Out of Town Guests

The week of February 22 was busy in our little school. We had 2 visitors from out of town. We would have had a 3rd, but the weather didn't cooperate. I don't want to get ahead of myself, so I'll tell it in order.

Our first guest was Eddie Wood, an artist-in-residence. His visit was paid for by our district. He flew in on Monday and started his residency that afternoon with a combined class of both primary and secondary students. On Tuesday through Thursday, he had classes with the primary students and the secondary students separately in the morning, and then the combined classes in the afternoon. He finished on Friday with two abbreviated classes, and then he flew away.

Eddie is primarily a percussionist, but he dabbles a bit in dance and drama as well. On Wednesday morning, my boys showed him one of the men's drumming songs they know. Wednesday evening, the community was invited to a social dance class, featuring a two-step. 9 people attended, including two of my students. (I wasn't able to attend because on my way home after school I slipped on some ice. I didn't fall, but I pulled the same muscle I injured the last time I fell. I'm still nursing it back to health!) Then on Thursday, the students did a short performance for anyone who wanted to attend, followed by Wednesday night's dancers showing off a little.

I didn't attend most of Eddie's sessions, except to take pictures, so I didn't get to observe his process. I got to see his results, though. The kids were very polished and competent. Eddie got good music out of them, so overall, I was impressed. He had a wide variety of instrument, so he was able to match each student to both their ability level and their interest. He would like to return, but he would like to come for 2 weeks next time. I could support that!

Our other visitor was Kirsten Swann, a reporter from an Anchorage-based magazine. An upcoming issue is on education, and Kirsten's editor wanted her to focus on small schools, especially those schools that would close if the legislature changes the minimum size of a school from 10 to 25. Kirsten had seen a posting about Yakov T. Bear, and decided to reach out to Yakov's school.

Kirsten also arrived on Monday. As soon as she got settled, she came over and started learning about our school, especially my class. We had release forms signed ahead of time so that she could interview, video, and photograph the kids. Kirsten was young, attractive, and cheerful. After a couple of days, she fit in with the kids as if she'd always been there. I overheard a conversation between her and the kids about popular music; that's always a good sign that someone has been accepted. Kirsten was one of the participants in the social dance class, and got up to dance with my boys. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes about us.

Our superintendent was supposed to have arrived on Monday as well, but there weren't any seats available for him. He wasn't able to fly in on Wednesday (and Kirsten wasn't able to leave) because of a storm along the route. Then on Thursday, the plane was needed to fly to Akutan. Since Thursday is an Akutan day and not an Atka day, the make-up flight to Atka was canceled. Joe postponed his trip until March, and Kirsten ended up leaving on Friday with Eddie.

As I write, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Unalaska. My class is here for our big field trip. The week isn't even half over, and already it's a success! But I'll tell you about the trip next time.

Big Trouble in Little Atka

I had finally reached a point where I felt confident about the work I was doing. With the addition of Kartufala/Scamp, my family felt complete. I even ventured to say out loud that I was happy. I should have known it wouldn't last.

I'm surrounded by so much beauty.
Here's the waterfall I see and hear
when I open my front door.

My partner has always been a little high-strung and anxious. She's also been dealing with some very difficult children. And that's coming from someone who specialized in early childhood special ed! She has one student who gives up as soon as her work becomes challenging. She cries and screams. I teach her older sister, and see the results of years of learned helplessness, although without the tantrums.

She has another student who cries, screams, runs away, throws things, and tries to hit or kick when he doesn't get what he wants. Watching his face, though, it's obvious that he's totally in control of himself and is merely being manipulative to get out of a situation he doesn't like. Again, I have the older sibling, who pretty much acts the same way, but at a verbal rather than physical level. The parents are first cousins, so I'm betting that there's some faulty wiring. The only good news is that the kids in the family all seem to be quite gifted.

Here's the same waterfall, frozen for
the winter. Cold, but no less
beautiful.

A week ago, the little boy threw a huge tantrum. My partner called the mom to tell her to pick the kid up, since he was unsafe. The mom ended up blaming my partner for her son's inability to behave appropriately. My partner finished the call in tears, and immediately decided to quit the job. Since it was a Friday, there would be a plane within an hour, and she planned to get on it. I asked her to wait until Monday so that she wouldn't have to leave all in a rush.

