Hello all. We just completed the second week of school. All the kinks that accompany the start of a new school year are now starting to iron themselves out. For the most part, things are going quite well. The staff is happy, and the students seem to be happy too (at least appear to be). Kaitlyn and I have returned to our outrageous school schedule and arrive at to school around 7:00 a.m. each day and usually go home anywhere between 6:45-8:00 p.m. Our schedule seems weird even to the other teachers, but there is just so much work to do that it’s difficult to come home early. I (Tim) like to keep work at work so that home is a place of rest and relaxation. I have broken down a few times and brought work home, but I never really get anything done. It’s amazing how sitting down in my lazy-boy can take all motivation out of me. :)
Each week night, during the school year, the school is open at night for the community to use the gym. It’s about the only source of entertainment (other than video games, tv, and mischief) that the community has. Each year, the school receives a grant from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to fund the salary of one person to supervise the gym night. At the beginning of each school year we have about a three to four week period until the ADA Grant kicks in, so it’s traditionally been a fund raiser for different school organizations to earn money and charge the students/community members to come use the gym (it’s free when the ADA grant kicks in). This year, Kaitlyn has volunteered to co-supervise Student Government. One of her duties was to supervise gym night so Student Government could earn the money. Supervising consists of taking money and refusing entrance to those students who are not allowed to participate because they were either tardy to class or had an unexcused absence that day. She had to be there at 6pm - 9pm. That doesn’t sound too long, but add that to a 7 am start day, it turns into a very long day. She’s a trooper for doing it.
Each week night, during the school year, the school is open at night for the community to use the gym. It’s about the only source of entertainment (other than video games, tv, and mischief) that the community has. Each year, the school receives a grant from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to fund the salary of one person to supervise the gym night. At the beginning of each school year we have about a three to four week period until the ADA Grant kicks in, so it’s traditionally been a fund raiser for different school organizations to earn money and charge the students/community members to come use the gym (it’s free when the ADA grant kicks in). This year, Kaitlyn has volunteered to co-supervise Student Government. One of her duties was to supervise gym night so Student Government could earn the money. Supervising consists of taking money and refusing entrance to those students who are not allowed to participate because they were either tardy to class or had an unexcused absence that day. She had to be there at 6pm - 9pm. That doesn’t sound too long, but add that to a 7 am start day, it turns into a very long day. She’s a trooper for doing it.
Hiking Two-Hill: Kaitlyn, Billy, Heather, Mike
On Friday, we had an inservice day. This was a district required inservice for training on a reading program/software input. It only applied to elementary and middle school, so Kaitlyn and I got out of it. High school basically had a free planning day. It’s always nice to have a break and feel like you can get ahead (however, I always feel like I never do). Friday night, we went to our friend, Heather’s house and played games with her and our new school counselor Leslie. It was nice just to sit and enjoy a game and chat. Part of the fun of 3-day weekends is that it gives you an extra day to relax. A normal weekend never really feels relaxing because you’re always thinking about school. However, getting a lot of our work done on Friday meant we could do other things on Saturday! Kaitlyn went with a few other teachers and hiked one of the hills we have around here. (Now, don’t be fooled by the word “hike” and “hill”. Our hills are not very tall, just a few hundred feet at most.) They drove the four wheelers as far as they could go and then hiked to the top. This particular hill is called “Two-Hill”, because it has two humps. I stayed back and went to the school to finish a few things.
Saturday night Kaitlyn when to a “girls-only party” at Heather’s house. With her bering gone, I used the opportunity to play manly and fix my 4 wheeler. Last week, it over heated on the way to town because the oil pan drain plug had come unscrewed and lost most of the oil. This is considered really really bad. Usually when you run a vehicle without oil it’s pretty much shot and you have to get a whole new engine. In bush Alaska, this means buying a new 4 wheeler. Luckily though, it simply overheated and isn’t completely ruined (only “mostly”dead). Another teacher and I decided we were going to fix it by getting in the engine and lubing up the pistons with some liquid wrench so that they won’t overheat. We think this will help. First off, I must say, Honda did a good job making it rather impossible to work on their 4 wheelers. In order to get to the engine, we have to take apart just about everything on the 4 wheeler. We ran into our first problem when we realized we were going to have to remove the fuel tank. It sounds easy (just disconnect the fuel hoses and pull it out), however, it sure isn’t. There were so many hoses and in different places that we weren’t sure if we should or not. After about 30 min of work, we decided to stop tear down and walk away. I’m actually quite proud of ourselves, because it’s way easier to puff up your chest and assert one’s manliness and start yanking on things then it is to walk away, admit temporary defeat, and ask for help. I plan on asking one of the local mechanics in town to help me out. Maybe we can all watch. :)
