Happy Halloween everyone! This week went by in a blur of candy and colorful costumes! On Wednesday, the school hosted is annual SPOOKTACULAR carnival. It’s a great fundraiser for the classes. I did a cake walk with one of the other teachers, and I make about $100 for my class and had lots of fun! I’m planning on using the money on prize box prizes, and supplies for an end of the year pizza and piñata party. :) During school Wednesday, the elementary kids wore their costumes to school and paraded around the gym for the high school kids at the end of the day. Thursday was an early release day. We had an elementary awards assembly and classroom Halloween party that afternoon, and the rest of the afternoon I spent doing parent-teacher conferences. The kids didn’t have school on Friday, and the teachers spent the morning doing professional development, and the afternoon finishing up parent-teacher conferences. I had 7 out of 11 parents show up, which was a much better turn out than I expected, but the parents that didn’t show up have kids that are struggling, but it is what it is.
Wow! It’s so hard to believe that next week is November! It seems like October went by in the blink of an eye! I’ve been so busy these past two weeks; days seem to go by so fast. Last weekend, Collin and I traveled to Bethel with 7 wrestlers to participate in the 2015 Bethel Scramble. I loved watching the kids wrestle and they were really fun to watch over in general, as well. We left Akiachak for Bethel Friday afternoon. We had 4 junior high boys, a high school boy, and 2 high school girls compete in the tournament. They weighed in Friday afternoon and the tournament started that evening and didn’t let up until around 10 that night. There were about 215 elementary, junior high, and high school wrestlers there that weekend, and around 465 matches were wrestled. Saturday morning, the tournament resumed and the awards ceremony took place that night. Most of our wrestlers won at least one of their matches, and one of the junior high kids took 3rd place in his weight class. A surprising amount of girls wrestle here, and some even won their weight divisions. After the awards ceremony, we walked to a nearby convenience store to load up on snacks and drinks, and went back to chill in one of the classrooms until bed. The students behaved really well and were quite funny to talk to and get to know. Collin is a great coach, and it’s fun to see him interact with his team. After staying the night once more at the school, we flew back to Akiachak Sunday morning, just in time to relax a bit before another long week of teaching. Monday morning was the start of a very interesting week for me. The principal came in my room Monday morning with a new student who moved from another village. Then, another teacher came in to tell me a student of mine moved to another village. Apparently this is pretty common. Families move to other villages and back again all the time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the student I lost came back before the year is over. I’m sad that he left. He was doing so well and making a lot of progress. The new student I got is fitting in well so far. He was shy at first, but has opened up some and talks to me now.
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Hello!My name is Jessie Jones and I am a second year first grade teacher in Akiachak, Alaska. Archives
September 2016
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