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

Affording the Arctic

Question(s) from a reader:  "What is the economy like there?  What sustains the area?"

As many of you may know by now, the prices here in Barrow are NOT cheap.  We had a bit of sticker shock when we went into the AC:

$36 watermelon

$10 for 1/2 gallon of milk

$14.50 for orange juice

$7.39 for M&M's (no snacking here...)

So, how do the people of Barrow afford to pay these high prices for food? 

Well, I don't know if I can answer that question completely but I will do my best (with a little help from the internet):

"In the last fifty to one hundred years, the people of Barrow have seen rapid change. The North Slope is home to the largest oil reserve in the Arctic. The oil and gas industry has brought many new jobs to the area. Barrow is also part of the North Slope Borough, a large incorporated area established in 1972, which has also added government and private jobs as well as modern conveniences [...] Today, 60 percent of the people in Barrow are Iñupiaq; 98 percent of the people in the other seven North Slope villages are also Iñupiaq. While much has changed, many traditions remain. The Iñupiaq continue to do subsistence whaling and other hunting, for cultural as well as practical reasons (food is very expensive there and hunted food is much healthier than store-bought). Many Iñupiats work part time to accommodate their subsistence way of life, and some jobs are structured so they can take 'subsistence leave.'(1)"

Barrow is also home to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC).  ASRC not only employs many Barrow residents but it also issues shares to Natives born after 1971, allowing children and grandchildren to be enrolled as shareholders as well.  According to the ASRC website, "Another significant way ASRC has been able to assist shareholders over the years is by issuing dividends. In 1978, when the first dividends were issued, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation paid out a total of $185,000 to shareholders. That number has grown tremendously. In 1991, the total dividends issued to shareholders exceeded $1.5 million. By 2008, the total amount issued grew to over $65 million.(2)"
A student at Hopson Middle School claimed that he gets $5,000 three times a year in dividends.

So, the people of Barrow get a significant amount of support from ASRC; however, it's not always easy for them either.  According to City-Data.com(3), the percentage of residents living in poverty in 2009 was 17.9% and the unemployment rate as of March 2012 was 7.9%.  The estimated median household income in 2009 was $69,829 (while the median income for the state of Alaska was $66,953).  This is why they still rely so heavily on their whaling.  Many residents need to take leaves from work for whaling or hunting (subsistence leave) in order to support their families (this includes our students as well!). 

I will leave you with a fun (not too surprising) fact that I noticed about working in Barrow: a very strong majority of people working in Barrow don't travel more than 10 minutes to work.

For more information about any of the things that I blogged about tonight, these are the websites I used (but feel free to do more searching on your own):
(1) http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/the-people-of-the-arctic/the-inupiaq-people-of-barrow-alaska/
(2) http://www.asrc.com/About/History/Pages/1990toPresent.aspx
(3) http://www.city-data.com/city/Barrow-Alaska.html

Happy Tuesday!
I hope you found the blog tonight interesting and informative.
-K

What we wish we would have known

Tonights post is group post. We are combining our brain power to come up with a list of things we wish we would have known before coming to Barrow....

• Bring sunglasses
• Flip-flops (For the shower)
• Small slippers for around the dorm
• Only two pairs of smartwool socks (more pairs of regular socks)
• T-shirts and shorts for around the dorm and to working out
• You are only going to need your boots for big adventures
• You are usually only outside for 30 seconds or less, bundling up is not that big of a deal
• Van phone number
• Talk to Steve from the kitchen, he knows all
• Light all the time is not a big deal, your student teaching so you'll be sufficiently exhausted
• Sunday Brunch doesn't doesn't open till 11:30 am (be prepared to be hungry on sunday)
• Every other meal time you will have PLENTY to eat
• Deserts from the caf can come back to your dorm for snacks later
• Eskimos don't understand sarcasm (more about that later)
• Sometimes the van is just an hour late (no worries)
• When you fly in, you'll be exhausted. Get the van number, find your room, and where breakfast is. Be sure you have a towel and make your way to bed.
• Bring a water bottle. It's so dry here, you'll need to drink a lot!
• Find or buy Kleenexes and lotion
• Have regular shoes that are not gym shoes or big boots
• If you have room in your suitcase, bring a few hangers for nice school clothes
• Bringing or buying snacks in not a bad idea
• Any local experience you're invited to, go! You're only here once! (And most of the time there isn't that much to do)

That's all we have for now.  If we think of some we'll let you know, and for those of you looking at coming up here, this as close as we could come up with to an orientation.

Daytime all the time!

This is a picture I just took.  It's 10:45 PM.  The sun gets a little bit lower in the sky, but at this point basically just circles around us.  This really messes with the kids, and the adults in town.  The kids stay up all the time and never realize they should go to bed.  Then they fall asleep in class.  I had one student who I was UNABLE TO WAKE UP!!! He just conked out during class.  Woke up about 30 minutes later and started taking notes like it was not big deal.  It messes with our systems too.  Last night when we built our Cinco de Mayo snowfort, we kept working and had no idea that we finished about 10pm.  It's so hard to tell with the constant sunlight.