Over the weekend, my partner decided to stay until a replacement could be found. Although I emailed the superintendent 2 or 3 times, I didn't hear from him until Sunday. I wasn't part of the discussion of what to do next, though I'm glad the solution didn't involve me at all.

On Thursday, I got a nasty email from the superintendent, scolding me because, according to a parent, I hadn't yet distributed information for an upcoming field trip. The parent information meeting was held on Wednesday evening. He was also scolding me because this parent said I wasn't using the District benchmarks, which inform everything I do in my classroom. When I called him on scolding me without first verifying the information, he said that if I had an issue, I needed to call him or else he couldn't know that there was a problem. Not really sure what he's referring to there; the parent had a problem, but I didn't. I pointed out that he knew that I was upset and concerned last weekend, but he did nothing to communicate with me. His response was that he didn't know I was upset. It takes a special kind of stupid not to recognize that when one half of a team quits, the other half is going to be affected!

I've learned what my limits are in dealing with bad bosses. I'm not able to ignore being treated harshly. (Look up INFP on the Myers-Briggs.) I'm much happier being ignored. And I require a certain amount of acknowledgement for the good things I do, like being interviewed for two magazines based on my class's accomplishments. Winning a $12k grant. Making connections to the community, including monthly Family Movie Nights. Things my boss doesn't seem to know about for all that he's mentioned them.

So, it looks like we are both leaving. Her departure is imminent, while mine is only theoretical. Perhaps the situation can be salvaged. I hope so. I've had such success this year, and so many plans for next year. I love this job, even though it consumes my whole life. I was even happy, for a little while.

Yakov T. Bear

If you're a Facebook friend of mine, then you've already met Yakov T. Bear. What you don't know is the story of how he came to be.

Yakov's I.D. picture

25 years ago, a colleague of mine had her students bring in old stuffed animals or dolls to be handed to travelers. They carried a log book with them so that people could write their names and locations as they had contact with the toys. From time to time something would happen, like a postcard  or a video showing up at the school. Some of the toys were featured on news programs in areas where the toys had gone. In some ways it was a very exciting project, though most of the toys were never heard from again.

With Capt. Chad before the
first flight

Fast forward to this fall. I'm teaching geography. Holy crap! I've never even had a class in geography! As I start figuring out what I'm doing, I start looking for ways to make the class relevant somehow. Why would someone ever need to know latitude and longitude? Well, maybe if they were tracking something on a map. What if we followed something that was traveling, like a boat or a hurricane? Or maybe a teddy bear!

Co-pilot Yakov

I bought a bear and got him a little pilot's outfit and a backpack. I knew that I would be handing the bear first to a pilot, since that was the only way to get him off the island. I also knew that my former colleague's toys traveled farther when they were entrusted to people who worked for the airlines. I was still thinking in terms of what else my colleague had done, until I realized that technology had changed everything in the interim.

In Manakotak

It no longer made sense for the bear to carry a log book. People could just check in on a Facebook page. They didn't need to leave a signature; they could leave a picture. Or a selfie! With the bear! As I thought through each step, like wearing an I.D. badge that would have the instructions, I realized he needed to have business cards so that people could hand him off and still have the email address and URL.

In Dillingham

As for his name, I wanted to name him in part after our school, Yakov E. Netsvetov School, but I wanted to use the Anglicized version of Yakov, which is Jacob. To get his gmail account, I tried every combination of Jacob T. Bear with and without underscores, periods, and dashes. None of them was available. I finally tried Yakov.T.Bear, and that was available.  Voilà!

In Chignik Bay

Once Yakov was ready, I introduced him to my students. Even the high school boys, who would never hug a teddy bear!, were interested in seeing how far he could travel.

Within the next couple of days, Yakov will be on the move again, first to Anchorage and then … who knows!

Puppy Love

Tufa in her playpen

Kartufala, a.k.a. Tufa, is about 3 months old. We're working pretty hard on the house training thing. It's been an expensive proposition to keep her contained. She has a crate, but I also had to get her a play pen. She can climb out of it. I'm waiting for the cover to arrive. Sure hope that's enough to keep her in it.

