Niicuicaqunak means "Always show good behavior".
This is something I really wish children learned. It is an important Yup'ik custom. However, in this culture, kids are suppose to be able to make their own decisions, even little first grade kids. This clashes with teachers trying to teach them and trying to control mischief. The most you can do is give them the choice of calling grandma, going to the office, or being good. The biggest issue I see is that all of the kids hit each other. Constantly. Kicking, punching, grabbing, shoving. All the time, everywhere. Maybe the older kids not as much, but 5th graders and under cannot seem to stand near each other without having to shove someone or touch someone. They play rough. The last two days I have been the substitute for an aide, working with first graders. The teacher I was helping was one of my friends, though. Thursday, I had no clue what to do with these kids! I made a kid cry and throw a tantrum under the table because I took markers away when he would not listen and stop coloring. During recess duty, I could not keep half the kids in line because they ran away from me. Lots of fighting and crying. Today was better during the morning. I helped kids read and do their work. I made popcorn for their party. Then recess happened. At the end of it, before the teachers came back, I turned around to break up four kids from fighting. At that time the largest student slammed a small girl to the floor and the janitor witnessed it. So I had half the class hitting each other and screaming and crying. One girl refused to leave the gym. I guess I am suppose to just leave children behind, but i have issues doing that. I got hit a few times breaking up fights. After my lunch, te kids were taken to a Yup'ik class. Oi! The teacher was working with four students so I was alone with the Yup'ik teacher and crazed first graders with scissors. What could go wrong? By the end of the class I was chasing down kids who were running with scissors and trying to cut classmates hair. And I had to walk them back to class - alone. They took one step out the door and all 12 of them took off running and screaming down the hall, past the front office and to class. I was left in the dust! Then when I took the girls to the bathroom, none of them listened so I had girls taking off running again. Reading time was full of fights and crying. Math went well and I helped kids add. Lining up for computer time was full of kids slapping each other across the face and scratching and crying. The older computer buddies kept having the kids play games with blood in them, so I had to watch the older kids like a hawk so they would not play inappropriate games. Now, the kids were in trouble and yelled at all day. I personally would not of let them have their popcorn party, but the teacher let them have it anyways. Seriously, these kids are exhausting! You cannot turn your back on them for a minute! By the end of today I was able to just let a child lay on the floor crying without giving them any attention. One child is trying to get suspended like her cousin was, just because she wants to stay with mommy. One amusing and freaky thing is I had boys bathroom duty, so I had to go in there a few times and root out loitering kids and once go in because a child was crying loudly in there. Awkward! Not bad days at all but I think these kids behave way worse than the kindergarten class. So much crying and whining over everything! They cannot even sit or stand near someone without touching I was chosen for the librarian job. Unfortunately, I need to re-interview in ten days for it, because the Council decided that they did not think the job was posted up in the village for ten days, so they do not think locals got a fair chance at it. So in ten days we start over. It is okay, though. I work every day doing all sorts of things.
My boyfriend just found out last night that he needs to fly to Anchorage on Tuesday for a training through the union on the new Teacher Evaluation system. I know that the proposed way of doing evaluations is causing huge issues with teachers and is one of the Union hot topics currently. So barely any notice and he will be gone 3 nights. I am going to sub for his classes though since I know what is going on in each class almost as well as him. LOL Of course that means I get all of the feisty 8th graders. But they have enough of a routine going on in class that they know what they should be doing. And there will be movies involved as well. I know the 6th graders just from helping out in class and helping the ones who have reading problems. Should be interesting. It also means for three days I get to be asked non-stop when I am getting married and how my boyfriend better marry me, and how they are all going to tell him that. Silly boys. Actually, one was telling my boyfriend that. They are way too interested in our personal lives. But it is a village of 1200 people. There is not much else to talk about. Elilluki Alerqutet means "remember what you are taught and told".
I substituted for the same teacher as last time on Tuesday. I have been in the library most days so it was unexpected that I was asked to Sub. I may have went "yikes" in my head because of "those" 8th graders, but it was mentioned that around 10 of them have been pulled from class and put into special ed because of behavioral problems and/or reading problems. The first half of the day was decent. The kids were decent to me and we got work done. I read a story out loud to both classes of 8th graders so they could do their vocabulary worksheet that went with the story. I did not think anyone was paying attention, but when I changed a contraction to the longer version as I read (because I sometimes do that in my head. Too many years in school with a teacher who hated contractions in writing), a kid corrected me. One 8th grade class got everything done. Not in enough time to watch a movie, but enough done so I did not have to give them punishment homework. I did have two of the better students fall asleep, but managed to wake them up and get them to work some more. The troubled 8th graders were mostly nice to me. The first time I had them that day, they got work done. In the afternoon they were pretty distracted so not everything got done. But no one was loud or mean or causing trouble so I still did not punish them with homework. That was for behavioral issues only. Of course one kid was trying to steal pencils when I was sitting down helping a student do her work. And after that student had been behind the desk, I was afraid to drink my drink (these same kids have spit in my boyfriends coffee and I think put a fly in his water once). No one was mean to me, though. I had trouble getting the 7th graders to finish their work because the first assignment had word search on the back and they wanted to finish that before reading. Then when they came back for the last period of the day, I had one girl lying on the ground crying, two sleeping on the floor, one hiding behind a bookcase, and a girl refusing to sit down because another girl was in the seat she wanted. I also had three girls try and skip but got busted by the office. So no one was really disruptive or bad, but just refused to do anything but the first worksheet. But, their other teachers had the same issues. Feel free to share my blog with anyone you would like! I am getting hundreds of new visitors lately. =)
I got a random pay check today! Of course it was just for 7 hours (or one normal school day), but yay money! And now I know what I make per day after taxes. And.... OMG no state taxes!!! So if I am paid once a month then I will get a full month pay October 15. That works, since I need to buy Christmas stuff starting next month.
