St. Michael's In-Service

This year's Bering Strait School District in-service was held at the village of Stebbins for some sites and at St. Michael for the rest of us. I was really hoping my brother's school, Elim, would be at St. Mikes, I was glad to find out we were at the same location and I got to see quite a bit of him.

In-services are a bit different for bush teachers. We stay at a school, sleep on the floor with co-workers and shower in locker rooms for four days. Some parts stink, but for the most part it's quite a bit of fun. Who else gets to do this with their coworkers?

Like last year, the organizers of the in-service week had some evening activities for all of us. This year's feature was the band, Landbridge Tollbooth, from Nome and a "caller" from Fairbanks to teach us how to Contradance and Square Dance. It was a blast!

I think this picture of John and my co-worker friend, Amy, learning some new dance moves sure turned out cute.

The following night we were treated to the performances of the Stebbins dance group. (Stebbins and St. Michael are only a few miles apart and are connected by road so they just drove on over.) Eskimo dancing is a lot of fun to watch. I enjoy seeing the ladies sport their colorful kuspuks and dancing in unison.

Brevig Mission Staff getting cozy.

Oh, and we did attend professional develpoment sessions as well. But that's just details. =)

--AnnMarie

Uncle John

My brother John also attended the reading conference in San Francisco last week. Harold was very happy to spend time with his uncle. Harold is especially entertained by John's beard and his mandolin.

--AnnMarie

The Weekend

This has been a fairly interesting weekend. I attended a one day meeting in Unalakleet for the reading facilitators at each site. My brother John and I happen to help out with the reading program at our respective schools. So, I got picked up by the district plane on Friday night.

The next stop after Brevig was in Elim to pick up John.


In Unalakleet, we visited with folks at Kim and Greg Johnson's home, then spent all of Saturday in a meeting. It was short, sweet, informative, included good food and good company. Saturday evening I returned to Brevig. Our friend Bill Bryson is visiting and he had watched Harold quickly while C.O. came to pick me up at the air strip. Turns out Harold had been sick and miserable all day. Here's what we saw when we got home. --AnnMarie

Results: 4th Place

I would say the Elim Eagles had a great showing at the Alaska State Basketball Tournament.

First game: they unfortunately lost, but what a game! Elim was behind by 18 points in the fourth quarter, and they came back to tie up the score. The game went into double overtime and Elim lost by only one point.

Napaskiak 74, Elim 73 2OT

"John Maxie had 19 points as Napaskiak squandered a big second half lead but survived to defeat Elim in a double-overtime thriller.

Elim outscored the Hawks 23-6 in the fourth quarter to force overtime, thanks to the hot outside shooting of Matt Takak, who scored a game-high 32 points and was 5 of 15 from beyond the arc.

Napaskiak scored the winning bucket with about 8 seconds left in the second extra session and Elim was unable to get a good shot off after that." -- from the Alaska Daily News

Second game: Elim won.

Third game for 4th place: Elim won, but only by 2 points and again it was an overtime game. The games must have been fun for all the fans. Congratulations and great job to the entire team. You must have a really great coach. ; ) --AnnMarie

State Game Schedule

John's game will be broadcast online. You can follow this link to see it. The first game will be played today (Tuesday) at 6:50 p.m., Alaska Time. I'll update the blog on results and further game times. Good luck Elim Eagles, we'll be watching! --AnnMarie

Supportive Parents

Growing up, my parents were always very supportive of the activities and events that my two brothers and I were involved in. They traveled to sporting events, near or far, got us to the bus on time for speech meets, attended our drama productions, my Mom was the local 4-H leader and the list could go on and on. Well, my parents have outdone themselves. When John's team won the regional championship for the Bering Strait School District, my parents, along with my brother Brian, bought airline tickets to attend the games in Anchorage. How cool is that! They are the epitome of supportive parents. Thanks for being so great Mom and Dad. --AnnMarie

Proud Big Sister

My brother John is also a teacher in the Bering Strait School District. He lives in a village called Elim about 150 miles southeast of Brevig. He teaches high school and junior high Socials Studies and also happens to be the boys basketball coach. They had a great season, undefeated in fact. Last night they played for the regional championship. The game was broadcast both over the internet and on the school's video conferencing system. So, C.O. and I took Aiti and Ellen over to the school and watched the game live on the big screen. It was very exciting. We were on the edge of our seats and cheering and having a great time. It was especially great when they won. In a couple of weeks, John and the boys will be traveling to Anchorage for the State Basketball Tournament. John's team was by far the better of the two, and if I do say so, he's a great coach. In fact, at the awards ceremony he received the coach of the year award. What a great evening and we're all very proud of him. Here's photos of us watching John's team last night. --AnnMarie