Belated Halloween Entry

I know that Halloween was several weeks ago, but I never posted any pictures or told you anything about the sleepover, so here's a late entry about the Halloween festivities that took place at Perryville School.

The first weekend that I was here in Perryville, the whole school was having a Halloween sleepover.  We spent a good part of the week preparing for it and it was quite a bit of work to put together, but it was a lot of fun and the kids really had a great time.  The teachers all dressed up for it.  I was a lion, Christian was a "cool cat" (it was basically a pimp costume, but he didn't call it that), and Linda was a witch.  Everyone in the village was invited.  We made pizza and people brought food to share and everyone ate before the activities started.  Then there was a costume parade with awards, pinatas, a haunted house, and the older kids had gym time while my kids had free time for games and a movie in the classroom.  All of the elementary and middle grade students helped to make the pinatas for the Halloween party.  We used balloons and put different colored paper mache around them.  Then we let them dry and popped the balloons.  The older kids drew faces on the pinatas and decorated them.  They did a really good job.  All of the high school age students worked with Christian to make a haunted house.  They used the library upstairs and completely transformed it into a dark, scary, spooky haunted house.  They were all dressed up in scary costumes, there were strobe lights, there was scary music, there was lots of screaming...it was pretty creepy.  I almost didn't have the guts to walk through it myself, but Linda made some of the boys go with me.  The high schoolers did an awesome job.  I was thoroughly freaked out.  The only part of the night that was not so fun was trying to get my kids to go to sleep, then having them be afraid of the dark and want the lights on in the hall, and then being woken up at 3:00 in the morning by one of the girls who was crying because she missed her mom and wanted to go home.  I had to talk with her and calm her down in my half asleep state for about 15 or 20 minutes before she finally went back to sleep.  I felt really bad for her, but I tried to explain that if she called her mom at 3:00 in the morning she was going to wake her up.  Reasoning with a 7 year old in the middle of the night is not so easy.  Anyhow, all in all it was a really fun night, and I thought it was pretty cool that the school was able to do something like this for the kids and for the village.  What a fun way to spend Halloween.

Bat pinata.  This is the one that the older kids had to break.

Pumpkin pinata.  This is the one that the preschoolers had to break.  Christian had to give them a little help.  The pinatas were very sturdy.

Ghost pinata.  This thing seriously looked like a ghost from across the gym...it was kinda scary.  This is the one that my kids had to break.  I guess they must have done a little bit too good of a job making these pinatas because it was even difficult for the adults to break them.

Some of the kids in their Halloween costumes.  I'm bummed that I didn't get pictures of all of the kids in their costumes, because some of them were pretty great, but I was a little busy helping with all of the activities.  Angelina was spider girl, I think Tony was a dementor, and I think Isaac was supposed to be a Death Eater, but I'm not quite sure.  They had masks too, but they're not wearing them in this picture.

All of the kids running for candy after the pinata finally broke.  The kids in my class each took several turns hitting the pinata.  After a while I gave up with the blind fold and spinning them in circles and just let them step up and hit it as hard as they could, but the thing just wouldn't break.  There was barely even a dent in it.  So one of the dads had to break open the pinata, but it wasn't that easy for him either.  That pinata took many, many hard hits before it busted open.  It was a pretty entertaining sight to see.

Scrambling to gather as much candy as they can fit in their hands.

When the kids came back to the classroom to play for a while before it was time to go to sleep they wanted to play "school".  They got out the text books and were pretending to do homework and grade papers.  They even put somebody's Sponge Bob in a chair and gave him a book too.  Ethan (one of the younger boys) was taking roll, and I heard him say, "Sponge Bob, here."  And he checked it off.  It was so cute and so funny that I had to take a picture of it.

The kids also went trick-or-treating around the village on Sunday (the actual day of Halloween).  I was all ready for them with candy and was waiting to hear someone knock on my door, but I never did.  I guess that the outside door (the one that leads into the hallway which leads to my apartment door) was locked and I couldn't hear when anyone came.  I felt really bad that I hadn't thought of that and that I didn't get to give out any candy, but I'm sure they got plenty of candy from other people, and that leaves more candy left over for prizes in the classroom, so I guess it was ok. 

As a writing activity I had my students write a class Halloween story.  Each student came up with a line or lines for the story and we put them all together.  Then they had to write down the part that they had come up with and draw a picture to go along with it.  I posted the story with the pictures in order on the hallway bulletin board.  This is what the class came up with, I thought it was pretty good....

