Monday of this week was mostly dedicated to practicing for the Christmas program. My seventh-graders sang "Silent Night" in both English and Yup'ik. I was very pleased that all of my students participated, despite some last-minute cold feet (so to speak). Before practice, my reading class watched The Outsiders, which we had just finished reading. They enjoyed seeing it, and wanted to watch it again Tuesday, which we did.
Besides rewatching the movie, Tuesday was spent reviewing our astronomy unit, having a guest speaker to finish up our unit about Japan and the samurai--one of our teachers went to a school where Japanese was taught, so he qualifies as an expert here--and the Christmas performance itself. My favorite was probably the preschoolers, who said the Pledge of Allegiance in Yup'ik and sang "Must be Santa."
For the linguists in my audience, this is not a village where Yup'ik is alive and healthy. All the students use a few Yup'ik words, and "village English" is highly influenced by Yup'ik syntax, but only a very few elders actually speak Yup'ik conversationally these days. (Disappointingly for me, I haven't been able to find someone fluent enough to really begin my research for my thesis, but I haven't given up hope.) There are villages where Yup'ik is healthier, but like most minority languages, it probably won't last much longer.
Today we're having our Christmas party (see pictures below)--Coke, "juice" (the local word for Gatorade, Kool-aid, or anything of the kind), cookies, A Charlie Brown Christmas, the newest Ice Age movie, and computer time (especially valued since very few have Internet connections at home here). I wasn't able to do as much in the way of Christmas presents for the kids as I would have been able to where I had access to a Walmart or something like it, but they each got a candy cane and a toy nutcracker, which they seemed to enjoy more than I expected.
Before our party, though, we had an experience unique to Alaska--stargazing during school! Since it was still dark at 9:00, 15 min. after school began, we were able to cement our study of constellations by going outside of school and identifying them in real life. We found Gemini, the Great Bear (of course--it's in our state song!), Leo, and Canis Minor. We had learned more, but they weren't up. The kids and I were both fascinated by the Skywalk app on my iPad that let us make positive id on the constellations we saw.
At church, the tree (plastic, of course, since the nearest live Christmas tree is probably at least 50 miles away), the Advent wreath, and tinsel are all up and decorated now, but Father hasn't been able to be here for Mass during Advent, since he had knee surgery a couple of weeks ago. At midnight on Christmas the church will either have Mass or a Communion service, depending on whether a priest is available. Fr. Mariusz will be here for New Year's, though, and I'm hoping he'll be here for Epiphany when I'm back.
Some of the houses have Christmas lights up, and some have Christmas trees (again, plastic, of course) in the windows--and the AC has Christmas items for sale and had a "Midnight Madness" sale until 9 p.m. the other evening (normal closing time is 7 p.m.).
Most of the teachers, myself included, will be leaving for Southern vistas (looking forward to more sunshine!) in the next few days, and then will be back in 2013, when winter is expected to really set in. So far, it hasn't been colder than -20 (air temp--wind chills have occasionally been down around -50), but we do have about a foot and a half of snow now, and temps should drop as the New Year begins.
I leave for my Christmas vacation tomorrow, first to Anchorage until Sunday, then home to Oklahoma; Perry leaves for his Christmas vacation tonight. He's staying with a co-worker in Stebbins, and they get along well, so his weeks away should be relatively calm. We'll see.
It's almost lunchtime here, so I need to start getting the kids ready--Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the other imagined corners!
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| Sunrise (around 10:00) from the windows in my classroom on Monday. Can you see the snow gathered between the screen and the window on the left? |
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| St. Michael's three-year-olds singing "This Little Light of Mine." |
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| Two of my students enjoying their computer time |
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| Some of the boys enjoying the movie |
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| Most of the rest of the class enjoying their party. The remains of the food are on the desk in the background. |
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