It's Covid Red Zone in Kaktovik

 

 Do you see all the pretty tabs to mark which section will be referred to on which day during our 15 minute phone calls?

        Yes it's been confirmed, on Tuesday, September, 14, 2021 we were told there was a confirmed positive case of Covid of a non-resident or visitor in Kaktovik.  This means that we had 30 minutes to contact parents and get students ready to send home (fortunately I had a teacher's assistant help with the phone calls).  This also means that we will not be back in school for 12 days and are sending home packets for the students in addition to making 15 minute phone calls home at a scheduled time for each child.  Considering Point Hope has 140 positive cases and does not think they'll be back in school before the end of the semester, we are faring quite well.  However, while picking up mail we were told of another confirmed positive case, this time of a resident.  

That was a lot of sticky notes to mark, glad I only have 12 students in my K-1st class.

All the packets have been placed in backpacks with the student's names written on them in Sharpie.  We will pick them up on Monday when we drop new packets off.

ALL ABOARD!!!  PARTY TIME!!!  Now it's time for us to distribute backpacks to families on the PARTY BUS!!! (Note: that's really the name, party bus, I promise).  We even got some neat dance moves in when we weren't running from stray dogs nipping at our heels as we knocked on student's houses or petting the new litter of puppies sleeping in the Kunichuk (arctic entry) at one of our student's homes.  

 

 

Afterwards we made a pit stop at the whale feast as the community caught their 2nd whale on Tuesday right after students were sent home to quarantine (not to many seemed to quarantine as seen below at the photo of the 2nd whale being caught). 

 

 Do you think we should remind them to stand 6 feet apart on the whale?

 

Book Bins & Polar Bears in Kaktovik, Alaska

         So you may have been wondering about my life so far teaching in Kaktovik, Alaska.  Well on the 4th day of school I walked out of my house about to begin my hike to school when I was encountered by a young man wielding a large stick and ushering me back indoors saying there is a polar bear.  I couldn't see it but he said it had went around a dumpster and was within view.  I still couldn't see it but was a bit afraid to leave my safe zone to look.  Either way after about 10 minutes I asked if he thought it was safe to walk to school and he said "no, call for a ride."  Deciding not to become bear breakfast the first week of school,  I texted the principal and lingered in my arctic entry until he arrived.  He showed up after having picked up another teacher whom I told him was closer to the animal than me and was best to be warned, something I could not do as the teacher was having a problem obtaining working cell service.  I've managed to arrive safely to school every morning since then but I did wake up a few days ago to the sound of a loud gun shot near me that the polar bear patrol uses to scare meddling bears away who just can't resist the urge to fuddle around in our village.  

    We use Bridge's Math in Kaktovik and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!  Part of the lesson was to create a graph using student's favorite popsicle flavors.  Being as I only have 12 students on good days, I allowed them to choose two flavors.  We then posted them on a graph.  How fun!  

After school today I decided to make labels for my book bins to make organizing and finding books easier.  Obviously I am proud.

 

Very Proud.

Do I really have to show you every picture?

Okay just one more and then I promise we're done with book bin pictures (for now).

 

Ta Da!

To be continued...

 

Welcome to Kaktovik, Alaska

 

 

 

Welcome to my K-1 classroom in Kaktovik, Alaska in the North Slope Borough School District!  For those of you who are new to multi-graded classrooms (you obviously haven't haven't read my posts from Diomede, Alaska) K-1 means that I have both Kindergartners and 1st graders in the same classroom at the same time!  Amazing!  I actually love them and am super excited about starting school tomorrow with my 10 students, only 2 of whom are girls 😢.  With 8 boys it will be a wild year I'm sure.  I decorated this door by myself as I did all of my decorations and the flowers are 3-D origami I made with the help of youtube.

When you first walk in you're greeted by Clifford who is obscured in this picture and the hanging Hungry Caterpillar who likes to watch over our little readers during reading time.  I'll have to teach the kids how not to treat the Hungry Caterpillar like a 24/7 pinata.  

 

From a different view of our reading corner you can see Dr. Seuss decorating the walls.  All of the books are organized according to either author, theme, or according to the rainbow fashion.

 

Then we have our Bridges Math corner.  I used fabric to decorate the backdrop of the bulletin board and Pete the Cat boarders to go around it.  I've never taught Bridges before but I already love it and have even looked at buying it for the school I hope to open in Afghanistan.

 

 

Here is my penguin cabinet with a Word Family Town on the right.  Learning sure is fun in Ms. Mirabelle's K-1st classroom!

And here is a walking tour through my classroom. 😁
 

 

 

Journeying to Diomede, Alaska

 

So many of you are probably wondering how one gets to Diomede, Alaska.  Well first you must fly Alaska Air to Nome, Alaska and overnight in a hotel as the flight from Anchorage to Nome does not arrive early enough to be able to make it for the scheduled flight to Diomede.  Just a note, passenger flights are only once a week one Mondays and that's only if the weather is good.  My first year going out here we were stranded in Nome until Friday due to inclement weather with me wondering if I had enough cat food left.

