Mining, Oreos, Bird Barf, Dying Things and Church

Instead of sitting here and writing something I thought I'd try a new medium, vlogging (video+blogging).

Here are some pics over the past few weeks:

The old dredge used for mining platinum. Hasn't been used in about 30+ years. Really reminds me of the Copper Country in the UP. This was a part of a trip looking for an animal that two of my students shot the previous day. 

Oreo Math- building a tower, recording data and then finding the mean, median and mode

Examining owl pellets as a part of learning about food chains and food webs

 Fall on the tundra- compare it to how it was just a month ago!

 My highlight of last weekend- a church service! The staff and I were out walking around in the great weather after a week long of rain and heard the church bell ringing. A bunch of Hondas (four-wheelers, called "Honda" because its the most common brand) were parked outside. I went inside and sat down. The church is Moravian, which is similar to Lutheran. About 70% of the service was in Yugtun, the Yup'ik language. Scripture and hymns were sung in both Yugtun and English. It was quite amazing to sit and listen and hear God's word spoken in a language I don't understand, but He does. My favorite part of the service was "How Great Thou Art" sung by the choir in Yugtun, I recorded it below. I was singing in English in my mind :)

Yugtun is a guttural language which makes it very challenging to learn for me and "gusaks- outsiders". I'm trying to learn my students' Yup'ik names, which is a lot of fun for them because I'm quite awful at it. 

(I didn't feel like it was appropriate for me to hold up my camera to capture video, I was more interested in capturing the song.)

Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the NATIONS, his marvelous deeds among all PEOPLES. 

1 Chronicles 16:23-24

Monday Night Update

Howdy everyone!

Wow, I can barely believe a whole month has gone by without an update! I'm sorry for all of you faithful followers who have been checking in on the blog and finding nothing new. Let's just say its been a very busy month.

I'm going to keep this post relatively brief because its late here while I write and I've been at school all day long working. That actually is pretty accurate of how most school days are. My supervising teacher told me that the first year is EXHAUSTING, and man is he right. I was hoping to get into some sort of groove with planning, teaching and interacting with the kids, but each day is so unique full of a all kinds of emotions for everyone.

While some things come quicker now and the students sense the general flow of the day, I'm trying to take the extra effort to meet all of their needs. This is quite the difficult task because its hard to tell how the students will respond. I may come up with a great idea but it doesn't take off. Or, I stick to the scripted textbook plan (which happens often since I'm teaching everything) that I feel is going to be boring, and it's a hit! Trial and error I guess.

I haven't had a lot of free time to say the least. It doesn't really faze me sometimes because, well, there ain't exactly a social scene in Platinum. I couldn't imagine all of the pulls I would have if I was teaching a "normal" job in the lower 48. Many of you know that I love to be involved and I tend to overcommit, so being up here where not a lot happens, is in a way good for me. It may sound weird, but sometimes I like the planning times because I get to learn and figure things out myself, which helps me process on how my students will learn too. But, it does wear me down sometimes too. We shall see as time goes on.

I'm going through a sermon series and devotional book that is focused around the book of Acts. It has been quite helpful for me in the stressful and busy times during the day. Today I read Acts 3:11-16 where Peter speaks to a gathering crowd interested in seeing the man that was healed. Peter could have ignored the opportunity, to claim the attention for himself or brush it off and disassociate himself, like he did when Jesus was arrested. However, he boldly spoke to the crowd Jesus' death and resurrection as the source and meaning for the healing. I'm very encouraged by his boldness to step out and speak. A lot of days I want to simply float by and sometimes there is this sense of, "just get it done." It would be awful to give up on trying for my students. A lot of times it takes that extra effort so that something can "click" for them and gain a greater knowledge of something. That's worth it. They are better for it, and while I may be tired and exhausted, I gain too.