What have I gotten myself into?

Thorne Bay, Alaska

I had this thought as I walking BACK to school last night to work on some lesson plans: Teaching has got to be the ONLY profession where you get paid to work 7 hours, end up working ten, and still feel GUILTY when you're done because you couldn't finish everything. This is not a new story, teaching is a lot of hard work, a part of the story that sometimes gets over shadowed is how immensely rewarding teaching can be. This is why there are still people in the profession.

Tomorrow is Friday and it hasn't come a day to soon. If you've ever wondered why school starts before Labor Day it's because teachers cannot have a five day week the first week back to school. It's just too crazy. I am so grateful that next week will only be a four day week as well. What?? School is crazy? Yes, teaching any subject is difficult, there are lots of things that go into any lesson: content, standards, grade level expectations, learning styles, and most important...how the hell am I going to keep these kids engaged? This is no small task for any teacher, anywhere. Now, if you can, try to wrap your mind around trying to teach Alaska state history to a class of five students grades 1-4 and a health class to the entire school, grades 1-9, at the same time. Shit, it makes my head hurt just thinking about it. One of the reasons I was drawn to this profession is because it allows me to be creative, yeah you could say that, I have been squeezing my brain of every creative thought in there to try to come up with lesson plans while considering all of the things I listed above. It's ALMOST impossible.

It can be done, teachers do it in small schools all around Alaska with a lot of success, everyday. I've had minor achievements this week: I led the entire school in a breathing meditation and சார்லி, our little first grader told me today that not only am I his favorite teacher but I am also his BEST FRIEND. Oh சார்லி. One of the biggest challenges for me working at this school is that half of the students are in elementary. None of my training is in elementary ed, I have a lot of learning to do in this department.

I want to leave you with a list of funny quotes that I've been meaning to post from inservice and the first week of school.


"Last year the major offense at school was kids bringing knives. Not big knives, just, you know, pocket knives. So you know what I'm going to do this year? I'm going to change the rule so that kids are allowed to bring knives as long as the blade is less than 3 inches."

- Nick, Principal of Thorne Bay, on discipline issues at his school.

"If I were you, I just wouldn't teach sex education at your site."
- Nick, Principal, when discussing the sex ed materials in the district library. (I naturally had objections to this suggestion)

"...and here is the school gun safe."
- Liz, on my school tour. This statement was followed up with, "And what is in the gun safe?" To which she replied, "guns."

"I just can't stop laughing."
- Charlie, the first grader, as he was covering his face and laughing during our meditation. (He was dead serious to, I could tell he didn't want to be disruptive, he just couldn't help himself.)

"Poop Tag"
- Howard Valentine School children, this is a name of a game they made up after a kid got bird poop on him, then wiped it on somebody else. This started a school wide game of tag trying to stay away from the kid with poop on him. (It was awesome).

"Miss Moody will you push me on the swing?
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm swinging."
- Exchange between me and one of my students. This is a perfect example of the difference between MS and elementary students.

Okay, here's to tomorrow being totally awesome.... It's pretty cool, our district mandates that Friday afternoon be dedicated to a project or activity that the entire school can do together, we are either going to the beach or having a read-a-thon (depending on weather).

Peace in the Southeast

AGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Being a teacher is really overwhelming! I just finished 7 straight days of inservice, only to return tomorrow and Monday and start school on Tuesday. I still feel lucky. I pretty much have my dream teaching job: all grades social studies, health and PE. Our PE curriculum includes kayaking, archery and biking.

I'm officially "Lead Teacher" so when I'm not giving direct instruction I will be doing various administrative tasks, including managing our three classified staff. I'm also the school counselor, technically .25 of my time should be devoted to that. I'm so tired that it's hard to express how truly excited I am.

My cellphone is turned off until further notice as there is no cellphone service in Coffman Cove. I don't have a land line or Internet access at my place, YET. No to worry, there are still plenty of ways to contact me:

1. Email (I have three of them now)
2. You can call the school (preferably after 3pm) at 907-329-2244. Ask for Miss Emily, they'll now what it means.
3. Smoke signals*
4. Telepathically

I've been busy cleaning the school and fixing up my place. The pic above is an example of me being innovative. I have a window that needs a curtain but naturally I don't have any curtains so I put up this cool poster of the history of the world that I found at the school. Tomorrow I get a new stove!!

No guarantees on when I'm going to be able to blog again as I have more work to do than is humanly possible, I mean seriously, teaching is so much work, but totally worth it. :)

Peace and Love from Coffman Cove, "Alaska's Best Kept Secret"

* Preferred method

It's not much but it's all "mine"

Yeah, that's a stove on the front porch

I've always wanted to say that, I'm not sure why. It's especially strange when you consider my aversion to things (cars, beds, anything that implies permanence). At any rate, this statement couldn't be less true. Pictured here is "my" duplex, in that I will live here, but truly nothing about this place is "mine." For starters, I have yet to give my landlord any money. The truth is, I don't have his rent and wont until I get paid next month. He's fine with this and is not even charging me rent for the month of August. What else? Oh yeah, everything in the house, including pots, pans, silverware, the bed, the bedding, EVERYTHING was either already in the house or has been given to me by the extremely generous people of Prince of Wales Island. Another major contributor to all of my stuff has of course been my MOTHER, who sent me china cups, sharp knives, and tea among other things. She is the best. My landlord gave me permission to paint the duplex and to take any time and supplies off my rent. Let the painting commence!