I stayed at the lovely Nugget Inn.  It doesn't have the best reputation but they're pet friendly and allowed 3 cats so I can't complain.  Service was great and the welcoming desk was very helpful.  In fact on my stay departing my 2nd year in Diomede the inn keepers 6 year old daughter insisted on helping me with my kitties.

 

Gwendolyn prefers the solitude of the lone fridge but don't worry, she snuggled up come night time.

 Mushki has no complaints.  💭Ah...this is the life.💭  For those of you with pets you can also board your animals at the Nome Animal House as well.  I can't say Mushki would approve of such a choice as she prefers the comfort of kitty tested mattresses but as you wish.

Ready to depart.  Make sure you bring a warm jacket or coat even in the summer as it gets chilly up this way.  The principal was kind enough to lend me his.  

 Away we go!  The kitties are pack up tight...getting ready for lift off.

 

Did you know that Pathfinder encourages everyone to be prepared for an emergency landing?  Hmmm...I don't fancy overnighting here.

 This is it...almost there.

 

Nearing arrival.  As you can see Little Diomede is towards the right and Big Diomede is on the left where the Russian military base is located.

 

 After we departed the helicopter villagers mentioned a whale off in the distance.  I looked but didn't see it.  After 5 days of being delayed in Nome, Alaska where even the superintendent offered to treat us to a movie (only Rob and I weren't interested) we finally made it to Diomede and after this flight...NO FLIGHTS FOR 3+ WEEKS!!!  We made it out just in the knick of time.  Good thing I sent out 3 months of cat food earlier this summer.  What' the cause for the delay you ask?  Because something went wrong mechanically with the chopper and it took 3 weeks to get the part to Nome after all of the delays.  This meant that some of our students who were suppose to come the week after us (or considering we didn't arrive until Friday, 3 days later that following Monday) ended up missing 3 weeks of school.  Golly, like it isn't hard enough teaching pre-k through 5th grade in one class, now I have to catch up students in varying grade levels who missed an entire month of school. 

 

We're finally home.  Yes, it has been a loooonnng trip and the kitties are happy to be in their home for the next year even if it is a classroom.  The three musketeers are pooped.

My Crib in Diomede, Alaska

 

So you may be wondering what life is like for teaching living on Diomede, Alaska (note: I say "on" not "in" because Diomede is a rock that we live on).  Well here are pics of my crib.  Now this is my classroom I moved into for the start of my 2nd year teaching in Diomede now that the other teacher has left after 6 wonderful years on this marvelous rock.  Unlike my first classroom which was smaller, lacking in any sink or water access meaning I had to go downstairs to brush my teeth, and did not have any furniture, not even a couch, this classroom is the largest one in the school and has it's own private kitchen.💬Oh la la.  I rearranged the furniture to create a living room and dining room area.  And yes that is a closet in the background that while previously used to store supplies has now been cleaned out and fashioned with a hanging broom stick utilized as a clothing rod.

As you can see, Lorelei really digs this new couch alongside the leftover blanket and pillow left by the previous teacher.  💭This is a step up Mom from our last joint, Paws UP!💭

I use folding fans to divide my living space...well when Lorelei doesn't cause them to fall over by climbing on them...sigh.  I think she's just a little bored.  And for those of you wondering why I hang my clothes like this...this is before I found a way to transform my closet with a broomstick.  How else was I suppose to store my dresses?  In a drawer?  No way.

 When boredom strikes there is always the kitchen cabinet to rest in overlooking the ocean.  This is a huge improvement from the last year when I didn't even have a private kitchen and had to go outside of my living quarters, past the gym where all of the community members gathered nightly to play, just to get some water, brush my teeth, wash my face, or cook my food.

Despite being in the Arctic and it being below zero outdoors, the heat sensors in this part of the school stopped working years ago which often means it is around 90 degrees in our sleeping quarters even with the windows open.  Can you say pure misery?  This was a bit problematic when trying to fall asleep at night, often leaving me tossing and turning until 2 am, too hot to fall asleep.  I thought I was here to teach, not endure torture.  As you can see, Gwendolyn knows how to catch a breeze.

It's a two for one type of deal.  Evidently I need a new cat tree.

Here's Lorelei snoozing in my first classroom which conveniently connects to my new living quarters by an adjoining door.  Sometimes the previous tenant and I would let my cats meander in and out.  Those shelves really did come in handy without anywhere else to put my things.  I felt like I really moved up in life when it came for me to move into the larger classroom.  I don't think I could have done a 2nd year here in Diomede had I not been able to move up in classroom classroom size as my cats were going mad with boredom enough as it was.  

