I went over to a friend's house tonight to borrow a DVD. I walked past a house where someone was cutting something with a chain saw. I walked a little closer, what was he cutting? Blubber off of a frozen seal of course.

I am literally sleeping on my feet these days. While it's the end of term on Friday, it's hectic in school because we just found out that the government inspectors are coming to visit us in January. That means an endless stream of paperwork, sorting out classrooms, sorting out pupil profiles, organising pupils' work- and don't even mention the two weeks worth of amazing lessons we all have to plan so that they'll be dazzled when they appear at the door of our classroom. I really feel that I can't relax- I ache all over and I haven't been sleeping well because I feel so anxious. I'm terrified that my crazy kids will kick off when the inspectors appear...and that really doesn't bear thinking about. Still, tomorrow is the church service and hopefully singing Christmas carols will put me in more of a festive mood, because right now I feel like Ebeneezer Scrooge on a bad day!!

Well, we're almost to the shortest day of the year. Right now the sun rises at about 12:40 p.m. and sets about 3:40 p.m.. A lot of people ask if the lack of sunlight bothers me. It really doesn't, I find it forces me to relax and enjoy the day at a slow pace. Actually, what drives me crazy is when the sunlight returns and it's light almost 24 hours per day. Then I find myself still active at 11:00 p.m. and not realizing it's time to go to bed.
We had an interesting day last week. It was our first big storm of the year, snow with 50 mile per hour winds gusting to 70 mph. It’s tough to walk in wind like that and even more difficult to open doors if they are facing the wrong way. Right now the elementary part of the school is being remodeled, so each class is crammed into the high school end. My class wouldn’t even fit in the high school so I am teaching my students in another building. So, I have to get the 5 and 6 year olds bundled up to go over for lunch. After walking to school last Wednesday I was pretty nervous about trying to get my students over to the main school building. I couldn’t open the north-facing door by myself. Another student had to help me. But as it turned out none of the parents thought it was safe to send their children to school so I had a day to myself.
This week is promising to be a busy one. Tuesday night I am having the 5th grade students over to our home for dinner. I am their academic advisor and like to do special activities with them to build a good relationship. We are getting ready for the Christmas program on Wednesday night. My class is singing Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop and Zippety-Do-Da. (I always like to have the kids sing something not Christmasy to keep things intersting.) Thursday I am taking my students caroling at some of the elders’ homes. Today I am working on getting our class Christmas quilt completed. I had each of the students use fabric paint and paint two quilt squares with a winter / Christmas picture and their name on it. On Wednesday, at the Christmas program, we’ll have a drawing and give it away to one of the students in my class. I’ve done this for the past 3 years and it’s been a lot of fun.
Quite a few teenage girls lately have been wanting to learn how to crochet. They’ve been coming to my house in the evenings and making hats and scarves etc. It’s funny to see them all sitting and crocheting like little old ladies. The house is dead quite as if we were doing very serious business. They are doing really well and catching on quickly.
We are fortunate here to have the opportunities to form relationships with students on a personal level. I believe it can make us more effective as educators. It’s too bad that the way the world is going, that we can’t even touch kids to give them a hug or whatever. I think people tend to panic over just a few weirdoes. My personal belief is that most people are good people and very few are “bad guys”. However, the media hypes up certain incidents and makes us think that bad things are happening all the time, when really the good things far out number the bad. Then all of the hype trickles down slowly until it’s considered taboo, for instance, to hug a student.

I had a really stressful sleep last night- it's pathetic, but I was really anxious about my S4 pupils returning after exam leave. As it happens, only a few of them showed up, but they were being their usual un-motivatable selves which utterly frustrates me. Today was, all in all, really tough. I don't know if it's the same in Brevig Mission, but kids here really don't respect anybody in any position of authority; our relationships with our pupils are purely a business arrangement, which is sad I guess, but there has been so many incidents that you can't really forge any sort of real bond with a child any more- hell, you can't even give them a hug if they're crying about something!!

