Here are some quick updates, mainly of the teacher-sort:
Way back in August, our village hosted Tundra Fest, a week-long native dance festival for the surrounding villages. It was in our very small city hall and so crowded you could see the steam leaving the doors and windows. Here's a picture of some dancers from Chevak.
About a month ago, I had my government classes do some research on the issue of drilling for oil in ANWR. We watched a documentary called Oil on Ice, read a bunch of articles and websites, both for and against drilling, and then each student had to take a stance on the issue and support it in letters to our three state representatives. It went perfectly with our study of the first amendment right to petition the government and participation in the democratic process. All three representatives responded to each student, which was quite a surprise. Along the way we made posters to hang around the school and I took these pictures.
We've had a few dances and open-gym nights at the school on Friday nights to raise funds for the class advisory groups. Since I'm a high school teacher, I get recruited to chaperon. It's usually a lot of fun and gives me something to do.
Another project I was very proud of had my government classes researching the presidential candidates and creating presentations to give to the elementary students before they participated in the student mock election. Each group of high schoolers was assigned an issue and they researched each candidate's plan regarding it. They then created PowerPoint presentations to educate the little ones without revealing which candidate they were discussing. The younger students would then decide whose plan they preferred, the "red" candidate or the "blue" candidate. After all the issues had been presented and the kids had made their choices, we revealed who was who and they knew which candidate their opinions most aligned with. We had laptops setup in the classroom and my students helped them cast their votes. By the end, we were able to bring in the 2nd, 3rd (Amanda's), 4th, and 5th grade classes. Our school's votes were combined with others from across the country and the nationwide results had Obama winning in all states but 4.
We had a door-decorating contest for Halloween. Our students decorate the doors and they're judged by some of the staff members. My door won.
Oh, and I went ice fishing on the river. Caught about 5 tom cods, which was pretty pathetic. Everyone around me had piles of fish. Oh well, it was fun.
