Homeward Bound

Loyal blog readers,

Today is our final day in Barrow, Alaska.  Our day today started with sleeping in! (Until 8AM.....) Had breakfast and said our goodbyes to Steve, the friendly cook who has helped us out so much during our stay.  Jess and Peter then finished their last college assignment, the teaching e-portfolio. (Surprise surprise, Katie was already done.....)  We then went to the gym for a final workout in Barrow before our overnight flight.

After lunch was packing time and Peter went for a ski (last one of the year--on May 18th!).  Now we're all hanging out while Jess jams the last few things into her bag. All three of us have officially stuffed our suitcases as full as possible, needing to sit on them to close them (seriously).  We are now set and ready to go home.

This entire experience has been life changing! We've really enjoyed our time here in Barrow.  Everyone was very welcoming and supportive of us during our stay.  We had three great cooperating teachers and the entire staff at Eben Hopson Middle School was outstanding!  We all felt included and like we were really a part of the school.  We've created a lot of fun memories that we will have with us for the rest of our lives.  Maybe someday we will return to the Top of the World to visit all the friends that we've made.  We will miss everyone dearly and wish them all well.

This experience was unforgettable and a great way to finish our college experience!

Midwestern readers, we'll see you soon!

Alaskan readers, thanks for the great memories, maybe we'll meet again!

The Three Musketeers
Katie
Jess
Peter


p.s. Your last lesson in Inupiaq- specific to middle school students

I jokes= used instead of I'm kidding.  NECESSARY WHEN USING SARCASM, people up here don't get it.  At all. It's not entirely correct English, but still gets the point across, especially when it's the cute little ones that say it.

No, I never= a solid denial of guilt, usually used when guilty

Atchuu (pronounced "achoo!") = Inupiaq word that means I don't know.  Kids can use it.  If teachers use it the kids say "Bless You!"

CAN'T SEE= Yelled from a student when the teacher is in the way of the board.  Incredibly obnoxious.  It was a 6 week lesson in teaching kids to ask nice for the teacher to move.

Watch carefully, raised eyebrows means yes.

I'm doing it= No, no you're not.  Good try though.

Saying good-bye to the staff!

I can't believe our trip is almost over! It went so quickly!

Today we had our last staff "meeting" with our friends at Hopson Middle School. We had a pizza party to celebrate the end of the year and the small successes everyone had with students throughout the year.

It was really wonderful to be a part of the this meeting and hear the teachers talk about all of the great accomplishments their students had made this year and the excitement for next year.  It was our chance to say goodbye and thank you to a wonderful staff. All but one of them is returning for the next school year, which is amazing considering the turn-around rate for teachers here in Alaska. I'm excited for the next year as they get to accomplish so much more after one year of working together.

They really are a wonderful group of people. Today we all got to see an awards assembly for the 6th and 7th grade students. They sat patiently through two hours of awards for the students given by the staff for multitudes of reasons. Each teacher presented at least one award to one student in each class they have. It was really fun to see them honoring students that had done well, persevered, changed their attitudes, or were extremely helpful in the classroom. There is so much good work going on in this school and the students reap the benefits (and the awards today) from all the hard work this staff puts in for the students.

We got small gifts from our teachers and it made all of us excited to be involved in a school community of our own.

Only two more nights in Barrow, then it's back to MN!

Promotion Day

Today the 8th grade students from Eben Hopson Middle School in Barrow, Alaska were officially promoted to high school!!!  All 68 of them!  There is no good way that I could explain this experience other than Prom and High School Graduation COMBINED!  These kids came dressed in the most extravagant dresses and suits complete with "the works"; ex. hair, make-up, and high heals (for the girls).  Actually, one of the boys had a bright orange tux with frills and orange shiny shoes.  (They get all dressed up only to put graduation gowns over their fancy outfits)  To accompany their gowns, they all get lots of graduation "bling": money and candy leis:

Candy lei examples (taken from google image).

The ceremony itself is also very extravagant.  The staff spend the entire year planning for it.  The students were assigned speaking parts close to 2 months ago and the decorations were being constructed around that time as well.  The 8th grade students had 3 rehearsals for their promotion beforehand: Friday afternoon and Monday/Tuesday from 9:15-12:45pm.  Plus, the students with speaking roles practiced for hours afterwards.  I spent many hours in the gym over the past few days as a speech coach, vocal coach, and dance coach!  :)  It was really fun to help the students rehearse and support them as they worked to perfect their parts (which they all did fantastically)!  Promotion took place in the gym which was transformed in approximately 3 days by the hard work of teachers and students on the decorating committee.  There was a large stage, columns for the students to walk through, a projector to display all of their pictures, balloons, flowers, lights, glitter, and HUNDREDS of chairs:

