Graduation 2013

We had a total of 17 graduates this year!  Our village hasn't seen numbers like this in over a decade.  Compare that to last year's four graduates.  One is even a junior who graduated early.

Rewind to the night before.
We held a senior dinner in honor of all the graduates and their families.

We were expecting a crowd of about 100, so can you believe we had 4 gallons of extra ice cream?

Makin' punch

Grilling the steaks.

Dressing up the tables.

The teachers & school staff served all the food and drinks by hand.

The menu included:
steak
ribs
butterfly shrimp
mashed potatoes
corn on the cob
cinnamon roll bread
cheesecake
apple pie
blueberry pie
pumpkin pie
ice cream
punch

Everyone was surprised when we kept bringing out dessert after dessert.

Finally, it's graduation day!  Some senior girls helped me put together the programs.

 (Left) The program cover for graduation.
(Right) The favors for prom came a week late, but everyone was still excited to get them.
They were sports water bottles with our school name and colors.

 Time to decorate for the graduation ceremony.  I got some free entertainment as well.

We set the bleachers on the gym floor and set up this backdrop.

After decorating for prom, the decorations for the ceremony were a breeze.

Here we are getting the gossamer laid out and ready to put on the backdrop.

Our handymen putting up the fabric.

17 caps and gowns ready for the ceremony.  Girls wore purple and guys wore yellow.

To make the large "2013," we drew and cut numbers from a cardboard box, painted them black, and then hung them with fishing line.

The "dressing room."

This cute little lady came to watch.

 Before the ceremony, the nervous graduates kept saying, "wait, I have to pee!"

Ready for the ceremony.  All the proud mama's wanted pictures of their "babies."

Waiting in the ramp for the processional.

Getting ready for the invocation.

What a cute family.  Thanks for helping us out all year!

Introducing the Class of 2013!

The High School department with one of our graduates.

We hope this success grows around the village.  

Now we are packing up our classrooms for the move to the new school, and packing up our house for a move to another teacher housing unit.

One more week of school, then it's back to Missouri for the summer!

Cultural Days

This week we had Cultural Days at school, where the kids got to learn and practice activities from their Native Alaskan culture.

We made "Eskimo Ice cream."  In Yu'pik they call it "akutaq."  

Ingredients: Cooked pike fish, sugar, berries, and crisco.

They usually use berries that are picked from the tundra,
but ingredients were hard to find this time of year.

Groups of girls rotated to my room for beading.

I had fun teaching them how to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings with seed beads.  We had fun without the guys and got to bead while listening to girly music.

Some finished products:

  

Nathaniel was with another male teacher braving the middle school boys.  One morning they made soap carvings.  Most boys made boats or canoes.  Nathaniel made this pretty sweet owl.

The girls rotated to this room to make mitten keychains with leather and fur.

Students sewed "lap balls" with leather, thread, and stuffing.  Lap ball is similar to baseball.

Elementary students practicing their Eskimo Dance for the Cultural Days program.

The guys made spears and spear throwers with wood and saws.

(Left) Sawing off the end of a spear and (Right) planing off the edges of a spear.

(Left) The boys also made miniature drums to pass out as gifts to the elders during the program.
(Right) They made manuqing (ice fishing) poles from hard-wood dowel rods.

Kindergarten and 1st grade performing their Eskimo Dance.
Some kids had their faces painted like seals.

The kindergarten teacher dancing with her class.

The Cultural Days program was crowded with proud parents.

All the students Eskimo Dancing the last song together.