First week!

We survived our first week of school, an accomplishment even if it was only a half-week. I've met all 9 of my students, 2 of which are my own, 1 of which is moving away and will be a correspondence student. We'll need one more to get to 10 and keep our funding from the State! The correspondence student's younger sibling should be coming up to fill that spot for me.

Teaching such a small number of students is a bit overwhelming, given I have K-8 students and only 1 of me. P.E is interesting, too. It's amazing how the kids create entertaining games that still work well with very few kids and a big age gap. Alaskan Native students have surprised me at how well they interact with younger students. The students are far behind on reading and math, though, and it's going to be a tough year for teaching and learning how to be an administrator.

We went to a community cook-out today and met about half the village. It was nice to get out in the community and see people in their "home" setting; it really, again, showed the good and the not-so-good of the village. You can tell the pockets of the community that have problems dealing with addiction and those that don't, or those that fall somewhere in the middle. You always meet interesting people, though, people with more of a story, it seems, than a lot of people you meet in the "states." Quite a few people were surprised at how young we are, and most assume Alice is the teacher. She is getting to work at the school as the pre-school aide and sometimes the art teacher, so she's been busy getting things ready for the start of preschool on Monday!

The food was the most "junk" food we've had in a long time; our diet has been a lot of lentils, brown rice, soup, and water. The kids had a blast with that, and they got to see a bunch of new puppies, and no, we didn't take any of them home with us. Our dog has been tearing things up in her kennel (her pillows and stuffy) because she's cooped up there all day with everyone at the school. All of us spend most of our days up there.

We're exhausted and about to watch some of our new satellite television. I just watched a clip of A. Rodgers throwing a pretty nice (pre-season) touchdown pass...