and some of 'em were bad, but it was all ok. Nice. Betty W is here from the teacher mentor service. Saw an exciting thing today-the principal checking for head lice. Yummy.

AK studies kids made their presentations today-I thought they made a nice effort. We're moving on to some cultural studies next. Junior high was its usual manic festival. And the freshmen...ah, what can I say about the freshmen...they're certainly interesting...

Lucky Number One Hundred...

Oboy, so I'm sitting here watch it get dark, and I'm thinking that it is awfully late because I'm used to those long Alaska daylight hours, when I look at the clock on the computer and see that it is barely 8:10. The daylight is leaving really quickly. The long dark is about to set in.

Well, the results are in on the day, and it is a decidedly mixed bag. The junior high was mostly non-responsive, the freshmen just sat down in the road like a barn horse, and even Ak Studies featured an awful lot of sandbagging and featherbedding. Must be Monday. Some of the Ak Studies folks were working industriously, and I actually enjoyed working with one of the junior high kids on probability. Not a total wipeout. I still have the job, and we can try again tomorrow. There is the argument that the thing to do now is to beat them like a rented mule, but I never really had anything against rented mules. Besides, the equine similes are getting a little thick in here for now.

Oh, well, I can hope for an impressive showing in tomorrow's Ak studies presentations. We shall see.

Just Another Manic...

Yeah, you get the picture. 6:46 a.m.-private time. Savoring the second cup of morning coffee. All things, triumphs and disasters, are possible at this time of the day. Which will it bring?

A Little Homesick...

...finally figured it out when reading the account of the Cadillac football game from Friday night. It's odd that it took this long. There have been other stressors, and maybe that has been a distraction until now.

Reflection...

I'm not sure what about, even. It is Sunday evening, and many of you back east are probably thinking seriously about heading off to bed. The sun is still high here, although we lose a good deal of daylight every day now. I think I'm ready for tomorrow. The quiz is written, and the lesson plans have been finished and submitted all over the place. I think I'm due for observation sometime either this week or next. At least that is what the schedule suggests. I don't feel as nervous as I would have expected. With luck, it will be O.K., and I would expect to get some constructive advice.

Maybe it's just trying to figure out exactly how I got here. Must not have been paying attention. Most of the news from back home usually sounds bad. Poor economy, high unemployment, people losing their homes. Pretty sad. I take no joy in feeling vindicated in my decision. Even if the job is tough, at least it is a job. Weird.

What It Looks Like From Up There...

Not very far up there...

Lesson Plans...

...are nearly vanquished for the week...there are a lot of things crammed into this week's folder. That will probably be helpful with next weekend's compressed planning time. I'm thinking (Because it was suggested to me) of doing some short poems with the jr high, and having them prepare and read them aloud. For some of the more bashful ones, I may simply have them read one-on-one. I can't see the point of making it traumatic.

Just Back Home...

...from another steam. Nice and hot, but I didn't feel the need to go quite so intense as I did last night. It varies from visit to visit. Now the towels are in the washing machine at the school and it will be a late night waiting for that stuff to get done. But it does need to get done.

There was a nice picture tonight outside of the steam house. I was standing there cooling off. It is beautiful and clear tonight. I was looking around at the Milky Way. As I looked toward the sky in the west, I could see the Big Dipper framed over the roof of the steam house. A very Alaskan sight. The only question in my mind is when I will get the tattoo.

It's a Beautiful Day for a Lesson Plan...

...self explanatory.

Project Weekend

Several projects this weekend: Project H (I do not reveal student names), Project M, Project Blog (for the freshmen at Level 1 or 2), and, of course, Project Lesson Plan. Oh, and Project Clean House.

There's frost on the boardwalk, which should excite everyone. Winter, and a frozen river, suddenly opens up the world of possibilities. Father Vasily was talking at the maqiq last night about getting his snowmachine up and running, and he sounded excited. There's nothing quite like sitting around naked with the village priest talking about moose hunting while you steam. I'm serious.

Yesterday was the day for rewards for junior high students. Their behavior has actually improved since we started this system. Don't get all teary-eyed yet-they still have a ways to go before they get to perfect. This week was my turn to host after school, so I decided to start it at 4:00, after our afternoon meetings. The theory is to reward positive behaviors and try to promote them. Everyone has a 25-minute baseline, but students can earn more time based on more positive behaviors. Two of the kids had earned an hour of time. The vote was for time spent on the computers. The novelty of that faded, however, and one girl was left after the others departed. She wanted to spend the rest of her time playing badminton in the gym. This girl is very nice, and unfortunately has a pretty sketchy home situation. It was clear that she would happily have spent hours there.

