My first year of teaching is halfway over! December was a great month; the school had a door decorating contest and a Christmas program. The janitors go out in the tundra every year and choose a huuuge tree to put in the Elder Hall. Each student makes a decoration to put on the tree. My class made reindeer faces out of popsicle sticks. My door decoration was a reindeer with Christmas lights on his antlers. My kids also had fun cutting out hands for our handprint Christmas tree and making snowflakes for our hallway bulletin board. Each elementary class and some of the high school students preformed in the Christmas program. (Check out some of the high school kids singing and dancing a traditional song with Yup'ik drums in the second video.) My class joined kindergarten and sang Going on a Bear Hunt and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. They wore cute little bear hats while they were singing. I was expecting low attendance for the program, but I had 8 out of 10 students come and sing. I was absolutely beside myself when I saw them all dressed up. Just check out the pictures and video below and get a look at how adorable they are. The twins looked like princesses with their poufy dresses and curled hair, and seeing the little boy with the vest, tie, and shiny shoes was killing me. The last day before break, we had fun coloring, watching movies, and opening treat bags. I set the videos to private on Youtube, so that only people reading my blog will have access to them. Let me know if they don't work for you, and I'll see if I can fix it.
Thanksgiving break was a much-needed time to relax and get out of the village. Collin and I took a bush plane to Bethel right after school on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning flew to Anchorage. We rented a car and stayed at a Homewood Suites. The principal watched our dogs for us, so we didn’t have to pay for their flights and boarding. We spent 4 days in Anchorage stocking up on groceries, getting Christmas gifts for our families, walking around the mall, and going to restaurants. We also went to the Ulu Factory, a candy factory that had the world’s tallest chocolate waterfall, relaxed in the hotel hot tub, and saw a movie. My favorite part of our vacation was Thanksgiving afternoon. We traveled down Old Seward highway. Getting out of town the views were pretty plain, but then we turned around a curve and BAM! breathtaking mountains surrounded by a lake. It was absolutely awesome. We also saw a waterfall, some mountain goats, and walked on a path in the mountains for a couple miles. It was so pretty, and the weather was just about perfect for exploring. Saturday afternoon, we flew back to Bethel and experienced the thrill of living in a remote part of Alaska. We were supposed to head back to Akiachak Saturday afternoon, but due to ice fog, the bush planes couldn’t fly and we were stuck in Bethel until Monday morning. I only missed 30 minutes of school though, and everyone around here has been in similar predicaments, so they are pretty understanding. Now, my students and I are getting back into our school groove, and are anxiously counting down the days until Christmas break (only 13 more school days if anyone was wondering)! |
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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