Quyana, Donlin Gold!

Our morning group with their brand new dictionaries!

Excerpt taken from the Donlin Gold letter sent with the dictionaries:

"Donlin Gold is participating in The Dictionary Project (www.dictionaryproject.org), a national project to reach and provide every third grader in the United States with a dictionary. Donlin has sponsored the distribution of dictionaries to 744 third graders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim area. In the spirit of encouraging our youth to be life-long learners, Donlin Gold would like to present the 3rd grade level students at Chevak School with their own dictionary to keep. Using these dictionaries will enhance their reading and comprehension and, we hope, challenge students to seek answers from them. Donlin Gold would like this to be an annual event for years to come."

A beautiful picture of living in two worlds... she can have both! On the left is her poster of a Cup'ik Value: "Learn to do things on your own." On the right, her new dictionary! A beautiful blend!

The kids were all smiles!

Donlin Gold,

We are absolutely thankful for these treasured gifts! The students' excitement would have been worth recording! :) For now, the students are using the dictionaries during class and will be able to take them home by the end of the school year. They are having a fabulous time perusing through the "big book." They are finding our vocab words, new words, the longest word in the English dictionary, the alphabet in sign language, a year-long calendar, and so much more! Quyana cakneq for giving them another reason to love learning and love literacy. What a wonderful gift!

Warmest regards,
Miss Nelson

A Glimpse...

For my project, I have been taking photos and video footage of some of our life experiences, as teachers, here in Chevak, AK. These are a few of the shots (just from one evening):

Sometimes, you have to shovel your way out of your housing unit... 

... or shovel your way in.

During the winter, we must bring our trash to the dump by snow go (aka snowmobile aka snow machine) and sled. On this particular day, we had to sit on the trash so that it would not blow away on our drive to its final destination.

With freezing temperatures, the plumbing is not always cooperative. Here, we are mopping up the living room... we later found that there was probably a shop vac available for us to use...

In the meantime, we spread out towels, sopped up water, wrung the towels out into a bucket (aka trash can), and then threw the water out into the cold, gusting wind (hence the goggles)... and repeated. Again. And, again.
Side note/author disclaimer: There AREN'T any tanning beds here :P (lol)! 

PROJECT TIME

Well, it is crunch time... just about! I am officially enrolled in my grad school Project. This should be my last semester of grad school, as long as I work hard to meet deadlines and present my best documentation. My GAC offered the thought of blogging my project experience, and I have debated just how I would like to do so. If all else, I figured I would share with you what it is that I will be focusing on in the next couple of months.

For those of you who have been wondering, my program is Cross-Cultural Studies (with an emphasis on Alaska Native Education). For my grad project, I decided that I wanted to create an orientation video for future district applicants. The reason this came to be is because I have had a strong desire to prepare teachers as best as possible for their teaching experience here in Chevak, Alaska. Though I can provide a huge amount of information and personal experience, no one can fully understand what it means to live and teach out here until they do so (particularly if they have never taught in rural Alaska).

The goal of this project is that by having more information about our community, applicants will be somewhat more prepared as to what it would be like to live and work for our district. At the completion of this project, the administration can choose to use the video if they wish.

So  far, I am really enjoying my one-on-one time interviewing my colleagues. It is difficult to find time throughout our days, so that has been a bit of a challenge. However, I am really enjoying going through my footage and photos from over the years. It is hard to believe that next year will be my fifth year teaching in Chevak. I am hoping to capture my experiences in a productive and meaningful way, though it is important to me to be as real as possible-- not to paint a picture through rose-colored glasses. Each school year has most definitely brought challenges, along with moments that will always create a feeling of nostalgia.

The temperatures have been rather cold here lately, but we are up to two degrees fahrenheit today! While it is a little warmer, I will be conducting a bit of filming outside... brrr! :)

Please send your good juju my way as I take on this project and put it altogether for its finale. My hopes are to have it completed by March and to be able to graduate in May (prayers are appreciated)! Thank you for your support and interest. It's go big time!