Robotics practice

After two full days of inservice, rather than going home after the inservice was over, I stayed at school with my robotics team for practice. Avery is on the team and has been doing great. He's really interested in it and very self motivated. This year's robotics theme is transportation. As one of the robot missions, the robot has to carry around a crash test dummy with it throughout the entire duration of the robot competition. So, the kids decided to name the team the CRASH TEST WARRIORS (the schools mascot is the warrior). I thought it was a pretty good name and their t-shirts turned out really good. I'll post a picture of their shirts when they come in.There are actually 11 kids on the team, but because today was not a school day, only 4 of them showed up for practice today. The team this year has been great at accepting and listening to each others ideas. They have been great at team work and collaboration. And it's showing!
The robotics program has two main parts: the robot part and the project part. They have some really great ideas and I already think that the kids have a really realistic possibility of making it to state this year! Exciting. They are working on the robot stuff tonight, because the last few practices we have focused on the project. They are making some great progress tonight on the robot missions. Right now they are working programming a mission on the robot that has the potential to earn 80 points (out of a total of 400).
The also have worked hard on the project already. They have decided to do their project on snowmachines as the form of transportation and figuring out a way to prevent people from drinking and driving. They have already gone out and done an interview with an ER doctor and interviewed a snowmachine shop owner. They have also handed out around 500 surveys about snowmachine accidents. They have decided to do a Micheal Jackson parody to present their project.
It should be fun (and alot of hard work)! But I already think it will be worth it, these kids are learning and are excited about robotics. How awesome!

It's over...

Hell week...it's over.

It is officially November and hell week is officially over. Halloween carnival is over, which also means haunted house is...OVER. And my professional observation is...over. We went today to clean our old apartment, so our move is...over. I finally got my lesson plans turned in last week, but I wrote them for two weeks, so lesson planning (at least for on more week) is...over. I ended up getting pretty much everything done that needed done last week. I still have a pretty good list of stuff to do for this week, but we have two days of inservice today and tomorrow, so I dont have students for a couple of days and that gives me a little bit of time to get some other things done.

Here's my my hell week list...let's see what I got done...

we just moved (done)
my lesson plans were late (but done)
my formal observation was yesterday (done)
the sophomore class that does haunted house are slacking (it turned out pretty good, pics to come, but it got good reviews)
Avery keeps getting in trouble (he's still in trouble...dont know what to do about him)
I havent checked my mail for a week (did that Saturday)
Avery locked himself out of his new cell phone and I had to go get it fixed (done)
I have to make a dessert for the church supper club (done)
Avery has to make a dessert for the halloween carnival cake walk (done)
I havent been eating right or exercising lately (I'm back on track)
I have a stack of papers to grade (still needs done)
I have labs to set up for in my science classes (got a couple days to do this)
Mom is coming to visit and I still havent bought my ticket to meet her in Anchorage yet (still needs done...I'm hesitant)
Our PFD checks havent come yet (they came, but I have to go open a local bank account to cash them)
I have to pay rent and deposit for this new place (today during lunch)
and cant do that until i get my deposit back from the old place (during lunch)
but cant get that until I clean the old place (done)
laundry needs done (done)
the veggie box needs picked up tomorrow but I'll be doing haunted house (done)
Avery has a wrestling tournament tomorrow that I wont get to see (he placed first, but I didnt get to see it)
I dont have my halloween costume ready yet (i dressed like a hippie, sorry forgot to get a pic..Avery didnt dress up this year)

Having the haunted house is such a huge load off...now I can focus on my teaching and robotics again. And I'm thinking of joining a yoga class on Thursday night.

NaBloPoMo

It stands for National Blog Posting Month and November is it! I've thought about doing it every year for the last two years, since starting my blog, but just never had the ummph to do it. This year, I think I'll give it a shot. All you have to do to participate is post a new blog entry everyday for the entire month of November. I almost post everyday anyway, so why not take it a step further and just go for EVERYDAY! Last November I wrote 23 posts and the November before that I wrote 20 posts, so why not 30? It'll be easy....cake!

Many people participate in NaBloPoMo and they even give out prizes. I may even sign up to donate a prize...something Alaskan, of course. If you write a blog and are interested in joining, you can go to the NaBloPoMo website.