I think we went a little over the alloted time. At that point, however, there was no place on the planet that I would rather have been. This job can be ungodly trying. It can be amazingly gratifying.

I have opened up the comments section, to try and make it easier for readers to do so. I think that I just didn't pay that much attention when I first set up this blog. Enjoy, and try not to be too harsh.

Thanks for reading.

A Good Maqiq...

Steam cleaned to perfection...feel great...time for beddy-bye...mmmm.

A Good Week...

The first time that I truly feel like I've been able to type those words since I got out here. Not always perfect, but good. I feel as if I am making strides toward being a teacher, not just reacting to behaviors. Of course, there is a long way still left to go, but it felt a lot better. The week seemed to go really quickly, too.

I'm sad that one of my friends decided to quit. It can be terribly hard out here, though. I can understand it without any trouble at all.

Oh, by the way, moose fried rice today. A maqiq tonight. The weekend. I like it...

Just Friday...

Oh, wait, the dogs are up. Sounds like quiet time is over for this morning...

Yep, that was pretty much the case. Anyway, it's Friday. We had Ms. Kavanaugh, the always charming Blog Lady, down from District Office yesterday to talk to students about blogging and video production and some other stuff. Unfortunately, some of my freshmen had some behavioral issues. This makes me hesitate about the whole blogging thing with some of them. I don't know how strong the site blocking sentiment is at DO, but if she is right, I would be risking this blog as a means of communication if some of my students were to screw up. See my selfish motivation? I use the school wi-fi for internet access. There is always the satellite option, but it sounds expensive. I'm not sure what to do with them.

Thursday Night

Yay! The Internets have returned!! Life is good again! The folks from the phone company have been replacing the wiring on our server, and they appear to be done. Internet connection out here is no laughing matter. It's how I stay in touch most of the time, and I believe the same to be true for most of my colleagues.

Things are getting better, truly better. The challenges and problems have not changed, but my attitude has. I do believe that the time off for Labor Day and the short following week gave me the chance to catch up, rest up, and get my head on straight. Now it's time to start getting off of the defensive and start moving forward. I suppose that it's too bad that it took this long, but it is my first year. So there.

Sleepy...

Time to get up and walk the dogs...I've been up for a while, drinking coffee, but the hour of the "wolf" is upon us. Kind of bored in a non-specific way this morning. I want to think about doing some different things in a couple of classes. Not quite to the actual idea stage, though...I don't KNOW exactly what it is that I want to do or where it is that I want to go with this. Think I'll let it settle for a while and see what comes out.

Over The Hump

It's nice that Wednesday is over. The day was ok, with a couple of exceptions. There are always exceptions. Not really much you can do to avoid them. I do feel differently now than I did a week ago. For some reason I felt the need to own responsibility for everything my students did. For some equally elusive reason that feeling has evaporated this week. I am not sure where it went, or why it did now. I do not miss it at all.

It's Foggy...

...we had a few visitors of the itinerant type yesterday, and if they didn't get out last night, they may be here for a while. We have people who travel around this district, which is huge, providing various services. Out new social worker (for the students) is 6'1", and the junior high kids couldn't help telling me how short I was next to her. Of course, I am automatically one of the tallest people in the school. A couple of years ago, I was taller than the starting center on the basketball team.

Speaking of basketball, I got drawn into a pickup game with some of the girls at open gym last night. I think they wanted to beat up the old guy. Two of us beat four of them. So there. And I still stink at b-ball. So there.

Today will be a long day, and it is getting closer as I write this. We start with a staff meeting. I have at least two students who want to stay after school. There is a big ceremony tonight for kids who want to play sports, followed by the signing ceremony for computer usage policy, all of which is accompanied by dinner, which, of course, will have to be cleaned up. Hump day will present a pretty big hump today. Probably a 12-13 hour day.

It does get hard to stay out of the school, regardless of how hard one might try to have some semblence of a private life away from it. At some point, I just gave up. I do hope that Friday is a short day this week. I want a little rest.

Morning Free Time

I like to get up earlier than I need to. It's not the sleep, although I have always been a mediocre sleeper at best. It's the quiet time that I have to myself before the day's occupations, preoccupations, and obsessions begin to crowd the horizon. I like to listen to the coffee brewing as I check my e-mails and read the morning news. I used to enjoy watching the local news show back in Cadillac as I awakened and drank the coffee that I had brewed. I just like the privacy for that little time in the day.

Coffee's ready...

Monday's Over....

And it's OK with me...tomorrow is my first payday-I'm curious to see at what rate I will get paid pursuant to the contract. It's not crystal clear from reading the language.

