Keepin' it Alive.

Thursday was my first funeral that I've attended here in Chevak. In fact, it's the first funeral that I've since my dad passed away in 2009. 

It took a lot of thought for me to decide to go. I had never met the person that passed away but I knew many members of his family since I've been here in Chevak. I didn't want it to come off as disrespectful for me to show up to a funeral for a person that I don't even know. I wanted to be able though to show my support to the family since they've been so welcoming/helpful to me since I've been here. After much thought, I decided that I'd go for the family.

It was hard for me. It was also different. I'm not Catholic so there were aspects that I wasn't familiar with. I found myself getting choked up many times throughout the service. 

Many of the family members went up to speak. There were two things that really hit me. The first thing that I heard that I'm sure I've heard a million times, but this time it actually really hit me. She said "It's okay to cry..". The second thing that I had heard from a different family member was "Keep him alive in your hearts, with your memories". It was such a positive message to hear at a time when there is usually so much sadness. 

It reminded me that no matter where you end up, you can keep people/memories/events alive within your heart. Even if you can't physically be there with them or be in that place. 

When I'm missing home or my family or friends, I can keep the memories alive within my heart. That's pretty comforting for me...

Reading Madness and Update

I should be posting about 100th day activities but I got behind on my calendar and we have 6 more days. I'm sure that I could really just add the days (my kiddos have been so excited about it, I'm sure they wouldn't mind) but we're just going to stick it out the last few days. 

We've been in quite the reading frenzy in my classroom. Today and Yesterday I spent a lot of time re-assessing my kids in fluency and comprehension. It's been over a month since I last did it, and it was time. I. WAS. AMAZED. In only a little over a month there is a HUGE gain in their reading skills. Now, I'm able to see the big and very clear picture. I spent time today setting goals for each of the kiddos and I'm so excited to see them continue on this journey! Gah, my little readers! 

I'm two weeks into the class that I decided to take this semester. I've had to talk myself out from dropping it twice now. I'm just feeling like I don't really have all the time to thoroughly invest in it. I'm going to stick it out and hope that I'm able to put forth more effort into it. 

We are also getting to that time where contracts will come out. I've been really trying to think of all my options when it comes to this decision. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my mind about it. I don't know what the Lord has in store for me for the future..but I'm hoping for some guidance here soon.

I have some pictures I need to add, that'll be for my next post! : )

To Infinity and BEYOND...

Well what do you know..I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blogging business. But I have been thinking about it more, I just have been busy (every teachers excuse) but haven't gotten around to it until now. Even now, I should be doing other things but I decided to take 15 minutes to give everyone a quick update. 

Things in the classroom have been going great. My NEW reading groups/strategies have proven to be more effective and the kiddos are really starting to read. It is so neat to see them grow as readers and discover what they enjoy. 

This week we will be hosting the Lena B. Tournament here in Chevak! We will only have 2 days of school with the rest of the week devoted to basketball. GO COMETS!!! 

This past month has brought on some interesting things for me. For a while now, I known that I wanted to pursue a Master's degree in counseling. I may have jumped the gun a little bit, but I have my first class tomorrow night. I definitely nervous because I'm not really sure what to expect but I'm also excited that I'm finally going after my dream. I also wanted to do something with my current certification (k-12) and have decided that I will be taking the Language Arts praxis exam for high school. I haven't registered or decided when I want to take it yet (I've heard that it's extremely difficult) but I bought the study guide and practice test book, maybe when I get some free time (ha) I'll start studying for that! 
 

It's been a while

As I sit here listening to my beloved Packers take on the 'Queens' in the playoffs, I realize that it's been a while since I've taken time to give attention to my blog. 

I recently made it a "resolution" but 95% of the time my resolutions don't even make it through the month of January. I am hoping to blog more often but if it's a while again until my next post someone should get after me. 

The past few weeks have been a time of reflection for me. For a while I just wasn't feeling normal and I was becoming extremely drained. Thankfully, Christmas break came at just the right time. I took time just for myself and tried not to let all the worries and the lists get to be. I've been very busy and swamped since being back at school but I came back with a refreshed attitude! : ) 

It's so refreshing to look back at the blessings that I have been given. At times I wasn't even acknowledging them but now it's like I'm realizing everything that I have been blessed to have and know! 

Things are well underway in my classroom. Each of my kiddos has been working so hard. I was a little nervous about how their progress would be affected over Christmas break. We've only been back for two days but I've been so astonished with how much they've retained. Since we only had two days of school this past week, we took time to review skills that were forgotten and assess where each of them are currently at.
 
