Artsy-Fartsy!

Okay, so maybe I should have used a different title. But last night there was a lot of artsy painting going on, and hopefully not a lot  any fartsy-ing going on! 

Last night Clint and I attended the White Mountain Community Art Night and helped paint the wood pieces for our art project that is going to go on the fence near the school and teacher housing. It has been a lot of fun watching the process and watching the kids get involved.  It was also fun to dig down (deep) into my creative zone :)

Did I mention there was watermelon, mango, apples, and chocolate there? Oh.My.Gawh!

They sure spoil us :)

And of course....The amazing fruit!

Runners Paradise...

This week I have come to two different realizations:

#1. Running 'round in circles in White Mountain school gym is a great way to maintain your running routine.

But...

#2. Running in here:

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is not the same as running out here: 

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Now, obviously this doesn't look like White Mountain-there is still a ton of snow on the ground, and it's actually snowing pretty hard as I type this. But, we have ran hills from hell for the past 2 days and I am incredibly sore.  

45 30 minutes of running outside is far better than running an hour in the gym. 

On Monday we ran 47 minutes total

On Tuesday I ran 48 minutes total while Clint ran 58 minutes total (yes, I stopped after the first loop and he made a second). I'll make it next time. I will. :) 

Fun in Pre-k

It has been a c.r.a.z.y few weeks here in the preschool. There has been so many changes and new routines this week has been a bit of rest and relaxation while learning through art! I love love love incorporating any type of art media into the classroom and do so as often as I can! 

We have done so many different art projects I don't know where to begin! 

We were studying farm animals last week so we: 

painted with feathers! We pretended they were from chickens...

We made a spring mural with finger paint:

"yes, grass can be up like that!" -a 3 yr old

And, we have made these:

Lion Masks :)

Quotes for the week: 

1. Me trying to get a kid to eat a cracker, "If you eat at least one cracker, it will help you be nice and strong." 

The kid nods his head no. 

Me: "Can you please eat just one cracker. You're going to be so sad later because you'll be hungry." 

Kid: "Teacher Tory," with tears running down his cheek, "you're breaking my heart!" as he takes a nibble of his cracker.

**He ate the whole cracker though! It's sad that I'm a heart breaker when it comes to food though :) 

2. During music time, the kids were standing in a circle-withe no help from me-and they were all bending their heads down rolling them in a circle, singing: 

Kid #1: Roll your head right around...

Kid #2: Roll my head round and round.

Kid #1: Roll your head A-round not 'round

Kid #3: Roll you head right around right around...like in a circle.

**It took me a while to figure out what they were singing, but they were singing Flo Rida, Right Round. For those of you who don't know it's a hip-hop song that is pretty mature!

Saturday Splendors!

It has been really weird weather. I feel as if I'm in Ketchikan again! This week has been windy and snowy every morning, but by mid afternoon the sun is shining and the snow is melting. 

It's a vicious cycle.

Today, it was beautiful:

Well, we were able to get a lot done workout on Saturday. 

The day started with doing CS100X (Clint Shultz 100X) . You might find it a little bit like the Insanity or P90X workout- Or a little harder! 

Afterwards we did a little bit 45 minutes of Yoga:

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Clint is obviously not bald, and I clearly don't have that nice of a stomach...just yet :)

Do we look like this? Not at all, but it's something we are working towards! 

After we did our Yoga we had a wonderful oatmeal/strawberry breakfast!

We decided that although it wasn't too warm out, it was nice enough to go for a walk around Sweetheart.

This would have been a really cool picture if my fingers weren't in the way! Darn! 

It was too nice out, we decided to walk around Sweetheart twice! 

We calculated about 6 miles after we were all done with the hike. It was so beautiful, but by the end of the trip we were a little sore. It could have been that this Saturday was a Workout day.  Gotta love those right?! 

Cleaning House....

As much as I would love to say that it was my house that I cleaned, it wasn't. After Clint and I rearranged my classroom, it was kind of dusty and well, a mess. So, today before the kiddos came in at 9:00 I cleaned house classroom. Here are some before and after pictures. I think it's important-for me-that I make the classroom mine. Not that there was anything wrong with it to begin with, I just didn't feel like it was really my own teaching space. 

It definitely is now!

Before:

 

After:

 

Rather my desk be near the loft I chose to have the library there. 

Before:

After:

The library spot is now my own area!

Before:

After:

Rather than have a bookcase near the bathroom and the science table/ I put the writing table into its own spot and cleared away that bookcase! 

I'm sure that there will be more modifications as I get more experience with teaching, this is now my own space to teach! 

BBQ Season is heeere!!

Clint and I got an early start this morning! We received a wake-up call from my dad at 8:00 wondering when my graduation was. I don't think he realized that although I'm graduating, I won't be attending the ceremony. 

Later, before we had breakfast we had changed my entire classroom (it feels a little weird saying that!) around and made it my own. I'll post some more pictures of that a little later when I have time to take 'em. It was too nice outside to stay indoors so we quickly went home and ate breakfast.

After, we slowly made our way out on to our deck. With temperatures like this: 

It was simply irresistible!

Workout Partner!

