The Excitement Is Over...for the moment...

We have come to rest at last...the great class trip of 2012 is finished. The kids were duly returned to O'Hare Airport, and we stuck around to make sure that they made it through the TSA thicket. Two of them had tribal ID, which was temporarily confusing (not surprised), but the requisite calls were made and they were allowed to pass on to the boarding gate. Several hours later, we began to see texts and Facebook posts suggesting that they had made it to Anchorage successfully. Then it was time for the pictures to begin appearing. I get the impression that they had fun... The trip began on the 21st of May, with a group of four seniors gathered at the airport in Napaskiak. One of them already did not have ID that showed him to be older than three or four years old. We do not always have much call or formal ID in the village. I can go for weeks without even pulling my wallet out of a drawer. However, from time to time, we must accede to the wishes of the outside world for official confirmation of our identities. Not long before we left, we discovered that another of the group could not find her ID, either. This meant that we now had two children that needed to get over to the agency to get tribal-issued ID. That meant that we needed to get across the river quickly, so that all of the necessary pre-flight errands could get done. My wife needed to get to the district office to pick up the check for the trip funds, the dogs needed to get checked in to fly, and the kids needed ID. The plane that was to get us to Bethel was late, and there was not enough room for all of us on it. I stayed at our airport with the dogs while the others got across...(more to come later in the day)

Wrapping Up...

It's time to clean it up and check the heck outta here...another year over...some triumphs and some regrets...posts will be infrequent after today as we stay at home without internet, and then travel. I have purchased an iPad with the hope that I can stay connected throughout the summer without the necessity of paying the installation fee for cable internet back in Michigan. More adventure updates will be available as all of that gets set up and operational.

For now, it is sayonara for the moment...happy summer time fun to all!!

Clean-Up...

Time to wrap it all up for the year. I am moving some of the stuff in here around in order to facilitate a more open floor plan for next year's class. I have moved the computer cart away from my desk, and have replaced it with a bookcase in which we can actually store some books for use in the classroom. I have visitors from the fifth grade on a daily basis, and I have been trying to figure out a different arrangement for storage for two years now. I guess that it doesn't say too much for my imagination that it has taken that long, but I had to share the space the first year, and I thought that I had an arrangement that would work this year. I just turned out to be wrong.

I see that SBA scores have hit the e-mail, so it is time to go and hope (or cringe, as the case may be)...

We're Done!

The books are closing on my third year at this strange and occasionally wonderful job. The waters began receding yesterday, and we took a walk on a glorious spring (finally!) evening with Mrs. Jung last night. It ended with us standing on the porch talking with one of my students and just lingering in the sunshine. My wife got a call to go and steam, and I found myself surprised by the fact that I was still reading and it had somehow become 12:45 am...the time becomes nearly impossible to keep track of in this season.

We have an awards assembly this morning, and I have thought and thought about awards, and have decided that I want to address the whole class and not just a selected few kids. I think that I can do it quickly (at a premium at these events), and that I do not wish to leave any one out. I just mean to speak from the heart for a few minutes.

After that, the day will go fast. There are activities, and a lunch for the community. We will spend the afternoon working in our classrooms, which gives me a chance to catch up on some last grades, and begin to put this place in order for next year. There is a check out list, and when we are done we will have a couple of days to recuperate before we meet the seniors at the airport and begin the long trip back to Michigan with them all.

It has been an interesting year. I hope that I have learned some new things, which is the essence of life as I see it. I look forward to learning some new things as we return in August. It is time to go and get ready for the day...

I Do Believe That The Crisis Has Passed...

The kids are disappointed, but the adults are relieved. The ice appears to have gone out, and the water, although high, appears to be receding. The threat of flooding appears to have passed. I have not looked at the river in an hour or so, but it had gone down slightly earlier today.

We finished with the kids for all intents and purposes today. They will come tomorrow for fun and games and a lunch. We will get a bite ourselves, I hope, and then we will start finishing up all of the grading and stuff that makes our job interesting. I cannot access our district website currently, so the final grading will have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, I intend to accompany my bride home and hang out with my dogs...

Treading Water...(maybe)...

The flood watch is posted. Evacuations have taken place, mostly for the more vulnerable in the population. The water levels are not over the banks, but the river is clearly full. There are flood warnings back upstream. I have heard different things about the status of the river ice below the village. Put simply, the damming effect of the ice backs up the water flow, and voila! it's flood time!

There is nothing much to do at this point except to watch and wait. It will be interesting....

Weekend Breather...

We got thru graduation with reasonably dry eyes last night. I have been steadily goofing off today, pausing for a trip to the post office and a bit of a wrestling match with my new iPhone, which is feeling uncooperative for some reason. My wife's, of course, is doing just fine, thank you. I am running a software update currently, and hope that will do the trick. We shall see. The weekend folks at GCI have been very helpful so far. We got the thing working as a phone, which was an improvement, but the data plan part is proving to be a bit more challenging for me.