Our steam last night was an especially hair-raising one. The fire was hot, and the pours were frequent. I think that everyone was in the mood for some vigorous steaming. It was good to see my friend Joe back home in the village. He had been gone for a while visiting a sick relative. It has obviously been a tough few weeks for him.

Feeling Totally Evil...

OK, better now...

Papers are graded and recorded, and copies have been printed and placed, and Mountain language is set up, and lesson plans have been completed and submitted, and the sun has come out. Much better. I needed to get that nonsense done and out of my hair, and it took a long time.

Over here, you can see some cool photos of the fuel barge making a delivery so that we can have heat and electricity and stuff like that. If I'm feeling especially evil, I'll post the shot of the writing curriculum map that we laid out this morning. Totally confusing. No wonder I feel like an idiot half the time. I'm told that it used to be worse.

Low Energy Sunday

Blah.

A Nice Party

We went to a nice party for one of our fellow teachers today. Some folks came downriver from Bethel and across from Oscarville, so there were even visitors from elsewhere. It sounds if Anna next door is back from her travels-I hope that she will get to sit still for a while. It will be time to finish my lesson planning tomorrow, and maybe help with that open gym thing. Looks like it's rescheduled for then. I'll probably run off to church, too.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho (pt2)...

OK, so it's off to work we go...but I am being a little lazy today...still sitting in my p.j.s at 9:30 in the morning. Time to brush my teeth and go to school and write some lesson plans, and maybe help out with Jr High open gym, and then there's a party later on.

I signed up for NFL Game Pass, but after it took my money, I have found the league to be strangely less than helpful in the customer service area. We shall see what happens.

A very nice man named Gary Hoffman died yesterday. I liked him quite a bit, and I liked his children, too. He died on his daughter's birthday, and that's too bad by a long shot. I hope that they can find consolation in his active and colorful life. Even though I don't live in Cadillac right now, I will still miss seeing him in the summer when I return for bar meetings. Sleep well, my friend...

Oh By The Way...

We were doing some exercises for our training in the gym today. We were practicing how to get out of holds that might be placed on us. One maneuver required us to extend our arms overhead and shrug our shoulders close to out ears to get out of a choke hold. My right shoulder has been a little techy since the auto accident, but I kind of ignored it with everything else that was going on.

Anyway, when I extended my arms, I felt a sharp pain. Everyone else in the gym looked, and said, "Was that you???" I guess the crack was that loud. It really doesn't hurt all that much, unless I do the maneuver in question. Maybe some exercises will help.

AHHHH...

I just love Friday nights...the week is done, no thoughts of school or lesson plans for at least another twelve hours or so...time to relax and reflect...

I think that it is slowly getting better, and I hope that I am doing better, and will continue to get better as the year goes on. We had intervention training today, which is supposed to help us deal with and de-fuse crisis situations. In many ways, I thought it was some of the best training I have had since I started on this journey. As I was sitting in the room with the rest of the staff, I remember thinking how much I like the people with whom I work. As I have said before, I find that I like the kids more with time, even when they exasperate me. Not much to complain about, really.

We got invited to a birthday party tonight. MMMM, moose ribs. I am on a moose tear this week. Stroganoff, stir-fry, and ribs. It's good stuff. Very nice people, and I finally got to spend some time with Alex, one of the group of seniors who came to my house a year ago in June.

So, if I can get over this anxiety about being perfect, and calm down, this whole thing might work out OK...

Go figure...

Friday...

I believe that it's self-explanatory...

A Long Day...

...but a good one. The junior high was a little more on task, the freshmen a little more off. AK studies-pretty steady...jr high math not bad (I assist). The clothes are washed, dried, folded, and put away. Quizzes, worksheets, and some poetry stuff are printed out. Dinner might be nice before 10:00 p.m., but we'll see...

Tomorrow is Friday, which means a half day with students, but a whole day for us. Then, two days of lesson planning before Monday. I realized today that I have no intention of working next summer...

I Think It's the Exercise...

I probably waited way too long to get on a schedule...just the past two days have made an enormous difference in my point of view. I think it's time to look at the spin bike seriously. Hope I can get my biking stuff mailed out here...

As A Matter of Fact...

I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking...

The Folks Back Home...

As in it's always nice to hear from 'em...it can get a little lonely and removed out here...and it isn't even winter yet. People are pretty much very nice, and go out of their way to make me feel welcome, which is a very good thing. I get all kinds of invitations to all kinds of gatherings, and make it a point to attend liberally. There is a football/birthday party on Saturday, and I kind of feel like dropping by the church on Sunday to see Fathers Vasily and Victor.