The whole promotion ceremony lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes and the program read as follows:

-Processional: 20 minutes for the 8th graders to walk into the gym one at a time so their families could get lots of pictures :)
-Pledge of Allegiance: spoken in Inupiaq and English
-Star Spangled Banner: sung beautifully by one of the 8th graders
-Welcome Remarks: from the Principal
-Invocation: spoken in Inupiaq and English
-Song Presentation: 2 of the 8th graders sang a song of their choice and did a wonderful job!
-Board Member Introduction/Guest Speaker
-President of Student Council Speech
-Dance Presentation: 2 of the 8th grade girls choreographed and performed a dance
-Tribute to Eben Hopson
-Eben Hopson's Words
-Rose Ceremony (my personal favorite part): The students each purchased roses to pass out to their friends, families, and loved ones.  In total, the 8th grade class purchased 900 roses!!!! (us student teachers were even given a few)
-Conferring of Certificates
-Inupiaq Dancers and Drummers: the 8th grade students performed their traditional Inupiaq dancing!  It was very fun to watch!!! They are VERY talented! I even joined in during the invitational after making a promise to a few of my 8th graders.
-Benediction
-Closing Remarks
-Recessional
(Snacks and pictures with friends and families and an 8th grade only dance to follow)

It was a very fun event!  It took a lot of time and planning and it was VERY well done!  The promotion ceremony means a lot to the 8th grade students and their families.  It used to be pretty typical that 8th grade was the highest education that students would receive.  Many more graduate from high school now but the tradition of 8th grade promotion still remains.   I was incredibly happy to get to be a part of such a unique experience!  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the students that graduated today and I cannot put into words how much I am going to miss them!  They are great kids and I wish them the best of luck in all that is in store for them in the future!

As one of the 8th grade students quoted: "Some people dream of success.  Others wake up and work for it."  It is my hope that they 8th graders will work hard and strive to succeed; that they will apply themselves and take pride in everything they do.  They all have great potential and I hope that, as they journey on to high school, they will find that in themselves and "move toward the path their dreams take them."

-K

Who ya gonna call? Search and Rescue!

No, no, no, I didn't need to get rescued.  Seriously.  Neither did the gals.  We're all ok.

But, we did get the chance to tour the North Slope Borough Search and Rescue Hanger yesterday. We were guided by a friend of Steve Culbertson's named Dustin who works there as a medic.

It was way cool!  The North Slope Borough (equivalent to a Minnesota County, except it's twice the size of the state of Minnesota....) Has it's own Search and Rescue Department, complete with a Learjet and 2 Helicopters!

The Borough pays for search and rescue and has many full-time employees.  Some of the fire department employees also fly on the med-evac flights and search and rescue operations.  We got the full tour of the hangar and got to sit in the jet and the helicopters (I'm really still a little kid at heart)

We also learned a little bit about the rescue and med-evac missions.  Some fun facts:

- unless it's colder than -40, they go out on rescue missions

- Barrow is the only Fire Department in the State that goes on flight missions

- The Learjet is called the "Rescue Bird" it is a special model with a longer wingspan so it can fly at slower speeds to land on shorter airstrips

- You can get in the Jet, fly out of Barrow, and land in Anchorage in 90 minutes (that's 800 miles)

- Every med-evac flight to Anchorage goes past Denali, on the way back if they ask Air Traffic Control really nice they get to circle it and enjoy the view after a stressful day

- They operate the only learjet in the world that lands on gravel airstrips ("there used to be one in Africa, but it crashed" Says Dustin nonchalantly......) Crews walk shoulder to shoulder on aircraft carriers to make sure not even one little pebble gets sucked into fighter jet engines,t hese guys land a learjet on a bumpy piece of gravel.

- Helicopters cost 14 million dollars, the new jet they're getting is only 11 million

- Crews are on call 24 hours for 2 weeks at a time, then they have 2 weeks off.  Dustin is taking his next 2 weeks and going hunting in Texas, working 2 weeks, going to California for 2 weeks, working 2 weeks, then going to Las Vegas for 2 weeks.  You get the idea, he's living the dream!

We heard a few fun stories from the crew and took some more pictures.

Less than a week to go! We're getting anxious to get home and see our friends and family again, but are still enjoying all the great experiences we're having in Barrow!

Stay warm, and check out the pictures!

-Peter

I took a picture of the checklist, just for you Jane Schuck!

Helicopter Cockpit

 

The front end of the "Rescue Bird"

Have you seen any 'igloos'?

