It's Friday Friday--

Last day. We finished our storyboards and took pictures with the final world map...
I'm scheduled to leave tomorrow in the morning and get to Anchorage in the afternoon, if all goes well-- they're so relaxed about plane scheduling, I could be waiting in Nome or Koyuk for a while. Crossing my fingers-- I need to get back for my first day of actual summer school (UAS-grad classes) on Monday at 8:30 am!

Got some nice hugs from the kids today to send me on my way...

3/4/5 graders-- only three showed up today, even though 10 -12 students worked on the map.

1st and 2nd Graders!

4-Photo stories that have an intro, problem, solution and conclusion.

Thursday Photo Excursion!

Here are some more Koyuk Photos. There were a couple I've been meaning to take, particularly of the fish huts. I just think that they are the coolest thing. And the wooden boats that have just been left to sit in the beach grass for the rest of their boat lives. Kids are creating photo storyboards today-- so I'll post those tomorrow.

As bummed as I am to leave these kids, I am very excited to head home (back to my comfy bed) on Saturday. I'm scheduled to head out on Saturday, spend the night in Anchorage with Kels and then come home to Juneau on Sunday.

This is a typical school lunch-- hot dogs for protein today! Only my mom knows how hard it is for me to eat hot dogs... and maybe Travis. But I did it! And I found out that I like relish!

3rd and 4th Graders have their Portrait Time today...

All of these photos were taken by the 3rd and 4th graders that came to summer school today...

My personal favorite-- I titled it "Epic Rain Shot" done by a very young man.

Photos Taken by the 1st and 2nd graders this morning!

We finished the Ocean and Continents!

Asia!

We finally finished the ocean and continents! Well... I had to finish Antarctica, but the kids did the majority of the collage and covered the collages with modpodge to seal them. We also had enough paper and time for them to create their own personal collages, which they deserved after working so hard on the collages.

Modpodge the ocean.. we made it fun by constantly switching spots and having new things to find-- such as, "Find any pieces of paper that are sticking straight up and glue them down."

Now it's time for me to piece everything together. Over the weekend I matted the continents, and today I glued the handprints down onto a border. It's slowly coming together. Matting the continents was not originally planned, but placing them directly on the ocean actually hurt my eyes to look at-- it just blended together, so I decided a nice shade of blue would separate them enough to be "gaze-able" as I called it.

Putting everything together tonight... notice my last minute Antarctica to the left of the mural. Also... some how I got the ratio of Africa really off-- something to watch next time! I'm claiming artistic expression.

Tomorrow we start digital photo story telling! The kids-- and I -- are excited for a new art form.

Monday, Monday

It's Monday, Memorial Day, so another day with no school.

A cloud front has moved in to Koyuk and it has been much like Juneau for the last two days. Heavy winds on Saturday (which I walked in for a bit) must have blown in all these clouds. It's too cold to just sit outside and read, so I'm inside again. Luckily, I found out that my web-based gradaute class has already started-- hah! I had no idea. I'm not used to searching for assignments and due dates on Blackboard, clearly. One of the first assignments is to create a google site for our graduate research! I can do that! Something to do! yay.

May 30th is always a special day for me because it's my sweetie's birthday! Happy Birthday Travis... 24. You're old... I can say that because you'll always be 6 months older than me, and I still have six months to live up my official "young twenties." And I'm celebrating today by putting some extra dried blueberries in my oatmeal this morning.

Also, Travis is now an uncle!! For those who haven't heard yet, Travis's sister Carrie had a healthy baby girl yesterday morning in Medford, OR. They don't have a name yet, but I know some of the options, and I'm sure it will be beautiful. Congratulations to Carrie and Brett-- I can't wait to meet her.

And here is a quick picture from walking around this weekend... so I don't post an entry without a photo...

