Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - Wales, Day Two at Kingikmiut School
I woke up by 7am in order to clean up the classroom and get out of the way for the teacher and his students. I had taken a shower last night in the school locker room, so I could relax a bit this morning. The teachers come into the school by 8am and the students arrive by 9am. There's a school-wide meeting at 9am in the lobby every morning during which the principal greets everyone, makes announcements, and has each teacher, visiting elder, staff members such as the cook and maintenance workers, and visiting artist, and myself say a few words and reminders to the students. Most of the teachers say good morning and welcome the students and mention what they will do today, but there is always a special announcement by someone. Today's special announcement was that one of the high school students was traveling to Naknet, a technology school, to learn how to weld for two weeks. The student will get credit for attending the welding training in order to graduate from high school, and he would also learn a job trade. The science teacher helped explain what welding is and asked the students if they could give some examples, and they did. The teachers and the principal take every opportunity they can to encourage the students to continue their education both in K-12 and in college. They asked me to explain why I am in Wales and talk about where I go to college and why I wanted a college education.

I was able to coordinate with most of the teachers today to start the journal project with their students sometime today or tomorrow. By tomorrow I will have met with all of the students in the school. Today I met with the combined classroom of 1st and 2nd graders for the second time and for the first time with a combined class of 7th through 12th graders. There are five classrooms in the school. Pre-K and Kindergarten are together, 1st and 2nd grade are together, grades 3, 4, and 5 are together, 6 and 7 are together, and 9, 10,11, and12 are together. I also spent some time today observing the teachers while they taught. The teachers use similar discipline and classroom behavior techniques that I have seen and used in Fairbanks, and the teachers here seem to be using the same techniques in all of the classes, as if they had coordinated the discipline standard. I think this really helps the students understand what the teachers expect of them and are able to respond in an acceptable manner. The teachers and staff all work closely together here, talking to each other often and comparing ideas and concerns on a daily and even hourly basis. Like most small communities, it's difficult to hide anything from anyone, and even more so when they are coordinating their vigilance.

The eye doctor is also still here and seeing patients all day and into the night, in the school lobby. Hopefully the gym will be silent tonight, but I doubt it. I'm going for a walk tonight, around the village and to the store and then back to take a shower and go to sleep early again. The wind has been howling across the roof of the school all day and giant snowflakes are falling, but this landscape is so peaceful, even with the noise of the wind.