So this past week was my first full week of school in Brevig. Pretty insane to think about! I've been gone from home for about 2 weeks now, and I gotta say, I'm a little homesick. It's great to call home and skype, but it will never compare to being with people (which is what I thrive off of). The best thing about Brevig is definitely the composition of faculty that we have. I'm able to hang out with a lot of people, sometimes together and sometimes separately, which is great news for someone who needs quality time. One other thing that I've noticed in my first week, is the warmth from the community as well. During the school day, things can get very challenging to handle. Some behavioral issues can be very difficult to deal with, and it's hard on all of us sometimes. At the same time, outside of the building everyone is very nice and friendly, even the kids that may have been difficult hours earlier, are totally different. They love to talk and come over the house to visit, and usually it's kind of hard to get them to leave after a while (which, if I'm going to have a problem, it might as well be too many visitors). It's quite strange to go from one extreme to another. For me, I've really had to adapt to this 'flip flop' mentality, where you wipe the record clean at the end of every school day. Oddly enough it's kinda giving me a different outlook on the grace and mercy we find in Christ, which even surprised me when I realized it. Ponder that for a bit.
So my first week of school, was a continuation of getting into the groove of our schedules, learning more names, and getting through another week. Last week was a lot of time trying to brainstorm new things to do in order to deal with some behavior issues that we come across during the day. Half of the time, it's a true lack of applicability of content for some students; the other problems are more domestic. In New York I had somewhat of a difficult time at the end of my student teaching with a few kids that didn't see a point in education. Let's just say if I wasn't convinced they had a right to feel that way then, I'm even more so now. Yet another problem with the Common Core standards, is the very name. Who's opinion of 'common'? What groups have these assessments and standards been normed on? I guarantee it wasn't the Native Inupiaq populations of Northern Alaska. It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that some students are never going to need to know half of the common core's standards, and they know it. Many students plan on taking up trades, sustenance based living or crafts and utensils to sell. And those businesses are all good, and many of these kids will be successful, just as their parents have been. College is the dream of a few students. But instead of trudging through these standards, frustration can set in. One benefit I'm gaining from this experience is finding new ways to explain applicability and relevance in a lot of our content, which stands somewhat of a chance here, and should be most effective back home in NY.
During the week we had another chance to go out 4-wheeling, this time towards the neighboring village of Teller. What was truly exciting was that we drove over a lot of frozen lakes and ponds, on ice. Talk about an experience. We learned earlier that 18 inches of ice can hold a diesel truck, and 4-wheelers and snow machines travel across the ocean bay between the villages all of the time, so fresh water lakes and ponds have even thicker ice. It was a fun ride, but very cold because I forgot my gater and bibs. The entire ride I recalled the conversations I've had with all of my nursing major friends about frostbite and people losing the tips of their noses to the cold, and I was pretty upset with myself. We reached our destination and shut off the 4-wheelers to just sit and take in the beauty of the area. Tundra might be dry and open and desolate, but there's a beauty to it that isn't common anywhere in New York. We ran into trouble when one of the 4-wheelers wouldn't start anymore (the one I was riding), and so we had to tow it with the second one all the way back to the village. Another interesting and wonderful experience.
This past week we also had the school board, superintendent, and many of the district office personnel (including Ted and Jay) come to inspect the school and then hold a meeting in the gym. It was really interesting to see the proceedings of the meeting and even the politics throughout. There were a handful of proposals and comments made by board members and community members alike. The meeting lasted for a good 4-5 hours until 10:00 or so. The weather that night was so bad that they all had to stay at the school because the planes wouldn't land to take them back to Unalakleet, which made for an interesting night and following day. I also got to teach portions of one of the classes that I've been observing for a while, helping them learn their vocabulary words that they'd be using in their readings and quizzed on. I've learned that baby steps are key here, and that you can never take enough time on things. I invented a form of Battleship to play as a review game for the kids, and had very high hopes for it. It flopped, horribly. Even still, it was fun for me and I plan to use it in the future.
After school on Friday, we got together with some of the faculty and got to voice our questions and comments and concerns to our peers, and give/get some feedback on our thoughts thus far and our experience. It was great to get to ask a lot of different questions and hear some reflections from the people I've been working with so far. It's all to be expected as a brand new face and person to the school. Slowly, I'll learn how to work my way through the day and adapt to the different styles of the school. Later on Friday night was my first sporting event, a home girls basketball game against Shishmaref. I got to work concessions for the game, which involved cold drinks and candy for a large portion of the village. We sold a total of $418. Basketball is huge in each of these villages, and it's a deep seated part of the culture and social life here. It's second to no other sport of activity. We lost both games that were played Friday and Saturday, but it was still a lively and fun weekend for everyone.