Every Tuesday night from 6:30-9:00 Clint teaches Karate to some students and adults here in White Mountain.  During that time, I am at home working on my kicks and punches with Jillian Michaels.

Her DVD's along with a ton of my Yoga ones have saved me from become insane from not being able to be outside or workout.

Anyway, this last Tuesday (I know this is a little late-but, better late than never right?) Sierra was feeling a little left out and wanted to join in.  While I was doing a 'circuit' with jumping jacks and running in place I was looking down at this:

 

While I was doing my core circuit, while laying down on my back doing some crunches I found Sierra like this: 

 It feels good to have a back-up workout partner while Clint's not around! 

And yes. I did stop the workout, ran and got the camera, and started my workout over again to take this picture. Hey, you have to take pictures while you got the chance right?

Second Day Wonders!

Today started out wonderfully. Actually the entire day was wonderful! I had all four kids present at the beginning of the school day! We were able to do tons more work today than yesterday as well, which I was really happy about. I went through their files and found out where each student is developmentally. This really helped me today.  I can't tell you how much! 

After the kids left, and the planning was done for tomorrow I went through some more cupboards and cleaned out the desk! 

Top drawer....

Bottom Drawer...We don't have a fish :) 

So pretty...So clean!!

Now, if I could only get myself to clean this well at my house...Only time will tell :)

Bright Pearly Whites

 

Two times a year, the dentist visits White Mountain to do checkups, cleanings, fillings, and pulls teeth yikes! I have always avoided the dentist like they were part of the plague. I never liked going to the dentist office. The smell and the way the tools looked really really freaked me out! 

Last night, Clint was talking to one of the teachers and he mentioned that he was getting his teeth cleaned. Cleaned? Yes! Living in Gambell, the dentist did come but we never thought we could go to them! So, last night Clint called the dentist to make an appointment for later in the week (did I mention he made the call around 8:15 pm because my class ran a little late?) and the dentist told him to come on down! So, we got dressed (we had our pj's on) and headed down on the snow machine! 

Now, I we have beautiful pearly white clean teeth!

First Day Jitters..

  Last night I felt like I was 9 years old and it was Christmas Eve. I couldn't sleep and I was anxious to get the day started. Although I didn't receive any presents today it was my first day as a Kawerak Head Start Teacher! 

 I had a great day playing teaching. Because teaching this age groups does feel like playing!

Winter Wonderland

This was what I saw when I looked out the window Saturday morning:

It was a blizzard! 

It was definitely a good tea sipping-scarf knitting-cookie baking-movie watching-couch cuddling-yoga doing kind of day :) 

Fabulous Friday!

This Friday was perhaps one of the busiest and full of news since we've been here in White Mountain.

1. After finding out about my new job(!) I found out some really great news (I will post more on that later so I don't jinx myself, and hopefully I'll know exactly what is going on).

2. This was my last day in the classroom as a student teacher and last day working in the school. Starting Monday I will be in the Head Start building. I sure am going to miss being in the classroom helping out, but it's going to be wonderful having my own class with my own routine :).


3. We had the high school students working with the younger students in NYO (Native Youth Olymics) where the younger students went to the gym and were taught the games that they play during competition.

 The seal hop.

The stick pull.

Not sure what this is called, but you are using your forearm muscles to hold yourself up on a stick while you are carried from one end of the gym to the other.

Not sure what this one is called either, but you balance your whole body on your arms, and with one of the arms, you try and touch the ball that is overhead. I can't balance that good yet! These kids are really athletic.

4. We had movie night and had kids over until 10:30 watching The Squekual and many Peter Pan movies (which I probably enjoyed them more than the kiddos!).

Elementary Skiing!

A while back I posted about the 32nd Annual Skiing Meet here in WMO and I totally forgot to mention that the Elementary had their own skiing meet during school! It was the cutest sight. We had the official coordinators of the regional meet create a ski trail around the school for the K-6 students. They were all very pleased to be recognized as skiers and we had every student participate! It was a fun filled hour an a half. I enjoyed watching our kinder kids go at it like they were pro's. And, in all actuality they were better than me! We gave out certificates and hats to the elementary skiers during the Regional Awards ceremony.

The time has come...

I am finally a:

2 Cool Things!!

I have been going back and forth for a while on what I want my blog to look like. 

I am like a little girl in a candy Prana shop- so, you might see some more changes....mmm...maybe weekly :).

There are 2 new things that you may need to know while reading my blog.

#1. Posts are now in a 'read more' format meaning the posts will have an introduction and then a 'read me' button to push when you are ready to read the full post: 

Once you click on the "read" more, you will get the entire post.

#2. After you read the full post, if you wish to comment, there will be a comment box on the bottom of the post. It will look like this:

Leaving a comment is really easy! 

It would be nice to know how many people actually read my blog. Hopefully, hopefully I'm not talking to myself all the time :)

Dreams....

Today in the kindergarten/first grade classroom we talked about dreams. We talked about what Grandpa and Grandma's dream about, what Mom and Dads dream about, what we dream about and what babies dream about. 

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a hoppy day :) full of chocolate bunnies and peeps. 

But I also hope everyone is in remembrance of what this significant day means.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

John 11:25-26 

Peace be with your families and may you be filled with love and laughter :)