So it's kind of strange having my own place. This fact combined with the reality that I start my teaching inservice tomorrow almost makes me feel like an adult.

For whatever reason, the prior tenant wanted hand prints on the kitchen walls. I have since painted the kitchen red. The paint was donated by the mother of the student that I've been tutoring.

It hasn't been all roses and sunshine for me here on POW Island. Island life has definitely taken some getting use to. For starters, there are a fixed amount of things on the island, I think this is one of the reasons that everybody is so generous. I literally could not buy a broom the other day because both stores that sell brooms were out, just one example. It's kind of hard to get my mind around. I went to the only thrift store on the island, OMG, it was like something out of a movie, everything was at least 25 years old and broken, I couldn't believe they were even trying to sell some of this shit, but again, there are a fixed number of items, everything my be recycled because it's kind of a bitch to get anything over here.

Other struggles include that fact that there are a lot of really religious people (Fundi Alert) who populate this island. I made the mistake of going to church with one of my teaching friends because I stayed with him and his family for the weekend. This was a mistake because then the principal of the school (on the completely other side of the island) was all like, "Oh my son saw you at church, do you normally go to church?" And then I have to be like, "No, I don't." And then there's this kind of awkward silence, this has happened several times. It should be said, however, that they are all really nice people. It's just strange to constantly be asked whether or not I go to church and what church I belong to (because you know it's a competition). I mean does it matter? Apparently it does.

Also, I've completely forgotten about the fact that it is August and suppose to be summer. It has really felt like fall since I got here, moderate temp and wet. Tonight there is a big storm blowing in !! Small craft advisory and flood warning, I love a good storm.

Well, there are countless stories that I would love to retell but I have to get up early tomorrow for Archery Training, WOOT WOOT!!

Peace from Tongass National Forest and Beyond

New mailing address

Meditating in Thorne Bay

PO BOX 18139
Coffman Cove, AK 99918

FYI: Anything not sent priority mail takes up to three weeks (so no baked goods unless you're prepared to splurge on shipping). I would love to hear from EACH and EVERYONE of you.

Peace

When life hands you raspberries.....

Raspberry Liqueur

.....You make raspberry liqueur, it's really your only option. So my life is really hard, just kidding, I live a blessed life. I am having no problem adjusting to island life. Well, that's not entirely true but I have been enjoying myself. Everybody that I've met on this island has been so kind and generous that it has kind of given me a new hope for humanity. It's just strange because in some ways I am so close to civilization, just a plane ride from Ketchikan, and 700 miles north of Seattle and is some ways I am so far, a story from today to put things in perspective:

So I've been picking the neighbors raspberries because she is out of town and the raspberries are going to rot if not picked (lucky), so I have way more raspberries than I know what to do with, I have options: jam, syrup OR liqueur. I mean, I may be living on an Island, and maybe I haven't read a newspaper in two months, but my name is still Emily MF Moody, so I'm making liqueur. Any who, I picked the raspberries and bought the vodka, all I needed was one mason jar. Normally this would be a simple problem to solve, but again, I'm living on an island and things of this nature are not always easy to come by. After asking around, I decide to just buy a jar of marina sauce for the jar, but I really don't want to because I don't need the marinara, so when I'm at the food store the lady working asks me if I found everything all right, and I tell her that really all I need is a single mason jar. She informs me that I could buy a case of mason jars (which I don't need) or I could go to her house and borrow one of hers. Now, I have never met this woman before. I'm like wow, actually that would be awesome, so she leaves work, we get in her car, she drives me to her house and gives me a mason jar. Wow

I know lots of awesome people, but I'm telling you, shit like this doesn't happen everywhere.

Fairbanks to Juneau

Eyal, Me, and Yaron in Fairbanks after we loaded up the car.

So I hinted at the fact that my trip from Fairbanks to Juneau was amazing. I owe it all to the these dudes, my two new Israeli friends, Eyal and Yaron. In addition to making room for all my stuff (including my bicycle), they fed and entertained me for three days, AND AND, they were going on a two week kayak trip, AND they invited me. Unfortunately, I had to turn down their offer, apparently I have a job now, any who, it was a great experience.

Quote of the trip:

"So you're a veteran, swallow your pride."

~ Eyal on seeing a vanity veteran license plate. This f-ing cracked me up because there is absolutely no way I could get away with saying this. In Israel everybody has to serve in the military so being a veteran is no cause for celebration.

This must be the Place

I made to to Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island. Tomorrow I head to Coffman Cove. The last week has been the best time I've had since I got to AK in May. I've met awesome people and experienced generosity that is hard to put into words. I really love SE Alaska and couldn't be happier to be here. My camera cord is currently lost and I'm paying for Internet by the minute but rest assured, stories and pictures to follow, always.

PEACE