For sleeping, I wake up and generally have no idea what time it is.  My room, though it has dark curtains, is still almost light enough for me to read all night.  I combat this by being ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED by 7th and 8th graders everyday.  The constant light really hasn't bothered any of us too much, it's actually kind of cool for it to be light out until we go to bed, nighttime will be a bit of a shock when we arrive home I think.

In other news, we had the first blue sky day in about 2 weeks here in Barrow.  Did you know Barrow is one of the most cloudy cities in the US?   I'm excited about the sun today because it makes for better photography.  I went skiing out on the ice today with Deb.  Went to take a picture and my camera said "No memory, unable to record"  Me, being the genius that I am, forgot my memory card in my computer.  Thankfully Deb saved the day and took pictures for me.  I'll blog about that later, when I get the pictures to show you, it was an experience that cannot be told with just words.

Anyway, it's late, I'm sleepy, and I have rambunctious middle schoolers to teach tomorrow.

Stay warm,

Peter

p.s. Mom and Dad, you'll be excited to know that I haven't seen any Nanuqs, but I happen to be kind of bummed about that one.  If I get chased, I plan to hand him a Coca-cola, that seems to make them much happier and docile.  (Nanuq = Polar bear)

What did you do with your Cinco de Mayo?

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all of our readers! :)
We started out our day with a scrumptious breakfast from the Ilisagvik cafeteria and then had a little bit of down time before we went to the end of town to see the release of a rehabilitated Snowy Owl.  The owl had been found on the side of the road in Prudhoe Bay after having been hit by a car.  It was then been taken to Anchorage to be treated for eye and wrist injuries.  We were invited by Peter's cooperating teacher to watch it be released back into the wild at the freshwater lake in Barrow.  It all happened really quickly but was pretty amazing! 

The sign says "Paglagivsi! 'Welcome!' to the ancient village of Ukpiagvik 'The Place where we hunt Snowy Owls'." This is the original village of Barrow, Alaska. The Inupiaq name of Barrow is "Ukiagvik" which actually means "the place where we hunt Snowy Owls." A little ironic considering we are going to watch a Snowy Owl be let back out into the wild...(they dont hunt them anymore though).

The freshwater lake.  Hard to tell where the lake starts and the snow ends...

There she goes!

After the owl release we came back and played a game of "Scene It" and had lunch.  After lunch it was time to be productive for a little while but then of course we went and had a delicious Cinco de Mayo dinner of enchiladas and Mexican rice.  Then we played "Clue" and went outside to work out our SNOW FORT in a huge snow drift outside the door of the dorms!!! (probably one of the best snow forts that I have helped make!)  And of course, once we were finished we rewarded ourselves with hot chocolate, popcorn, and a movie! :) 

Playing cribbage in the fort! ;)

Overall, a great way to spend Cinco de Mayo in the Arctic!
Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday, May 5th 2012!
-K

Music to my ears

Last night we were lucky enough to be invited to the Eben Hopson Middle School band concert. The program consisted of one band for each grade within the school (6th, 7th, and 8th).

It was fun to see our students perform. I have 20 of the students from the 7th grade band in my classes. Some of them were dressed up for the performance while others where wearing their hooded sweatshirts and jeans. There were a lot of parents, grandparents, elders and teachers there to support the students. And their performances were extremely impressive considering the amount of experience they had. The sixth grade band only played as a whole once thirty minutes before the concert began! The students were so excited to see us and I got many comments today about my presence there yesterday. I'm glad that we could all go and support these students while we are here. It made the late night of homework last night worth it that just one of my students appreciated that I came to the performance.

It brought me back to my own middle school band concerts and all of the years I enjoyed performing in the band. I hope that these students stick with band through middle school and even high school. It's such a powerful and positive experience I hope all students get the chance to have. The sizes of the band dropped drastically from one grade to the next which left me fairly discouraged for members continuing through high school.


Unfortunately, we are unable to take pictures to show you today, but it was an amazing show.

I work out.......and play basketball

Loyal blog followers,

It is once again time for me to write to you all. So I shall write to you about how we work out here in Barrow.  Running outside is kind of out of the question for fear of being eaten by polar bears- seriously.  So, we head to the Ilisagvik College Gym;  which happens to be an old military garage with a loft.  However, it is fairly well outfitted.  There are 3 treadmills- one works great, one slowly works it's way into the wall as you run on it, and the third is always at a 5% grade (makes you tough real quick.)  The thermostat in the gym is set at 75 degrees and when the 2 huge garage heaters kick on they nearly drown out the music.  This makes for very sweaty running.  They also have 2 ellipticals, 2 stationary bikes, a punching bag, a total gym (some days I get to feel like Chuck Norris), Lifting machines, and free weights.  The three of us usually stick to the treadmills, I get on the dip machine every once in a while just to keep the strength up.