She doesn't make messes in her personal spaces, but I also have to be sure to get her outside regularly. It's a little hard when the weather's bad, but then she found the spot under my porch that isn't walled in. Now, when the weather's bad, she has an outside potty with a roof. Yeah, she's smart.

Cody and Tufa jaw wrestling

She also has sharp, pointed teeth which she uses. Often. She's learning that it's not nice to bite Momma's face. Hands. Feet. There is also a limit on what things she's allowed to chew. Any of the dozen or so toys lying on the floor is allowed; my slippers are not, especially when I'm wearing them. Of course, she still chooses the slippers. Every time.

This is Buddy. He belongs to the maintenance guy.
Look at his face, then look at Tufa's. No doubt he's the dad.

She's now as big as Shadow. Her tail now curls over her back. She looks just like her father. She knows her name. And "no." You know, the things she hears often. Unfortunately what I hear often is the yap yap yap of a puppy who thinks she might get her way if she barks for long enough.

The pack dynamic seems to be that Cody is the leader, and Shadow and Tufa are equal siblings. Cody and Tufa play a game that's mostly about grabbing each other in their jaws. Shadow gets Tufa to chase him, then he hides so she goes past him. He gets her attention, then gets her to chase him again.

There have even been 1 or 2 nights when she let me sleep all night before waking me to go outside. She isn't very cuddly, but she can be sweet. I guess as she gets older, she'll be easier to live with and to handle. For now, I guess it's a good thing she's cute!

Storytelling

 My class is doing a unit on folk tales, primarily trickster tales. I felt certain that someone in the village must be a storyteller or keeper of the local oral history. I asked around during the Slaavix and was told about a man who was the best storyteller. I called him last week to see if he was willing to visit the school and tell some of his stories. I told him he could have as long as he wanted, up to an hour and a half. I also asked if he wanted all the students or just the older ones. He is a brave man; he opted to have all the students in the audience. Of course, he's the grandfather of 5 of our 12 students!

The storyteller asked for a board on which to draw, so my students got him a portable white board, marker, and eraser. He sketched out a map of the south bay of a nearby island. Then he settled in to tell stories about things that had happened in and around that bay. I had expected to hear stories about mythology, like where the Aleut people came from or how the world was created. Instead, we heard more personal stories about people that he had known.

Some of his stories were from the time when all men were warriors because there were four different groups of Aleuts living on Atka. Some of his stories were from when people who are now known as "Old Man" were teens. Many of his stories mentioned religion, but the Orthodox religion rather than the religion of the Aleut ancestors. All of his stories were interesting to hear. Just imagine a group of students from age 5 to 16 sitting (relatively) still and (mostly) quiet for an hour and a half!  My favorite story was about how his grandmother got her nickname, chiiguyaaka, which means song sparrow.

When she was a young girl, the storyteller's future grandmother went with her family to the summer fish camp on the neighboring island. While she was there, a song sparrow told her that a bad wind was coming and that the people needed to go away. She told the people what the bird had said to her. Some of the people, especially some of the elders, didn't believe that a bird had given her a message because she was only a child, so they ignored her. Most of the people thought that it was a message from God, though, so they traveled to the two nearby camps, which were an hour and two hours away respectively.

Overnight, the wind started to blow. It was a harsh wind. After it ended the next day, the people returned to the fish camp, but it was gone. It was buried under about 12 feet of sand! The people wondered if they should dig down to rescue the ones who had stayed behind, but one of the elders, one who had believed the message, said that the people who stayed behind were dead, and the fish camp was now a burial ground. To this day, there is no fish camp in that spot.

During the last quarter of this school year, after spring break, my students will be working on writing memoirs. The theme of the project is that everyone has a story to tell. I've already asked the storyteller if he will return and tell more stories. I hope that my students will be inspired to tell their own stories.