There has been some loose talk about some of us going in on a satellite dish. I think we can get it installed, but there will be the small matter of a TV. Still, the chance to follow the football season might be kind of nice. Maybe...

Are We Not Men? We Are Devo...

Any time I do one of those teacher inservice thingies where I have to hop up and dance around, it strikes me just how compliant with authority we are as a group. Now I'm not suggesting anything about concentration camp guards or anything, but, ya gotta wonder...

SIOP Training, pt.2

Thumper's mom...

Back to Work...

SIOP inservice, all day...I think they're serious about this stuff.

Ice!

Yet another shot from Surprise Glacier of ice falling in the water...so what??? I'm like every other tourist with a digital that gets lucky...

Whales!

PIX!

Moose Update

Moose stroganoff for dinner: delicious. More for lunch tomorrow.

There Will Be Pictures...

OK, OK, I'm back from the big weekend in Anchorage. Got to drink some red wine like a grownup, walk on sidewalks, and eat at fancy restaurants. It probably cost more than it was worth, but maybe not. After a couple of weeks in the pressure cooker, I needed a little distance and sanity. Even though my returning cold kicked the snot (HA!) out of me Friday night and much of Saturday, I did get some semblance of health back by Sunday in time for our Prince William Sound tour. It was as grand and glorious as I remember it from June, and the sun was out for some very nice Labor Day weekend bonus points. All Anchorageites that I spoke to said that they could not remember a holiday weekend that had been as brilliant as this one had been.

There will be some pictures, and, I hope, some video that folks will be able to see, of a good-sized pod of beluga whales swimming up Turnagain Arm. The bus driver for the boat tour spotted them, and we pulled to the side of the Seward Highway for an impressive show. They apparently travel in packs of 30-50 or something like that. Anyway, there were a lot of them out on the way out and on the way back.

Now I'm back in PKA (our airport designation and a local nickname). Another day of inservice fun tomorrow, and back to students for Wednesday. A short week, which I hope will help me to get rested up and well before we start the long grind to Christmas.

Yay! Friday!

The holiday weekend approaches...half a day of school, some sort of SIOP training this afternoon, then off to ANC for the weekend. I just remembered that I must remind myself to take my wallet when I leave. I haven't carried that thing in three weeks or so. I can understand why I would forget it. It's just not part of the everyday routine anymore. Come to think of it, I don't have any cash on my person at all. Life has changed in many strange and subtle ways in the past month. A lot of them are things that I don't think about very much at all until something reminds me. Like having to go into the air transit system.

The longer I am with my students, the more I begin to like them, regardless of how big a pain in the ass I might think that they are at any given time. I think that is probably a good thing, and I'm not going to delete it, so don't bother asking...

Oh, Wait...

Not moose for dinner, after all...chicken glop instead. Sorry to disappoint your collective expectations, but it will be served, eventually, and I will faithfully report when it does.

In other news, the cold came back today...damn...I have a funny feeling that this is going to be happening a lot this year...the classroom sounds like a sickroom a good deal of the time. I need some sleep, but it is not happening.

I seem to be getting better with the jr high, but maybe worse with my freshmen...not sure yet. Good news-tomorrow is Friday!

Off to Anchorage for the long weekend...it appears that the news person who interviewed me in June wants to do a follow-up. We are planning to tape that interview this weekend. She invited me to the station, if I understand it correctly. May take some pictures of my own for the kids back here-they might enjoy it, and a couple of them apparently knew about the previous interview. I will post with updates...

News Flash

Moose: It's what's for dinner! Tomorrow! Fresh!!! Remember what I said about the importance of moose around here. These folks are not rich. For them to share represents serious generosity. I continue to be humbled. It probably doesn't hurt.

Interesting...

It never fails to amaze me...when I feel down...one (or more) of these kids makes me see things differently. I helped a young man tick off the first item on his list for reading class that will enable him to go to high school. We were both pretty excited. I got all charged up posting the information and making it official with my intitals.

He has a little longer way to go, but it was a nice first step.

In other news, we had a staff potluck tonight, and it was such a gas to see the little kids scooting around our gym, and it was even more fun to play with them.

A couple of weeks ago, we were having school pictures. I was standing next to the wife and son of one of our computer guys. She is Yup'ik, he is Kass'aq (white). The little boy looks up at me, points, and says "Apa (grandpa)?" Too stinkin cute for words...they will steal your heart, even if ya do want to take after them with a stick once in a while...I think some of them have stolen mine...

Wednesday

Staff meeting this morning, AKT2 phone conference at 5:30, staff potluck at 6:30...it's gonna be a long day...

But I Still Have A Really Cute Dog...