School is in Session

My ginormous classroom is ready to go! 

Last week, as I began my third year of teaching, I realized that there are many things that occur out here in the bush that very rarely happen in the lower 48. For example, our first day of school began with myself and another teacher, Emily, chasing a student's dog around the building because it had snuck in the front door. As we were following it from room to room, our principal and another teacher were unfazed as they conversed about something and students continued on with their morning recess; once we finally got the dog back outside, Emily and I didn’t give it a second thought and we both went on with our days. In thinking about that moment, I can’t help but laugh at the thought of that happening at a school in New Jersey. A dog running into the building would cause a terrible commotion as students and teachers saw what was happening. Yet here, it was just another morning and not the first time this has happened to me in the past two years. Still, I wonder if this happening on the first morning of a new school year is a preview of the year ahead of us? 

I'll never get sick of my view! 

Though it started with a bit of an adrenaline rush, the rest of the week was a rather calm one. The nice thing about teaching special education out here is that I have the same students that I taught last year, so our first day was a reunion rather than a day spent getting to know each other. It was great to see my students back in the school, and I loved to hear about their summers spent at fish camp, swimming in the lake, and visiting with relatives in different villages. I showed them some pictures from my summer vacation, as I find this is such a great way to expose them to places and activities they might have never even heard of. Another perk of having the same students is that planning is a little bit easier because I know what they were doing well with in May, and what skills they still need to spend some time working on. Our first few days were spent getting back into our routines, adjusting to our new schedules, and diving back into classwork. While our first week was only three days long, the shift from summer mode to school mode can be tiring for everyone and we were all looking forward to Friday afternoon. 

An after school berry picking trip:)

To celebrate the completion of our first week, my co-workers and I gathered for a barbecue Friday night, and again I took into account that this is not something that would happen elsewhere. Sure, co-workers get together every now and then for birthdays, special occasions, or to just hang out. Here, however, we form friendships with those that we wouldn’t expect to and rely on staff get-togethers to provide us with the non-student social time that we, as adults, need. I must admit that as much as we try not to, we usually end up discussing how our weeks went, talking about our students, or sharing lesson ideas. With that said, it is still nice to be able to decompress from the week over a potluck of delicious foods. 

Friday night on Six Mile Lake 

In other news, Cross Country practice begins this week, and I am excited to once again be the coach and to see my runners give it their all. They are still in summer mode though, so I might need to bribe them into workouts with the promise of a pizza night at the end of the season (who doesn’t love pizza?!). Whether they admit it or not, we will all be looking forward to the jamboree in a few weeks where we will get to spend a few days with teachers and students from all over the district. Until then, we’re going to pick up speed with school work and see what adventures the year has in store for us. It is shaping up to be another busy year, but I wouldn’t want it any other way!