My boyfriend wanted to have a date night yesterday since it seems we have been busy the last couple of days, and had not spent too much quality time alone (always kids around or been at friends houses, or working). Considering where we live, the usual options are: Taking the Honda to the beach, going for a walk, watch a movie. It started raining heavily so we watched 127 Hours, uninterrupted, no electronics allowed. It was nice. Then he had a two hour Union meeting. Not as much fun. I have learned some Union info though because I have listened to phone meetings and the Union President is over here every other day it seems. That guy is a talker. But that is the guy whose wife wants me to help with the Preschool stuff. I can really see why teachers need a Union, though. Random tidbit - I have to fly 500 miles to Anchorage, just to see the new Hunger Games when it comes to the theater!!! Still no job news. I think I am at the top of the list for both jobs, but the school needs to send the list through two different boards for signatures. So who knows when everything will be done. I will be working on the school website as soon as the Tech guy gives me a log in for the school website. I may have to star from scratch. But I can access the website the school and teachers use from home, so I can use my own laptop. Or do it in the library if I get the job. I have been working in the library most days, but am so busy entering hundreds of books a day into the computer system, that I have zero free time there. Once the boxes of books are gone and shelves organized, the library job will be pretty laid back. It is just that no one has done anything since April, when the old librarian was carried away in handcuffs. Man, I hope it works out for me. I have so many ideas of how to make the library better and how to maybe get kids more excited about books. Takaqluki piitaten. This means "Respect the animals you catch for food"
In general, 75% of the Yup'ik diet is from foods they gather from the land. Picking berries , fishing, and hunting are how they survive for the most part. Most of their groceries from the store are what WIC and foodstamps can get and lots of processed food because it is cheap. One guy at the store was telling me was excited he caught some fish because he had been living on just cereal for awhile. Extended families live together, so 13 people can be sharing a small, 3 bedroom home. I know men use to live separately, but unsure if they still do that. This is why the kids are hungry, though. Even if you have a good job somewhere, people will have 5-6 kids of their own and then adopt a few more. One of the 7th graders came by this weekend to go hunting with my boyfriend. It seemed like he was hanging out here all weekend. We fed him lunch twice and cooked him breakfast on Sunday. They had no success hunting, though. A bird was shot and fell, but no one could find it on the tundra. This kid hunts to provide food for his family. He is 14, has five sisters and one brother. Has no interest in school or reading, but at least shows up, which is half the battle. I want to go find some blackberries, but I am very nervous about going where locals pick berries, because I do not want to take their food. i just want to try them because I heard they are different. I saw someone selling some so I may buy some instead. We shall see. if I see them by the school, that is fair game. No loca This is very sad. There are numerous kids in the 6th, 7th, 8th grade that have no idea what continent they live on, that think Alaska and the United States are continents, and do not understand the difference between the North and South Pole. And all you can do is multiple times a week make them do vocabulary reviews and write over and over what these things are. On my free time I have helped out with the 6th graders and sat down with some of the more challenging students and helped them get through their work. Line by line, helping them read and understand the questions. Usually ones who have trouble reading and writing or even staying focused. That is actually what the special aide aides do, but have not seen too much of that once the kids reach 6th grade. But the point is that it is sad that it is so hard to teach some of these kids, but holding them back over and over just leads to them dropping out, and getting these kids to graduate is very hard.
Our dinner guest last week was a man who travels the school district and helps with trouble schools. Though our school went up a star rating (test result thing) and is now two stars, so that is progress. Anyways, the conversation was about how these middle school kids, most cannot write paragraphs and have trouble even writing sentences when they have to think on their own what to write. So there are cool writing assignments for them to do this year, but right now they need to start learning how to write once sentence to answer a question and grow from there. I have also heard some kids say they cannot draw something when asked because they do not know how. So it is partially an imagination problem perhaps and maybe an issue with them being afraid to do something wrong, even though using your own mind is never wrong. Maybe by Thanksgiving they can write paragraphs because my boyfriend has some good writing ideas for the 6th graders especially because they are focusing more on Alaska history and culture. It makes me sad. Watching that documentary also discussed the huge issue with kids and school. Every Yup'ik Is Responsible To All Other Yup'iks For Survival Of the Cultural Spirit, And The Values And Traditions Through Which It Survives.
With Guidance and Support from Elders We must Teach our Children Yup'ik Values: Love for Children Respect for Others Sharing Humility Hard work Spirituality Cooperation Family Roles Knowledge of family tree Knowledge of Language Hunter Success Domestic Skills Avoid conflict Humor Respect for nature Respect For Land Respect For Nature By The Design Of Our Creator We Were Created Yup'ik In Space And Time; Proud, For Generations To Come, Of The Values Given To Us By Our Creator. ***************************************************************** Eskimo culture have some great values. We have a poster showing different cultural values for different Eskimo groups, and they are all so awesome. Unfortunately, the kids are not growing up learning these values. I just colored a bunch of posters with Yup'ik values and laminated them and hung them up in the classroom. The values also have the Yup'ik phrase that goes with it. I just watched this video that was filmed in Hooper Bay and talks about the issues of the Yup'iks losing their culture. How the children do not hear stories, they do not know the language, they do not follow the customs. At first the language was lost because schools rewarded children for speaking English instead of Yup'ik, gave them candy and juice and punished them for speaking their native tongue. Now you have entire generations who cannot speak the language and the native speakers dying out. This is why they are trying to teach the language in schools now. But it is very sad. |
AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
March 2017
Categories
All
|