Inservice in Unalakleet

Unalakleet Inservice: oh what a week!!!
We all (15 schools) flew into UNK on Monday. Monday afternoon we have a welcome speech and a keynote speaker. Then sessions start on Tuesday. I elected to take the Solutions Team, which is related to our reading program. It was a two day session and it was wonderful! Thursday I co-presented a session with another SPEDDER, Linda.
It's a great week but tell you what, it really gets tiring!

We have to catch those zzz's whenever we can. Here is a picture of Patty sleeping on the floor in the DO SPED office. Most of the teachers spend the night on the floor at the school, however, thankfully Patty and I are friends with Rebecca and John. Which means that we are able to stay at the condo with them!
One of the interesting things that happened the first day, or should I say night... it snowed... a lot! It is beautiful but yikes... it lasts forever!

It was a good week with some great learning, and of course, socializing but great to be heading home. We got back about 6ish I think. Joe called a couple hours later to say that he was in Nome with Ryan. They were waiting to be medivated out to Anchorage. Ryan was having appendix issues. He called Friday morning to say that they had done the surgery about 2 in the morning and Ryan seemed to be doing well. Of course it will be our luck that I will be flying out Monday afternoon about the time they will be flying back in. (I am going to ANC for the Alternate Assessment Conference) Looking forward to doing a bit of shopping of course!!! Hope everyone else has had a good week!

Way to go Panthers!!! Awesome seasons to the basketball and football teams - Keep it up!!!

Trying to beat the deadline...

Ok, you know how deadlines work, tons of paperwork and it HAS to be turned in by a certain date. All of our special ed paperwork had to be turned in by October 13th. I was running around trying to get all of my stuff done. I had managed to get it done, was making copies, and faxing it all to the District Office. The "problem" came up when I was making my copies. The copier managed to eat my papers. Mind you, these papers HAD to be in the office by the end of the day. The photo here was taken as I was digging my papers out. I did manage to get them out and sent them by the time the day was over!
The weekend was pretty quick and then off to our district inservice in Unalakleet.
More on that in the next segment!

Sports!!!!!!

These are some pictures of the kids at Elementary basketball practice. We have skills and drills practice on Mondays and games on Thursday and Saturdays. The kids are a blast and they are really picking up on the game. We are having a good time with them. We have some of the older kids coming to help.

I hear Michigan is getting all the Alaska weather. It's been pretty nice here lately. It's been in the 40's, which is a bit chilly, but no snow yet. We did get some one morning (9-29) but that was gone by daylight. This past weekend was pretty windy but it's fairly nice out there today. Our winters last long enough as it is... no use rushing it!!!

I hear the Panthers are all doing fairly well this year! Great!!! Keep it up.... go Panthers! Right now we are in volleyball and wrestling season. Both of these teams are co-ed and it's fun to watch them, but I really miss football!

Pictures from Unalakleet

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Unalakleet with the SPED gang. It was fun meeting the new teachers and of course our devoted leader taught us all so much!

Introducing Alan...

Meet our buddy Sam

Mike will not be working Sunday, according to his magic 8 ball!

Melunie... one of the most fantastic secretaries ever!

Here's Linda

Check out these sale prices!

Let me start by saying, I am very grateful we have a grocery store here. My purpose in this post is NOT to complain, simply to inform...

Classic roast Folgers coffee - 52 oz. $9.98

Kraft salad dressing - 2/$7.00

Coke Products - 12 pk $8.88 (It is usually Coke one week and Pepsi the next.)

10 pounds of flour (not four) $8.98 and Crisco oil.- 48 oz. for $5.28
Thankfully we are able to buy just about anything we would ever need at our AC.
(By the way, when I was home this summer I did mention to Sandy that I would never complain about any of the prices at the Co-op!)

Thank goodness for great parapros!!!

Today we had class meetings with all of our students. I am the advisor for the eighth grade... and oh, what a group they are!!! During our meeting we were scheduled to go over our new recording system, DART. Once I finally got this rowdy group settled down, I began to go over the essentials of what we were going to do. That part went well... however, once we were supposed to have the kids log into their computers and begin the online process with them.... the system will not log any of them in! UGH!!! So here I am... with 13 of the wildest bunch... and nothing to do... for an hour!!! Pauline, my shining star, decided it would be a great idea to tell them some old St. Michael ghost stories. The kids love hearing these stories! Thank God for Pauline, a great parapro, and even better friend! Of course it's now almost time for the bell to ring... and the internet is back up and running. Happy weekend!

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Ok, October 1st came without a flake in the sky. I've heard the same comment over and over, "It's so nice for this time of year." Oh, now don't get me wrong, it is nice out... but it is October... it should be nice! It's been in the 40-50's daily, although more 40's than 50's as of late.
Tuesday after school Patty came rushing into my room saying, "It's minus tide... we need to go." We jumped on the Hondas and escaped. Dressed in our rubber boots, we headed down to the south beach. Minus tide is when the tide goes way out... and I mean WAY out. We had a good 10-20 feet of "extra" beach. We did some digging around and exploring. Well I explored... Patty dug for clams... Needless to say, we didn't have clams for dinner.
It's been a busy week here in SMK. We are giving the HSGQE this week. For all you Michiganders... it is similar to the MEAP test. The biggest difference is that our students have to receive proficient marks in all areas in order to graduate. It is given twice a year. In the fall the seniors and juniors take it. We add the sophomores in the spring. I am administering it to the SPED kids. The kids have all day, literally, to take the test. Once it has been given to them, they have to finish the test on that given day. We had one student that was here until 6:30 Tuesday night taking the reading portion. I give him credit for sticking with it. I know how difficult it is to sit here all day... can't imagine taking a test for that period of time.
Tomorrow Patty and I take off for Unalakleet. We have a SPED cadre there Saturday and Sunday. Bonding time with our fellow SPED folks. Looking forward to seeing everyone and chatting over pizza. Cynthany is dog sitting for us this weekend. Hope she bonds with Paco very well... maybe she'll adopt him! (just kidding)

Ryan playing tug-o-war with Tiqa. The first few times Ryan was around... Tiqa didn't know what to think. Seems like she has warmed up to him a bit.
Well... Happy weekend to everyone...
Hey Panthers... Keep up the great work! Love hearing about all the games!