The meat order finally came!! Look at all that food! Steaks, chicken, pork, ground turkey, ground beef, buffalo, reindeer, roasts, ham, Cornish game hens, two turkeys, stew meat, ribs, vegetables, plus the salmon we stocked up on already. All set for the winter! The ham dinner we made for friends was awesome! One of the best hams ever! I have been in the library for the past 4 days and managed to get fiction moved over and the new books added in. Huge project because books were every were and no room to slide books in, so I had to remove them and move the books and re-alphabetize them since the books were chaotic. Fiction is done, but young adult fiction is not. Maybe I will get to return soon. I also got the library and trophy cases dusted. Today, a man came in with 3 trouble little kids, the vice principal had this man bring them in to the library. I knew it would end badly. I say this because there is a reading room full of pillows. Maybe 18 pillows. Three wild kids. Guess what happened? Pillow fights and pillows thrown everywhere and the kids would not listen to him. They did however, listen to me when I told them to pick up the pillows and put them back. The VP had to come and carry one boy out of the library, though.
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It has been snowing a tiny bit on and off the last two days. Barely anything is sticking and it is not too cold. However, I have been getting a taste of how wicked that wind from the Bering Sea can be! Holy cow! I need a face mask! It almost blows you over sometimes when walking to school. The school and our apartments are maybe 50 yards from the sea. I have been told the wind can get so strong that it lifts up your kitchen linoleum. Thank goodness the walk is only 1/3 of a mile, shorter if you cut across the tundra. The weather is one huge reason why I would prefer to work at the school. The clinic is maybe a mile away, same with the government offices. I would be overrun with joy if I got hired at either of those places, but walking to work each day in the winter would be rough. I think I want to pick out a heavy parka soon online because I am a tad wimpy when it comes to the cold. But my layers do keep me warm when needed! Of course the parka I want is $450...
The kids were insane last week because of the PFD's. Half the village is drunk I guess. You have kids exhausted, upset, hyped up on junk food, coffee and soda, high on pot or huffing gasoline and half of them just not showing up for school. The ones who show up are so exhausted they just sleep on the floor, or they are so upset and worked up because of bad stuff at home they they are just mean and disrespectful. One of my fave 8th grade girls who is always so nice to me and does her work was so mean to me on Friday. She openly defied everything I said and just kept telling me "No". A girl had her dad called during class because she just kept responding with "what?" to every question or instruction and just took the school laptop into the hall to use it. When her dad wanted to talk to her she just hung up the phone and started crying in a corner. I had to send a kid to the office and he got suspended because he was causing such a disturbance and making girls cry. I saw 3 middle school boys who were high on something in my class. Kids are finally getting suspended for chewing, but I would say 75% of the middle schoolers chew tobacco and they get it from their parents. I will make a real post tomorrow. I am so exhausted from this week. Those teenagers have run me ragged! 3/4 evenings I have fallen asleep while reading or something around 5pm. Only for 20 minutes, but still. I rarely nap or doze like that. Not a bad week, it is just hard work keeping them in line and trying to teach them about the Columbian Exchange while getting through a 90 minute movie and 65 question worksheet. One class finished and every kid who turned in their work got a 100%! So the majority of one class actually listened to me! I feel proud. Of the ones who did not turn work in; one never turns anything in and the other I believe crumpled it up in a tantrum. But I could be wrong and it could appear Monday.
My boyfriend comes back tomorrow morning instead of today because of flight issues and such. He has to stay the night in Bethel. Yuck. And I am unsure if he can get internet and cell service because he is staying with some guy and cell service in Bethel sucks. So I am kind of in the dark about when the flight comes in tomorrow. A quick note - Today I had a 7th grader telling me how to make Brew. Not cool.
As I have mentioned before, alcoholism is a huge issue in this village, as well as drug use. This is a topic very close to me because of the alcoholics i have known and loved. One of them being my brother who passed away because of it.
Alaska residents are paid to live here. Right now, in a week or so, that is getting paid out and each resident adult gets $1800 and I think it is $500 per kid. My boyfriend does not get it this year because of the time he spent in Texas. He came back to Alaska a couple months after the application deadline. Anyways, I keep getting told by many people that it is going to be like the wild west here for a couple of weeks once people have money. There will be too much homebrew. I have heard from numerous people that the parents will fly to Anchorage for whatever reason, and just tell their kids to find someone to stay with. So the kids get very worked up and stressed and have an unstable home life for weeks, more so than usual. This leads to them acting out and being angry. It is very sad that money gets abused like that and that parents could just abandon their kids for a couple weeks and not care what happens to them. I know many kids are angry over homebrew, even though many might be drinking themselves in a few years. I read some writings kids did about how to make the village a better place and many wrote "get rid of the homebew and the drugs". I have never seen either but it is here. Chewing tobacco - another huge issue. 8 out of 12 7th graders yesterday said that they use chewing tobacco. Parents will give their elementary school kids a pinch of tobacco in the morning to keep them awake. This is awful and disgusting. I was told people chew because it is cheaper, but there is no reason to be giving little kids tobacco! Today was day one of substituting for my boyfriend while he is in Anchorage. He is the person who was selected to go to this training about the new evaluation system and then train the principals and staff here in the village, plus some of the school board people who travel a lot and are here for a week or so. It is a good training to go to, he just was not ready to leave the village so soon, especially right before midterm grades are due. I mean, it is two plane rides to get to Anchorage. You spend half the day traveling and with the weather, flights are always delayed. But it is paid for. We both wished that I could have gone, but tickets to Anchorage are around $1000 round trip at this moment. Plus guaranteed sub teacher work/pay for me is a god reason to stay. I make over $100 a day AFTER taxes just working at the school. I think subs for teachers make more. I have mostly subbed for the aides so I have not seen a pay stub yet for what I make subbing for a teacher. But the aides prefer to sub for their teachers for the extra money and stop talking to a teacher if they are passed by for the opportunity. This applies to elementary school mainly because the second floor barely has any aides working in the rooms despite needing them for some students.
