This week brought many firsts for us. For one, snow finally touched down on the tops of the surrounding hills. In Anchorage, that’s called “termination dust”, which signifies the end of summer and signal that winter is coming. Although, in Togiak, I feel that saying that the snow on the hill tops is signifying the end of summer and a signal for winter to come is an understatement. It’s already bone chilling cold. Well, at least when we ride on our four-wheelers to work around 6:30 am. This week, the locals brought out their winter coats. If that’s not a sign that winter is coming I don’t know what is!
Wrestling started this week, and I am the head wrestling coach for Togiak. I have consistently had 12 students show up. Because Togiak is a K-12 school, I also have a few middle schoolers on his team. There is one guy from the community who is assisting me coach here. His name is Dallas. He is a great guy and seems to know his stuff. He graduated from Togiak about the same time that I graduated from Zillah. On Monday, I had a parent meeting to start off the season. I presented to the parents what I wanted to achieve with the team this year and had them watch a required drug and alcohol abuse video provided by the state. I was definitely nervous that the parents wouldn’t appreciate the way I wanted to handle the team. I wanted to institute a study period twice a week to help the wrestlers stay academically eligible for the season and emphasize that school comes before wrestling, or any sport really. The parents really seemed to like that and mentioned how glad they were to have me coach this year. They said that, “it was apparent that I had a plan in mind”. That was comforting. Well, they are right. Togiak has a great chance at becoming a wrestling powerhouse. There are quite a few very athletic students here. I guess we’ll see what happens.
At the end of last week we heard that one of the elders had passed away. This is always a big deal, and especially big in a small community where everybody is related in some form or fashion. The funeral was held down town and then everybody was scheduled to come up to the school around 4:00 pm for a huge potluck. Because of the funeral, we lost more than half of our student body. Kaitlyn and I ended up combining our two classes (total of 4) and watching a history movie in my room. I am actually surprised that school wasn’t cut short or cancelled for the day. It would have been better than requiring the students here to work and having to catch everyone else up later.
On a happier note, both Kaitlyn and I were awarded $1,000 each to attend teacher conferences. This is pretty exciting for a couple of reasons. One, we each get to attend a teacher conference about the subjects that we are endorsed in. This is great because we always need new ideas and strategies to present material. Two, we just need to get out. Both of our teacher conferences are “down south”. Kaitlyn’s is located in Kansas City, Missouri and mine is in Denver, Colorado. Kaitlyn is attending the national science conference and I will be attending the national social studies conference. Unfortunately, our conferences are not scheduled at the same time. Kaitlyn’s conference is scheduled for Oct 28-30 and mine is Nov 11-14. We’ll each take about 5-6 days to venture down to attend these. We’re both really excited.
Wrestling started this week, and I am the head wrestling coach for Togiak. I have consistently had 12 students show up. Because Togiak is a K-12 school, I also have a few middle schoolers on his team. There is one guy from the community who is assisting me coach here. His name is Dallas. He is a great guy and seems to know his stuff. He graduated from Togiak about the same time that I graduated from Zillah. On Monday, I had a parent meeting to start off the season. I presented to the parents what I wanted to achieve with the team this year and had them watch a required drug and alcohol abuse video provided by the state. I was definitely nervous that the parents wouldn’t appreciate the way I wanted to handle the team. I wanted to institute a study period twice a week to help the wrestlers stay academically eligible for the season and emphasize that school comes before wrestling, or any sport really. The parents really seemed to like that and mentioned how glad they were to have me coach this year. They said that, “it was apparent that I had a plan in mind”. That was comforting. Well, they are right. Togiak has a great chance at becoming a wrestling powerhouse. There are quite a few very athletic students here. I guess we’ll see what happens.
At the end of last week we heard that one of the elders had passed away. This is always a big deal, and especially big in a small community where everybody is related in some form or fashion. The funeral was held down town and then everybody was scheduled to come up to the school around 4:00 pm for a huge potluck. Because of the funeral, we lost more than half of our student body. Kaitlyn and I ended up combining our two classes (total of 4) and watching a history movie in my room. I am actually surprised that school wasn’t cut short or cancelled for the day. It would have been better than requiring the students here to work and having to catch everyone else up later.
On a happier note, both Kaitlyn and I were awarded $1,000 each to attend teacher conferences. This is pretty exciting for a couple of reasons. One, we each get to attend a teacher conference about the subjects that we are endorsed in. This is great because we always need new ideas and strategies to present material. Two, we just need to get out. Both of our teacher conferences are “down south”. Kaitlyn’s is located in Kansas City, Missouri and mine is in Denver, Colorado. Kaitlyn is attending the national science conference and I will be attending the national social studies conference. Unfortunately, our conferences are not scheduled at the same time. Kaitlyn’s conference is scheduled for Oct 28-30 and mine is Nov 11-14. We’ll each take about 5-6 days to venture down to attend these. We’re both really excited.
Exciting news number two is that we bought a camcorder. We thought that pictures just weren’t cutting it. So, we bought a camcorder to record our various activities up here. An email was sent out by our superintendent, Jack Foster, about a week ago asking for a teacher to volunteer his or her time to redo the Togiak teacher video. I volunteered and now that I have my own camera I can do it. I am excited to update the Togiak teacher video because it is because of the old video that Kaitlyn and I felt comfortable coming up to Togiak. We are so glad that we did.
On another note, Kaitlyn and had our first visit with an adoption agency this past week. The agency we visited with is named Adoption Network Law Center. We felt absolutely great with them. They told us that they do a lot of work to advertise for us and help us adopt a child. They said that the average wait time for parents is 2.5 months to 7 months for child placement. That’s awesome. Unfortunately, that cost more than we could afford. So, we went back down the road of contacting LDS Family Services. For some reason, they have been ultra difficult to get in contact with. Granted, the closest office is in Seattle, and we work crazy schedules. Luckily, we were able to get ahold of them and we are starting to fill out our papers with them. Wish us luck!
On another note, Kaitlyn and had our first visit with an adoption agency this past week. The agency we visited with is named Adoption Network Law Center. We felt absolutely great with them. They told us that they do a lot of work to advertise for us and help us adopt a child. They said that the average wait time for parents is 2.5 months to 7 months for child placement. That’s awesome. Unfortunately, that cost more than we could afford. So, we went back down the road of contacting LDS Family Services. For some reason, they have been ultra difficult to get in contact with. Granted, the closest office is in Seattle, and we work crazy schedules. Luckily, we were able to get ahold of them and we are starting to fill out our papers with them. Wish us luck!
