Testing Day One

Hi all! The picture attached is the view from my room, pretty beautiful right? I slept with my window opened the other night and jumped out of bed around 1:00am because I thought I heard a polar bear (not that I know what one sounds like) coming into my window. I ran out into the hall and everything! Nice job on that one, Molly.

Anyways, on an education note, both the elementary and middle school have standardized testing today, tomorrow, and Thursday. Most of us have been in the classroom working on lessons for next week, except for our classmate, Travis, who is spending time in the Kindergarden classroom :) The schools are very nice here. The walls have beautiful art work hanging from them, and the elementary school even has an indoor playground. I hear from the boys (at the elementary school) that it is very fun!

The classrooms are a lot smaller in size compared to classes back home. The staff at both schools are from all over the U.S, and have different stories of why they are in Barrow, Alaska. As far as the students go, there is a huge issue with kids sleeping in class. I have tapped students shoulders numerous times and they will wake up for a minute and fall back asleep. Students today did not finish the test because they were sleeping. I think the constant daylight throws them off.. Yet this seems to be a BIG all year problem in the school district. I also predict that we will be putting our classroom management skills to the test. Some students are disrespectful and unmotivated to do work, and as we all know, it only takes one student to trigger the rest.

We had steak tonight for dinner, it was amazing! The food here is something we all get excited about :) Justing claims he will not eat all day at school just so he can prepare for the meals at our dorms. However, I did see him with some milk duds today after school, so I'm guessing he might be having some snacks... Well I must now go work out. The gym is very close so we are able to walk when we want to go. I somehow got myself signed up for a basketball tournament on Friday and well, lets just say I'm the only one who has yet to go to the gym! First time for everything right :) Hope everyone is doing well back in the homeland of Minnesota. Thank you for all your support and responses. Keep us posted!

Molly