My boyfriend and I did not get too much of a goodbye today. He came in the morning to show me what to do with the kids for PE then flew out. But even just hugging and kissing in a chaste manner caused a ruckus from the sixth graders. I mean, I am already asked 50 times a day when we are getting married or girls wanting romantic stories. The kids are obsessed. But you cannot get them started because then they never stop. I confiscated a sharpie marker in gym class from a student and forgot to give it back at the end of the day. He came by my house looking for it. That is how it is here. Kids just come by. I also had girls come by wanting to draw pictures for me. Possibly for money, I am not sure. Kids come by selling crafts. Adults come by selling crafts. What I really want is being sold by a teacher and it is carved chess board made from whale bone with ivory pieces. But is is $1500. My boyfriend and I both drool over it though. The crafts the native teachers sell cost more than the people who come to your door. The day went pretty well for the first half. Kids worked, no one called me a name, no one asked me a sex question. I did lose one 7th grader and did not notice until the special aide teacher came by, asking me what I wanted done with the student having a melt down by the stairs. Oops. I needed the tech guy to fix the projector, so when he had the door open, a bunch of kids tried to run out to the hall. That is how she snuck out. I would not let a kid go to the bathroom and wash off a giant jaw breaker he dropped on the floor during the movie. He responded by knocking all of the papers off of the table. I took away the bathroom pass for one class because they would not settle down and do the movie worksheet. If the kids are good, they get skittles at the end of class and sometimes students who are working get them during class. All morning most students got skittles. The kid who knocked my papers down did not get any. Kids who were really tardy did not. If the kid did not do much work they got maybe one depending on if they were quiet or disruptive. Actually one 7th grade was perfect the entire hour. In the afternoon, one the grade class got no skittles for anyone because as a whole, the class would not settle down. I could not keep kids in seats and they wanted to run around during the movie or sit in the window. Tomorrow I might start adding more names to the detention board. It was funny because I had 7th graders wanting to stay in my class for another hour because sometimes the special ed kids can go work elsewhere if they are having a rough day. So I had kids keep coming back. The last 6th grade class started off doing well and got skittles. Part of this was because I sent a problem child downstairs to work. He came back and then everyone went nuts. I had kids trying to steal batteries from the remote, trying to take stuff from the desk, kids stealing other kids homework, etc etc. So I denied them skittles as an entire class. This led to papers being crumpled up and thrown, trash thrown in general and whining about how mean I am. They actually were so upset that they did not finish cleaning up. Each class earns check points that go towards a pizza party. They need 100 checks. If a class is nice and cooperative with me, they will get 10 points automatically. If not, they get zero. I seriously have to keep everything in my pockets. I cannot leave out dry erase markers or pens or the remote. They write on desks daily so need to keep pens away from them. They start writing on the board if they get a marker. And now i guess they steal batteries. I am better with discipline, but when it is 3/4 of a class, you cannot send the entire class to the office. Today I worked with second graders. It actually went well and I did not lose any kids! I walked boys to the bathroom multiple times and they walked in a line and did not run, screaming down the hall! Progress! I even walked a kid to the office and he did not cry or scream or avoid it. One kid peed on another kid, which was the main drama of the day. Had to find extra pants and the vice principal had to figure out the discipline measures for peeing on someone. Thankfully, I did not laugh until I was home, just because it was such an odd issue! After my shift was done, I hung out with the six graders in my boyfriends class so I could see how much time he gave them for different assignments. Those kid were nuts! There was chair throwing (well, knocking over in a mad manner) and homework being crumpled up and general disruptive behavior from almost all! Yikes! They got through maybe 8 minutes of the video. It was madness. I actually feel a tad better when every teacher experiences days where the kids go nuts, so it is not just me being unable to handle them. It is frustrating because the the graders are so behind right now. Not even just because of behavior, but because school has ended early multiple days for sport or meetings or in-services, so the last two periods of the day have been shortened or just cut out.
There was a community meeting at the school at night for parents to attend. Thankfully maybe six parents showed up and two even came to visit with my boyfriend. They seemed happy about all of the Yup'ik culture stuff that has been put up, and that he teaches them stuff about the village. There is even a Disney movie he has that was filmed here. I did not get the tech job, which is not a surprise considering I hate Apple computers and do not use them. Waiting for the school district to approve the library job being reposted in the village. Waiting for the form for the early childhood education job. The woman in charge just wanted to hire me since it is grant money, but the council did not approve of that and is making her post it for the ten days. Tomorrow I take over his classes for the rest of the week! 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 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. 1. Going hunting is an acceptable reason for a child to miss school
2. if a child has not shown up by second period and has no excuse, they will receive a phone call telling them to get to class. 3. When a child cries and hides from his teacher, you can call the principal down to come and fetch the child 4. I get hung up on a lot because I am me and just filling in for a local 5. i cannot understand half the people on the phone =/ 6. Elementary school kids cry a lot and need moms called |
AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
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