Unfortunately, I left my camera at home over Christmas break. There are things that I want to share with everyone. Hopefully, I'll get something figured out! Until than, keep my kiddos in your thoughts as they'll be getting ready to take the statewide AIMS Winter Benchmark test.

The World Keeps Spinning...

The life of a teacher never gets boring. 

I feel like I've been running around nonstop for the past 2 months. Everything keeps moving and I haven't really been able to stop and smell the roses.

We've had some interesting weather here in Chevak for about the past week or so. Last week there were a couple of times that it was hailing. Mother Nature even decided to grace us with an early snowfall. Thankfully we are back to the typical rainy Chevak weather, I was beginning to get nervous that winter was really starting. I've always appreciated the rain, it's soothing and allows my mind to become relaxed. 

A lot has changed in the short amount of time that I've been back. It's hard to grasp how much I've changed as a person. It doesn't seem possible that so much could happen that quickly. I'm becoming more defined as a person and as a teacher. 

There have been many exciting things happen in Room 105, I'm so proud to see how far my kiddos have come since last year. I can only imagine where they'll be next year. 

Today our class got 4 new pets (which is a big deal in a village). I'm not exactly sure what I think of these little critters but the kiddos love them. Our reading Specialist was kind enough to order Tadpoles for my class. They came in the mail over the weekend, so it took me some time to get them all situated before all the beady eyes were staring at them. Today, they decided on the names. Since there are 4 tadpoles total we came up with 2 boy names (Freckles and Tyson) and 2 girl names (Princess and Skittles). We also read a life cycle book on frogs that got the kids really excited for the changes that are going to take place over time with our friends. Finally, the kiddos wrote a Beginning, Middle, and End on the life cycle of the frog. We are still practicing this skill and with time we'll get better at it.

This year, I've also decided that I would move with my juniors from last year so this year I'll be dealing with all the senior shenanigans! We have recently found out that we will be once again helping with the Halloween Carnival. Thankfully, I feel more prepared for this event than I did last year. 

I still have a BUNCH of pictures that I need to upload on here. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll get to that tomorrow! 

First Week Chaos

Well we're officially into our first week of school and it has been C-R-A-Z-Y! I can't even begin to tell you how stressed out and overwhelmed I was last week trying to get everything ready. I don't remember it being that bad last year but maybe that's because I didn't know what I was doing and was just too excited to freak out. 

This year I have half the same kiddos that I had last year. It was so good to be able to see them again. It made setting up groups and getting book tubs ready a lot easier because I had a pretty good idea where their at. 

I have pictures of my room to put up here but I'll do that a little bit later on. 

This week is Sea Week and this year my class with be participating in various Cup'ik activities. On Wednesday, we're going out on a day trip to pick tea and medicine plants. Thursday, we're going on another day trip to pick berries. My class is teaming up with the kindergarten class and it should be a lot of fun (pray that everything goes smoothly)! I'll be sure to take pictures of that as well.

Going Postal...

Things are getting down to the wire here. My summer is over in less than a week and I feel like there are about 10,000,000 things that need to get done before then. I'm probably exaggerating on the amount of things that need to get done, but it always seems like that's when everything has to get done, or planned, at the end of the summer.

Yesterday, I sent my stuff out to Chevak. Thankfully I was able to manage only sending two "personal" tubs of stuff. I was even able to fit my sewing machine in one of them, maybe that will mean I'll make more time to be "crafty". I was hoping to only send three tubs total but was pretty confident that one of them (the school supplies) was going to be over 70lbs. and what do you know? It was definitely over 80lbs. Good thing I brought an extra tub just for that reason. I would have been pretty upset if I had to get out of line and fix that little problem. My mom and I stood in line for probably about 45 minutes before we even got to the counter. SO, once we got there I started with the heaviest one first. I was able to re-situate that stuff while the postal worker dealt with my other tubs. That was a little crazy but I got everything sent (minus the backpacks, which I'll send after I collect a few more) and they should all be there by the time I get there.

Lately, I have been having a hard time falling asleep at night because I'm thinking about everything that needs to get done, or how I am going to arrange/organize my classroom, or how I'm going to hand out backpacks, the upcoming shopping trip that I need to do to get enough food to hopefully last until Christmas, and the list could go on. 

I know that everything will come together, so I try not to worry about it. I'm getting pretty excited and nervous...

*Keep Calm and Carry On*