"One Halloween night (Darren's part)....a pumpkin came alive. (Ethan)  The pumpkin met a vampire. (Angelina)  They found a haunted house where they could live. (Lyric)  A werewolf and a bat lived there with them too. (Isaac)  They were all getting ready to go trick-or-treating. (Lydia)  They got lots of candy and no one knew that they were real because it was Halloween. (Tony)  They got so much candy that they had to share some with the kids on the street. (Lydia)  Then they went back to the haunted house and did not come out again until the next Halloween." (Me)

Video

Here is a video of the beach (from one end to another) and the volcano just so you can get a little bit of a better idea how beautiful it really is.  It's still not the same as being here, but it's a little better than a still picture.  Oh, and disregard what I'm saying in the video.  I was just talking to the ladies who were with me.



A Walk at Sunset

This week I have been trying to take more pictures of the kids and the people at school since I am leaving on Friday.  I wanted to get a picture with Linda before she left today to go to Anchorage for surgery, but she was gone before I even had a chance to ask her.  The plane got here sooner than I expected today, and Linda and the principal left on it.  I didn't even really get a chance to say goodbye to her, which I'm kinda bummed about.  I'll admit, I was really intimidated by her when I first got here, but she has been so supportive and encouraging the whole time I have been here, and she's just been great.  I guess maybe I'll have to leave her a card or send her one when I get home.  Oh well.  I suppose maybe I should have been thinking about these things before my last week here, but I guess it's better to enjoy people and things rather than always worrying about whipping my camera out to take pictures of them.  I'll still try to take lots of pictures in these last couple of days, but if I don't get one because I was busy enjoying my experience, I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much :-)   

Anyways...well I did get some more pictures of the beach today.  I know, I know.  I'm sure you're all tired of seeing pictures of Perryville beach.  But it's just SO beautiful.  You would have to be here and see it for yourself to understand.  The pictures do not do it justice at all.  Today after school, Sue, Tamara, (the special education teachers) and I went for a walk down to the beach.  It was a beautiful day and we wanted to take advantage of it.  I especially wanted to take advantage of it since I am only here for a couple more days.  Since we recently had daylight savings time, the sun is setting a little earlier now, so we had our walk at sunset.  It was beautiful. 

The sun is setting on one end of the beach.....

...and the moon is rising on the other end of the beach.

Ok Mom, this picture is for you.  I went on a walk to the beach with other people, so I asked them to take a picture with me in it.  Hope this makes you happy ;-)

A giant jellyfish washed up on the beach.  It was huge.  We couldn't decide what all the red stuff was from, but it was pretty cool looking.

I think this one was upside down.

They looked so weird, but they looked so cool too.  We really wanted to touch them, but we were too scared that they still might sting us even though they were dead.

Striped jellyfish.

They were all over the beach.  I haven't seen this many jellyfish in my life.

The volcano at sunset.

Another picture with me in it.

Moonrise....

Sunset

I have a video that I tried to upload too, but it was taking too long.  I'll try again later.

Cute

Here are some pictures of the cute kids I have been teaching for the past four weeks.

This is almost all of the students in the entire school.  They are lining up for lunch, which gets served through the window blue window that is closed in this picture.

My class.

While we were working on math today some of the girls wrote me a message on their white boards.

Then some of the other students decided they wanted to do it too.  I couldn't resist taking pictures.  I'm only here for 2 more days, and it was just too cute to pass up the opportunity.

Tony and I were working on flash cards together.

And then some more students decided they wanted to write me messages.  You can't see Darren's very well, but his says, "I love you Mary.  I like your hair."  He cracks me up, which leads me to another story.....

On the very first day that I was in the classroom teaching, Darren complimented me on something.  I think that he told me he liked my jacket and that I looked pretty.  It was so sweet and so cute.  I told him thank you and said how nice that was.  Every day since then he has found something to give me a compliment about.  He's complimented my hair, my shoes, my shirt....even when he can't really think of anything to compliment me on, he'll say he likes my pants. (That's why the message he wrote me today in the picture was so funny.  He even asked me how to spell hair so that he could write it.)  But never fail, I can count on Darren for a compliment...it is the best confidence booster ever.  It makes me feel so good every day, and I look forward to what Darren will compliment me on when I come to school.  Some of the other students caught on to the fact that Darren was doing this and that it was something I liked, so they started doing it too.  They usually don't remember to compliment me until Darren does, but I can't complain.  Now I have several students who pay me compliments and say nice things about what I am wearing or how I look every day.  I am definitely going to miss that. 

