March already?

I don't know where these past two months have gone! February came and went so quickly and I can't believe we're almost halfway through March. Day by day it doesn't always go so fast and the weeks occasionally drag but when I look at it, this year has gone by so, so quickly. I can't believe we only have two more months of school.... 71 days (if I remember correctly) to be exact - weekends included! My kids and I made a chain at the beginning of the school year to countdown how many days until Christmas and so we did the same thing for the end of the school year. The difference is that we started that countdown at about 116 days and this one we started with a short 80 days!

I know it's been a month or so since I've posted last, sorry! I've had a lot going on and didn't really have any days off from the school for a few weeks. We had a four day weekend thrown in there but most of us teachers were at the school every day anyways, whether it be working in our classrooms or working the basketball tournament that was going on. So needless to say, after last weekend was our last home basketball game and I have to say that I was VERY happy to have a weekend at home.

I'll do my best to update with pictures and catch you all up from then until now!

 Granny & Pop-pop got Macy a lady bug for Valentine's day. She loves it so much she even takes naps with it. It's current condition? It's stuffing is all gone and it's almost ripped apart but she still loves it and chews on the legs.

 Our desk pockets we made, ready to exchange Valentine's!

 This group... my kids!

 Sorting Valentine's!

 Playing computer games after they were done looking through their Valentine's.

 My shadow & I.

 Manokotak HS girls basketball team up top and Togiak HS girls team below. One of the many tournaments I kept the scorebooks for!

 Senior night! All these girls made me cry....

 We did Northern Lights pictures & research posters (which aren't pictured yet) because I can finally say that I've seen the Northern Lights!! :) TWO nights in a row. They were amazing. They were pretty faint compared to some pictures I have seen but oh my were they still amazing. I'm so happy that I can cross that off my bucket list. The first night they were out over the school, a few of us drove out a ways to get away from the lights and were able to see them a little better over the mountains. And those of you that know me, know that the stars are one of my favorite parts about Alaska... well the Northern Lights just make those stars look even more gorgeous. I was a happy girl those two nights. So of course I wanted to know more about them and how convenient that my kids are so great at doing some research. ; )

 Those are our bookworms that we have hanging in the hallway. The district put together a reading challenge for the sites to do. Our site took it and ran with it. Any class that read 100 books and took the test online that went along with it, scored at least an 80% on all of them by March 28th, earned a pizza party. Well, you can see from the picture that all four participating Elementary classes earned their pizza party, however, we earned it within the first two or three weeks of the competition starting. We teachers typed up an article that was posted in the Bristol Bay Times newspaper in DLG and here is the article for anyone that wants to read it.  Click here!

I took the HS boys basketball team picture for them. They're currently in New Stu playing this morning in about 45 minutes for second place in districts (I think). If they win and get that second place seed, they advance to states!! All of our ball teams are pretty darn awesome. 

For Dr. Seuss's birthday, we made Oobleck to go along with his story "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". The kids (and I) loved it! If you've never made it, it's just a mixure of 1 cup corn starch and 1/2 cup of water. I didn't have food coloring to add but you can do that as well. When you apply pressure to it, it's a solid but as soon as you let go, it becomes a liquid. It is super neat! 

*I'm hoping this video loads right. I took it so that way you guys could see just what Oobleck looks like. 

 Sewing and beading in Yupik class!

The start of mine! 

 Deb, our principal, is awesome and was dressed as Thing 1 for Dr. Seuss's birthday! Dana, our assistant principal, was Thing 2. They both had blue hair going on. ; )

 Decorating for the birthday party themed literacy night for all the families and kids.

 I'm very proud to say that our classroom door won the door decorating contest. It may not have been the best door there BUT my kids did it. They designed the door AND did the cake and candles, the circles, the presents and they cut out the letters that I wrote up. I'm very proud of them... their hard work paid off. Every person that came to literacy night got to vote for which classroom door they liked best and ours won. My kids were VERY excited to say the least. I didn't hear any of the other announcements that morning after they announced that we won... it was a little loud. ; )

Tara made an awesome Cat in the Hat!

 The station that Kirk and I were running my room was based on the Dr. Seuss book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". Each person got to "go fish" for their fish and then they could decorate those fish! Everyone seemed to have a blast, not just the kids!

 They were painting their own Dr. Seuss hats in Mr. O's room!

 Kirk was so enthusiastic about that reading!

 My little Chloe giving me a look!

Haha, it was a very fun night! 

We've had some beautiful weather recently! Outside PE time and the kids have been running around without coats on.... granted it's been almost 40 so I still need at least a sweatshirt and vest but they are loving it! 

I've also started beading again! Glad to be back at it. :)

And for those of you that don't know yet, I can now say it on here because I finally told my kids. I'll be making my way back to the east coast next year. I told my kids Thursday at the end of the day and can say that I only shed a small tear or two so far, I did however make one of my girls cry. :( I hate the fact that I'll be leaving them. I love these kids more than they could ever know, I love this school and this place, Alaska in general but man do I miss my family. It's hard doing this alone and being so far from my family. If I wasn't alone, I think it'd be an entirely different story so who knows, maybe one day I'll be back. But for now, I need to be within driving distance of my family. It was a tough, tough decision but I think for this point in my life, I made the right one and I am so, so thankful that everyone has been so understanding so far. I got the sweetest e-mail from one of my kid's parents after she found out and it made me cry. I am so thankful for understanding people! Leaving here and leaving these kids will no doubt be just as hard as it was leaving Port Heiden, probably even harder because these are MY kids. But I have two more months until that time comes and so we're going to enjoy those two months. :)

I'm looking for jobs in VA and NC, I'd love to be at the beach but am trying not to be too picky. If anyone has any ideas or connections.... feel free to share. ; )

Sorry that was so long, maybe I shouldn't go a whole month without writing in this thing! I'm going to watch the boys game at the school via distance delivery on the tv AND then enjoy this beautiful weather that we're having today.