North to Alaska-- again!

A summer filled with family, friends, and travels comes to an end tomorrow. I look forward to starting a new school year, meeting new friends who will also call Alakanuk home, and trusting that God will lead me through this next year. This year will be a completely new experience-- by being able to build on relationships established in the village last year and by giving me opportunity to bring new experiences and goals to the classroom. The best part of going back up to work in Alakanuk, is that so many things are already in place. My classroom is mostly set up, my room is in order, and I am familiar with the surroundings and culture. I know what to expect this year. Now, I get to build on that.

Over the summer, I wanted to reflect and find ways to improve after my first year teaching. I found it necessary to think of how to improve our reading program, how to create incentives for better behavior and responsibility, how to make learning even more exciting and long-lasting for the students, how to better communicate with the parents about their child's learning, and also how to create an efficient schedule and tracking system. While these thoughts swirled in my mind all summer, my excitement for reuniting with my students increased. (More to come...)

 This picture was from a couple weeks ago, but getting prepared for AK is a little bit more of a task when it involves having a cast. I still have two and a half weeks before I can put any weight on it.