The year is winding down. Students and teachers alike checked out last week - mentally, it is a very difficult time of year. The sun is out for about 21-22 hours a day, it's warm, we all want to be outside, and school is became less of a priority for everyone. Frankly, I'd rather be camping. Fortunately, tomorrow is the official last day of school. The rest of the week will be a work week for me. I'm looking forward to it, collaborating with other teachers, cleaning my classroom, kind of planning for next year, etc.
The past few weeks have been, mildly putting it, busy, as I mentioned before. On Saturday May 3 the Junior class hosted prom. I was a chaperone from 11-12. It was beautiful. :) They did a fantastic job of decorating, everyone looked great, and even I got a little dressed up for the occassion. Adrianna curled my hair, I put make-up on... no dress. It was quite an ordeal - dress or no dress? Whatever. I'm not a dress person. But it was a good time.
Adrianna and I dressed up for prom. This is the first prom I've ever been to, since I didn't go to either of my high school proms. I'm totally okay with that.
(In internet land, there is a picture of Carrie and I - she made me wait after my chaperone hour was done just to have it taken together. :) It was very cute, and I was happy to wait - especially since there was yummy Carrie-made cake involved - I don't really like the picture of me, so I'm not posting it.)
The following week was the acme of all that the senior class had been working for, going crazy for, waiting for, the big event of the year: graduation! Twelve seniors graduated from Frank A. Degnan High School this year. Getting the caps and gowns turned out to be a bit of drama, but we got what we needed, and the ceremony was beautiful. In the midst of planning and trying to figure out this position of senior class advisor, I didn't realize that I was required to give a small speech at graduation, in front of about 300 people. This is officially the biggest crowd I've ever spoken in front of, I'm pretty sure. I wrote a speech at the last minute, and I'm told it went pretty well. All I had to do was explain the financial aid that each student received. I think I was in a daze the entire time. Oddly, I was less nervous at the actual ceremony than I was during the dress rehearsal. Anyway, they are fantastic kids, and I am so happy for all of them! They did a great job planning and decorating, everything ran smoothly, and they looked awesome. I am lucky to have had this chance to work so closely with them this year, and I will miss them!
This is the senior graduating class - they are great, and they definitely earned it!
Side Note: There's a guy in the village, Gary, who got a bear a few weeks ago. I went over with Mark to see his collection. Bear, muscox, caribou - all kinds of stuff. Pretty cool. :)
Gary's Bear - pretty big animal. It's better to get them in the spring because there is more actual fur on the hide, whereas by the summer and fall they have itched and rubbed a lot of fur off. Here, hunting for bears is not considered poaching at all. I mentioned to a woman that someone had got a bear, and the first thing she said was, "Good; one less."
Muscox fur. Very hairy animals.
Since graduationg, things began to lull - just finishing up, which is still kind of a big deal, and busy in a totally different way. Also kind of depressing in some ways, despite the end-of-the-year anticipation... but then...
Friday morning was pretty freakin' sweet. Two people came in from Nome to do a Cold Water Survival class for the middle school kids, and they stayed to do a session with a group of high school students. Since I organized the list of students interested and eligible, I got to be the lucky chaperone. It was so much fun! I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed it. We did activities in the gym, learned some valuable lessons about surviving in emergency situations, and then put on some survival suits, the kind you wear in extremely cold water. Also, in case you were wondering, in the Seven Steps of Survival, water is not first. It goes:
1. Recognition: Recognize your situation and evaluate your danger. What's the problem, and how should we solve it?
Students practice tossing the rescue line and pulling in drowning victims.
2. Inventory: Know what you have, and put everything to use.
A compact life jacket that airs up when activated by water - pretty handy if you ever pass out in a sinking boat...
3. Signals: The magic number is three. Do what you need to do to get someone's attention if you can.
In a survival suit, in the chain position, ready to swim to shore together from the dangers of the gym floor.
4. Shelter: Protect yourself from the weather and natural conditions.
If ever someone is hypothermic, make them into a hypothermia burrito!
5. Water: You can only survive about a day without water.
We got to race for the fastest time of putting on a survival suit. In reality, you only have about 60 seconds or less to put one of these on if you need to in an emergency situation. The best time from our group: 27 seconds. That was not me.
6. Food: Supposedly, you can survive about 3 or 4 days without food.
7. Play: If you are in a long-term situation, you will need to find ways to entertain yourself for your emotional and mental well-being.
A student and I practice our chain position. Aren't we cute in our little gumby suits? :)
The students were great, as always, and we all had a good time. Heidi and Jason, the two people who facilitated the class, were really cool. Heidi does lots of classes like this through UAF, so hopefully this is a window for more opportunities in the future! I may not be the science teacher, but I don't mind learning sweet stuff in the field. :)
Saturday was productive, but relaxing, although at the end of the day I had a hard time remembering anything that I had really accomplished. I cleaned my kitchen, only to mess it up again with bread making. Adrianna is working on becoming a domestic goddess in the kitchen, so I am teaching her the ways of bread making. Well, really, we only made cinnamon bread, which happens to be the yummiest bread I had ever made. Although this time around, it didn't turn out as well as before. It was still pretty tasty, but not the best. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm pretty much almost completely done with most of my teaching duties for this year, which is kind of a sweet feeling, though I know there is much more that I have to do that I don't even realize. That's the nature of a first year. The whole, "Wait, I have to do that, too? What does that mean?" It happens regularly. I'm glad it's almost summer time.
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