Closing Time...

I can't believe it, but the school year is almost over up here! Because we didn't have a spring break, and we started in late August, we get out much earlier than most other places, and it's all paying off! 

It's light out until after midnight now, and is getting warm. People are staying out late, and now that the river has broken up, they're going out on the river in boats again. 

My students discovered my blog, and they were so excited to see the pictures that I've posted of them.  So... HI CLASS! 

I am happily enjoying my last weekend of the school year up here, we've packed almost all of our boxes (17, so far) and mailed them all today (It costs a fortune) and I'm also starting to pack up my classroom. I've already done my lesson plans and prep for the last week, and we've accomplished almost all of our goals for the weekend, other than shooting about 40 rounds of shotgun shells, so life is good! Anyway, here are some photos from the last few weeks.

We've been doing tons of spring inspired art! 

Green-up is in progress

This is dried king salmon

This is the day the river broke up, you can see the crack in the middle and in the next picture... 

You can see how it split and the bottom half just slowly floated down river. It was very anticlimactic, I was expecting more crashing and drama. 

An abandoned building by the old pump house. 

The old water tank above town. This is where "the kids hang out"

Prom happened, but we left before it started. The whole town is invited, and apparently the only people who danced were the adults and the little kids. 

We were so excited about it, obviously. 

Break-up still in progress... 

Your classic lawn ornament.

I'll title this picture "Pilot Station"

Once the river broke up above us, the ice started flowing by. It's still going! 

The lot of city vehicles

This building is where Eskimo dance is held. It's all open inside with some bleacher seating. 

Here is a picture of the AC store, with it's new sign :)

We're almost finished studying the regions of Alaska, and here are some things that you can see in 3 of the 5 regions. 

Here ya go, Mom! I made this in art :) My students made these also, they turned out so cute! 

Can you believe it?? I can't! 

The ice jammed up at Holy Cross, so the ice wasn't flowing down for about 2 days, but it just started again because the jam broke up. 

Here is the ice flowing again, but as you can see it doesn't stop people from going out in their boats! 

Possibly one of the last times we'll walk on an airstrip without getting arrested. 

The first flowers of the summer! Also, bumble bees the size of dinosaurs... 

Shrubbery! 

We still can't believe that we came up here and did this, and now it's almost over! It went by so fast, and Max and I were just reminiscing about when we decided to come up here. We told ourselves that a year seemed like a long time, but even if it was terrible it would fly by and be over before we knew it. Well, it hasn't been terrible, it's actually been great, and I think that's what made it all go by even that much quicker! This whole experience is pretty unreal. We fly out of the bush in a week, and this time next Saturday we'll be in Anchorage enjoying sushi! See ya'll soon!

Outside

With this wonderful weather, and the snow finally melting off the outdoor basketball court, we've taken to the outdoors. We've gone up to the airstrip almost every evening, and have seen moose out grazing across the river and Max saw an early flock of geese flying over. We've also hiked down river, and noticed that it's starting to get pretty dangerous out there. Not many people are traveling on it anymore other than just going straight across to hunt birds. 

 Yesterday we spent an hour outside collecting trash for Earth Day. The class was totally into it, and I think a huge factor in that was that they were working for a reward and are very externally motivated. They tallied every piece of trash they collected, and in math we created data charts and graphs to show the information about what types of trash and how much of those types we collected. Now we're in the process of writing a problem and solution essay about littering, and how we can keep people from doing it so much around here. One of my students suggested that the main reason is that there are no outdoor trash cans, and if there were they would need to have lids because the ravens would get into them. Their writing and thinking has developed so much this year, it's incredible. 

This is our Earth Day art project from last week, each student decorated a square with 1/4 of a circle, and were told to make sure that the emphasis was on the difference between in inside and outside of the circle. They did a fantastic job, and were so excited when it all went together. 

Today for art we borrowed some sidewalk chalk, and created different drawings that students could draw and combine with themselves for a good picture. This was a great way for them to use their brains while doing regular sidewalk chalk art. They had so much fun accessorizing, and loved having their pictures taken. 

Of course, for those less artsy students, we brought a basketball, and by the end of our time outside they were playing a 4 on 4 full court basketball game. These kids love ball more than anything in the world. 

*all of my students have signed permission forms to release their photos for use on the web*

I don't plan on putting much else up in my classroom, and things will probably come down soon. I'm not sure how much of this I've already posted, but I want to have these around for future reference. Here are some anchor charts and posters that I've put up in my classroom: 

This one has been very beneficial, students use the words on the right when writing about these things and it's nice to have them handy so that they can keep referring back to it. I wish I would have done this anchor chart earlier in the year. It also works well with with CM sentence frames. 

My students lack the academic language to write without inhibition, so these posters really give them the words to use to express themselves. They refer to it often, and it seems to really help them. 

Perseverance has been an issue this year, this poster gives them other things to say beyond I can't or I don't know. 

Our classroom expectations are not things that students get in trouble for, but rather are things that students need to be successful in class. We refer back to them on a regular basis. 

Our class incentive program has worked very well, and gives students ownership of their behavior and rewards. 

We've begun the classroom countdown, 

only 16 days of school remain. 

I'm seeing some students that are regressing back to their fall behaviors due to lack of sleep. Some are also acting out because they know they're so close to the end, and they would rather be doing other things. However, I have noticed that I'm much better at dealing with these problems than I was in the fall, which makes me really glad. This has been such a wonderful experience for me as a teacher, and as a person. I'm looking forward to going back to Oregon, but I'm definitely going to miss it here.