Bethel Trip

The MacKenzie's took a trip to Bethel the other day. We went via the ice road. The river was very rough traveling. There had been a lot of thaw and cracking and refreezing. We went with a number of other teachers in the school suburban. One teacher was bounced around so much in the back she got car sick. Marlowe fell right to sleep of course. We had one or two frightening spin outs, but our driver was pretty good. The two in the front keep worrying about getting lost or the firmness of the river, but it has been so cold there was no need. The trip took over an hour. Most of the sliding was were there had been overflow of water and refreeze.

We got to Bethel safe except for the traumatized teacher in the back who, actually hit the ceiling at one point. Our first stop was lunch. Our school counselor wanted to buy. We talked her into the Shogun. The Shogun is one of the best places to eat in Bethel. It is Asian owned with mainly Japanese staff. Like most restaurants in Bethel they don't let the fact that they have a Japanese name stop them from serving all kinds of food. The menu includes: American, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Sushi, and Japanese. They have a crazy burger called the Shogun Burger that among other ingredients includes a fried egg. Supposedly the biggest burger in Alaska, but I doubt it. The sushi chefs hailed us in Japanese as we entered. They were offering a buffet that included sushi and tacos. We went with that. Oh God they had some delicious unagi (eel) rolls and the fajitas were good too. We all gorged ourselves (excepting the car sick teacher) while the Japanese waitresses doted on Marley. They loved his blue eyes,

The restaurant owns two turtles and M. was fascinated by them. The owner tried to tempt him with her little white fluffy dog, but he preferred the watching the turtles swim around.

After lunch we crowded back into the rig and drove to Caroline's Caselot. We had never been there before. It is a little grocery store, but it sells in bulk. Mainly dry goods some milk and butter. Lots of good deals. We spent several hundred, plus we had to pick up snacks for the school. Next we went to the autoparts store to get lights and other important parts for the school vehicle. We also went to Swanson's another grocery/whatever store. We bought a lot of produce and some porkchops. Again several hundred dollars in groceries. By the time we made the return trip we had the rig filled to the gills with boxes. Luckily the queasy teacher was able to catch a flight with the basketball team, and only had to suffer a long wait at the airport.

On the way home we all gossiped about other teachers. We saw some mushers from various dog races on the way home and got caught in a doggy traffic jam when we turned into Akiak. One of the races was resting and getting ready to go out again.

No Water, Yes Ukeleles

In Akiak sometimes things go badly. Yesterday a leak in a water main drained the cities water supply. Water was off for a day. School was cancelled. Water service has been returned, but as always when the lines have been empty, there is silt in the water. Bath water is brown. Marlowe drinks it anyway. He loves to eat shaving cream, scarf dogfood, and drink bath water. Today, he peed on his potty for the first time. Yay!

Back to the water. It is growing clearer now, but some houses are still with out water, due to subsequent freezing of the pipes. Anyway at least we have water.

The extended day is not as cool as I thought. I do not have enough guitars to teach the class, I have to keep my class the whole time, and there is no time for collaboration. I feel this last is the greatest loss. I really wanted to collaborate with Mrs. Jackson our Yupik teacher. I feel like it is just less time I get to spend with my family and the benefit to the kids isn't being fully realized. Lame. My plan-b is to put in a purchase order for a class set of ukeleles (pronounced oo-koo-le-le). I think I can teach this as easy as guitar and storage will be much smaller. Space is a real issue in our school. It is small, and teacher's weird ideas pile up unused in every closet. This is my fear about the ukes. Will it be another dust collector? If I ever leave. Hmm hard to know.

Twelve Days of Akiak Christmas (slightly un-pc version)

Twelve Days of Akiak Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas my honey gave to me

Twelve pfd checks

Eleven jugs homebrew

Ten cans pepsi

Nine quarts of akutuq

Eight fancy kuspuks

Seven smelly stinkheads

Six rounds bingo

Five tanks of gas

Four beaver knuckles

Three bags of dry fish

Two bowls of moose soup

A ptarmigan in a birch tree

Update too Late

How many people have reached this point in their blog. Where you realize you haven't posted in a year. I may go an back date some entries. I even had to change the name of the blog because it is now my second year teaching.

Last years class is up to its shenanigans with a new teacher. She is doing well with most of them. What did I impart to them? High test scores in general. They love reading. Even the ones who refused to pick up a book until the middle of the year. They really like books. I think I just gave them the time they need to try books. I read a lot of good books to them. Little House in the Big Woods. The Graveyard Book. A Series of Unfortunate Events. Wizard of Oz.

This year's have been tough. Two kids in particular are troubled. I thought this year would be easier emotionally, but the truth is knowing more about the tragedies of my students' families, makes it harder.

I've had some successes with a lot of help. One was a Curriculum Night that I planned. Attendance was poor, but that is the time of year. It was October which is hunting season. We had an all elementary Family Math Night and we had over 70 people attend. Kids spent time with their parents playing number and math games. It was really fantastic.

Failures: I intended to do a genealogy project with the kids and it really bombed. Parent involvement is less than I hoped, my fault mainly.

What is upcoming? Arlicaq is going on an extended day schedule and I will be teaching guitar lessons. I am going to try to work with our Yupik teacher to incorporate Yupik lyrics into the performance based class. Additionally I an going to try to begin a tradition of district-wide spring science fair. These kids don't even know what a science fair is. So unfair.