Day 1

Today was a very interesting morning to say the least. The reason why it was so interesting was because we were late to school today. No, it wasn't our fault, which I assume many of you may be thinking. What actually happened was the van was not working and we were not aware of this (Plus the driver was not awake either, which played a huge role in our inability to get to school on time). Therefore, we had to call Steve (our Barrow father) to come pick us up out at the college to take us in to our first day of school. By the time we all got to school and in our classrooms we were roughly 45 minutes late, but all of our teachers were understood the issue. Once we arrived at the schools all of us were issued our lunch cards and introduced to the different members of the school system. I think I remember about 3 teacher names and that includes my corresponding teacher and Travis...oops.
Well, my 1st day in 4th grade went really well. My cooperating teacher is a very nice guy and loves his job up in Barrow, Alaska. We started off the morning by introducing myself to class. During this time I told and showed them on a map where I was from. All of the students couldn't believe that I was from Minnesota and that I came all this way to student teach. I heard a couple of them say this guy is crazy. After the introduction, I allowed the students to ask me questions about anything they were wondering. This is where things got really interesting. the students couldn't believe all of the things we have in Minnesota that they don't have up here. For example: One kid asked me what sports we have in Minnesota. I explained to them that we have basketball, football, baseball, softball, and etc. Once I mentioned baseball all of the kids had questions about it and some of them were not sure what it exactly was. I continued to tell them about my hometown "Sleepy Eye" and that it has the roughly the same population. All of the kids seemed really enthused about my hometown and asked me some questions about where I was from. For the most part all of the students were able to connect Minnesota and the things I don't have to their hometown (Barrow).
After the introduction and questions it was time to begin the regular class day. Even though this day was not like most Mondays because the students were preparing to take the state standardized tests. therefore, most of the day was spent reviewing concepts that will be on the test along with some practice questions. The students will be testing Tue.-Thur. in the Elementary and testing in the middle school all of this week and next Monday. During this time we are allowed to observe other classrooms or sit in on the testing.
Overall, I had a great first day besides the fact that we were late for our first day of school. All of the faculty and students seem to be really excited for us. Today, I was able to connect with a few boys in the classroom and build a positive relationship with them. These two boys are the leaders of the class and are looked up to by their fellow classmates. I hope my relationship with the boys continues to grow, along with my relationship with the rest of the class. This is a great experience for me and I am looking forward to all Barrow has to offer. I think it's safe to say that the everyone else is enjoying this experience thus far.
After school we were able to figure out our bus schedule and situation with the help of our Barrow father, Steve, so hopefully we will be on time tomorrow morning.

Feel free to update all of the current events happening in Minnesota, especially the Twins.... Got to love those Twins. All of us appreciate your support and comments throughout this AWESOME experience in Barrow!!

Also if you have any questions for us about this experience fell free to write them on the blog and we will be happy to reply.

Justin Helget