Moose sighting #2

Today was my second day with the 5th grade class. I arrived today excited and reenergized to get to know some of these students. I am preparing to lead a small group of top-readers in the exploration of the book Sounder starting later this week. Also, I have volunteered myself to teach the Foss science kit that has been waiting around for the “right” time. From an instructional standpoint, it was amazing to see how incredibly excited these students are to do some science! During the language arts portion of the day, Mrs. G was discussing the similarities of fiction and science in relation to science fiction writing, which they will read later this week. The amazing explosion of ideas about science came out after the descriptions of fiction...the students had several scientific terms in their minds but few describing words.
Today I learned a little more about a few of our students. Frank is an Alaska native (turns out we only have 2 in the class). He moved recently from “the village”. I am learning that “the village” is the general term for anywhere that is not a city, and is more respectful and less stigmatizing than “the bush”. He is a very quiet boy who tends to always just want to do math. According to some of the teachers, he is a bit of an anomoly for being so interested in mathematical concepts. I don't know what about the culture would disregard math on the whole, other than the fact that it doesn't relate directly to hunting and fishing. I also learned that Frank loves to hunt whale, and I hope that I can earn his trust enough for him to talk to me about it as time goes on.
There are several teachers that I would like to speak with more to help enrich my experience here. A “cultural advocate” comes into the class every day to sit with our Native kids. I wonder what she does, and why she does it? Later this week I hope to be able to ask her some questions about her job and the Native kids at Muldoon.
Also, the school offers a Hmong class after school and I hope to go check it out. It is to help enrich the Hmong students, almost 100% of which speak fluent English. The idea is to keep their native language alive in an academic setting so that they can grow to be truly bilingual. I think that this is AMAZING! Also, one of the teachers here is realizing her dream in starting a Native Alaskan charter school next year. There are so many opportunities for me to learn at Muldoon-I don't know where to start! Not to mention how much I want to get to know these kids!
At the end of school today I went to watch three of our kids in the school spelling bee. They all did well, but were beat out finally to 6th graders who took the 1st and 2nd spots. It is amazing to see what these kids do just to get to school. Though the school is located in the neighborhood, the current temperatures could give a young child frostbite in minutes. Getting to school this morning (in the dark) was -20 degrees Fahrenheit. As the students left the school, it had risen to a whopping -11. The bitter cold is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The fact that people still go outside, deliver the mail, walk to school, amazes me to no end.
A moose happened by the window of our classroom this morning. The moose is an amazing and powerful animal-lazing about the neighborhood, all the while able to kill any human in one fell swoop. The kids got very excited (probably due to the fact that I was jumping up and down) to show me a part of their Alaska. The could not believe that I have never seen a moose THAT close before. It was a fun moment.

Living with my aunt and uncle is AWESOME. I have never really had anyone cut up carrots for my lunch before-it is SO NICE. They have been driving me to school so far since it has been so amazingly hyper-freezing. The boots Brett picked out for me are in the mail...and they only go down to -40. I am SO GLAD I did not choose the boots rated to -25! I am missing all of you and my family. To those of you in Chile who happen to read this-well...I have nothing to say to you.