We spent Monday at school observing in the high/middle school wing (pictured below)and trying to help out as best we could. Each room had a label in English, Braille, and Inupiat all throughout the school. This new school is only about 7 years old and is in the same spot as the old school.
Classes went well; they were filled with your typical Monday morning tired and yawning students. The majority of students showed up before class started to grab some breakfast in the cafeteria or play with the Chinchillas in Amy's science class. Larry is pictured below; he was a ham, his girlfriend Mary was a bit shy and tended to bite.
The majority of the senior class rolled in about half way through first period and began working on their graduation announcements and planning for their senior trip to Hawaii since most had completed their class requirements already.
Seniors have been raising funds for their trip for the last few years in any way they could. One lucrative method was to sell pop and candy to other students from the Senior Store which was also a popular hangout for many of the seniors throughout the day. In interviews with various students we found that drinking 4-6 cans of pop a day was pretty typical.
Classes ran very similar to any other class back in Fairbanks; in math, students had 'bell work' as they entered class: problems on the board they started on right away without being told to do so. 
Math classes were highly differentiated. In the middle school math class they each had their own Saxon math book but they were all on different problem sets all the way from 3rd grade to the high school level. 
Each student worked by themselves to get their problem sets done then they would take the test and turn it into Amy to be graded. If they got most all correct they were able to go onto the next problem set. If they missed them any they had to correct them and try again. They had to get through 5 problem sets before Friday to get a free day which was actually just a day where the students could play math games instead of book work. Most students chose to work hard to get a 'free day' at the end of the week but some students procrastinated and would have to work that day. 
In science Amy handed the middle schoolers a new project today that they could work on while she travelled with the Seniors to Hawaii. Their project was titled: "Noorvik: How We Work' and listed a few different topics including electricity, sewer, trash, and water and gave students about 12 questions they had to answer concerning their topic and how it related to Noorvik. The students also have the challenge of teaching what they learned to a younger class and planning a field trip. 
In an attempt to help Amy (pictured above), who along with most every other teacher in the bush who has barely any time for themselves between their prepping for 6 different classes, coaching and volunteering with after school events (not to mention spend time with their families), I volunteered to help organize their monstrosity of a mineral and rock collection.
Math classes were highly differentiated. In the middle school math class they each had their own Saxon math book but they were all on different problem sets all the way from 3rd grade to the high school level. Each student worked by themselves to get their problem sets done then they would take the test and turn it into Amy to be graded. If they got most all correct they were able to go onto the next problem set. If they missed them any they had to correct them and try again. They had to get through 5 problem sets before Friday to get a free day which was actually just a day where the students could play math games instead of book work. Most students chose to work hard to get a 'free day' at the end of the week but some students procrastinated and would have to work that day. In science Amy handed the middle schoolers a new project today that they could work on while she travelled with the Seniors to Hawaii. Their project was titled: "Noorvik: How We Work' and listed a few different topics including electricity, sewer, trash, and water and gave students about 12 questions they had to answer concerning their topic and how it related to Noorvik. The students also have the challenge of teaching what they learned to a younger class and planning a field trip. In an attempt to help Amy (pictured above), who along with most every other teacher in the bush who has barely any time for themselves between their prepping for 6 different classes, coaching and volunteering with after school events (not to mention spend time with their families), I volunteered to help organize their monstrosity of a mineral and rock collection.
There were partially-full boxes of random unnamed and unorganized rocks everywhere, but eventually, at about 10:30pm, I was able to make some sense of it and had successfully created 5 very nice rock and mineral boxes as well as a few other miniature kits organized by rock type. ...I'm almost thinking of making this into a career...travel from bush school to bush school organizing, rock.....any takers?
The school rooms are much nicer than some of the classes in Michigan, and it's a credit to the students & teachers to see the students self starting their work, with-out a class monitor breathing down their necks. Ed
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