This is Why Kitties Shouldn't be Allowed to Sew!

 

     This video is from over 4 years ago when I first got Gwennie Poohbear.  I was staying in my friend's RV temporarily and decided to sew a dress of which Gwendolyn immediately wanted to assist.  Obviously she was not much help.

Figlet's Rescue (or Fig for short)

 

 

        Sorry for this delayed post but I was reviewing past posts and realized I never added the rescue of Figlet to my blog, Fig for short.  So here it is nearly 1.5 years late but better late than never.  So one cold frigid day in January 2021 during a red zone when student's weren't in school I was standing by the front door waiting for the principal to bring in the mail.  I heard whimpering so opened the door and felt the cold inward rush of the winter air but couldn't find where it was coming from.  I closed the door allowing it to warm up some only to hear it again.  So I reopened the door and walked outside in my ballet flats only to see a high school student holding a tied up dog about to walk onto the frozen sea ice.  I knew what this meant.  All too often in Diomede, Alaska they dispose of unwanted dogs once they reach the age of 1 or 2 years of age by shooting them on the ice.  Down came the students father with a rifle and away I flew over the snow to intervene.  Of course at that exact moment the principal returns with the mail and I am standing there with a dog and rope.  You are only allowed 3 pets via BSSD's former pet policy and being I already had 3 cats the principal said I could only keep her if I had a rescue to take her on the next flight.  So I called a friend in Nome who agreed to help followed by Best Friends Animal Rescue in Anchorage, AK who immediately agreed to take her.  And thus began Figlet's Youtube stardom when I sent them videos for future adopters.  

            Of course let me tell you it's not quite easy hauling a metal indoor dog crate over 20+ foot snow drifts to get to the arriving chopper.  Mabel, the new Filipino teacher helped me but neither of use could carry it up there (we couldn't get a plastic one delivered in time) and then out comes Bobby, an Inupiaq man who trots effortlessly over the snow we were slipping on, picked up the crate w/ one hand that neither of us could carry and dropped it over the snow drift for us near the tarmac.  These Eskimos sure have a better resiliency than we do for doing things like this.  So I slid back down to get Fig who at this point had spent a few nights in my kitchen with Gwendolyn trying to get through the door.  I asked a nice worker who was leaving Diomede from his 2 week shift to escort her, I even told him I'd pay him but he wouldn't accept money and away Fig went to Nome to her new home.  If you're wondering about her pink attire, well she was freezing and I had to protect her from the cold somehow so I fashioned a coat of mine into a dog coat for her, now if only I could have made her booties.

        If you're wondering how Fig got her name it's because they said they were going to shoot her because she wouldn't eat when in reality, they just didn't have dog food to feed her and she didn't want to eat slop.  So I took her inside and saw her eyeing my figs which she was immediately fond of in addition to oatmeal and butter and later cat food.  I offered her expired dog food the last teacher left which she also found agreeable but she preferred cat food instead.  Better than nothing I suppose.

P.S.  If the principal hadn't let me rescue her I would have quit and left with her, HA!  And Figlet was adopted by a wonderful family in Anchorage!  :)  Thanks Best Friends Animal Rescue for being willing to take her in a pinch.

An Eskimo Sledding Field Trip!

 

        Monday, May 16, 2022 was field trip day for ECE and K-1.  Originally we were going to go to Drum Island but after taking into account the melting snow, the children's ages and the distance we instead decided to go to the beach.  We didn't have enough adults to both drive snow machines and have one ride on the back standing up mushing style so we had to take them in groups.  Here I am riding in the sled on the way back to pick up more kiddos.  Of course one ECE child ended up falling off (a common occurrence even amongst the older children) but she was picked up by another teacher pulling the drift wood.  

                                                          The little one says, "Can I go?"

                                                                 Oodles of drift wood.

        While at the beach children dug in the snow with sand digging supplies, made s'mores and ate roasted hot dogs over the driftwood fire.  We had the school bus take the ECE students home so we would only have to take one trip via sled back to the school.  What a fun adventure.   I got a taste of what their Inupiaq ancestors felt traveling around with caribou. 