 

Lorelei is more than eager to help with laundry.  I would have to go down four flights of stairs and into another building connected to our side by a cold hallway in order to do my laundry.  Sometimes the laundry machine wouldn't work and the worst part was that it didn't use cold water, only boiling hot water.  I ruined a lot of clothes here this way as most clothing items aren't meant to endure boiling hot temperatures that scald the skin as I would find out when the drain wouldn't work and my clothes would be left soaking in a hot tub of water.

 

 

It's a Dalmatian Mobile!

 

        Upon my return to Tok, Alaska (on the road system but still a 7 hour drive from Anchorage) from my first year teaching in the Alaskan bush in Wales, Alaska, I decided I needed a car...so after some time searching on craigslist I found a cheap deal and bought a white Dodge mini-van which as you can see from this picture, I immediately began turning into my Dalmatian mobile.  It will be the perfect vehicle to tow my pooches around in, now all I need is a Dalmatian to add to my crew of puparoos. 

 And voila, the finished product...well minus the flat tire which is the result of endless winters in Alaska.

 

So how do I get around on a flat tire you may be asking?  I don't.  I don't need to get around because the only place to go in Tok is the grocery store which is a short bike ride away and anything else is too far  away from Tok anyways to be bothered by.

Or in other words I call on my friend Chris to car pool with.

 

And YES to answer the question I know you're thinking.  I do walk out of the grocery store to find tourists taking pictures of my car.

 

Now I just need a Dalmatian to go with it.

 

 

Oh the Places You'll Go! All the Stoves you will Paint!

 

        It's summertime in Tok, Alaska and that means painting at Tok Welding, where the renowned Chris Marshall builds the all-time Alaskan favorite Marshall stoves.  Here I am dressed in a painting outfit with my hair covered of course to avoid any stray flicks of paint that might fly that way.  He also builds burner units which are far larger and take a lot longer to paint, not to mention involve balancing on a step ladder at great heights while painting the top areas.  I've been trying to convince him to weld wings onto the wood stove and paint them in the pattern of bumble bees (I'm sure they'll become a hit) but he has yet to do so.  Maybe one day I'll design my own wood stove to go in my little pink cottage I will one day call home and visitors will dance with delight at my bumble bee wood stove, courtesy of Tok Welding.

Just taking a break from painting.

 

I think I may have gotten a smidge of paint on my dress.  Can you tell?
 

You Really Can See Russia From Your Window

 

    Whether it be from my bedroom window in the school where I live or on the helicopter pad waving to cruise ships that stop to honk at us, you never really can deny that you really can see Russia from your window or as the case of those men in the picture, from your boat seat.  Diomede, Alaska is too small for a runway and as of 2021 it has been about 6-7 years since the last plane flew to Diomede during the winter months.  This is because global warming has weakened the ice and it no longer gets thick enough for planes to land on.  What does this mean?  This means that daily flights are no longer existent and passenger flights only come once a week on Monday, weather permitting, while mail comes Wednesday.  It is not uncommon for those of us in the village to go 2-3 weeks without mail or passenger flights and sometimes we go as long as 6 weeks although that hasn't happened for at least a few years.  While this cruise ship only honked at us from afar, another came a few days later where the passengers actually disembarked and visited our school where the villagers shared Eskimo dancing with them.  As a treat many of my students were taken aboard the cruise ship to go swimming and enjoy some nice Scandinavian meals.

Farewell Diomede, Alaska!

 
   The day is Tuesday, May 2, 2021 and I am to depart Diomede, Alaska along with the two other teachers, there being only 3 of us out there.  The chopper had cancelled the day before due to inclement weather and likely would have done the same this day as well had it not been for a bit of nudging by our principal Mr. G.  Only one teacher is returning next year and having spent two years living and teaching on this rock only leaving once to journey home for the summer and then return, it was quite challenging.  For a full 10 months of school it was just the principal and myself out here, myself teaching pre-k through 5th and he teaching 6th-11th as there were no 12th graders.  I survived weeks worth of freezing temperatures in the school when the heat sporadically went out, 2.5 weeks of melting snow to flush toilets and bath in a tote with only sparingly, and the daily question of would our one water tower last until summer thaw in July when the artesian well would thaw and start to flow again. None of the villagers had running water in their homes.  Instead their days were occupied by hauling 5 gallons of water to their homes up broken board walks or ice steps, cutting their own ice to melt for water, and carrying their honey buckets down to empty on the ice.  The children were charming although teaching so many grade levels in one class was not without its own challenges.  I wonder if one day I will return to Diomede, Alaska and while only time will tell I wish them the best in the upcoming years and the brave teachers who venture out to spend a year living on a rock.  You all ROCK!

 

         During our last week of school the students were able to paint a "Hope" sign in the gym to symbolize our strive for suicide awareness and prevention in the community of Diomede and as part of a suicide prevention course I was taking.  (Note: I only feel permitted to show the student's faces because this picture was posted publicly on the bssd.org school website).  My best wishes for Diomede to continue their suicide prevention and outreach program in conjunction with Norton Sound Health.