4-15-2012

Warmer days are here.  This past week we felt what it was like to be in a refrigerator instead of a freezer.  We went above freezing for a few days this week.  It sure doesn’t take long for the snow to start to melt with the sun shining and it being warm.  The nights are still getting down to the single digits, but spring is creeping up here. 

Me distracting students from doing their work.

The kids seem to follow the sun’s schedule.  With the sun being out so late (10:30), the kids are still out playing past my bedtime.  It’s been a month since I’ve seen a sunset.  So on Monday mornings the kids drag themselves into the class and lay their heads on their desks.  I’ll ask “How is everyone?’ and they’ll reply “ummmffpmm”.  In unison.  I’ll give them a break to use the bathrooms and get their pencils sharpened for the day. They’ll all shuffle off like a pack of zombies, mumbling to each other about something.  Eating my brain I assume.  It takes until after lunch for them to fully wake up and want to fully participate.  This all happens mostly because they’ve stayed up late all weekend playing and doing what ever else kids do.  Eat candy and drink Red Bull I guess.  So when they get to school on Mondays, they’re coming down off a Red Bull and sugar high while being sleep deprived. 

By Tuesday morning they’re back to normal and ready to jabber about things non-school related.  Mostly snowmachines and movies.  A good teacher can get them back on track by subtlety steering the conversation back to where he/she wants it.  I on the other hand have to utilize the tried and true method of yelling, “Hey!!”   Sometimes I have to be more specific like, “Hey!! Take that pencil out of his nose!!”  Or, “Hey!! That’s not what a pencil sharpener is used for!”  The word 'hey' is a fine catch-all.  It can be use for pointing out a good thing: "Hey, good job on that math test."  Or for something bad: "Hey!  That's going to get you suspended.  I'll bet you can't do that again."

The students taking control of their own learning.

Most of my day does not involve ordering students to pull things out of their faces.  Sometimes I actually do some instruction.  While I was teaching about equivalent fractions, a debate arose about pies and pizzas.  The kids didn’t want pie on their pizza, they wanted pepperoni.   I assured them that a pizza was a pie.  “No, it is not!” was their counter.  So I go into a long explanation about the etymology of the word pizza and that it was, in fact, a pie.  “No it’s not!”  I asked them “Why would I lie about something like this to you?”  They just gave me an accusatory stare.  “OK” I said, “I was only joking about killing a polar bear with a toothpick.  But this is real.”  Same stares, only this time they were looking a little meaner.  As a teacher, you have to stand your ground and do what’s right.  So I told them, “Yes.  You’re right.  Pizza is not a pie.  I was only joking.”  Only then was I able to continue with the lesson.

With the snow beginning to soften, I may not make another trip on the snowmachine to Emmonak.  Even though the Yukon ice is still 3-4ft thick, water will come up from cracks, causing water to run over the ice.  I am by genetic engineering a chicken, so I don’t want to ride one snow and ice.  I think we have enough chili to get us by for the next 5 weeks.  Well, me at least.  Monica likes it but not as much as I do.  I went up on Wednesday and picked a few things to last us for the rest of the school year.  I just checked the coffee supply and we’re good.  Nine cans of chili and six pounds of coffee beans.  I’ll leave the Raman noodles for Monica.