No pics today!

Well, blogger is apparently having problems with uploading photos because I tried to upload a photo for my blog today and it said that it was unable to do so, but that blogger was aware of the problem and trying to fix it. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some photos again soon. Until then, I thought I'd just give you an update on things.

Things are really good for me at school. My students are really great. They are very attentive(most of the time) and just generally better behaved and more focused on their school work. The staff here is great too(most of them) and our administration is very supportive and effective. I learned yesterday that we are NOT a title I school, which I was surprised to hear. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but i'll find out eventually. I'm really busy...too busy...that's really my only gripe about school, but that's how it always is. I take on too much...it's my own fault. I am coaching the 8th grade robotics team. It has been a great experience so far. They use legos to build robots and have missions that they must accomplish using their robots. I am quite impressed with the program. At first I thought it was going to be cheesy, but it is actually pretty cool. Each year, they have a theme. This year the them is alternative energy. I have a link on the right side of the blog if you'd like to learn more. My team consists of 8 students. they went to the state competition in anchorage last year as 7th graders, so i am anticipating that we will be going again this year. they decided they wanted to fund raise to cover the cost of t-shirts for the team, so this weekend we are running the concession stand during the wrestling tournament and next weekend we are running two games at the halloween carnival. robotics is definitely keeping me busy. I am also one of the advisors for the 10th grade class. the 10th graders are in charge of the haunted house at the carnival each year, so i'm helping with that too. we have a pretty good haunted house laid out, but we havent started putting it together yet. the carnival is on the 26th, so there's not much time. I really wish i had all of my halloween decorations. I love halloween and it's a really big deal here so that's cool. I've heard that this carnival is kind of THE event of the season, so that's cool. I'm excited about helping with the haunted house, you all know how much I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

Avery will be wrestling in his first tournament this weekend in Bethel. Next weekend he will fly out to a village called Nunapichuk for their next tourny. Thanks Edna...for donating to Avery's push up a thon. He did 45 push ups in 1 minute! Wrestling is going well for Avery, but I'm sorry to say that he has been having some troubles at school lately. He has been getting in trouble at school. Nothing major...just little things, but still more than he has in the past. I'm not exactly sure what the deal is...a combination of a new place, new friends, and puberty, I think. He is still at the elementary school because his school is a 3-6 building. They do something called the "phase system" here. There are no grades. students take tests after learning something to prove that they are proficient in that subject before they can move on to something else. This lets students progress at their own level. It really is a great system and a great idea, but coming from a world of grades, its hard for us. I have for so long relied on grades as an indication of how he is doing in school, but there are no grades so it's hard for me to know how he is doing. He did tell me last night at dinner that he just passed several phase tests, so I guess that means he is doing well. I am hoping to meet with his teacher soon to find out.

Taboo has a cold in his eyes...it's kind of like when humans get pink eye. He's pretty miserable, but other than that he's doing pretty good.

It is cold here. It has been below freezing for well over a week now. The snow we got this weekend is still on the ground with no sign of going anywhere. the sun has been shining during the day, but it does not warm things up really. we are down to about 10 hours of daylight. we lose over 5 minutes of daylight each day. it is still dark in the morning at 8:00 when i come to school. It gets light at about 9am and dark again at about 7pm. pretty soon it will be dark when we go to school and when we come home. come november, december and january, it will only be light for a few hours while we are at school and that is it.

Dont forget to write me comments...many of you are getting better at it. I love hearing from you, it gives me something to look forward to. And if you do write a comment, be sure to check back at that comments section because i usually respond to your comment with another comment. I miss everybody! I everyone is well. love and hugs...and besos!