Classroom Update

 

 

          Spring is in the air and the sun is shining each morning on the way to school now so maybe now that the winter blues has passed is the reasoning behind my reorganization of my classroom.  Either way, yesterday after school I decided to shift my furniture around.  It had already been changed from the previous video shown but never has it looked as good as it does now.  I LOVE it, the Smart Board is at the center and the student's tables are surrounding me.  It's so much livelier and exciting and all of the areas are now utilized more efficiently.  

Happy Valentine's Day during Red Zone

 

         So this blog post is going to be short and late.  Our Valentine's Day this year was fairly uneventful as we were on Red Zone because of Covid for the week before Valentine's Day and the week of (total of 2 weeks).  Covid was going wild in Kaktovik with official counts around 18 in our isolated bush Alaskan village and unofficial numbers rumored to be much higher.  Even I missed three days because I was sick although my results came back negative and I was able to be back in time for a Saturday make-up day (mocking humor here).  Nonetheless I still sent my student's Valentine's Day cards in their school packs and one Kindergarten student was holding it up and playing with it the entire Messenger call (our internet bandwidth here his too weak for families to do Zoom calls).

The Cat Tooth Fairy comes to Kaktovik, Alaska

     Okay, so just as the day was winding down I decided to bake some crackers with home-ground spelt flour that I made with my VitaMix today.  After I did that I decided to squeeze my precious Gwennie's face and tell her how cute she looked sitting atop my cookbook on my kitchen counter.  Only then did I notice red, inflamed gums with a loose tooth.  I was immediately concerned and went to get the tweezers only to discover they were too small to do the job.  So what did I do?  Panic of course.  That's what instinct tells you.  After all it's not like I could drive to an emergency vet as there are no roads here of course.  The next plane wasn't until the following morning which means that my poor dear Gwennie Pooh would have had to suffer a whole other night before boarding a flight to Fairbanks.  Then there was the issue of cost of the flight and hotels and the quarantine upon return due to Covid.  So, instead I came to my senses and called Ann, the former principal's wife.  He retired last year but she decided to hang around for one more year for the kiddos.  Soon she arrived with two sets of pliers and to our dismay, neither worked.  She tried to reassure me it would fall out but I was still concerned and then the idea of dental floss came to mind.  So I went to the bathroom and got some and after two tries it did the trick.  Out came the little kitty cat tooth.  I've saved it in a jar for the cat tooth fairy and so I can take a better picture when I get a new camera.  Until then, this photo will have to do.  UPDATE:  Here is the new photo!

 

And thus I put it back in its jar for safe keeping.

 

Puppy Surprise

 

    Welcome to January 2022 everyone!  What a great year this will be and how can it not with such blessed omen as the arrival of these two blessed pals this past winter break.  And indeed they are precious.  I haven't officially decided on their names, I was thinking Mickey and Minnie but it will likely be a few more weeks until I officially decide.  

    They have been home for about 2 weeks now and the chaos is finally beginning to subside.  They are beginning to fully understand how to only use the puppy pads in their dog room and the laundry room to go potty rather than my nice hardwood floor or the kitchen.  They are also adjusting to me being gone for long days at school and then coming home in the evening.  Although yesterday they moved their puppy steps that help them get on their chair over to the blockade in the doorway and came close to gaining freedom but alas failed.  Mwahahahaha!  

    And the best news of all is that the mail I ordered before Christmas fully of puppy items is just finally beginning to show up after a week or two without flights due to a blizzard.  Yes, indeed we spent most of winter break caked in a blizzard that was one of the worst they've seen (I think I'll detail that occurrence in another post).  But we survived and these two precious bundles of joy are finally settling in.  This weekend finally feels like a weekend of relaxation because getting two puppies is hard enough without having to wait 4 weeks or more for supplies to arrive.  

    And finally, let's not forget Gwennie, or little Gwen Gwen, or just plain Gwendolyn.  She loves her new monthly Skip and Scamper box.  The treats were a real hit but unfortunately they decided to devour the foil toy and they allow me to clean it up alongside their vomit.  Oh well, live and learn.  

     And here Gwennie is again in another box that she finds most comfortable.  Funny isn't it how we can spend oodles of money on fancy toys and beds and when it comes down to it they just like an old Tupperware container and plastic tops for my AeroGrow plants.  

 But before we go, let's have one last look at my puppies settling in.

 

 

This is comfy sis

 

 

Ahhh...this is even better :)

 

'Til we meet again

 

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.