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.