Me and all of my colleagues are totally wiped out. The term from October to Christmas is the longest here in Scotland, and by God am I feeling it. I'm becoming as lazy as the kids, yet I still have a massive pile of marking to do when all I can think about is Christmas time. It sucks. Plus, I had to sit in traffic for over an hour on my way home...and them some idiot woman nearly crashed into the side of me. Stressed, moi???!! I tell you, teaching somewhere outside the city is sounding increasingly more appealing as the days go by!

Paris sounds like a lovely trip. I studied in England for just one term and it was very handy how close everything was. It was no big deal to go to France or Spain or Italy for a long weekend. Here, everything is soooooo far away! And it’s an ordeal to travel. This past summer my husband and I spent some time in the U.K. We crossed 11 time zones to be there. It took quite a while to get our sleep back to normal.

About school . . . Hopefully I’m not giving a false impression of what teaching here is like. When I say here I don’t mean the U.S. Brevig Mission really is not like the rest of the United States so anything I describe shouldn’t be applied to the rest of the country. (So you may still want to consider moving somewhere in the U.S. to teach) =)

How is Brevig Mission different than most of the rest of America?
1) The population is primarily Inupiat Eskimos. (Teachers are about the only non-native folks living here.)
2) It wasn’t until the 70’s that there was a K -12 school.
3) People drive snow machines and ATVs, not cars.
4) There are no roads, we fly bush planes in and out.
5) There is only one store with basic supplies.
6) People eat seals, whales, and walrus.
7) About 350 people live in Brevig.
8) People had running water in their homes for the first time in 2002.
9) Alcohol is illegal to possess by local ordinance.

Why do I love living here?
1) It’s a small village where you can know just about everyone and feel like a part of a community.
2) My students come to my house to visit on a regular basis.
3) It only takes me 5 minutes to walk to work. No commute!
4) I am learning how to do new things, skin sewing for example.
5) I am learning first hand about another culture that is far different from what I grew up with.
6) When employees attend district wide in-services or meetings the school district plane picks us up.
7) No hustle and bustle. Life just moves a little slower here.
8) Like you, my students really are wonderful little people.

Sure we have our problems but what place in the world doesn’t have problems?

Wow- I'm astonished about what you said about your school and the kids in it! I had this totally skewed notion that your school would be some kind of utopia where kids respect you and don't cause you any hassle. There goes my idea of moving to the country for an easy life!

Basically my school is a real melting pot- you have kids rolling up to school in their parent's BMWs, wearing all the best clothes...and then you have kids literally turning up without decent school shoes on. It's tough, but a nice place to beon the whole, because despite their flaws most of my kids are nice deep down- the hard part is getting them to expose that part of their emotions. Everyone is really run-down at the moment though because the term from October to December is the longest- ten weeks and not one holiday to perk you up. We're all running on empty trying desperately to finish off essays and stuff before we stop for Christmas...I literally cannot wait. Plus, me and my boyfriend are going to Paris for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year- just shows that this teaching lark has it's perks!!

Hi Susie,
Well, I hope your week at school finished off better than it started. I’m sure you’re right in that things are very different in Glasgow than in Brevig, but I bet we have a lot of similarities. It is not uncommon for a student to blow up in class at either a teacher or another student. Even in kindergarten I have students who are so angry when things don’t go exactly their way that they push tables, throw over chairs and kick other students for no reason. Where does all the anger come from? I have my theories, but who really knows? I think many teachers come here and think that this will be a quiet, little, quaint village with children who behave like angels. It’s quite a shock for them to realize that it’s not always that way. Behavior management and teaching are actually very difficult. I don’t want to sound negative, there are many things to love here. The children really are endearing and the people are friendly and all around neat people, but no doubt there are many difficulties as well.
What kind of a background do your students come from? What are some of the primary sources of income?
Hope you’re enjoying your weekend and not thinking about school too much. I have had to work very hard to keep my work in perspective. Teachers do a lot of things together here and since we all work together we tend to talk on and on about school issues. I make sure and have other friends besides teachers and hobbies that don’t involve being at the school to help keep life balanced. It helps that my husband is not a teacher, he’s an engineer who is always planning to fix or make something interesting.
I got the seal skin slippers I was working on done, hopefully one of these days I'll have time to learn how to post pictures and show what they look like.
Oh, and it was a windy week here too, finally cleared up today and we can see again.