The Weekend

"Weekends are for sleeping... and being lazy," young Anna replied after I quizzed her on what I should do over the weekend. If there is one thing that Koyuk does very well, it is keeping the Sabbath... both Saturday and Sunday. I woke up this morning at 9am and drank my coffee outside. The sound of the village was silent, besides the chirping of a variety of birds. It was already quite warm, as it has been for the past couple of days, and if I closed my eyes, it was almost like sitting on the porch in Phoenix-- at Grandma and Grandpa's place, listening to the birds-- minus the sweet citrus smell. After breakfast I decided to go on a walk on the dirt road that runs out of the village for a couple miles. As I walked through the village I was in awe of how quiet it was. No four-wheeler engines ripping up and down the dirt roads, no voices of children, no bikes-- just the wind and the birds.

On my way back from my walk, the village was just as silent. Anna was not joking when she said Saturday was for sleeping-- I'm pretty sure everyone still was when I was walking at 11. Besides sleeping in, I'm totally going to embrace the Sabbath this weekend and do absolutely nothing. Maybe a little reading, sitting on the beach, or skyping with friends, but whatever it is, I will have no pressing agenda.

So excuse me, I have some sun to soak up-- gotta get my base layer Alaska tan started.

Fishing net photo from my walk this morning.

Village Life

Since I arrived there have been a select group of young ladies who have befriended me and taken me under their wing here in Koyuk. The girls have been looking forward to this weekend so they can share with me all Koyuk has to offer. The girls took me down to the beach tonight-- actually hoping that there would be a baseball game, but it turned out that the summer heat has already set in and the players chose to lounge/4-wheel on the low tide instead of play. We entertained ourselves wading in the water and sinking mud.

Snack Shack/Movie Rental/Game Room

After the beach we headed up to the local snack-shack/movie rental hut. This is VERY unique for villages. One of the local teachers who has been in Koyuk for 20 years renovated a trailer to create a hang out spot for the youngsters and teens of Koyuk. I just had to sit in their for 20 minutes and I literally met virtually half of the village children/teens/young adults. The young girls and I played a couple board games, and upon the insistence of the the kids in the shop-- I got a slush puppy. This is very special that they have slushies out in such a rural setting and for them is a true summer treat. So I bought slushies for my tour-guides and we walked around town before heading back to the school.

Mud, mud, mud...

Reflections

Beginning the Collage Process

Learning to collage!

I get the pleasure to introduce these student to collage! A word that up until today, none of them had ever heard of, but by the time I'm gone they will know the concept well. Yesterday the students created watercolor "color fields" as I call them, or prepared paper-- which today was ripped up according to color family (warm and cool). Students used acrylic paints today-- paints I found in the mystery paper closet-- to create even more painted paper to collage with. They also got a chance to print their hands, because I have always been fond of hand prints, no matter how cheesy they are... it's just fun to paint your hands. Plain and simple. Needless to say, we made a little mess in the bathroom sink... which I had to clean up later. In the photos you'll see their working on a large paper collage using the blue papers. That will eventually become the background to the world map-- the oceans of course! And just to add a little academics in, I quizzed the 3/4 graders on their oceans. They got all, except one girl said, "The Indiana Ocean!" My response, "Close enough!"

Tomorrow is the last day on my first week. Summer school is a four-day week-- but for me that means a VERY long weekend. We also have Monday off for Memorial day... so I'm wishing I brought a couple more books. Skype anyone?

A young lady using watercolor paper to collage the ocean.

Preparing collage paper...

Bees and Beach Time

It's summa time! The 3rd and 4th graders got extra outside recess time this afternoon-- meaning we not only got time on the playground, but also got to walk down to the beach. The girls were very excited to share about their summer pastimes of swimming, building fires on the beach... and bee hunting. I was explaining to Travis this evening on the phone that the kids love to "bee hunt" as they call it: picking off the wings and stinger of the bee so all that's left is a fuzzy bug (a bug that will unfortunately die soon). The pictures below are from recess/beach time today and the kids playing with their bees.

I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time on the beach with the kids-- such a wonderful gift of peacefulness (although others might not think of it in such a way). Lots of time to think and enjoy seeing the students explore with paints, drawing and photography.