I think it'll be fun...and you can look forward to a new post EVERY SINGLE DAY! (you know you're excited :)

Hell week

This week is always my hell week every year because I am so busy with robotics and haunted house that I barely have time to breathe. Add on top of that, all of these things...

we just moved
my lesson plans were late
my formal observation was yesterday
the sophomore class that does haunted house are slacking
Avery keeps getting in trouble
I havent checked my mail for a week
Avery locked himself out of his new cell phone and I had to go get it fixed
I have to make a dessert for the church supper club
Avery has to make a dessert for the halloween carnival cake walk
I havent been eating right or exercising lately
I have a stack of papers to grade
I have labs to set up for in my science classes
Mom is coming to visit and I still havent bought my ticket to meet her in Anchorage yet
Our PFD checks havent come yet
I have to pay rent and deposit for this new place
and cant do that until i get my deposit back from the old place
but cant get that until I clean the old place
laundry needs done
the veggie box needs picked up tomorrow but I'll be doing haunted house
Avery has a wrestling tournament tomorrow that I wont get to see
I dont have my halloween costume ready yet

Add all that on and you get one stressed out, busy, tired, cranky person (me). I cant wait for my Saturday morning yoga! Hell week will be over soon...

Hell week will be over soon...
HELL WEEK WILL BE OVER SOON...

Saturday morning yoga will be here soon...
Saturday morning will be here soon...
I will sleep in Saturday morning...
I will wake up relaxed and rested on Saturday morning...




Hell week will be over soon!

A moving weekend

I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of the toilet gurgling and the water pump running. At some point in the middle of the night, someone had gone to the bathroom and the little handle had gotten stuck up. The toilet ran all night and completely drained our 500 gallon water tank. So, in a last act of crappy-apartment-dom, we were stuck in that awful place with ABSOLUTELY NO WATER.

I figured that was as good a time as any to move, considering it was Saturday and there was no way to get water, not to mention that I had already had my last delivery on Wednesday and had taken my name off the water bill. So, I went to see my new landlord and got the keys for the new place. Avery and I busted butt and got almost all of our stuff moved to the new place within 5 hours on Saturday. We moved pretty much everything except the kitchen. Then I had to go to dance class, a community concert, and a birthday party.

This morning, we slept in a little bit (9am for me, about 10:30 for Avery), skipped church, then went and moved the rest of our stuff. It took a few more loads to get the rest of the furniture from the living room and all of the kitchen. As of right now, we have everything moved and almost everything put away at the new place. All that's really left to do is to go back over to the old, crappy place and clean it so we can get our deposit back.

Needless to say...we had a BUSY weekend, but at least it is done. And we like the new place soooooooo much better. It is literally double the size of our other crappy place. It is two story, with the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and the living and kitchen downstairs. I'll take some pictures and write up a post about the new place soon.

Right now I'm at school because I havent written my lesson plans for next week and my formal observation is on Tuesday...YIKES! Gotta go get to work....

Oh...and by the way...don't let that picture above fool you, we have a full 4 inches or so of snow on the ground now. I took that picture a couple weeks ago.

4-wheelin'

Avery got a chance to go 4-wheelin' with his friends this weekend. He had a great time and came home with his shoes covered with mud. They got stuck in the mud and had to pull the 4-wheeler out with another 4-wheeler. I was happy to let him go when his buddies pulled up and both had their helmets on. Good choices...they're starting to come around more and more often.

Winter came yesterday

And it looks like it's here to stay....

Forecast for Kuskokwim Delta

Updated: 7:59 PM EDT on October 23, 2009
	Tonight Numerous snow showers. Patchy fog after midnight. Snow accumulation up to 2 inches. Lows around 30. Northwest wind 10 to 20 mph. Gusts to 30 mph along the coast.
	Saturday Numerous snow showers in the morning...then scattered snow showers in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs in the 30s. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
	Saturday Night Cloudy with scattered snow showers. Lows in the mid 20s to lower 30s. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
	Sunday Mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers. Patchy fog. Highs in the lower to mid 30s. Variable wind 10 mph. »
	Sunday Night Mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers. Patchy fog. Lows in the mid 20s to lower 30s. Variable wind to 10 mph.
	Monday Mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers. Highs in the mid 30s. »
	Monday Night and Tuesday Cloudy with a chance of snow. Lows 30 to 35. Highs in the mid 30s.
	Tuesday Night through Friday Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Lows 30 to 35. Highs in the mid 30s.

Steppin' into the age of technology!

Avery and I went out and got cell phones the other day. We have had a company here in Bethel that has provided cell phone service for about a year now, but the coverage has been sketchy. They have increased their service and their service area. So, Avery and I went for it. We are both busy people with tons of things to do all the time and we need to be able to get ahold of each other whenever we are out and about. I am probably going to cancel the house phone, so I'll try to get ahold of everybody soon so that I can give you all my new number.

SNOWindy

We finally got some snow today! It is coming down pretty steadily, but the wind is blowing like crazy. The wind is coming out of the North and is blowing at around 30mph. That brings our 22 degree temps down to around zero with windchill. The insane wind has been blowing for three days straight now and it really does make life just a bit harder. Everything harder to do when the wind is blowing like crazy. Yesterday and the day before the wind was whipping all of the Bethel sand around, so when you went out it was like getting sand blasted. Now at least it is blowing snow, rather than sand.
It is really unusual for it to be this late for snow. Last year we got snow on the 3rd and the year before that it was the 6th. I'm happy to have the snow, I just wish we didnt have 30mph wind to go with it. Just last week it was still 50 degrees out. I dont really miss that. I'm happy for the snow. I hope there's a nice layer laid down quickly so that we can go snowmachining soon.

