50 in the 49th

Today is my birthday.  Some years, I really care about my birthday and celebrating in a big way.  Other years it's more of a "meh".  In Portland, I never had to work on my birthday because it's always during Spring Break.  When I turned 30, I had a baby girl.  When I turned 40, I was just about to finish grad school.  Now, I turn 50 in Togiak.

This year, I also have a student who has the same birthday (along with other people in my life like Paul, Jack, Anne Marie, Uncle Chip, Elton John and Aretha) and it falls on Good Friday so I knew a party was in order.  My classroom aid, Lynnette asked me months ago what kind of cake I wanted and nothing would dissuade her from making one.  She decided to make me a German Chocolate cake to share with staff, and cupcakes for the kids.  The kids in class were also very enthusiastic about bringing in chips, cookies, popcorn, more chips, water-flavorers (no soda in my class no matter how old I am turning) and random sugar cereals in ziplock bags like Capn Crunch and Fruit Loops.  We all sat around eating and watching Three Stooges shorts, which the kids loved and had never seen.  Every once in a while, the fun would explode with a loud pop from a balloon.

You see, my students are the best.  They knew that I was missing my daughter and feeling kinda low that we couldn't be together on my birthday.  So they planned an elaborate surprise for me before school started.  I went out to get them at the usual time from the Commons where breakfast is held daily.  Immediately, I knew something was up because my boy who always wants to be first in line was telling me that we shouldn't get lined up yet, that we should wait a while and not rush to class.  This boy is on the autism spectrum so for him to voluntarily deviate from his daily schedule is a big deal.  I looked around, noticing that most of the girls were missing and that the remainders wouldn't look me in the eye but were all giggly.  Then the sped director pulled me to one side and had a long, involved conversation with me about a proposed schedule change-a conversation we not only had already had, like yesterday, but would never have just standing in the Commons for privacy reasons.  I played along and took my sweet time to get the line ready, meander down the hall, stop to talk to another aid about nothing at all, until finally I was able to walk toward my classroom unimpeded. 

SURPRISE!!  Not only were most of my kids hiding under their desks but had totally redecorated my room in paper flowers (that's why everyone kept asking me my favorite colors this week!) and the number 50 and, best of all, 51 large balloons in said favorite colors.  It was magnificent and there, in the middle of all the chaos, was Lynnette the aid who organized it all.  One student said, "We knew you didn't get to have your daughter here, so we wanted to make you have a happy birthday anyway."  Could you just die?!  Sweetness abounds.

After school, I stayed in the staff room and ate cake with first the elementary teachers (we finish a half an hour earlier than the upper school) and then with the upper school teachers.  It was really great and certainly made for a happy birthday to me. 
As a present to myself, I signed my contract for next year. 

Snowy Spring Break

In 22 hours, Spring Break starts.  As of right now, it has been snowing pretty much on and off but more on than off for the past day.  So, two new things will happen.  First, I will have the shortest Spring Break ever.  I mean, I know I'm most recently from Oregon and one of the districts with the shortest school year in the nation, but I have never even heard of a school district that gave less than a full week for break.  Or less than two full weeks at Christmas but, alas, that is the case for me now.
This three day break was initially supposed to be a single day but we as a school did an extra hour of Professional Development In Service time for 14 weeks and earned the additional time off.

Second, there is a strong likelihood that there will be snow on the ground and temps in the 30s for the rest of the week.  Just as it's always in the 70s in LA, here it seems to hover in the mid-30s most of the time.  My commute makes it less difficult; I've been in the habit for some time now of just throwing on the cleanest hoodie in the morning, shuffling the 100 steps from door to door, stamp stamp the feet to clear off snow, mud, gravel and the day begins.  Reverse at 4:00.

Unless it's Tues or Friday, the designated days when those of us who are vehicle-free can use the school truck to go get mail and groceries.  Some days the truck is packed tight with teachers, usually Fridays, and some days when it is just a couple of us.  But either way, the truck is heated so it doesn't necessitate putting on snow pants (not that I have any) to go buy eggs the way I would have to if I used a 4 wheeler.  In fact, last week, knowing it was going to be a quick trip I didn't even bother with the hoodie.  It was cold, to be sure, and the wind was a bit too brisk even for me but again, knowing it was going to be minutes in the elements helped.  No damage done.

The cold was something I really worried about before I arrived in Togiak.  I grew up in Seattle, then moved to Portland where when it dips below 40 city-wide warming centers are opened.  The tv news runs graphics about the dangers of cold weather, charts explaining wind chill and multiple layers start to make people look like the younger brother in A Christmas Story who was so bundled up he couldn't put his arms down.

Now I have most of the right gear.  Good gloves that fit.  Waterproof boots that fit.  Waterproof pants, multiple hats (Seahawks if it's dryish and cold, pink ear flaps hat when really wet and cold), thermal underclothes that I have only worn once.  Because I don't know if it's the dryness of the cold here or the ubiquitousness of it but mid-30s feels different here than it does in Portland.  The idea of going outside without socks on is ludicrous for my former home but here they seem redundant and silly.  A fashion accessory I can, and do, do without most of the time.  Even my students are agog that I so rarely wear socks.  Must be the Preppie in me.

