Blog Entry #2 - Observation and Arrival. - March 30, 2011

I woke up at around 6:30 a.m. today. I quickly got dressed and threw on my shirt. After quickly downing a cup of coffee for breakfast, I donned and zipped up the light jacket that I had been using as a blanket and headed to the school. Herman greeted Casey and I as we came into his office, and showed us a room where we could temporarily leave our belongings (we had taken our laptops with us in our backpacks).

After being introduced to several teachers, including Whitney (Language Arts) and Max (Social Studies), I spent the beginning of the day in Max’s room, observing the students. For his first hour class, U.S. History, I was introduced, and Max had the students introduce themselves. Some students told me about themselves, while most whispered something to Max, and he introduced them that way. Second hour was much more social, though there still were a number of students that were extremely quiet. I set into a pattern of observing the class for a good chunk of the class period, then wandering the rest of the school for the remainder of the time, stopping in to other teachers’ classrooms, specifically those that I had met the day before.

One situation that sticks out in my mind is when I stepped into the classroom of Brian, the fifth and sixth grade teacher. One girl, even before I came in, was covering her eyes. The supposed reason was that she did not get enough sleep, and didn’t want anyone to see. Brian let the girl wear his sunglasses. Sensing that there had to be more to the girl not wanting to show her face, I asked Brian about the situation. He quitely stated that “sometimes students get black eyes and they don’t want anyone to know”. He left the source of these black eyes open, but it wasn’t hard to guess.

Several minutes before lunch, I stopped into the room we had our computers in to quickly put some notes into my computer. On my way out, the secretary informed me that the basg had arrived. A huge grin appeared on my face as I stepped out of the office and gazed upon our three bags, focusing specifically on the small red suitcase that was packed with our food. I quickly went and found Casey. After I had informed him of the good news, he did a small, haphazard jig before going into a speed walk in the direction of our luggage.

After we had dragged the luggage back into our apartment, and I put on a change of clothes, we came back to the school to eat lunch. Afterwards, I ran back to the apartment and returned with fresh fruit for the lunchroom workers. They were very happy, and thanked me several times. Throughout the day, Casey and I handed the gifts out to people. Everyone was very appreciative.

I spent the rest of the evening working on lesson plans for my school back in Fairbanks, checking up on the news, and playing some basketball. After going home, I ate some of the home-made chili that the foods teacher was so gracious to provide us. Going to bed was much nicer this time, with a sleeping bag and makeshift pillow.