Old Lessons Retaught

I mentioned in a previous post how I had recognized a melody during the Russian Orthodox service I attended. I confirmed my suspicion that Tchaikovsky used it in writing his 1812 Overture. Today was what I call "media day," meaning that instead of teaching fine arts I present videos, music, or images that relate to anything else I'm teaching. I started off playing a recording of the hymn. I asked the kids if anyone recognized the melody. All the heads started nodding. I asked if they thought they'd recognize it anywhere. Some of the heads continued nodding, especially two of the high school boys. Then I started a video of a live Boston Pops concert of the 1812 Overture, which we had previously seen. As soon as the music started, most of the kids recognized the melody. I let them listen with wonder and pleasure, then asked those who'd said they could recognize that melody why they didn't recognize it the *last* time I played that video. Suddenly listening to classical music became relevant.

Earlier in the day, I had gotten to revisit a lesson from Monday. We're doing a unit on trickster tales from around the world. As we started the unit, I wanted to introduce some literary terms. Among them was "anthropomorphism." The kids got the concept right away. I was sure they had it when one of them used the way I interact with my dogs as an example! They had more trouble remembering the word itself. Well, the home page for The Guardian web site highlighted an article with the headline "Anthropomorphism." I stuck the slide from Monday's powerpoint into today's, and added a link to the article. It was so cool to show a review slide and then open an article with today's date using the same term.

Those events, the times you get to close a circle and make learning relevant, those are the things that make teaching so satisfying!

P.S. I don't have any pictures to go with that story, so here are some pictures of a beautiful sunrise I saw this past week.

The corner of the school

My partner's house

Looking to the north

A little more east

The disk of the sun is just peeking over the mountains

Slaavix

The Star

The Russian Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 7-9. That's because by the time they adopted the Gregorian calendar, there was a difference of 13 days between that and the Julian calendar. The Russian Orthodox church in Alaska has a unique custom called Slaavix or Starring. On each of the three nights of the Christmas festival, the people walk through the village holding a big decorated star. They go to each house where they've been invited and sing carols. Some are in English, some in Church Slavonic, and I think one or two may have been in Unangam. One of the altar boys holds and spins the star during the singing. The last song offers a blessing to the people in the home: "May God grant you many years!" Then the host offers the singers some light refreshment. People stay and talk (and warm up) for a half hour to an hour before going to the next house. On the final night of the Slaavix, the procession ends at the church.

I joined the Slaavix on Friday night. There were song books with the words, but no music notation. I wasn't able to join in singing the transliterated Slavonic and Unangam songs because it was too hard to try to catch the melody and decipher the words at the same time. However, I caught on to the ones in English after singing them a couple of times. I was given one of the song books, and I recorded the music, so I'm hoping some time before next Christmas I can find or create the written music for the songs.

While we were visiting at one home, one of my students handed me a fluffy brown puppy. I was cuddling her and commented that I was looking for a little girl puppy. The hostess heard me and said, "Take her! She's yours!" I was surprised and asked if she was sure. She said, "Merry Christmas!" So I now have a puppy! One of the women standing near me said her son (also a student of mine!) had wanted her to get a dog and name it Kartufala (potato). The pup does bear a striking resemblance to a fluffy potato, so I took the name. She's Tufa for short.

Kartufala

I haven't had a puppy since Beowolf. That was 18 years ago! I'm having to relearn how much work puppies are, but also how sweet and cute they are. She's having to learn everything, from eating dry dog food out of a bowl to walking up and down steps. She's figured out a way to climb onto the sofa without help. She knows that she's supposed to "potty" when she goes outside, but she doesn't understand yet that she's *only* supposed to potty outside. It'll take a couple of months for that, since it's also a matter of getting control of her little body.

Shadow finally meets a dog that is smaller than he is!

Cody and Tufa

After I understood what the whole Starring thing was about, I added my name to those who were being visited on Saturday night. I made a big pot of beef vegetable soup, a cheese spread, and a loaf of sourdough bread. When 30 people came into my house and started singing, it made me very happy. There was so much warmth that these people carried with them. The custom is a lot like going caroling, except done inside because Alaska, and with a much stronger religious orientation. The dogs behaved well for having that many people in their home. Tufa hid first in her crate and then behind the tree. Shadow greeted everyone, mostly to let them know that he was there to help if they had any food they didn't want to eat. Cody left his hiding place on the bed in my office and worked his way through the room until he was near me, guarding me from all the strangers.

It was a lovely way to end my winter break. We return to school on January 11. I'm rested and ready!