Did I mention the basketball court? Apparently Eskimo's like playing basketball.  So, my buddy Joe kept bugging me to play with him.  So last week, I did it.  I played basketball for the first time since 5th grade, right here in the Ilisagvik College Gym.  I had an illustrious 5th grade season- I took exactly 1 shot and missed.  0 points on the year.  Not surprisingly, I quit.  And I'm not sure I touched a basketball again until last week.

So, first Joe showed me the ropes, gave me some pointers on shooting and dribbling.  Then we played a 2 on 2 game, and all I learned went out the window.  However, I actually took more than 1 shot and I scored multiple times!! (seriously, Joe kept feeding me the rebounds to my bad shots, I had not choice but to keep shooting until I scored)  Then I quickly found out that if I wanted to win I should keep passing to Joe, he apparently never misses.  We laughed, had fun and played a few more games.  I'm a force to be reckoned with on defense...kind of.  Well, I'm better at defense than offense.  Either way I had a new cultural experience- who knew that I'd learn to shoot a basketball the right way from a Eskimo in Barrow, Alaska?

Stay Warm,

Peter

Inupiaq word of the day: Agviq (Aag- vik)- Bowhead whale

5 whales have been harvested by Barrow this year.  The lead (open water between shore-bound ice and polar ice) closed up yesterday, the crews are back in town for now.  As soon as the scouts give word that the lead has opened again, they'll go back out to attempt to fill the limit of 25 whales for the year.  What they don't fill in the spring they will harvest in the fall using more modern boats and equipment.

What is bedtime?

When I think back to when I was an 8th grader, my parents were still enforcing something that we liked to call "bed time."  That meant that after a certain time, you were supposed to go to bed.  No questions.  When you are young, your body needs the sleep!  The National Sleep Foundation states, "Research shows that adolescents require at least as much sleep as they did as children, generally 8 1/2 to 9 1/4 hours each night." 
What are the students in Barrow, Alaska getting?  Considering, there is now about 24 hour daylight and whaling has started, these kids aren't going to bed until 1, 2, 3 in the morning (?).  Thus, if they have to be at school by 8am, they will need to wake up by at least 7am, giving them no more than 6 hours each night.  No wonder they are falling asleep at their desks!  Today one of my students said, "Why isn't (so-in-so) here?  He texted me an hour ago and said he stayed up all night, so he should be here." 
Wait.  What?  He stayed up all night?  Well, that explains why he's NOT at school.  I am sure he was in bed sleeping.  Sleep schedules are very different than what I am used to at home.  I try to stick to my usual schedule, bedtime at 10:30pm, wake up at 6am.  Bedtime was something that was instilled in my mind as a young child because sleep is essential to performance during the day.  These kids don't have bedtimes.  They sleep when they are tired and stay awake when they are not.  Unfortunately, these asleep/awake times don't really coincide with the school schedule...It makes it very hard for them to get to school on time (or to school, in general).  I can't tell you how many times I have heard my 8th graders being told that as they begin their transition to high school they need to remember to, "go to school." With only 13 days left until 8th grade promotion (7 more days in the classroom), the attendance is declining drastically!  In my class of 16, I had 9 students today.  In my class of 14, there were 8 (this has been about the average this week). 

So, here is the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION, how do we get these kids to go to bed at night so they can come to school the next day????

Pictures for your viewing pleasures:  The statue inside the front door of Eben Hopson Middle School.  Mr. Eben Hopson, Sr. himself.  The first mayor of Barrow, Alaska. 

Plaque reads: "This school stands as a tribute to the courage and determination which led Eben Hopson, Sr. to fulfill his vision of a locally controlled education system.  Do not let anything stand in the way of the pursuit and fulfillment of your educational goals.  Education is the key to success."

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
-K

Spring Time

When I was headed off for my adventure in Alaska, I kept telling everyone that my seasons were just switched this year. Our winter was so mild in Minnesota that it felt like spring time, and here it feels just like our winter in Minnesota. But that is not the case.

My students are in shorts on a regular basis and enjoy how warm it is outside (note the high today was 16 degrees). The snow is starting to slowly disappear and every once and a while I hear snow birds when I'm outside. Everyone here knows and is excited that it's spring. Whaling season is here and school is almost done.

I know that it is storming at home right now, but I also know how warm it is there! I do miss the things the spring time has to offer in Minnesota, even the storms. I miss the weeks of sunshine, the smell of fresh cut grass, and trees!  Trees are probably the thing I'm missing the most as far as outside things are concerned.

One of our friends from the college proclaimed early one morning that he missed trees. "Sometimes, I just want to smell a tree."

That's my feeling of the day today, I just want to smell a tree. So all of you back home enjoy the Minnesota spring time and maybe even smell a tree...


Shout out to Evan Dunbar. He's not in Alaska... but he IS awesome.