Our snowmachine is getting fixed right now and it should be ready within a couple weeks. I cant wait to go snowmachining. The engine is getting bored today, so the shop kids will get it back next week and begin the rebuilding process. I hope it all goes well and that the engine goes back together just the way it should. By having the shop kids here at school do the work, I am saving about $500 and I think they will do a good job. Cross your fingers!

Flat Stanley Visits Bethel, Alaska

Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger!Our friend Alyssa sent us her Flat Stanley from Huron, Ohio. Her 1st grade class read the book Flat Stanley, then sent their Flat Stanleys out to visit their friends around the world. Avery and I got lucky enough to have Flat Stanley visit us in Bethel, Alaska. We took him out around town with us today. We had a really good time showing Flat Stanley around. Bethel is a city of about 6, 500 people in the middle of the remote Alaskan tundra. We are about 4000 miles away from Huron, Ohio so Flat Stanley really had to travel far to make it all the way here. Actually, we are closer to Rusia, Japan, and China than we are to Ohio! Wow!We started our day at church. Flat Stanley joined us for the church potluck lunch. Here he is having lunch with Avery and his friend Nate. Flat Stanley even tried some of the local native foods. I didnt think the Herring Egg Salad was very good, but Flat Stanley thought it was DELICIOUS! While Flat Stanley was here, he also enjoyed Moose Stew, Caribou Stoganoff, and lots of different kinds of Salmon. YUM!We stopped down by the river to show Flat Stanley the view. He was pretty impressed that we have the second largest river in Alaska flowing right through our town. It is the longest free flowing river in the United States. It is also the longest river entirely within one state in the U.S. It took a few tries to teach Flat Stanley how to pronounce Kuskokwim River, but eventually he got it down. (cus-c0-quim) Kuskokwim in Yupik is a loose translation of a Yup'ik word to English. It is a compound word meaning 'big slow moving thing'.

Flat Stanley thought that the painted dumpsters in Bethel were a really cool idea. He thought it was neat that the people of Bethel were so artistic and had found an interesting way to turn something ugly like a trash dumpster into something beautiful like a painting. Some of the dumpsters even send out important messages to the community, like this one that encourages kids to brush their teeth. Bethel is the home of the biggest mid-distance dog sled race, the K300. The race starts in Bethel, goes up the Kuskokwim River to Aniak before the mushers turn around and come back to Bethel, where the race also ends. It is one of the qualifying races for the Iditarod. We get alot of big name dog mushers in town in January to run the race. We also have quite a few local dog teams and Flat Stanley got a chance to go visit some of the dogs.
Next, we visited the library and culture center where Flat Stanley learned a little bit about the native Yup'ik people who live in this area of Alaska. He found out that they have been living here for over 10,000 years and that they even speak a different language, where different clothes, and even eat different kinds of food than other people in the United States. He also learned that there are many people who live in small villages all around Bethel that come here when they need something. There are about 50 villages for miles and miles that use Bethel as a place to go shopping or go to the doctor.
Flat Stanley thought it was really cool and kind of scary how the houses are all built up so high off the ground on stilts. We explained to him that houses can't be built on the ground here because of the permafrost. He asked, "What's permafrost?" We told him that this was how the ground is frozen all the time because it is so cold here. That was when Flat Stanley figured out that he had forgotten his coat in Ohio and it was pretty cold outside. It's winter in Alaska already! Even though we don't have any snow yet, it was only 25 degrees today...that's below freezing! Brrrrrrrr.
We were really hoping that we could take Flat Stanley on a snowmachine ride, but there isn't any snow yet. We told him that during the winter when there's alot of snow, we can ride our snowmachine over to the other villages and visit our friends. Sometimes we just go out and ride the snowmachine for fun too, but we always wear our helmets. We told him that next time he comes for a visit we would have to find him a helmet that fits him so that he can be safe while he rides the snowmachine.Some streets even have snowmachine crossing signs because there are so many people that ride there snowmachines everywhere during the winter. Many people in Bethel don't even own cars because they ride their 4 wheelers in the summer and their snowmobiles in the winter. Flat Stanley also thought it was different that people here have to get water delivered to their house in big trucks instead of just having pipes to bring the water to your house. And all the roads were made of dirt instead of concrete!
We had fun with Flat Stanley. We hope he will come back and see us again! We're taking him to the airport in the morning so that he can get on an airplane and go back to Ohio. Flat Stanley was really surprised when we told him that there arent any roads that lead out of town, so you can't drive home. The only way to get into or out of Bethel is to take an airplane! Thanks for sending him to us, Alyssa! We miss you!