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?