Actually, while we have been in Barrow, we see igloos all the time!  But we aren't talking about an igloo like this:

We learned that the term "igloo" actually refers to a home.  So (correct me if I am wrong...), driving around town, every home that we see can be referred to as an "igloo."  For example, the dorms that we are staying in:

We are staying in an "igloo!" 
Something that is also interesting about the houses and buildings here (that you might notice from this picture) is that all of the buildings are on stilts.  This is due to the permafrost.  Originally, I thought it was because of snow drifts (and this design probably does help to prevent snow from piling up around a building), but it is actually because the heat from a building would melt the permafrost if it was sitting directly on it.  If this were to happen, the building would start to sink.  So, all of the houses are put on stilts to keep them from sinking into the ground!

Don't forget to tell your mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and all the other moms you know how much you love them today!!! And Happy Mother's Day to all you moms who are reading this!!!
Shout out to Pam Schroeder! I love you mom!  Thanks for providing me with another blog topic.  Happy Mother's Day!  I miss you and can't wait to see you on Saturday!

-K

My Classroom

I wanted to show you a few pictures from the middle school and my classroom there. The schools here are very nice and a lot of money get's put into them.

First things first, if you wanted to check out the school website, it's kind of hard to find:
http://www.nsbsd.org/schools/hms

Eben Hopson Middle School is named after a town hero and a huge advocate for education. Durring the time when students from here were sent to boarding schools, as a promising student Eben wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., to complain about the school principal's use of unpaid student labor on small public works projects. Because the school didn't appreciate the political action by Hopson got him branded as a trouble maker and he was not allowed to go on to boarding school to continue his education. He later became the Mayor of Barrow and is his family line is still present in the town today. He stands for never backing down from your education and is a great local hero to model the school philosophy. His statue is the the first thing all students see each day after entering the building.


There are about 65 students in each grade and the school holds 6th-8th graders. I am working with mostly 7th grade students, Katie is working with 8th graders, and Peter gets a mix of both. About 90% of the students are Inupiaq (Eskimo) and the other 10% are from Pacific Islands (mostly Samoa).


The classrooms themselves are spacious and each are equipped with a Smartboard, sink, and a water fountain. Most classrooms have a laptop cart and next year they hope that each classroom will have a set of laptops (some teachers currently have to share) meaning that each student will have access to a computer in every class they are in. The classrooms have large windows, especially mine, but they have to be closed most of the day because the sun is too bright to keep them open.




I took some pictures to hopefully give you a better understanding of what my classroom looks like.

This is my little desk area right next to my co-operating teacher's.

Here is the front of the classroom. You can see the Smartboard and some of the student work on the front of the room.

Here is the whole classroom

The students are allowed to keep their books, notebooks, and journals in specific places around the room.

Wolves are the school mascot and you see this posted all around the school.

This is the word wall and the sink

Gustie on Ice!

What's up friends!

We went out to dinner tonight at the delicious Sam and Lee's oriental restaurant (this place would give Chinatown "OK10minute!" a run for their money) with our cooperating teachers, Steve, and Vanni.  Dinner conversation led to the firsts that I've had on this trip. So I shall start from the beginning.

First Airplane flight.  Yep, that's right. the 6AM flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was my first experience in the air.

First view of the ocean.  Landing in Anchorage I saw it a little bit, but that doesn't really count.... So, my first real open ocean view was the sea ice in Barrow.

First taste of Maktak.  Not that surprising, but still a first. Oh and if you still don't know what it is, I'll explain.  Whale skin with a little blubber attached underneath.  Yep, I ate it.  Raw.  Tastes....a little krilly, but not so bad once you get over the texture.

First time seeing a Snowy Owl.  That was cool, you read about it.

First time going out on the ocean- this weekend.  On SKIS!!!

The piece of ice behind me is about 6 feet thick.  The picture doesn't do the color justice, 

the ice is a bright blue!

I went out on the ice with my cooperating teacher, Deb Greene.  We skied down the coast for a bit and I saw the Barrow Tugboat- frozen in the ice in a little inlet.  We skied past the gas tanks that supply the gas for the town of Barrow- for an entire year!!!  We then set out on a whaling crew trail and skied away from shore.  The above picture is taken about 1/2 mile from shore- this is the first pressure ridge that forms when the offshore ice runs into the shore-bound ice.  Past the pressure ridge- which at it's peak was over 20 feet of jumbled ice, was an old lead (open water) that had frozen up.  It was clear sailing across this until we reached the second ridge- we were now about 3 miles out.  In the second pressure ridge I saw something I thought I'd never see in Barrow, much less out on the ice.

A TREE!!!!! 3 Miles out on the Ice!

It was unbelievable! Well, I skied up, and it was obviously stuck in the ice by somebody.  Deb and I sure laughed about it.  So that can be another first, my first Ice Spruce.

I'll end my blog with some pictures that really don't do the Ice Pack justice- but here you go!

Stay warm,

Peter