Iguigig

Last night while I was cooking for the potluck I got a call from Rick Luthi.  He said that the sub he had lined up for a job was not going to be able to do it after all, and he wanted to know if I would be interested in subbing in Iguigig (Ig-i-gig) for three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I guess it's a good sign that I'm not even done with my first bush sub job yet and I'm already getting called for another one, but I said no thanks.  I have been looking forward to being home for the holiday season and getting to go to Colony Christmas and advent meals/services and getting to do all kinds of other holiday festivities for four years now, and I don't really want to give that up.  I'm sure that I'll probably get other calls and have other opportunities to sub in the bush if I want to though :-) 

Potluck

The potluck last night was great!  A lot of people from the village came, and there was a lot of food.  There was too much to choose from, and I couldn't fit everything that I wanted to try on my plate, so I had to go back for seconds.  It was all delicious.  I even tried some seal!  It tasted sort of like liver, which I'm not a huge fan of.  I'm not sure that it's something I would want to have again, but at least I can say I tried it :-)

Something that I thought was really neat about last night was that before we began eating, Linda asked for a volunteer to say a blessing.  One of the men from the village stood up and prayed.  I had no idea that they would do that at a village gathering like this, but it was a pleasant surprise.

I was also able to clean out quite a bit of food from my pantry, which was helpful for me.  After school I went straight to my apartment to start cooking up as much as I could.  Here is a picture of some of my contibutions.

Not too shabby, I'd say.  I made cookies from the rest of my tollhouse cookie dough, and I brought the rest of my molasses cookies that I got from Costco.  I made up the rest of my frozen spinach and mozarella ravioli.  I made up the last of my instant mashed potatoes.  And I dumped the rest of my canned veggies together in a bowl.  I also contributed the rest of my fruit cups and some of them were used in fruit salad.  I'm glad that my leftover food could get put to good use.  And I'm also glad that I was able to get rid of it.

Before we began eating last night, Linda made me come up in front of everyone so that they could all say thank you for me being here.  Everyone clapped for me, which made me embarrassed, but it also made me feel really good.  They also presented me with a certificate of appreciation that everyone in the school signed (all the teachers and students).  It was really nice.  I even had a couple of the people from the village come up to me and thank me for being here.  All in all, it was a really good way to end my time in Perryville.  I don't feel like I did all that much other than hold down the fort until the new teachers arrived, but clearly people appreciated me and my efforts, and that feels good. 

While I ate I got to sit with the new teacher and his family, the ladies who are the special education teachers, and the principal of the school.  It was really nice to sit and chat.  All of the people who work for this school district (Lake and Peninsula School District) are really nice and it has been fun to have the opportunity to get to meet them and work with them for a short time.

I really enjoyed the potluck.  Linda made a point to tell me the other day that part of the reason they were having the potluck was to welcome the new teachers, but another part of the reason they were having it was to thank me.  I think potlucks are one of the greatest inventions ever, because sharing food with people is one of my favorite things to do, (one of the reasons I love being a lutheran...he he) so it was definitely a great way to end things.  I certainly felt appreciated, and well fed :-)     

Good Day

Well today was a pretty good day, and a good start to the week.  I started off my day doing a lesson with one of the younger boys in my class.  I think that he must have had sugar for breakfast or something because he wanted to sing everything.  I don't just mean that he wanted to sing songs, I mean that he wanted to say everything like it was a song.  He was saying everything in a sing-song voice when he talked and it was just hilarious.  I had to try to keep myself from laughing a couple of times because I didn't want to egg him on too much.  It's always nice to start out the day with students who are in a really good mood because it puts me in a good mood too. 

Meltdowns/shutdowns were also very minimal today (hallelujah!).  There were certainly some students who got upset over different things throughout the day, but we didn't really have any big meltdowns, which was wonderful. 

Today was also the very first day of play practice for the school's Christmas program.  It takes time out of the end of the day, but I think projects like this are good for them to do.  It was fun to hear everyone read through the play for the first time.  Their play this year is about Santa and his reindeer getting caught in a time warp and traveling back in time to the dinosaurs and teaching them about Christmas.  It's a cute little play.  It's weird to hear people saying Merry Christmas already, but I don't mind.  I love Christmas!  It's going to be fun watching them practice their lines every day.  They seemed a little shy about acting today, but I bet they will get into it more as they learn their lines.  

