Uvlaalluataq,

Barrow has been great these past few days. I have been very busy with New Hire In-Service. The days are long but very helpful and I am meeting and interacting with wonderful people.

On Monday, I was issued keys to my school and my classroom. I was going to go in and set up my classroom that same day, but when 7:00 pm came around, I took took a rain check. My assistant principal, Mr. Roger Wells told me that I would have plenty of time to do that next week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of workshops involving Powergrade, Aimsweb, and applications on the Mac, such as Keynotes, Pages, Garageband, etc. All are important applications for a teacher and a student. I am looking forward to using these applications in the classroom. The kids have much experience with these programs, so they will be teaching me.

Aside from New Hire, I have been learning more and more about the community and the culture. I am learning new words in Inupiaq each day. The people of the native community are amazing. The kids are so friendly and happy. This past weekend, I was walking on the beach (only two blocks in front of my apartment) and as I was taking pictures of the ice bergs, four little Inupiaq children ran up to me and wanted me to take pictures of them. I let each one of them take a picture of me. You would have thought that I was their best friend. The experience made me realize once again how happy I am to be a teacher, especially a teacher in Barrow.

Thank you for the wonderful comments. Please tell your friends and family about this blog.

Tony