This week, I've had more muskox, and also tried wild salmon and moose as well. The muskox tastes exactly like beef does, possibly a little bit tougher. I guess I was expecting more of a game taste like venison. Most Eskimos tend to not eat it, but will eat beef, and that leaves me confused. Maybe there's a larger contrast that I'm just not seeing. Now, I'm not a seafood person to begin with, and usually stop at Fish and Chips. But the Salmon was good and very tasty without been too overpowering. Later in the week, we had a dinner of Moose back straps, potatoes and onions with minced garlic, with broccoli that was cooked in olive oil and more garlic. It was fantastic. Moose also doesn't taste very gamey, which makes me think that venison might be the odd one out. It had it's own flavor, but also not unlike beef. It was good enough to take some for lunch today!
I miss everyone a ton, so keep in touch! I'm potentially free to skype or facetime depending on the day. Email works too, hardysean1@gmail.com.
If you're sending a package, please let me know the day you ship it, so I can learn how long it takes to get here. It would be bad if packages were arriving here in April when I'm not here!!
Sean
During the week we had another chance to go out 4-wheeling, this time towards the neighboring village of Teller. What was truly exciting was that we drove over a lot of frozen lakes and ponds, on ice. Talk about an experience. We learned earlier that 18 inches of ice can hold a diesel truck, and 4-wheelers and snow machines travel across the ocean bay between the villages all of the time, so fresh water lakes and ponds have even thicker ice. It was a fun ride, but very cold because I forgot my gater and bibs. The entire ride I recalled the conversations I've had with all of my nursing major friends about frostbite and people losing the tips of their noses to the cold, and I was pretty upset with myself. We reached our destination and shut off the 4-wheelers to just sit and take in the beauty of the area. Tundra might be dry and open and desolate, but there's a beauty to it that isn't common anywhere in New York. We ran into trouble when one of the 4-wheelers wouldn't start anymore (the one I was riding), and so we had to tow it with the second one all the way back to the village. Another interesting and wonderful experience.
This past week we also had the school board, superintendent, and many of the district office personnel (including Ted and Jay) come to inspect the school and then hold a meeting in the gym. It was really interesting to see the proceedings of the meeting and even the politics throughout. There were a handful of proposals and comments made by board members and community members alike. The meeting lasted for a good 4-5 hours until 10:00 or so. The weather that night was so bad that they all had to stay at the school because the planes wouldn't land to take them back to Unalakleet, which made for an interesting night and following day. I also got to teach portions of one of the classes that I've been observing for a while, helping them learn their vocabulary words that they'd be using in their readings and quizzed on. I've learned that baby steps are key here, and that you can never take enough time on things. I invented a form of Battleship to play as a review game for the kids, and had very high hopes for it. It flopped, horribly. Even still, it was fun for me and I plan to use it in the future.
After school on Friday, we got together with some of the faculty and got to voice our questions and comments and concerns to our peers, and give/get some feedback on our thoughts thus far and our experience. It was great to get to ask a lot of different questions and hear some reflections from the people I've been working with so far. It's all to be expected as a brand new face and person to the school. Slowly, I'll learn how to work my way through the day and adapt to the different styles of the school. Later on Friday night was my first sporting event, a home girls basketball game against Shishmaref. I got to work concessions for the game, which involved cold drinks and candy for a large portion of the village. We sold a total of $418. Basketball is huge in each of these villages, and it's a deep seated part of the culture and social life here. It's second to no other sport of activity. We lost both games that were played Friday and Saturday, but it was still a lively and fun weekend for everyone.
This week, I've had more muskox, and also tried wild salmon and moose as well. The muskox tastes exactly like beef does, possibly a little bit tougher. I guess I was expecting more of a game taste like venison. Most Eskimos tend to not eat it, but will eat beef, and that leaves me confused. Maybe there's a larger contrast that I'm just not seeing. Now, I'm not a seafood person to begin with, and usually stop at Fish and Chips. But the Salmon was good and very tasty without been too overpowering. Later in the week, we had a dinner of Moose back straps, potatoes and onions with minced garlic, with broccoli that was cooked in olive oil and more garlic. It was fantastic. Moose also doesn't taste very gamey, which makes me think that venison might be the odd one out. It had it's own flavor, but also not unlike beef. It was good enough to take some for lunch today!
I miss everyone a ton, so keep in touch! I'm potentially free to skype or facetime depending on the day. Email works too, hardysean1@gmail.com.
If you're sending a package, please let me know the day you ship it, so I can learn how long it takes to get here. It would be bad if packages were arriving here in April when I'm not here!!
Sean
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