Everyone else (the special ed. teachers and the principal) arrived today, but people weren't really in and out of the classroom as much as I thought they would be, so there weren't too many disruptions.  It sounds like the new teacher and his wife will be in the class tomorrow to observe how Reading Mastery lessons work, so I'll be ready for that.  It's always easier to keep the kids working and on task when there are more eyes on them.

I had a chance to talk to the principal of the school this afternoon.  She is principal of several of the schools in the district and travels around to each of them.  She told me how she had heard I was doing a good job (which made me feel good) and we talked about the struggles/challenges/joys of bush teaching for a while.  It was a nice little chat, and it's always nice, of course, to hear that good things are being said about you to the principal.   

Apparently there aren't really as many people here as I thought there were going to be, so I don't think that I am going to have to share my apartment with anyone this week.  I was actually kind of looking forward to having some company, but oh well.  I suppose if there was someone else in my apartment with me then I would have to give up singing and dancing around in my pajamas when I get ready for bed at night, and who wants to do that? ;-)  It will still be nice to have some more people in the school this week.  Plus, the new teacher and his family live just down the hall from me now, so at least I'm not alone in my hallway anymore.

Tomorrow evening is the potluck, which I am very excited about, and the kids are really excited too.  I plan to cook up a bunch of the food that I need to get rid of before I leave and share it with the people in the village.  It will definitely help me to clear out some of the things left in my pantry/fridge/freezer.  Speaking of which, I guess I better get back to my apartment to start making up the rest of my tollhouse cookies from my cookie dough.  I won't have that much time tomorrow afternoon to make them.

Well, I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.....if I have the time that is.  I want to get a walk in after school since I only have so many days left to do that, and I need to cook some of my food before the potluck, so come to think of it.........you might not hear from me again until Wednesday.  Toodles!

More Perryville Beach

These are some pictures of the beach from about 2 weeks ago...I just forgot to post them, or didn't get around to it right away, or something like that.  So here they are now.  I walked to the beach with some of the other special education teachers who were here that week and we went to 1st and 2nd point (that's what they called them at least).  Very beautiful scenery as always.

1st point.  There are several huge rock formations here (as you can see), which were apparently a result of the volcano.  I don't know exactly how the volcano caused them, but that's what I was told.

Some more of the rock formations at 1st point.

There were lots of holes and crater looking things in the rock.

All bundled up sitting inside the big rock formation.

Pretty cool.

Walking further down the beach to 2nd point, which is in the distance.

Approaching 2nd point.

Rocks in the water at 2nd point.  It doesn't look too interesting from the picture, but the rocks were really neat because they had been made very smooth by the water and were in weird shapes.  Linda said they had something to do with the volcano too, but I don't know what exactly.  Maybe it errupted at one point and sent these cool rocks flying to the edge of the beach.....who knows.

Jellyfish.

Weird.  I kind of wanted to touch it, but I decided against it.

Here's a better look at the rocks and how they are shaped.  This one looks like it's all wavy.  It was pretty cool.  I don't know if this was caused from the ocean, from the volcano, or both. 

This rock was really cool.  It had all these holes in it and was very smooth.

A closer look at the holy rock.

Path to the beach.



My Dinner Diary (Part 3)

In no particular order (because I can't remember)...

Chicken and rice casserole concoction (one of my favorites while I've been out here).  Canned chicken, minute rice, cheddar cheese, canned peas.  And sweet snap peas on the side.

Leftovers

This is pretty much the same thing as the chicen and rice, but with instant mashed potatoes instead of rice.  It sounds weird, but it's good.  And it uses up several different foods at once, which is good.

Tuna noodle casserole...compliments of tuna helper.

I finally finished off the snap peas!

Linda's daughter is able to ship pomegranites for cheap, so everyone in the school got one (I got two!)  They were delicious.  Lots of work to eat, but definitely worth it.

I finished off my frozen garlic chicken pasta.

I can't get this picture to flip.  Canned veggies and leftover tuna noodle.

I can't get this picture to flip either.  These are my measuring cups.  One is from a can of lima beans, and the other is from minute rice.  I figure the can is about a cup and the plastic cup is about a half a cup...ish.

Instant mashed potatoes, melted cheese, canned chicken, and peas.  Again, it uses up several things at once, which is what I'm going for right now.