The Anchorage Conference

In November, I was told to prepare to go to Anchorage for something called the RTI conference in January. The district was sending me, Carol and Colynn for reasons known only to them. Carol has been in Togiak a few years, Colynn is new this year but has worked in the past for the district and I am fresh off the plane.

The RTI stands for Response to Intervention and is similar to PBIS (Positive Behavior Instructional Support) that we use in our building. It’s all about understanding why children act the way they do, how to help them be the best learners possible, etc.

I found that for me to be the best learner possible at a conference that consisted of way to much sitting and reading along with PowerPoint presentations (because all presenters know that teachers can’t read and listen at the same time-oy) is to ask my best friend to come join me in Anchorage. The district was paying for the room and got a discounted rate so they didn’t care if I added a name to the room list.

Bestie was in right off the bat. She was born in Anchorage and knows that it kinda sucks there in January but was game anyway. We met up at the hotel on Thursday, had a fabulous reunion moment, then settled in to watch tv while I guzzled down Taco Bell.

The first day of the conference was for people who were new to RTI, we got to listen to a day’s worth of Introductionary BlahBlahBlah. The presenters were very excited about their program and although it was interesting and I knew I would come away with some great concepts and things to try, all I could think about what how they kind of sounded like fanatics. Like, this program was going to make education easy. Or that it would change everything, despite funding cuts (even here in Alaska where education is incredibly well funded, they just don’t know it) and poverty-stricken kids and abuse and and and.

That evening, Bestie and I chose not to go to dinner with the crowd but instead wandered into a hole-in-the-wall recommended by her mother. What a great recommendation it turned out to be. Initially, we went to Club Paris for a drink before deciding where to have dinner but the drama of a staff meeting held in the dining room with some of the most cantankerous old timey waitresses sucked us in and we couldn’t bear to leave before the show was done. (Apparently not everyone wears skirts an appropriate length! And some in the number three position were taking tables from 1 and 2!)

It didn’t help that I hadn’t had alcohol in a few weeks so real drinks hit hard. I learned that a true Manhattan is a wonderful thing and that a Moscow Mule is gross even though it comes in a cool copper mug (sorry Beth) and that two in a row on an empty stomach is a bad idea. So we decided to have dinner also and it was one of the top three steaks I have had in my life.

The second day of the conference included a great keynote address by Tricia Skyles on running a balanced classroom. I learned the difference between an Educated Thug and a Safe and Sane Idiot, two terms I love. If only the other sessions were as interesting and relevant. I always marvel at teachers with decades of experience who give long lectures on what not to do with students to keep them engaged but neglect to do any of these things for their adult learners. Hey Reading for Older Students Lady, we get bored too listening to you read to us your PowerPoint! Mix it up a little.

That evening, Bestie and I went with the other Togiak School teachers and a nice woman from New Stuyahok to see Leonardo Di Caprio play with a bear and have dinner at a great little diner that Bestie remembered from her childhood called the Artic Roadrunner. The best fish sandwich I have ever had, especially since it was made with halibut.

By the time we got home, I was entering that wired over-stimulated phase of road trips. We watched some tv and tried to sleep. A few hours later, I was still in that dozy mode and not quite asleep when the bed, the room, the building, the world started to sway. Earthquake! It started out slow and kept going and going. I could feel the building go one direction way too far, jolt and sway back the other way. In a word it was awful, nauseating, terrifying, bad. I hate earthquakes more than anything so as I waited the 14 hours or so for it to stop, I pulled my pillow over my head, thanked god for my nose hose to keep the air flowing and prayed that nothing would fall on my head.

In our room on the floor six we had no damage and once the shaking stopped, Bestie made sure I was okay physically and emotionally.  But it took me many hours to actually fall asleep.

The conference the next day was more stories of the earthquake and people’s reaction to it, which made for a fairly boring all day conversation. The downside to the whole day was that it was Sunday (Anchorage School District has a strange, to me, policy that teachers cannot be released to go to conferences like this one, it hence was scheduled over a weekend) so it was the day Bestie went back to Portland.

After we finally finished the conference, we Togiakians went to the store for all those things we cannot buy in Togiak, like fresh food. I bought as many groceries I could carry, including two kinds of apples for my students and plenty of cheeses for me, though no fancy black truffle pecorino this time, and an eight pack of romaine lettuces. Packing it all into manageable weights for all my luggage took the better part of an hour. I deliberately packed light coming into Anchorage in order to load up on the way home.

The next day was dangerously windy and there was some fear that we wouldn’t make it home the same day. Colynn and I took the later flight in the little tiny plane and it was, hopefully, the worst ride I have ever had. It made me wonder, amidst the terror, why people pay good money to go on roller coasters. I was extra glad I didn’t eat much that day, and took the day after off to recover.

The most important thing I learned going to the RTI conference was the joy of friendship, the camaraderie of disaster survival, and a few new tricks to put into my bag labeled classroom management.