And So Begins The End...

Graduation is done, and the clean-up is finished. I have put all of the attendance info in for after-school, and I am starting to finalize grades in other classes. It is about time to start reading class for the last week of school. More updates to follow...

Small Group Instruction...

Lots of holes in the classroom this morning...the end of the year is clearly approaching. We have attendance challenges during the year, and it gets worse in the springtime.

The ice is not going anywhere fast. It is conceivable that it will still be in place when we leave a week from Monday.

My whatever it is put me back in the recliner last night. It is weird that I can get such a good night's sleep in a strange location. I think that I am getting better, but I should probably still go to the clinic and get some antibiotics to fight off the green slime that I am coughing up.

Off for an adventurous day of teaching...

Sleeping In the Recliner...

I finally resorted to that approach last night...it cuts down on the coughing associated with trying to lie down in the bed. This is weird-I don't have a fever or anything like that, just this cough. I feel better after morning coffee, and then things begin to deteriorate as nighttime approaches. Aggravating...

I see some sleepy kiddies this morning, but some of the usual suspects seem to be more aware than usual at this time of the day. Hopeful...

It is hard to make out what is going on with breakup at this point...we seem to be in the watch and wait mode.

My wife notices that the days seem to be taking longer to complete as we approach year's end. I am not sure that I agree, but I suspect that is a matter of perception, which is certainly individual.

The sub teacher is currently attempting, without success, to awaken one of the enchanted ones...it must be a strong spell....

Coughing Too Much...

The congestion has settled into my chest. Sleeping is especially challenging, but daytime activities seem to be relatively unaffected. I know mostly that I want it to go away, and I hope that it will soon.

Other than that, it appears to be another relatively uneventful Tuesday, albeit the next to the last Tuesday. The sno-go is put away, thanks to Gabe Joekay, and we are mostly in the process of making last minute plans for the senior trip.

Time to hit it...

Penultimate Week!

I just love that word...I use it as often as possible...no, not "week."

I have this damn cold that my darling wife brought me from her travels that seems to be hanging on. I suspect that a clinic visit may be in the offing if it doesn't improve in the near future.

I will be interested to see the level of attendance and interest from the kiddies this week. The light is longer, the weather is nicer, and the birds are there for the hunting. That is some powerful competition, and I certainly understand why.

We have an intramural basketball league that has been playing games since the regular season ended. Basketball is the king of sports out here. It will cost a dollar to get in. I think that I may pick up the tab for some of my worthies. Some of them may be playing in the games, and that will get them in free.

I can hear more birds arriving and calling every day as we take our evening stroll. One of my students says that he saw a flock of swans this morning.

Sunset tonight: 11:07. I tried to go to bed last night at 10:30, and the task was made more complex by virtue of the fact that the sun was shining directly at the window next to the bed. We have blackout curtains, but they don't stop the light from coming around them. The other complicating factor was my incessant coughing. Finally got that under control, and slept ok for the rest of the night. I need to get better in the next week so that I can be ready for senior trip.

Time to run-school is ready to begin!

On To Graduation...

Prom is done, graduation comes this Friday, and I am wasting time that I should be using to finish the last little bit of my lesson planning for next week. It is the last full week of classes for this year, at least until we return in August...

Prom Preparation...

Continuing in earnest at this hour...I hope to have pictures for Facebook later this evening, so keep an eye out, Facebook friends...

It Is On...

Breakup, that is...the river is clearly opening up upstream from here. We had a visit from Search and Rescue and our local VPSO today about flood potential and protocols. The potential is certainly there, given the amount of ice in the river and the amount of snowmelt that has to make it to the sea. All that we can really do is wait and get ready and hope for the best. The National Weather service has a website at http://aprfc.arh.noaa.gov/ that allows monitoring of river conditions and flood warnings and watches. Today's map shows that the river is opening up near Aniak. Average breakup here is May 12, which puts it a little over a week away. I was convinced that we would not get close to that date, but movement appears to be taking place quickly.

We are done with the youngsters two weeks from today. They have been doing well for the last several days, but today there was a lot of foolishness. We shall see what next week brings...

Testing Tuesday...

We are scheduled to administer a computer-based test called the MAPS today. It is kind of labor-intensive, and kind of finicky to boot. I have had the whole thing crash each time that I administered it. This means either that I am an idiot, which is certainly within the realm of possibility, or maybe it means that it is not user-friendly. Others have experienced some problems, so my idiot explanation is only partially persuasive.

The kiddies are getting restive during their Yup'ik class, which seems to be the case a lot lately. A couple of kids are apparently having some sort of Facebook fight, which adds to the festive atmosphere. I sense a bit of weariness with the school year on everyone's part. We shall soldier on regardless...